Camp in Sheduwa
Standard camping along the trail. Theis site is split in two. The big blue tent is where we dine and porters sleep, the two orange tents are ours. Two water buffalos and a dog got in a fight in bewtween them just after lunch.
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Dispatch 6: 4/21/09 Tashigoan
Daily walls of rain approach through deep forested valleys scraping the light from the hillside and sheeting precipitation through the still air like buckshot. We’ve had five days of it and I will say, the arid mountain air of the high Himalaya will be more refreshing than ever. Currently we are at 7000′, 6 days of trekking and we will arrive at our basecamp for 23,390′ Baruntse . The team is doing quite well, albiet wet.
This dispatch is just to let everyone know that if you visit www.skithehimalayas.com You will find a few new photos have been posted. Please take a look. In addition to these photos I’ve shot three hours of video so far and think we have some great stuff and some laughable moments. Video does do the jungle better, it is so steep here that almost every still shot comes out the same, a rice paddy,a thatched hut and hazy background. Tashigoan,the town we are currently in, is known for bamboo…I’ll remember it dripping!
It’s been a treat,Josh and I definitely miss our wives and the mountains of Telluride! We are so motivated and excited to be here and to have the opportunity to climb and ski Baruntse. Looking forward to sharing the adventure as the momentum picks up and we get higher. Thanks to all who have sent us e-mails, it’s great to hear from you.
Live the dream,
Ben Clark
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Hiking to Sheduwa
Thatched roofs and stonework along the path to Sheduwa.
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Woman in Tumlingtar
This woman is about to dress a chicken. She is the mother of the owners of the Makalu hotel in Tumlingtar.
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Dispatch 5: 4/19/09 Num
The team has now trekked for three days. We arrived in 5,080′ Num this afternoon. Only 18,000′ of elevation to go!
Hiking through this section of Nepal is like discovering a gem amidst a mined quarry. Nepal has been in a recession since 9/11 never really attracting the numbers it did before the country began swinging into a communist constituency. Democracy was taking hold when I first visited in 2002, then the prince killed the royal family…total unrest ensued. When we arrived in 2003 to climb Everest and shoot Everest:The Other Side, our crew walked down from a pogada in Bhaktapur only to find ourselves smack dab in the middle of an anti American protest. But we didn’t stop coming here, the Himalayas are in Nepal.
Inching day by day with the pace of our porters, we grind through humid miles of dense jungle weaving from road to trail. The mud is deep and the ruts, at times…strong enough to suck off a shoe. They are no match for mahindra tractors and deisel Land Rover’s packed with 10 people inside and at least four on every roof. At one point, some of our porters passed us, sitting in the back of a Defender 110, laughing with joy, off their feet for breif respite.
Travelling on foot is the only way for us. It gives us something all too important, something so rare and valuable as the gem I referred to earlier..it gives us time. Time is what it takes to soak in the country of Nepal. As Nepal has dealt with the declining number of tourists, education, computer training and opportunites have taken the place of once sprawling tea houses. This particular region, once a popular European circuit now has very few guesthouses left. The ones that remain are only in larger towns where maybe 400 residents call home. We don’t even sleep in them, we camp in their backyards with our porters.
Our camp last night was in a small field behind an Guesthouse in Chichula. We camped while goats stirred about and a woman screamed at the inn owners in front of the inn for most of the afternoon until sunset. The dispute was over land, a Komatsu bulldozer was steadily moving dirt behind both properties and no one seemed to agree on where it should go. Growing up in a family of architects, I’m no stranger to the effect of property rights…but here in Nepal? No one really even owns the dirt, but she was livid, even with the whole village watching she was unafraid to draw her fist and throw a stone. The Nepali culture may be heavily buddhist, but the Gorkha army is known to fight to the end with fists and knives. I believe that now.
Tomorrow we will cross the Barun river, fed by Baruntse, the mountain we are here to climb. We will still be as much as eight days away from base camp. It will be assuring to be on the other side of the river, from the town of Sheduwa, it is all uphill and leads out of the jungle and into the high country where we plan to spend almost a month.
Live the dream, photos will be coming soon! We are working out some kinks in our satellite phone.
Ben Clark
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Dispatch 4: 4/17/09 Mane Bhiyjang
An overture of mammal created sounds crescendoed late in the evening last night, ending almost…with the brilliant shrillshriek of a hog. Amidst other noises were a man snoring, intermittent thunder and the soft pitter patter of small mice feet. Well, I didn’t actually hear the last one, that’s what woke me up in the first place. The mouse ran across my foot and then up the bed to my pillow. Let’s just say I don’t come to Nepal for luxurious ammenities.
Today was a mental and physical step forward toward the mountain. We gained just over three thousand feet in elevation and are now camped in a school yard in the town of Mane Bhiyjang. There is no access to electricity, no more running water and we can’t seem to find any sprite or snickers-a sure sign we’re off the popular trekking circuits of Nepal. Josh and Jon are doing great. M’lin, Jon’s girlfriend, is pleased with the trek as well. M’lin is a seasoned traveler, having spent 2 1/2 years in the peace corp in western Africa. This was just what all of us were hoping for. Seems like getting on the trail makes everyone feel at ease.
Further up valley, dark storms build. The jungle is such a stark contrast from the mountains. It is lush, humid and still filled with thriving farms, towns and people. The people of Nepal are very kind and generous, we are constantly greeted by hand in a prayer position and “namaste” is spoken with a smiling delivery. As I find myself alone on the trail at times during the day, I think of my wife Annie, our dog and my family in Tennessee and the time I spend away from them. Then I round a corner and amidst falling raindrops 6 schoolchildren ambush me with “namaste” and erupt with laughter Joy is contagious.
We are one day closer to the mountain and a world away from home.
Live the dream,
Ben Clark
Dispatch 3: 4/17/09 Tumlingtar
Gazing out the window of our light aircraft, I watched lush green mounainsides fall away onto deep canyons. The temperature and humidity increased dramatically,trapped beneath a layer of building clouds. This the jungle.
When the landing gear hit ground this time it was in the middle of a shelf in one of these sweltering canyons. The grassy runway was enough to give away what hadn’t yet made a full disclosure in my mind. We are a long way from our mountain, probably 80 to 100 kilometers and more importantly, at 1500′ in elevation, we must climb over 22,000′ vertical feet from here to it’s summit. 4 miles.
Babu gave us our instructions in Kathmandu, find the Makalu hotel in Tumlingtar and stay put. A bus with our base camp cook staff and porters would be arriving by bus late in the evening. Soaked to the bone and with a brooding stomach, Josh and I walked through the small town in search of our shelter. In 10 minutes we had covered town and had not found it, I looked at Josh and said “if this is the town with the airport…”
From here it is clear, this will be a very exciting place to explore. Rarely visited by westerners and leading to views of 4 of the worlds highest mountains, this is just what we needed. A remote adventure into undeveloped Nepal.
Live the dream,
Ben Clark
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Dispatch 2: Kathmandu 4/15/2009
Late in the evening on 4/14, our plane kissed the tarmac of Kathmandu international airport. Hopping three times it rolled to a stop. Through the window a tranquil brown out obscured the cities celebration of it’s new year-2066. The hurry up and wait driven process of flying to Nepal was over. No more hurrying, now just waiting.
Bleary eyed and suffocated by the thick humidity and four stroke engine fumes of Thamel, Kathmandu’s retail district, we sat down with our local contact Babu Karma. Babu is a longtime friend,a man of the world, he is an entrepenuer, a monk and an expedition organizer. Over a couple of beers and a lump of cold chow mein that I fashioned into a resemblance of the mountain we are here to climb, 23,390′ Baruntse,we settled on our approach and a start date a day from now. Business as usual.
There is nothing like visiting the Himalaya these days. The look of surprise that comes with explaining skiing and just how fun it is is met with the sort of old worldness that you might expect from a developing nation coming of age with societal freedoms and dialogue no longer left to backrooms. Totally bewildering. Our two cultures are both outsiders looking in on each other, we see the risk the excitement and the uncertainty in each other and can only shake our heads at the impossible projection of the outcome.
In 2002, a year after 911 scared travelers from visiting Nepal, I went on my first expedition to the Himalaya. I will never forget how overwhelmed I was by being here. In my 22 years I had never seen poverty as rampant or children so poignant as they scooped dung off the street to burn for fuel. I felt like such an outsider, a real tourist with my new shoes and middle class southern values. If I’ve learned anything, I know things change…but are they better?
Roads are being laid to the most remote pedestrian traffic areas, healthcare is being pipelined in with electricity, education and western thought. It’s quite beautiful but painful as well. Tourism is dwindling and industry is growing. Filming the streets today I found more responsive locals than ever. People actually approached me, seeking an opportunity to tell their story and toss in some political rhetoric-in perfect english. They discussed their government, they disussed their freedom, their wants. This dialogue was once forbidden and now freely took place in the street-seared by broad daylight, baking into history.
Nepal is changing friends,growing intellectually and becoming more accessible by the day. If ever there was a time and a place to be here and see democracy and marxism colliding…it’s now. We just come for the mountains, but every year we witness more. Perhaps it’s time to climb.
Tomorrow we fly to Tumlingtar, far from Kathmandu, Tumilngtar will put us on the trail to Barnutse. Our heads will surely swim with thoughts of the mountain and the blessings of the culture that will lead us to it. It will be pleasant to explore a new region and to uncover the trail that will take 10 days to cover on foot.
Live the dream,
Ben Clark
Dispatch 1: Hong Kong 4/14/2009
Sleep deprived but overjoyed, late last night I walked down a ramp in Los Angelos and wound up across the Pacific Ocean in Hong Kong. One night has passed but we are now 2 calendar days ahead of ourselves; Josh Butson, Jon Miller and me. Where did April 13th go?
Few things are worth giving up an entire day of your time. We are on our way to the Himalaya…for 6 weeks. It is spring, this is what we do. This year’s expedition is conventionally unprecedented, an excursion into the unknown even for us. As climbers we have reduced the recession to recess. Despite a dovetailing economy, we continue to find an upside outside.
In years past Josh Butson and I have negotiated our way through enough certain uncertainty to enlist a new addition to our team; Jon Miller. No stranger to skiing, climbing or the mountains, Jon will be an asset to having fun along our path to the summit of 23,390′ Baruntse. Baruntse is a world away from our home in Telluride, Co., it is in the Makalu Barun National Park in Nepal.
Our goal is to lay fresh tracks on an unexplored feature of Baruntse…a rib that runs down the Northeast face of the mountain like a lightning bolt. Each jagged kink in this striking feature could surprise us with firm blue ice, cold grey granite and adventurous problem solving. No team has ever climbed this mountain this way. Over time we believe an objectively safe route and clear headed decision making will bring us to the summit of the mountain.
Then we will ski. Skiing is why we are returning to the Himalaya.
To climb in the world’s highest ranges a deeply committing and comprehensive skill set is a prerequisite. To ski down the mountains, for us, makes it all worth it. Expedition after expedition has proven that climbing to Himalayan summits is the substance of countless volumes of copy and discourse. So little thought is provoked of having fun after the topout, carrying on as if the mountain could still be explored, the adventure sustained. Skiing not only provides that opportunity, it minimizes our exposure to risk and the challenging elements of high altitude.
We begin in the jungle of Nepal and will climb more than 18′000′ of elevation to Baruntse’s summit. Our route is mapped out on our new site:www.skithehimalayas.com Please visit, click on the baruntse 2009 page and follow along over the next 6 weeks as we trek, climb and ski our way through the high Himalaya in Nepal.
The adventure will begin in a few short days as we prepare for the 9 day trek to basecamp and experience spots on a map rarely visited. We will be sending photos, audio and text dispatches from jungle to summit and back to civilization.
Live the dream,
Ben Clark