Tagne 2001

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Dan's Diary

Day 15 - Thursday 12th July 2001

The Yongma Valley (the gullys can be seen in the foreground)

"Good morning Sir" came the call at 4:50am as the tent zip was undone and two mugs of hot tea were left for Jon and me. I lay in my sleeping-bag for 10 more minutes before my alarm went off and I had no option but to get up. It was still dark. I felt around the side of the tent for my head torch, and turned it on. I threw some clothes on and started to pack my small rucksack. I got out of the tent and looked around. The sky was beginning to lighten, but the valley was dark: shadows were everywhere. There was a faint burning smell in the air. I thought the cook must have been cooking something. Then I noticed a figure inside the toilet tent, fighting with the fly-sheet. Alan stumbled out, having found the entrance with his trousers still round his knees. He later explained that he had set fire to the used toilet paper and had ended up nearly asphyxiating himself.

Andy and Steve were ready by 5:20am so they left with Narinder and headed on up to "Upstairs", just as the sun started to come up. (Upstairs was the name we'd given to the shepherds' shelter in which we had left our mountain supplies.)

"Do we want the maps?" I asked Jon, not wanting to carry more than was necessary

"Yes. Just one."

"What about the GPS?"

"It's up to you." I took that as a "No," and left it in the tent. I took my malaria tablets and picked up the food left on the breakfast/lunch tray, which Sonam had brought around. It was 5:45am by the time I had finished faffing around. We left Base Camp and headed after the others, saying goodbye to Alan. Alan was still not one hundred percent so he chose not to come with us. I had my doubts. Did he just want more sleep?

It was hard work walking up the screes. Without realising it, we were walking fast, subconsciously trying to catch Andy, Narinder and Steve. Some forty-five minutes after leaving Base Camp we arrived at Upstairs. Andy and Steve were there, sitting on the soil and eating their breakfast. They asked for the GPS. I told them where to go to get it, and Andy informed me that I was a "naughty boy". Narinder had left them and was halfway up the cliff, which towered over Upstairs. Jon and I continued across to the spur and then started to head down to the river on the far side of the spur. We hadn't descended far when Narinder started to whistle and wave at us. After a long discussion of what Narinder was signalling to us and what we should do, we decided to go up and join him. We scrambled up the rocky steps and scree-covered ledges, joining Narinder at almost the same time as Andy and Steve, who had traversed diagonally up and across the rock. They were surprised to see us but it was a far from friendly welcome we got!

Andy was not happy at all. He wanted to know what we were doing up there when we had agreed to go down and try along by the river. He thought we had a preconceived plan always to go high, and said we should have told him if we didn't want to go low. I was quite happy to listen to Andy all day. I knew it wasn't worth arguing with him. However, Jon said what I was thinking. He explained the situation, saying that Narinder had called down to us to follow him. We had never had a secret plan to go high, although I had thought the idea of going along the river was a waste of time: this was where Jon, Alan and Narinder tried to go two days previously, and had found no easy way through. My intention had been to drop down to the river, take a look just to keep Andy happy, and then head back to Base Camp to catch up on lost sleep. But when Narinder had signalled to us, we realised he had found a way up the valley, and it would have been stupid for us to continue down to the river. Narinder apologised, obviously feeling he was to blame for the situation. This was not good! He was supposed to be one of us, and here we were making him feel guilty. For what? For whistling and waving at us. Andy wouldn't give in, insisting we should have told him that we wanted to go high. He either ignored or couldn't grasp the fact that this was not the case. Jon almost reached the point of deciding to go back down to the river just to please Andy and get away from him.

In the end we all set off along a small path across the compacted and half-vegetated scree slope that led away from the top the rocky steps. The path would often fade and then reappear further up or down the slope. Before long we reached a large, steep sided gully. What appeared to be a sheep track could be seen rising diagonally up the far side. It looked horrendously exposed and steep. We couldn't decide whether to cross the gully where we were or go up and around the top of it. The gully got steeper and dropped away below us, making crossing further down-slope harder. Andy and Steve tried to go across to the sheep track but soon turned around, the loose dust and rubble giving way under their feet. Meanwhile Jon, Narinder and I headed up the slope to try and cross the gully. It was slow hard work with frequent stops to get the oxygen into our lungs. Before long it was clear that the top of the gully was further away than we thought. It would take hours to round, rather than the ten minutes or so I had previously anticipated. We sat down on the rocks and looked at the map. Looking up the valley, we could see smoke coming from a shepherds' encampment. Horses and sheep could also be seen on the valley side. This was encouraging. If animals and shepherds could get up the valley then there must be a way up, but where?

After 20 minutes of discussion, Narinder decided he would try to reach the shepherd and ask which was the best path. Jon and Andy volunteered to go with him. They headed down the side of the first gully at 8:10am before finding a place from where they could drop down into it. Narinder made it look easy. He dumped his bag in the bottom and then climbed back up to help Jon and Andy who were taking it easy. They were hidden from view when I heard a mass of rocks falling. I waited for a yelp, thinking someone must have fallen but there was nothing. I waited in silence imagining the worst possible scenarios. Then one by one, all three of them came into view again as they reached the bottom of the gully.

Steve and I stayed on the slope where the others had left us. Steve lay with his back against the slope, while I watched eagerly the progress of the Jon, Andy and Narinder. They had made easy work of the sheep track up the other side of the gully, dislodging more stones and sending them cascading noisily down the gully. They climbed up the spur on the other side of the gully as they traversed around it and out of sight. A second gully was waiting for them. They were out of sight for what seemed like eternity but then, sure enough, they emerged back in to view as the climbed out of the second gully. A few minutes later and they had disappeared into the third and final gully before the shepherds shelter. Bare rock could be seen on the far side of the final gully. It looked like it was going to be impossible to scale, but somehow they found a way up and emerged safely at the shepherds shelter at 8:30am. After some discussion with the shepherds they walked up to the top of the spur and looked up the valley. The shepherds continued on up the valley, taking the dogs, sheep and donkeys with them. Jon, Narinder and Andy then sat down and rested while eating breakfast.

They started to head back towards us at 9:30am. They seemed to be taking their time, disappearing into the gullies and staying out of sight for longer periods of time. I watched as they stopped on the second spur and appeared to be collecting stones. Were they building a path or making cairns? As they slowly got closer I could see they were cairns. Every so often they would stop and build one. They descended into the final gully and started to ascend the near side, disappearing out of sight again. Steve and I packed up and descended the screes to meet them. We built a cairn of our own by the route into the gully and waited while they climbed up to us, breathing deeply. The shepherds had told Narinder that they walk along the side of the valley, where we were, with the goats and sheep, while the horses went along the river. They said the river route was harder because you had to cross the river twice before 10am, after which time it was too high to be safe.

Building cairns to mark the path

We split up on the way back to Upstairs. Some people would stop and build a cairn while others went on. When they got to a ridgeline on the slope those who were behind would shout at those ahead that that was where the next cairn should be built. The path dropped away in places, the river several hundred metres below waiting to catch you if you fell. My pace would slow and I would become nervous, concentrating hard on where I was putting my feet. I was pleased to have a third leg - my Leki pole. The rocky ledges and steps, which I called the "rocky staircase" was descended to reach Upstairs. Narinder carried on down to Base Camp while the rest of us stopped. Jon and Steve practised priming the stoves, eventually getting the MSRs to work after changing the petrol jets for kerosene ones. The Primus took no time at all to prime, and was definitely better than the MSRs. Andy lay on the grass half-asleep, soaking up the warm sun, while I sorted out the mountain food and bagged our supplies up into portions. The dust and smelly sheep poo blew about and started getting in the food. Then the chocolate bars started to melt in the warm sun. I could feel frustration mounting inside me. I didn't take kindly to doing things while others lay on their backsides. I bit my lip and refrained from saying something. It could have been done in half the time if someone had helped me. Jon did offer when he'd finished sorting out the stoves, but his hands were black with dirt. He went to wash them with kerosene but this didn't help much.

Andy had had enough of resting and headed down to Base Camp at 1pm. Twenty minutes later I had finished bagging up the food and we set about putting everything back in the kit bags in the shepherd's shelter. We left Upstairs and returned to Base Camp.

I sorted out the clothes I was going to wash before visiting the fly-infested toilet tent. Roti with onion and garlic baked beans, cheese spread, spam, and mutton was eaten for lunch. After lunch I washed my clothes in a bowl filled with freezing cold river water. Before long my hands were going numb and I had to take them out of the water to warm them up. I hurriedly finished the rinsing the rest of the washing, trying not to let my hands get too cold. I constructed a washing line out of the 3mm cord, hanging it between two tents. I then threaded the washing onto the line, so it wouldn't blow away.

The river was high again, too high for any more dam building. I was pleased to see the dam was still holding back most of the water. We played cards in the mess tent.

Indian style chips, which were like battered pieces of pastry came at 4:30pm with a cup of tea. Narinder came and joined us, just for the food. We carried on playing cards, eating and drinking in between the rounds. There was a good atmosphere in the tent, what with some humour and out-of-tune singing. "Who needs alcohol?", I thought.

Red soup came at 6pm as usual and was followed an hour later by rice, more mutton, mushroom vegetable mix and dhal. Cards were played in between the courses. I retreated to my tent at 8:20pm having told Sonam and Narinder the next day's arrangements.