Page 25 - 1994 AMA Winter

other side, was very miserable especially for the porters. On the way we met 2 Americans who had cracked the peak in good
a move the next day.
The following morning the clouds rolled in unusually early. Some
of the team left feeling ill and despondent and six of as remained hoping for a break. By midday we decided to retreat and dragged our lethargic bodies, and a pile of kit wrapped in a survival bag tied up with climbing rope, off the glacier.
The climb can be “like a motorway' 1was told, but like motorways, mountains can soon become deathtraps!
On the way back over the pass we were given a hint of our vulnerabili­ ty when a porter slipped and slid down towards grey oblivion. Marine
Khare Campsite
weather and a French team who had failed - mainly, 1feel, because they’d started their bid from the High Camp at 6 not 3 am. This was nevertheless quite worrying as they looked pretty roughie- toughie with “all the gear” ! The Y anks reported that two Educator friends of mine from Hong Kong had got there before me, Malcolm Wieck and Dave Cuffley. Well done lads! (swines!)
The valley was magical. A dripping mysterious rain forest! Further up the “Hinku” it turned into “Dartmoor” and then the “moon”. Only when the clouds cleared did it feel like the “Hims" as Kusum Kanguru, Peak 43 and the Mera Himal appeared, soar­ ing above us. The m oonscape of glacial m oraines began at Tangnag. A few very basic huts with eccentric yak herders cluster there, but, frighteningly, a tea-house is under construction! We
Yak Herder at Tangnag
Tony Tennant leapt after him and slowed his descent. They both dodged a rock fall and climbed back safely.
The Hinku Valley is - as Bill O'Connor will testify - very remote and a minor injury could turn into a major problem. But to visit it is to feel really adventurous and I’m sure parties following us will make a betterjob of it.
1wish I'd known that Nima Sherpa of the Danphe Cafe, Lukhla could work such miracles with the flights (as long as you’re a British Serviceman!) We might have waited for better weather on the glacier. I'd have liked to have worked directly with our Sirdar and cut out the
Prayer Flags at Lamjura Pass 1000ft. dureing trek in
were the only Europeans in the valley but that ain't going to last for long!
Another clay took us to Khare and another to our base camp on the glacier. I say ‘our’ rather than ‘the' as our porters dumped our gear above the snout to the left about 1 km from the proper site at the Mera La. We couldn’t get up the right-hand side as the crevasse conditions were dangerous and the weather deteriorated so the porters scarpered. Not like a grim spot hanging off Everest, but wedged between two crevasses - grim enough!
Poor old Cpl Roy Walker REME was pretty ill and we were all as weak as kittens if the truth were told. The weather cleared pm and the ring of snowy peaks raised morale and made us hopeful of
Mera viewedfrom our High Point on the Glacier
middle-men. 1also would have liked to have known that the porters definitely prefer to bung everything in their wicker baskets and that many of the lodges were cheap and comfortable. I knew to avoid freighting kit out but I didn't foresee the problems getting it back. Please contact me for our PXR and be just that little bit better prepared but of course if you go in the “trekking season” in the Autumn it could all be very different! Better weather perhaps but probably far more tissue paper!
Army Mountaineer 23