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Kangchenjunga Reconnaissance – Report

Oktang, with the South Face of Kangchenjunga dominating the view
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Written by Tom Briggs, November 2009

Varied. Lush. Remote. Adventurous. These are just a few words that you might ascribe to the Kangchenjunga Region. Situated in the far eastern corner of Nepal, squeezed between Sikkim (India) and Tibet, this area stiff suffers (or benefits) from difficult access. Sure, there�s an airstrip at Suketar, only a few hours from where you would choose to begin walking, but flights are notoriously infrequent and unreliable. The alternative is described in the Lonely Planet Trekking Guidebook as �only for masochists�. They say that in two or three years from now, the road to Taplejung will be surfaced. For now, it takes at least 7 hours in a Jeep to crawl up the 100Km stretch from Phidim, where the tarmac ends. You can plan your itinerary to take advantage of the flight schedule to Suketar, but there�s always the chance that you will have to endure this road. It�s no wonder that the Tibetans who live up near Kangchenjunga find it easier to acquire goods from China, which have been carried over the high passes. One thing you really notice on this trek is that there is hardly any commercial portering. There are few inhabitants to begin with, there�s little demand from tourism and it�s a tortuous route in. But this means quiet and even pretty vague trails in places.

The big question with the Kangchenjunga Circuit (for it is still a circuit, even though you don�t actually circumnavigate the massif itself), is which way round to do it � anti-clockwise or clockwise? I didn�t have to make a decision on this, as we (a small group of 3 trekkers) were tagging on with friends who were to attempt the unclimbed north face of Chang Himal (Wedge Peak). This is directly opposite Pangpema � the base camp on the north side of Kanchenjunga. So the plan was to take 6 days to walk from Taplejung to Ghunsa, then continue via Kambachen and Lhonak to reach base camp at c5,000m (i.e. trek clockwise). I had anticipated having to write up each day in reverse, as it seemed as though most people descended this route, having visited the South Base Camp first. As it turned out, none of our group could fathom the logic of doing the trek anti-clockwise. There were too many good reasons in terms of route choice and acclimatisation to do what we did. At least this made my job of designing the optimum itinerary a bit easier!

On our first day of trekking it rained solidly. The end of the monsoon was very much in evidence and almost all the way to Ghunsa it was cloudy, hot and humid. Our climbers had a lot of equipment, plus a month�s worth of food to get up to base camp. This, plus the difficult conditions underfoot meant that each day was fairly short, as the porters were carrying big loads. It was at times frustrating for the climbers, but for us, we enjoyed the scenery and the meeting the local people. You walk alongside the roaring Tamur River past fields of rice and millet and numerous beautiful waterfalls. In the villages lots of fresh vegetables and fruit (bananas, oranges and grapefruit) are being grown, which means fresh salads every day. The trails are extremely undulating, as they find a way to cling to the steep sides of gorges. Typically, you will climb up through the rainforest (Cardamon grows everywhere) and then drop back down to river level, then back up again. Eventually, at Gyabla, you climb up high onto the north side of the valley and into the higher mountains. Larch pine and cooler temperatures signal your arrival at high altitude.

Ghunsa (3,595m) is a Tibetan village and the only decent-sized village in the mountains. It has hydro-electric power and the locals are quite (rightly) proud of their electricity. We even had an electric fire in the lodge there. There are just a few lodges catering for trekkers. We stayed at the Ghunsa Guest House, camping on a lovely grass lawn outside. Dandu Sherpa who runs the lodge has silver jewellery, Yak blankets and scarves for sale. You can get a shower here and charge up your camera batteries. There are very, very few creature comforts on this trek so Ghunsa is a great place to have two nights. There�s also the perfect acclimatisation walk, which takes you directly out of the village to c4,000m. Compare this to the south side where Tseram would be the logical (though it�s a little higher) place to have two nights for acclimatisation. Tseram currently has one old lodge (they are building two new ones, however) and the acclimatisation walk options are not as appealing.

From Ghunsa, it�s one of the most varied days of the trip. The walking is gentle, through pine forests, then right at river level, then climbing up for your first gob-smacking views of the big peaks. Not long before arriving in Kambachen, the awesome North Face of Jannu comes into view. I would compare this to seeing a peak such as Ama Dablam in the Khumbu Valley for the first time. It�s big (more than 1000m higher than Ama Dablam) and it�s extremely steep. You can�t stop taking photos! Before Kambachen there�s a landslide to cross and this is another feature of this trek. We did not hear any stonefall, but higher up the valley I did hear stonefall on a smaller landslide. Time to move quickly. Kambachen is another Tibetan village with a couple of lodges. From here, most of our team continued on to Lhonak (4,785m), then the next day to base camp (5,050m). I was keen to walk up to Jannu base camp and I was also pretty sure that going from Ghunsa (3,595m) to base camp (5,050m) over 3 consecutive was something we would not want to do with a group. So I had another night in Kambachen (as we will do with our trip in 2010), hung out at one of our Sherpa�s sister�s house, drank milk tea and had a very pleasant walk up towards Jannu�s imposing bulk. The views back from here to the other side of the valley are great and there�s another side valley, which you could also explore. Snow Leopards are active around these parts according to the villagers.

Gunsun and I left early the following morning and were in Lhonak by 11 o�clock. There are 6 Yak herder lodges in Lhonak, on what is a large, flat grassy area the size of a few football fields. The views up the Kangchenjunga Glacier are impressive. Though it looked a long way (6 miles in reality) to Pangpema, I felt good and decided to continue onwards (we will split this journey on the actual trek itinerary). After 12 miles and 1,000m of ascent, I shuffled into base camp.

Our base camp was placed about 20 minutes before Pangpema as the climbers wanted to be directly opposite Chang Himal, to see where any snow/ice/rock might be falling on the face and to spy out their anticipated line. To say that the mountain is �in your face� would be something of an understatement. Kangchenjunga itself sits back farther across the glacier from Pangpema, and looks massive and brooding. It�s difficult to imagine how big some of the hanging glacier and seracs really are. So we made it! The evening light on Kangch and looking down the valley was brilliant. Those who trek here from Lhonak, then return the same day are crazy. If you�ve come all this way, you really should spend a night here and cruise down the valley the following day.

Two days later we were back in Ghunsa (having spotted Blue Sheep en route) and looking forward to a shower, a coke and some shopping. From Ghunsa, it takes two days to cross the Mirgin La (4,600m) from North to South. It�s actually 3 passes to reach Tseram, the highest being the last one at about 4,700m. From Ghunsa, there�s a steep climb up through the trees to come out onto a ridge, then it�s a really delightful rising traverse of the south side of the ridge to arrive at a small camping spot at Sele Le. You can see back down the Ghunsa Khola valley from here � where we had walked up the first 6 days. The following day was probably my favourite of the trek. It was like walking on Scafell in the Lake District, but with Jannu (this time the south side) standing like a sentinel in the background. There are views west towards Makalu and the walking itself is pretty easy. After the final pass, it�s an extremely steep 1,000m descent to Tseram. At this point, we were very, very happy that we were not coming up that way. Why climb straight up 1,000m then slowly contour downhill, when you can come from Ghunsa and slowly contour uphill? We also couldn�t work out where you would camp on the passes if climbing up from Tseram, as the Sele Le would seem too far away from this side?

By the time we�d reached Tseram, we were all now super-acclimatised and the two days trekking up to Oktang and the south side of Kangchenjunga, were just a joy. We all felt that the south side was more open and aesthetic, with peaks such as Rothang and the Kabru Peaks, as beautiful to look at as Kangch itself. The walking up to Oktang from Tseram was through alpine meadows and alongside a bubbling stream, simply delightful. It was cold at night though, and I was happy to have my 5 season sleeping bag (4 season would be a minimum). After lots of photographs and even some bouldering at our campsite at Ramche, we headed back downhill.

We had heard that the exit from the lower valley, via a high pass had been affected by landslide, so we were pretty intrigued to see what we would find. From Torontan, it was a long and at times, disorientating climb up through the forest, higher and higher. After what felt like an eternity, the path disappeared and the trees started to point in funny directions. A newly cut route through indicated that this was an active landslide area, and sure enough, when we popped out onto the ridge we saw the colossal side of the mountain, falling nearly 2Km down into the valley below. Every monsoon, more of it must fall away and as you pick you way through this area, it felt very spooky. We camped by a Yak herder�s hut at Lassi Than, though this isn�t big enough for a bigger group. This sort of thing is why I was here to do a recce before putting together the itinerary. I would want to do this big climb up through the trees in the morning, if I had a group, then descend all the way to Yamphudin in the afternoon. Whichever way you do it, this is a big day. Again, coming in this way from the south, this would be your first really tough altitude climb to Lasiya Bhanjyang (3,400m). We were glad to be doing it the other way round, fit and acclimatised. The descent to Yamphudin is massive and we were glad to be coming down that way.

Over the final three days, we made our way out by a more esoteric route, not to the airstrip at Suketar, but to Medibung. This is further south on the unsurfaced road to Taplejung, meaning at the end of the trip there is only 3.5 hours in a Jeep on the rough road. The scenery over these final days was of steep, terraced hill sides and beautiful villages surrounded by rice and millet fields. In Khebang, one of the eldest men in the village had us sign a book which trekkers had been writing in since 1984. There were not that many names really! The people here are very Indian looking (it�s incredibly close to the border) and are very intrigued to meet Westerners. In one small primary school, the kids didn�t even make the link between us taking a picture and the photo on the back of the digital camera being a mini photo of them! Finally, in Medibung our Jeep arrived and we had an eventful 3 days getting back to Bhadrapur (it should have been two). There were strikes (the Maoists), which meant we could only drive after 5pm. It was a relief to touch down at Kathmandu airport and to spend a night in a nice hotel. This is a long trek, there�s no escaping that and not one for those who like their creature comforts.

Now, at home in the UK, it�s hard to believe that I was sitting drinking milk tea in a yak herder�s hut just a few weeks ago. This experience of Nepal was so very different to my previous trips to the more popular areas. There is very little infrastructure and very few Westerners go there. That might change in a few years from now when the road to Taplejung is surfaced, but for now, it remains are wholly authentic experience. Starting at less than 1,000m and climbing all the way to 5,000m, the countryside that you trek through is incredibly varied. There is a lot of wildlife, from insects to birds and the muscular but shy Blue Sheep. The people are of a broad ethnic background as you head up into the higher valleys, but all along they are interested to see you. If you have a month, and you need a month to get here, this circuit has to be the ultimate Nepalese trekking experience. The mountains are just as impressive, if not more so than in the Annapurna Region or Khumbu Valley. It�s a tough trek, with landslides to cross and lots of up and down, often on very rough trails. But the acclimatisation profile is actually very good if you spend two nights at Ghunsa and Kambachen. For the fit, mountain hill walker, it is a must!

Postscript: 5 November. News came in today that the 'climbers' AKA Nick Bullock and Andy Houseman, were successful in making the first ascent of the North Face of Chang Himal 6,750m. Well done chaps!

Tom Briggs, November 2009

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