When you come to Nepal, the most pressing concern is always your back end, hence the next few weeks revolve heavily around bowel movements. So I am sorry. Also, this is all taking me a long time so I doubt i will get up to date before we leave tomorrow. I'll get around to it eventually.
November 18 Does This Ice Axe Make Me Look Like A Badass Or An Overprepared Wanker?
Anthony got into a tussle with the squat (Yeah, they're all squat toilets) this morning. There were no winners. Yet another short day, mostly across a very dicey landslide section. Still blown away by the geology, the mountains, but more so the rock formations. I'd be climbing all over them if they weren't so crumbly. Getting altitude high and remoteish once again. Went to the terminal face of a glacier near the campsite to practice ice climbing. Except. I got a short, sharp, brutal dose of diarrhoea, went temporarily blind (literally) and almost passed out, all while I was supposed to be belaying Anthony. Good times. Pretty much ok now though. I hope. The very lemony coleslaw was horrid but the rest of Binods food is stellar. Freezing.
November 19 So Much For Blue Skies.
Woke up to snow, slightly unexpected even though it's near enough to winter. Most of the snow falls during the summer monsoon. Had an 800m climb to the beautiful Tilicho Tal (lake) and the cloud lifted just as we got there which, well, you can imagine. So so so cold though. Pretty magic. The afternoon was loads of fun. Trail was hard, thick ice with anywhere between one and five inches of fresh powder snow. Much hilarity followed, although I'm not certain the porters or the two Thai guys that are travelling with our group enjoyed it as much as we did. No wind amazingly, and looks as though it should clear. The trail on the West side of the lake had fallen into it, so Chhiri explored other possibilities and we made camp earlier than expected. Shouldn't have drunk as much hot chocolate as I did, oh well.
November 20 And It Feels Like Its.
Last night was a bit of a work out, sleeping on smooth, uncomfortable pebbles sliding down towards the lake was no fun. Loads of avalanches on the other side too. Our boots and most everything else were frozen but it had cleared. Had to get up a dicey pass as a detour to the nonexistent trail. Almost got nailed by some head sized rocks. I kind of froze and they flew a metre either side of me. We are a bit more nimble than the porters as they carry more and do so off a head strap so helped out as best we could. Lots of snow on the next pass making it an interesting challenge. Turned into a bit of a shit-fight actually. Only Anthony, Chhiri, The Thai's guide and myself have an ice axe and crampons so the porters and the gear was slid down resulting in a massive mess at the bottom. And the other two took about two hours to do what took everyone else ten minutes, partly due to an overprotective guide who loves cutting steps. Meanwhile we all froze waiting at the bottom. Including my boots again, with my feet still in them. I know. Didn't end up getting anywhere near where we wanted to and a very long day. The wind is currently trying to blow us to Jomsom and near on succeeding.
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