Looming Challenge

To Dzongla, Nepal -- 4830m (15,840ft)

Hello, Meg here today.  This morning, with Pemba’s help, we secured a porter to carry the kid’s packs over Cho La Pass tomorrow.  His name is Abanath. He’s a short, young guy with a round face and happy smile, who is apparently already helping carry stuff for another group, but was willing to take more.  We estimated the kids packs at no more than 15 kg together, and that seemed ok with him.  He spoke very little English, so Pemba helped translate.  We’d heard that porters were typically paid $10 a day, so we offered $20.  He countered with $35 and we settled on $30. We’ll need the bags ready for him at 5:30 in the morning.  Since we don’t plan to rustle the kids out of bed quite that early, we’ll put a few other things in their packs and Meg and I will carry their sleeping bags.  

Looking back down the valley

  

Icy river

True to his word, after carrying the other group's stuff to Dzongla, Abanath came back to look for us to make sure we ended up at the right lodge. Kylie was moving slowly today and had many complaints.  She felt like she couldn’t catch her breath, and her lips were very chapped. When we met Abanath, about an hour away from Dzongla, he offered to take her pack.  She was a trooper though and didn’t want to give it up.  He then proceeded to guide us slowly to town and to the lodge we'd all be leaving from in the morning.  He seems like a nice guy, and for a small sum, he could be making the kid's lives much easier.

I have to say, I’m a little worried about how this is all going to work out tomorrow.  The plan is to be on the trail by 7 a.m., and it’s going to be super cold, so we’ll have all our cold weather gear with us. I don’t have any idea what to expect, and that’s hard too.  I do know that it’s going to be a very long day, possibly eight to nine hours. So, even starting at 7, we could be getting into Dragnag at 4 p.m, and that’s getting close to dark.  Fortunately, we can order an $8 bag lunch for the trek, which we did -- two small pieces of cheese, two boiled eggs, and a chapati.  To be conservative, Dean ordered six for the four of us.

Lunch provisions

I think the looming challenge has us all on edge given the distance, elevation, and reports of loose, rocky and icy terrain.  The proprietor here at the Mountain Home said that while kids are allowed on the pass, not many do it.  We’ve heard that the top is icy and that coming down there are a lot of rocks.  The Lonely Planet states that it takes “an age” to come down.  I’ll be grateful just to make it down... all in one piece.

Dzongla in he foreground