Day 10: Tahungste -> Nimaling

Kang Yatze

I slept really badly yesterday night. I tried some star trail timelapse yesterday night. Till 12 I was rolling around in my sleeping bag. Finally when I managed to catch some sleep I was awaken by the cry of a donkey. The donkey was tied near to our tent. Somehow the stupid animal found it funny to give a loud cry at every hour!! That meant I was woken up every hour at night!

We started early like before at 8 am. My GPS showed an altitude of 4310 at our campsite. And the next camp is at 4700 m. Our guide Stan said it will take only 4 hrs to reach there. It was a gradual climb throughout. Probably because of the lack of sleep I was more tired than before. The thin air meant my climbing rate was very low when compared to others. I was making really small steps so as to have a tolerable breathing rate. Still whenever we stopped I was breathing at a very high frequency. It was not at all an easy climb for me.

All through the climb we had the beautiful view of Kang Yatze (at 6400 m), which was snow-capped, at our tight. After about 2 hrs we stopped at a pond made from spring water. It was quite refreshing to wash the face with the cold water from the natural spring. We spend almost half an hour there relaxing, and enjoying the view of the mighty Kang Yatze in the background. There is one more pond, about 10 m from where we stayed. I think the water from that pond flowed into the pond where we stayed before trickling down through the mountain valley.

Afterwards we proceeded to our final trek to the plateau of Nimaling where our camp is. Slowly, breathing heavily and exhausted I somehow managed to reach our campsite. On the way we could see our trek route for tomorrow high up in the mountains. We have to climb to the Kongmarula at approximately 5300 m tomorrow. That’s going to be a tough one. I have to make sure that I stay fit and catch some good sleep today.

We reached the campsite at around 12.15 noon. Our campsite at Nimaling is a very beautiful plateau with no shades. Quite windy and cold when the sun is behind the clouds. The Nimaling Chu flows with full strength on one side of the plateau. My GPS showed an altitude of 4850 m. I was breathing more frequently even while moving around. Not a comfortable feeling! I tried to catch some sleep in the tent after lunch, but with no success. I walked around the plateau and went to the tea tent, where one can have beer also in addition to the tea. I met the 2 Austrian and 1 German lady there, enjoying their beer. I met them in our first camp at Jingchan. Since they also had the same schedule as us we met each other irregularly during the last days of the trek. I ordered a tea and chatted with them for some time. For me it was an opportunity to rehearse my German so as not to forget it too soon.

Tomorrow is going to be a long and exhausting day. I hope I will be able to get good sleep tonight. After climbing the pass we have to reach the village of Shang Sumdo tomorrow. It would take at least 8 hours of trek I guess. The toughest day of the whole trek probably!!