What's Alan up to?: Getting ready for an expedition to Nepal

That's right the guy that doesn't have a facebook page has begun to blog. I decided to start this blog up mainly because of an upcoming trip, or should I say, a rapidly approaching expedition to a remote region in Nepal. In preparing for this trip it was blogs like that from the late Joe Puryear that really inspired my climbing partners (Tino & Matt) and I to commit to this trip and go try something new in a far corner of the world. The secondary reason is to have a place where updates during our trip may be placed to keep friends and family in the loop. There may be a couple other places where posts will be as well I will give details when that occurs.

So I guess this first blog post is where we are headed, what we have done to get our trip lined up and what the final stresses are to get ironed out prior to departure.

It all began about 14 months ago, Tino and I sat down in his Seattle house, and began pipe dreaming about a trip to the Rolwaling Himal in November of 2011. After about 5 hours of beer consumption and google earthing our brains and eyes were fried. We were even more confused about what the terrain was like, and what our potential objective would be. Plans began to change, and huge guiding stints for both of us ensued, leaving us in mid September with no firm plans. It was then decided we needed more time to plan, so the trip would be postponed one year to do our homework, and set up for success.

The fall came as it has a way of doing, going from 100 mph to an idle as the guiding season ends is always an interesting transition. Instead of a Nepal trip I was gaining my AMGA aspirant level status in both the rock and alpine disciplines, in red rocks and the cascades respectively. During this time I was climbing a lot with a good friend Mike, and we accomplished many a difficult rock climbing objective. I started to get Mike excited about Nepal prospects, Mike began to head up the research and lead the charge on grant funding attempts.

However, as the spring came to a close Mike decided to take the responsible path and try to finish up a Masters degree as opposed to spend the Fall in Nepal. I was feeling once again my plans to get to Nepal were not going to leave the ground. Fortunately, this feeling lasted only about 20 minutes. Shortly after hearing Mike's decision, Matt (whom Mike and I had just climbed with in the Ruth Gorge of Alaska) pulled up and asked how the Nepal planning was going. I said, "Not so great Mike just decided not to go. Tino is on the fence, not sure who I can recruit for this thing." Matt replied, "Dude, I'll go!" At which point I opened my laptop, pulled up a grant proposal and began to seal the deal. Matt was onboard. Several weeks later, upon returning from guiding Mt. Elbrus Tino committed as well. During mid August again we sat in Tino's house but this time clicked the buy now button, airfare was purchased. And it was official. The first point of commitment!

During this time in Nepal I had been in contact with a Kathmandu resident and thru this point great businessman Dawa. He has been working with us to coordinate guides, porters, permits, transportation to the "end of the road", as well as other logistical nightmares one can imagine. Every email communication we have exchanged I have heard a response in less than 24 hours, which is quite impressive when communicating from a country that does not have internet banking! I was put in touch with Dawa via Mark Gunlogson (Mountain Madness). Apparently Dawa used to climb with Scott Fischer, the founder of Mountain Madness. An interesting connection, as Matt, Tino, and I all guide for M.M.

But anyways what are we going to do when we get there you ask. We have a primary objective (aside from returning safely) of climbing the North Ridge of Tengi Ragi Tau (6938 meters). This ridge has not been climbed previously and looks to provide about one mile of technical terrain. The access point for this ridge is via an unclimbed peak named Langmoche Ri (6611meters).

mountaintravelsoftphotos.com

This Photo is taken from the west, we will be approaching through the Rolwaling Valley on the opposite side.

The second part of our expedition is to continue with the exploration of Waterfall ice in the Rolwaling Valley. Depending on the season there are over 50 flows that freeze up in this area only a small fraction of those have seen ascents. The longest flows in the area are around 700 meters. Previous reports of the region suggest that there is a huge potential for harder mixed and pure ice lines as well as many more moderate flows just waiting to be climbed. This objective is much more weather dependent, we will be there early in the ice season, which if its a cold month of November the ice could be excellent, or if its a warm November the ice may be non-existant. Below are some photos of what we hope to see.