Tilicho lake From khangdar

                                   Tilicho lake From khangdar

 This high lake filled saddle offers a little used route to jomsom that avoids the thorong la, but the risk of avalanche and frequently bitter weather dampen most notions of taking it for the recreational trekker. Crossing to jomsom this way is really the domin of well equipped mountaineers. However, it is not such an ordeal for trekkers to reach the lake from khangsar. Check that the lodges and trail options en route are open.

 During the season, while good weather continues two lodges are open at tilicho base camp , making an attempt on tilicho lake feasible for wellacclimatised trekker. ( One very fit trekker did it all one day from khangsar, but normal trekkers dhould plan three orbetter four extra days for a return trip from manang.) stay in khangsar to acclimatize and then head to tilicho base camp passing there Gompa. The high trail to Tilicho can be closed by dangerous landslides. The spectacular lower trail is hard loose underfoot, unstable and potentially dangerous, especially crossing sands where oddly designed pinnacles stand like sentinels. Allow 6-9 hrs for this walk.

 From Tilicho basecamp it’s an arduously steep climb much on loose moraine to a chorten (5000m ) and on to the viewpoint. Tilicho lake (4920m/16,140ft ) is a fabulous spectacle with its deep blue waters, tumbling glaciers and the great fluted icy wall of the glistening grand barrier. Return to base camp and the next day head back to khangsar and or manang.

      

Foothills of Lamjung Himal

                           Foothills of Lamjung Himal
Bound by the marsyangdi River and stretching west towards pokhara is the Lamjung District, a major new area for trekking within the Annapurna region. New routes ( and dirt roads ) are being rapidly developed type of visitor. Through home stay programmers modest trekking is being combined with cultural interaction   village development. Hikers looking for a more authentic intimate experience of traditional rural Nepal will want to check out these new routes Home stays with local families are being encouraged in order to spread the visitor’s dollars into areas where until now only subsistence agriculture has sustained has way of life.
 These new trails do not require quite such a high level of fitness and enable visitors to enjoy perhaps a more comfortable trekkers ghettos of the main trails. Bizarrers ghettos of the main trails. Bizarrely this latest almost fashionable initiative is a kind of reinvention of the good old days of early trekking 40 years ago. Note also that when you travel back in time you can’t expect the level of luxury lodges provide on the main trails. There trails offer fine scenery tranquility and equally spectacular view.
                     

Above base camp

                                            Above base camp

 The Rongbuk base camp is usually much less busy than the Nepalese equivalent on the khumbu glacier, and while from the latter base camp Everest cannot be seen at all at rongbuk the view of the world’s highest mountain is simply stunning . The North face where all the pre-war attempts took place- can be seen rising majestically out of the Rongbuk glacier. Behind changtse ( the north peak now named bei peak) now named bei peak) lies the North col, with the north Ridge rising from that to the summit ridge ( North –East Ridge).

Writing in 1998 of the view of Everest Bill Tilman said seen from Rongbuk it looms up magnificently filling the head of the valley. The final pyramid with or without its streaming banner is a glorious thing. Basecamp is located on the flat moraine at the tired of the Rongbuk (Rongpu) glacier, and about halfway

  

 

Dhaulagiri trekking

                              Dhaulagiri

Dhaulagiri is the world’s seventh highest mountain (8167m/26, 795ft). In Sanskrit its name means white mountain Admired by thousands of trekkers from the kali Gandaki and poon hill Dhaulagiri rested the attempts of mountaineers for longer than comparable peaks. In 1950 Herzog’s French expedition had initially hoped to summit it but after lengthy reconnaissance decided it was too dangerous turning their attention to Annapurna I instead six attempts on Dhaulagiri via the west ridge followed but it was not until 1960 that a swiss expedition finally won through albeit in controversial style. They used a light aircraft to ferry won through albeit in controversial style. They used a light aircraft to ferry food, Equipment and even climbers to the northeast col at around 5700m (18,700ft). The Pilatus porter, piloted by daredevils including Emile wick, eventually crashed on the mountain without loss of life . Austrian mountaineer kurt Diemberger a foreigner within the swiss expedition reached the summit on 13 may in company with peter Diener Ernst Forrer  Albin schelbert and the sherpas Nyima Dorji and Nawang Dorji Two other members ( Michel voucher and hugo weber) also reached the top 10 days later. Attempts since then have tried different routes but many have perished on the killer White Mountain particularly in avalanches from the notorious Dhaulagiri Icefall.

Himalayan Flowers in Nepal

Himalayan Flowers

                                Buttercup Family

The buttercup family Ranunculaceae, includes some of the most delicate and beautiful Himalayan flowers like anemone, larkspur marsh marigold monkshood, columbine trollius, pulsatilla, marsh marigold, monkshood columbine trollius, pulsatilla, etc. many of these are indeed familiar garden plants in temperate land and in hill in Nepal.

  

Trollius acaulis with horizontal stout underground rootstock densely clothed with dry bases of old petioles and palmate leaves flowers solitary, with sepals 5-10 or more , golden yellow and petaloid, the petals are minute and also yellow blooms at 3300-4500m.

           

A grassymeadow, near a melt- water stream at elevations of 3900-4200m, crowded with masses of bright yellow flowers of buttercup caltha palustris waving madly in the cold, dry bitter wind.

                

                

 A beautiful masaic mainly Anemone obtusiloba, 3200m.

            

 Ranunculus sp at 3600m in full bloom, close to the ground in summer. 

                 

 Ranunculus with bright yellow flowers, at an elevation of 4200m the sepals are colored yellow like the petals, which are themselves absent.

                  

 A single creamy white coloured flower of buttercup at an elevation of 3600m

                       

 A single bright yellow coloured flower of buttercup at an elevation of 4200m

               

 

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