Dave Hahn

The Trek group, with two climbing guides, flew as scheduled to Lhasa on April 4. This time of year, that is the more scenic route to the Tibet 8000'ers, but it isn't the most practical way to get a couple of truckloads of gear and food to Everest base camp. The rest of us intended to go the practical route [Click for map], overland by van and truck to the border at Kodari.

We'd then cross the slightly complex border into Zhangmu [Click for map] where we'd journey by jeep and Chinese trucks up a spectacular gorge along the Sun Khosi river. We'd progress from the near jungles of 4000'. Nepal to the dry, cold Tibetan plateau of 14-16,000' in short order. Or such was the plan. While still in K-du, we were hearing of road blockages past Zhangmu. There aren't a lot of phones up that way, so it was difficult to know what to make of the news.

Road blockages between the Chinese/Tibetan towns of Zhangmu and Nyalam are not uncommon. It is such a spectacular road that occasionally a piece of it just gives up the ghost and drops a mile or two to warmer climates. I'm sure it has an official name, but for me it will always be the Valium Hi-Way for the needed assistance when traversing some drop-out on three wheels of a fully loaded vehicle of uncertain origin and maintenance while the driver calmly smiles in some direction other than the one you'd like him to be focusing on.

Landslides do happen on the road, and the short-term solution usually involves a bunch of hard working porters hustling truck-loads a hundred yards or so to another waiting truck while exploding dynamite adds atmosphere and flying debris in a try for a new road.

This year, we were hearing the trouble was snow. A meter of new snow with avalanches, said the grapevine. That would be a problem alright, knowing the relatively primitive snow removal equipment available. We had to decide whether to trust the reports and wait in Kathmandu for a bit or to push up to Zhangmu to know first hand what the trouble was and somehow tackle the problem head-on.

Each of us twitched a little at the prospect of delay. An Everest climber is always trying to keep careful track of how many days he or she has for acclimatization and setbacks before a summit attempt. More is generally better. But Zhangmu is not a good place to get stuck if a delay is to be endured. To be charitable, the town is vastly improved from 1991 when I first came through. To be less charitable, it is a good place to catch a disease nobody back home can diagnose.

One finds, while avoiding ankle deep mud patches on main street, that it is wise to keep an eye upward for the occasional anonymous toss of various fluids and wastes from some upper level dwellings. And it costs an expedition a fortune to stay extra days in Zhangmu... or anywhere else along the intended journey to base camp as it is all by arrangement with the various government climbing associations and not by direct dealing with some hotel manager. It seemed best to stay in comfort and economy in Kathmandu, so we did for another three days, slightly worried about catching bugs there or being trapped by a projected riot by the communists, scheduled for our last day in town.

The riot missed us, a few bugs caught us and we were on our way to the border on the seventh of April. It is a beautiful drive four or five hours up to Kodari, where Nepal Customs and passport control are. When China and Nepal are getting along well, it is then a simple matter to get your truckload of gear across the Friendship Bridge and up a couple thousand vertical feet along a crumbling switchback no-man's land road up to Chinese customs and passport control at the entrance to Zhangmu. There, you set your watch to Beijing time, two hours and fifteen minutes different from Nepal, and you begin the laborious process of getting your gear transferred to a Chinese truck.

It is not at all like driving up into Canada for the day from the States. When the two countries aren't getting along, you may have to hire porters to get gear between the two customs stations. In any case, no vehicle really crosses the border and most climbers choose to walk/climb the hour or so through no-man's land. We got all that done, and found in Zhangmu that the snow blockage on the road ahead had indeed been keeping a few expeditions trapped in town.

Things seemed to be easing though, these climbing teams for Everest, Xixipangma and Cho Oyu were now starting to get through. What had been eight hours of walking (and portering) the day before had now been reduced to two hours. Significantly, the rate for porters was coming down also. I figured that to be a good thing as we calculated a need for 153 of them. Even so, we were told to wait a day in Zhangmu so that the groups ahead of us could have first shot at the available porters. Fair enough, it rained on that delay day anyway, which wouldn't have been the best thing for our porter loads of food and equipment. We spent the day sleeping, reading and haggling... typical mountaineer pursuits.

Zhangmu is a place of fabulous natural beauty, one zig-zagging street on a steep mountain-side perched precariously over a violent stretch of cascading river that even kayakers would be smart to avoid. The mountain walls of the gorge are so abrupt that one doesn't tend to look at the peaks on either side, it is too hard on the neck. But again, the town is dirty, to the point that the repeat visitor recognizes various bits of detritous in the street. It is a bustling place these days as it is the border town on the one road linking Lhasa and Tibet with Kathmandu and the South. A bunch of overloaded trucks are usually grinding their gears, blasting their horns and splashing the main street up onto pedestrians.

Finally, on the ninth of April, now united with our Liason Officer and Interpreter from Beijing, we set up the road in two heavy Chinese Army trucks with chain-smoking drivers. Most folks were riding with the gear in the truck beds, a slight drawback when we'd drive under the odd waterfall or two. Twenty kilometers up the road, past the part that usually landslides, we came to the snow. There, the porters were assembled and the chaos began. The porter rate was down to 30 Yuan a load. That comes out to about $4 for sixty pounds.

Adding to the chaos was the fact that the road blockage was down to about 40 minutes walk so porters were darn near running in both directions to get as many loads as they could in one day. Our careful system of numbered loads was soon confused and inadequate as porters took off running and yelling. We had a slight edge over the Indian Expedition of similar size alongside of us and we hoped the loads wouldn't get mixed. It soon became clear what the real blockage was. Massive new snow avalanches had come down the week before, not only covering the road sixty to eighty feet deep but filling the gorge and even bridging the wild river charging through beneath. So in an effort to keep alongside the porters, we crossed an incredible snow bridge, marveling at all the forces of nature run amok and laughing at the puny antique bulldozers dutifully hacking away at the trouble.

All that marveling was probably when we allowed a few porters to slip away with valuable loads of Milk powder and Tang. Could have been worse, and we then had only a couple hours of loud discussion with our new Tibetan truck drivers before we could load up and be on our way. Up to Nyalam at about 12,500 feet where we needed a couple nights of acclimatization to the altitude.

One of those nights was made quite scary when our good friend Tashi, who runs the climber and trekker guest house in town came in complaining of classic left side chest pain. It was frightening to discover how little there is available in such a place for such a problem. We knew we wouldn't be dialing 911 or anything, but it does make one feel fairly helpless to have a friend in pain and danger and not be able to have much effect. Luckily, a trio of Chinese Army doctors had just entered town and were quickly brought up to help.

We played the language and culture game a bit, trying to understand Chinese, English and Tibetan perceptions of a problem and it's solution. It had to have been Nitro they gave Tashi, and his immediate improvement suggests that it was a bad Angina attack. Our team all came away determined anew, I think, not to have a medical emergency in Tibet.

— Dave Hahn, International Mountain Guides' Expedition Leader

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