Bhutan - Lindsay Brown [159]
* * *
MOUNTAINEERING
The mountains of Bhutan are ruggedly beautiful and though there are no 8000m-high peaks they are still largely unexplored. Also, there remains uncertainty over the name, location and height of many peaks. Jhomolhari was a famous landmark on the trip to Everest for early mountaineers. On the approach march for the 1921 British Everest Expedition, George Leigh Mallory described it as ‘astounding and magnificent’, but he remained ‘cold and rather horrified’ by the mountain. It was climbed from Tibet in 1937 by F Spencer Chapman and Passang Lama and again in 1970 by a joint Indian-Bhutanese team.
Michael Ward and Dr Frederic Jackson made an extensive survey of Bhutan’s mountains in 1964–65. Climbing several peaks of around 5500m, they categorised the Bhutan Himalaya as a defined group of mountains. Bhutan opened its mountains to climbers for a short period from 1983 to 1994. A Bhutanese expedition scaled the 4900m-high Thurigang, north of Thimphu, in 1983. Jichu Drakye was attempted three times before it was successfully climbed in 1988 by an expedition led by Doug Scott. In 1985 Japanese expeditions climbed Gangri (7239m), Kari Jang, Kang Bum (6526m) and Masang Gang (7165m). Gangkhar Puensum (7541m) remains the highest unclimbed peak in the world after unsuccessful attempts by Japanese and British teams in the 1980s.
The government decided to prohibit mountain climbing after villagers living near the peaks asked it to for religious reasons.
* * *
During autumn, nights are cold in the mountains, but the bright sun makes for pleasant daytime temperatures – in the high 20s, falling to 5°C at night, between 1000m and 3500m. At higher altitudes, temperatures range from about 20°C down to minus 10°C. Mornings are usually clear with clouds building up after 1pm, but they typically disappear at night to reveal spectacular starry skies. Most high passes are snowbound from late November until around February and in some years the snow does not disappear until April or May.
Late March to mid-May affords warmer weather and blooming rhododendrons, but there is a higher chance of rain or snow if you trek during this time and high country treks in March are often snowed out. There will be long periods of constant rain during a monsoon trek between May and August. Alpine wildflowers are in bloom during August and September, but the mud is deep and there are no mountain views. The ardent botanist (or the insane) might select July and August for a trek.
Return to beginning of chapter
GUIDES & CAMP STAFF
A small but efficient number of trek staff will accompany you. If you are trekking with a small group, the guide and cook will team up to handle the logistics. With a large group, the team will include a ‘trek organiser’ who will see that the loads are packed, tents set up and pack animals loaded on time. English names, not Dzongkha, are used for the various job titles. In addition to the cook and guide, there will be one or more ‘waiters’ who serve food and handle the kitchen chores.
Pack Animals
There is a well-organised system for arranging pack animals in Bhutan. Contractors at the starting point of each trek arrange for horses to carry the gear. The animals’ owners accompany the trek to arrange the loads and see that they get where they are supposed to each day. The ancient dolam system in Bhutan allocates specific grazing grounds to each village. For this reason, pack animals don’t cross dzongkhag boundaries. Messages are sent ahead so that replacement animals are, hopefully, waiting at the boundary. At higher elevations, yaks carry the loads.
Food, tents and camp gear are packed in large, rectangular, covered baskets called zhim, which are then lashed to a wooden pack saddle. Trekkers’ duffel bags are usually placed inside a jute sack for protection and then tied onto the animals. The process of saddling and loading the animals in the morning is a slow and tedious chore.
You won’t have much to do with your pack animals, except at camp, but you will probably pass them, and other pack animals,