Trip Reports

Mera and Island Peak - 10 Apr to 9 May '15

The view from the Mera La towards Mera high camp

Written by Leader Alex Langdon, May 2015

Our team consisted of: Danny, David, Chris R, Chris T, Matt, Pete, Jane, Lee, Sam, Lance, Martyn and myself.

Before I launch into my report, I want first to thank everyone in my team. It can be very easy to lead an expedition when the sun shines, the peaks are climbed and everything goes smoothly. However, when the weather and conditions conspire against the objectives and an earthquake and a ënational state of emergencyí get thrown in for good measure, many teams could make a leadersí life quite tricky. Not so this team. You were all fabulous and I thank you all for being so helpful and for creating so many opportunities for laughter along the way.

Most of us met up at Heathrow T4 and checked in with loads of time to spare. Jet Airways had a huge choice of films to watch (even huger if you like Bollywood movies) on the long flight and we had no problems with the connection through Delhi airport onto Kathmandu. At the Summit Hotel in Kathmandu we met up with Matt and Pete, who had flown in from Australia and Chris T, who had been sneakily improving his acclimatisation with a trek up to Everest BC.

The next couple of hours were slightly chaotic as we went through everyoneís kit before departure the next day. A few people needed double boots... some pre-booked, some last minute! Sunday morning at 5am found us in the mayhem that is the airport ëqueueí. After checking that people did indeed have knives and poles in their hand luggage, the security guy was curiously happy and waved us all through, most of us having to run to get onto the flight.

The first few days of trekking from Lukla followed a similar format according to Danny: ëeat, walk, eat, walk, eat, sleepí. At this stage not one person believed me that we could lose weight on this trip. We ate a lot! Our route took us south from Lukla and through ancient rhododendron forests. The weather was mixed (think Scottish autumn), so we didnít get many distant views.

We met another couple of teams during these days and we bumped into them again intermittently over the next 3 weeks. One of these had a stuffed giraffe as a mascot. To our team, this was just too tempting... the giraffe was duly ëliberatedí in a dusk raid and held to ransom! Thankfully the other team saw the funny side of it.

As we slowly gained altitude, our trek took on a distinctly snowy character at altitudes that donít usually have much snow. Both us and our porters were regularly sinking up to our thighs in the soft snow, which made progress alternately hilarious and hard work. The snow conditions also made the traverse down to Khote considerably more ëinterestingí than I would have liked!

By the time we were in a position to ascend Mera Peak, the weather forecast was looking singularly unhelpful. We decided to at least give it a try and come back down if it was too bad. At this point, Samís body clearly decided heíd done enough ascent and it wanted some extra attention, oxygen and drugs.for this behaviour he got sent down to wait for us in Khote! (Another thank you for everyoneís help during this incident)

Saturday 25 April found us all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed outside our tents trying to remember who was on which rope team. The new snow and strong winds had completely obliterated any track, so it was hard work breaking trail. Iíd like to say that with dawn we got amazing views, but we didnít. It was still a white out! However, 10 of us got to stand at the top of Mera: Danny, David, Chris T, Matt, Pete, Jane, Lee, Lance, Martyn and myself...well done!

It was during our descent that things changed in Nepal. The 3 rope teams were in different places on the mountain and experienced the earthquake in different ways. For my rope team, it felt like the glacier dropped about 2 feet and all around us was the cracking of new crevasses and avalanches thundering. We had tried to run and failed. Have you ever tried running uphill in crampons at 5,500m tied onto a rope of 4 people? The middle team barely felt anything and the team at High Camp were shocked to watch a major rock and serac fall, which came down where our tents had been the night before. None of us had any idea that it was anything other than a local disturbance.

The following day, Nepalese radio shattered our little world and began to recount the number of missing and dead. The death toll increased with every bulletin. We realised immediately that we needed to use the satellite phone to let Jagged Globe know that we were all OK and then they could begin the process of letting our loved ones know, and the relevant authorities also.

Our original plans ended there and the rest of our adventure, over the next week, was a case of getting back slowly and safely to Lukla and then waiting patiently for flights to Kathmandu and then out of Nepal. While we were in Tangnag the next day, there was a second earthquake and we watched in horror as most of the houses fell down around us. No-one was hurt, but most of the villagers are now camping next to their old houses.

The earthquake has caused such devastation to Nepal in the very places and to the very people that we all love to visit. Our team (both visitors and Nepalese) neither suffered from, nor saw, any major casualties during our expedition and for this I know that we all feel extremely lucky.

On a final note, a huge ëthank youí to Shiv, Funeru and his team in Nepal and everyone in the Jagged Globe office for putting in hours of extra work on our behalf.

Alex Langdon, Expedition Leader

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