David’s 12 year-old brother Jeffrey is still with us, so the three of us checked a map to choose our next destination. We were planning to go to Nepal, but then heard about Sikkim, a little-known region of Northern India on the border of Nepal and Tibet nestled in the Himalayas. After checking around, we heard that Sikkim is similar to Nepal – lofty Himalayan mountains, beautiful scenery, enchanting Buddhist monasteries, and great trekking – but that it’s a lot cleaner, with friendlier people, and a lot fewer tourists.
Eager to leave the tourists behind to visit what is reputedly the last “Shangri-La”, we decided to head to the mystical kingdom of Sikkim. That’s right, Sikkim was an independent kingdom until 1975 (when its people voted to become a state of India). Even today, you need a special permit just to visit (to get your permit stamped at the border, just walk past the stern-looking soldier with the machine gun pointed at you from behind the sand bags).
After taking a series of “shared Jeeps” (SUVs designed to cram 10 passengers where only 6 should fit) up winding mountain roads, we arrived in Yuksom, at the foot of the Himalayas. Jeffrey has two big memories of that trip:
- He started the day with an upset stomach, so those winding roads did him in and he left his breakfast on the side of the road (and fortunately not in the car) somewhere on the way to Yuksom.
- There’s nothing like seeing an oncoming car in your lane when your driver is on the wrong side of the road passing another car with just inches separating you from a drop-off of several hundred feet down a ravine. Fortunately, these mountain drivers know what they’re doing… I think.
We found a trekking company to guide us on a 4-day, 40 kilometer trek to 4,000 meters (about 13,000 feet) to get a close-up view of Mount Kangchenjunga. At 28,169 feet, Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world (after Mount Everest and K2). If I were writing this in 1851 (when the Internet was a lot slower), I’d be saying that we saw the highest mountain in the world. Until 1852, Kangchenjunga was thought to be the highest until calculations by the British Great Trigonometric Survey concluded that Everest and K2 were higher.
Question: How many Sikkimese does it take to accompany 3 American tourists on a 4-day, 40 km trek to 4,000 meters?
Answer: Eight (if you count the animals). One guide, one cook, two porters, one yak herder, and three yaks. The porters and yaks carried all the food, cooking gear, sleeping bags, pads, blankets, and anything else we would need for our trek. I still don’t know how the cook did it, but our meals were fantastic: French toast, chow mein, pancakes, onion soup, curried potatoes, ginger chicken, combination fried rice. We were spoiled. Though they only make a few dollars a day, the trekking crews in Sikkim make it easy for tourists to hike in the Himalayas. All we had to carry was a light backpack with water, snacks, a raincoat, and jacket. (It was a tad bit easier than when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to climb Mount Everest).
For two days, we hiked up mountain passes on our way to Kangchenjunga. As we went from 2,000 to 4,000 meters, our breathing got harder and our steps got shorter. But it always seemed that Jeffrey had energy to spare. He would often run up the trail, jumping from rock to rock (just like he does on ski jumps at Tahoe). He never seemed to tire.
Near the end of the second day, a light rain became light hail and then finally turned to snow as we got to higher elevations. As we finished the second day, we were at 4,000 meters with a light dusting of snow around our camp. With clouds all around us, we couldn’t see anything above us.
With the temperature below freezing, we got in our sleeping bags and got the best surprise of the trip when our guide brought each of us an old-fashioned rubber hot water bladder. Let me tell you, there’s no better feeling than a hot water bladder warming your feet in a sleeping bag when you’re in freezing temperatures in the Himalayas. In Jeffrey’s words, “This is Heaven”.
At 4:30 am on the third day we rose for hot tea and our last ascent to get our best view of Kangchenjunga at sunrise. The sky was crystal clear and, at 5:15, we arrived at Zhongri, the vista where we got our best view of Kangchenjunga and the surrounding peaks.
We certainly hadn’t climbed Everest, but there is still something mystical about having a 360-degree view of snow-covered Himalayan peaks with colorful Buddhist prayer flags flapping beside you in the wind. The panorama was spectacular and we felt a real sense of accomplishment. The two days of strenuous hiking had been worth it.
After spending time at the top of the world (or at least as close as we would get), we started back. Though the return trek is normally a two-day hike, we decided to hike back in one day. Ten laborious hours later, after going up and down at least four mountain passes, we arrived in Yuksom with very tired legs. (Little did we know how much they would ache for the next two days.) We were exhausted but we had a peaceful feeling of contentment knowing that we had earned a view that most people will only see in photos.
- Steve
