Onwards and upwards to Daramsala.

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Samdo (3875m) -Daramsala/Larke Phedi (4460m)

A shortish but high trek today worth a fair bit of altitude gain.

Breakfast of porridge all around,for the energy, and we were packed and ready to go by 8.00.

My boots still wet and squelchy after yesterday’s outing, unsurprisingly there is no drying at sub zero temperatures.

It is a fabulous sun drenched morning with fresh snow on the hills around Samdo.

The trail took us back along the route we took yesterday for about half an hour before we took the left hand fork and struck out towards Dharamsala. Lots of steep climbs and there’s no such thing as an easy climb at these altitudes. To put it into perspective we’re starting the day at a couple of Hakas above the summit of Mt Cook/Arorangi and only going up from there.

After a bit over two hours we finally rounded a bend and there in front of us and below us was the camp. Unfortunately we descended to below it before one more long uphill slog to get there.

Dharamsala is really a camp with only a couple of permanent buildings, being, a small accomodation building comprising about ten rooms and a long dining room/kitchen. Most trekkers are housed in two person tents. Latecomers sleep in the dining room on the tables or benches.

Himal has secured a couple of tents for us, how he selected them is a bit of a mystery as they were no better or worse than any of the others, zips didn’t work and flys were erected too loosely so they touched the tent at times etc. But Himal seemed very pleased with himself for getting these two for us.

Had lunch of Momos, they only fry them here, perhaps because at this altitude the depressed boiling point of water is such that they may have trouble cooking them sufficiently by steaming.

This place is actually pretty disgusting, the toilets, such as they are, have no roof and it would seem some people can’t be bothered getting their aim right. I went up to them, (they’re about 30m above the camp, for good reason given the smells) and took one look in the door at the piles of s..t on the dirt floor and decided the back wall of a tumble down building made a good urinal option. Frankly, while we’ve contended with some pretty disgusting toilets on this trip these took it to an entirely new level.

After reporting back to the other guys about the state of the toilets Gordie took matters into his own hands an took a good dose of Imodium just to ensure there was no chance whatsoever he might need to use them.

Tomorrow we’re starting out at 4.00am so a restful afternoon.

One thing you do notice in a tent is having not showered for five days and wearing clothes that have been worn everyday for two and half weeks there are some interesting aromas!

It started snowing late afternoon and continued snowing until late in the night. We were a bit concerned that we’d either have to traverse the pass in snow or (Gordies nightmare scenario) the pass would be closed and we’d be trapped in Daramsala. The snowfall intensified as the afternoon wore on and soon the tents were covered in a thick layer of snow with it building up around the entrance and sides. This all made getting in and out of the small tents a real mission while trying to minimise the amount of snow entering.

Dinner was in the dirt floored dining hall and was of dubious quality but necessary to sustain us through the really long day that lay ahead. The place was pretty (actually very) grubby, I spotted poor Himal trying to clean some cutlery for us on a curtain that hung at one end of the dining hall. Unfortunately the curtain looked like it hadn’t been washed for many years, if ever, but “A” for effort Himal. It was well below 0degC (probably -10 or so) even inside so we didn’t stay long, were back in our tents and snuggled up against the bitter cold by 6.30pm.

Arch and I slept really well whereas McVet and Gordie had little sleep through the shortened night.

I did need to get up once during the night for a toilet stop (a consequence of the Diamox we’re taking to combat altitude sickness) and it really is a mission to get out of a tent with about 6 inches of snow on it and back in without bringing in too much snow. Managed it but left my crocs too close to the door and by the morning they were frozen to Arches as a solid croc lump!

Alarm set for 3.00am.

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Photos

Kitchen at Daramsala
At peak season this kitchen, if you can call it that, caters for up to 100 people.

View down to Daramsala from ridge above
We went for a walk up this ridge in the afternoon but had to retreat when the snow started.