Hip, Hip, Hooray

To Dragnab, Nepal -- 4700m (15,420ft)

Hi, it's Kylie. Today was a very long hike. We trekked over a glacier, huge sturdy boulders, and lots and lots of loose rocks to get over Cho La Pass (5420m or 17,780ft). Here's how it went.

The start of the hike was easy, and I took advantage of it to speed ahead of everyone knowing I was slow -- Dex and my bags were with a porter we hired for the day.

Abanath with Dex and Kylie's bags strapped to the sides

Breakfast in the lodge

Dad, like always, caught up to me and asked me to carry a water bottle because he had his bag and I didn't.

View back toward Dzongola

Kylie up ahead

Going up

The trail, which was following a small icy stream, turned rocky and started up over large boulders. The top of the hill didn't seem too far up, and I was determined to reach the little cairns way up high.

Partway up

Big boulders

When we got to the top of the rocky hill, Dad took off his pack, but we didn't see the snow and ice we had read about in our Lonely Planet guide. We explored a bit and found a glacier just a little further along. The closer we got, the farther down we could see to the steep sides of the glacier. Dad explained how we were going to have to walk along the glacier to get to the actual pass.

 

We waited for the others and then had an early lunch (hard boiled eggs, cheese and chapati). The next part of the hike started out along the cliffside, but soon came fully onto the glacier.

Dex, Mom and I were all slipping, sliding, and falling for the whole way across. It took more than an hour.  When we finished crossing the glacier, we got onto solid ground, but needed to climb one last, short, steep part to get to the pass.  I was grateful when we got there... but we were only halfway, and we didn’t know it!

Slipping and sliding

the last, short, steep up to the pass

Made it!

Half way there

The descent started and I fell which made Mom scared and she started to cry.  (Mom’s note:  I just felt like this may have been too much to ask of my 9 and 10 year olds. I also felt like I couldn’t get to Kylie, which was an awful feeling….)  Then the rocks got smaller and very loose, which made Mom even more worried, and she started yelling at us to “Just Go!” because she thought she was going to kill one of us with a landslide of rocks.

Down...

... Down, Down.

After the descent stopped, Mom was fine and we continued towards town.  Not far on our way, we met up with our porter, Abanath, who had already dropped Dex and my bags off at the lodge.  He came back with a thermos of hot lemon and four glass mugs, which was very impressive if you knew how far he had come.  Even after all that, seeing the look on Mom’s face, he took her bag too.  To put it in a nutshell, we hiked for two more hours before seeing and entering the tiny town of Dragnab. So, Hip Hip Hooray for HImalaya Today!!

Mid hike drink

Abanath, leading the way

Dragnab, at last