Day 11: Nimaling -> Shang Sumdo via Kongmaru La

Kongmaru La

 

It rained a lot yesterday evening and night. In any guide book it says that there can even be snow in the plateau in summer. Luckily it didn’t snow yesterday. But still it was very very cold. The rain continued into the night. So when we started our trek we all had to wear our rain gear.

The first phase of the trek was to climb to the Kongmaru La at 5300 m. The climb was steeper than what we had ever faced before. 4900, 5100, 5200….I was struggling to climb and also to breath normally at the same time. The final climb to 5300 m was very very steep. So steep and exhausting that I think I was moving at snail’s pace covering just few cms in each step. Once we were at the top of the pass it was a thrilling experience. In all these passes here there are Buddhist prayer flags tied at the top. So the moment you started seeing them when you climb, the thought that you are close to the goal is very motivating.

At the top it was very windy and cold. So we didn’t stay there longer. The first 300 m descend was very steep. It puts a lot of load on ones knees. We descended almost 1000 m in one stretch. Afterwards it was pretty challenging walk through the rocky canyon. We had to cross the Shang river at many points as the paths were not clear. Sometimes we had to climb up and come down again as there were no trekking routes available. It was pretty stressful walk. The rains in between made our trek more difficult as the wet rocks were very slippery. We had our first tea stop at a tea tent at around 1.30 pm. We still have to walk around another 2 hrs at least to reach our camp at the Shang Sumdo village.

The walk in the afternoon was not so stressful as most of the time we were walking at the same altitude. But it was a long and tiring walk. Am was still having problems with her knee. So our helper Ganga and I slowed down to keep her company. Stan went ahead with the two British girls. The landscape was very beautiful, just like our trek in the last days. But the slow and long walk made the journey very tiring. It also started raining again in between. Finally we reached the camp at around 4.30 pm. So altogether we were trekking for around 8 hours today! Now all I could think of is to hit my mattress in my tent!