Expedition Report From Nepal - Entry for 8th April
Our offering for the 8th April from high in the Himalayas.
Blue sky and sun filtering over the Himalayan giants around our campsite and frost on the ground greeted us all this morning. Breakfast was eaten in duvets and gloves. We left Tseram after 7 am and made our way gently up through the final vestiges of the pine forests in the open upland of the Yalung Glacier valley. Lunch was eaten again in duvet in a cold wind at Lapsang 4430 metres, a open plain with dried scrub juniper giving a pleasant scent. A little further on was our camp site at Ramche at 4620 metres. There are two well built stone huts here and two cairns with prayer flags fluttering from them, the large moraine of the Yalung glacier is at our side. Ramche is a small plain dominated by the impressive snow covered peak called Rathong, 6678 metres. The peak lies on the Nepal-Indian border. The slopes above the camp site are the home of the wild blue Himalayan sheep, we have spotted two sheep that looked like shaggy goats with huge ram's horns. We are now right up amongst the beautiful Himalayan peaks of Eastern Nepal.
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Expedition campsite at Ramche with the peak
Rathong in the background. |
Some of us have been suffering High Altitude Sickness. The symptoms vary from individual to individual. Some have headaches, some tingling fingers, some are off their food and some have been sick. These problems are to be expected as our bodies adjust to this high altitude, they are transitory. Of course there are some who are not affected at all.
For the Kids: We have selected two memebers of the Junior Team as they have reached their altitude record today. David Goldsmith 28 and Mark Reed 29 have both been to the Alps and reached about 4200 metres neither have been to the Himalayas. David has been fascinated by the trek in particular the changes in topgraphy we have seen, he says "he has to pinch himself that as a matelot he is allowed to be here". Mark has found the Trek a "totally new experience" and has been impressed by the sheer scale of everthing. Both are very much looking forward to climbing Ramtang.
Diary entry by David Nicholls.
