JOURNEY - on Mastering Ukemi (25 page)

Christian looked great and ready to go. Curtis was looking a bit haggard and Chris looked like I felt. “Tough night?” I asked.

They nodded in response and we ate our breakfast without enthusiasm. It had snowed during the night and there was a light covering that Bim assured me would be gone by lunch.

“
Doesn’t matter,” I said. “We are going to stay here another day; we’ll try and adjust before going higher. I had a pretty hard night.”

“
Me too,” said Chris. “I kept waking up and couldn’t catch my breath.”

“
Sleep apnea,” I said. “Altitude brings it on. Maybe another day here will help. We won’t see anything up there, anyway. Not with this weather.”

They nodded and after breakfast wandered off. Christian took a hike up the side of the mountain on the south side of the pasture and Chris and Curtis went off by themselves. I sat in the restaurant drinking tea and reading. My knees would not appreciate me bushwhacking up into the mountains in the snow.

“
Do you mind if I join you?”

I looked up and saw a tall blond man standing politely and waiting. I nodded.

“
I hope you were not offended last night, by our interest. We did not mean to intrude. Did you know the man who died?”

I placed him. He was one of the Germans. “No,” I said. “They asked me to look at him. They think westerners know something about medicine. Obviously I didn’t.”

“
No.” He looked unperturbed.

“
I thought if it was something I could bandage or a wound that I could dress and that he could then be taken to the hospital. It was way beyond that. I couldn’t help him.”

“
Are you a doctor?” he asked.

“
No, I’m not.”

“
And yet you thought you could help this wounded man.? Ja?”

I was becoming annoyed and did not like his attitude at all. “I saw a lot of wounds and badly hurt men in Viet Nam. I never minded helping when I could.”

“
Most people would be sickened to see something like that, no?”

“
That sort of thing has never bothered me. It’s just a body. Just like a deer or any big mammal. Just a body.” I repeated.

“
So you are an American hunter? A soldier in Viet Nam, too? Quite a killer, yes? Such an American…” He smiled broadly.

I didn’t need this crap. I also did not want to get drawn into a verbal battle where we relived the last two world wars and the Jewish atrocities, but I could feel myself wanting to say something to him. I decided to let it just go by me. I did a little verbal aikido. It might have been a high point in my life.

“
Have you been up here long? Are you going up or going down?”

“
We have been waiting for the weather to clear in order to summit Gokyo Mountain, but three days is long here and they say it will stay like this. We will go back to Namche Bazaar and then visit Tengboche Monastery. I would like to see Sagarmatha as well. At least try to go to the base camp. Ja?”

I felt suddenly overwhelmed. I’d basically talked Christian into this trip and so far he had seen nothing. “Well, that is disappointing,” I said.

“
We had considered visiting Khundjole near the Chinese border, but now we are running out of time.”

I’d heard of it, once or twice but was not familiar. “Where is that?”

“
It is on the back side of Gokyo Mountain. If you continue northwest from Gokyo you travel down to the base of the glacier and cross the stream. There is a bridge and Khundjole is on the other side of the bridge. It has a couple of new lodges and is becoming a bazaar. It is so close to the Chinese border that yak trains come there and deliver goods then turn around and go back... you see? Rather than go all the way to Namche Bazaar? I have not been there. It is a long, steep descent from Gokyo, but it is only 3,500 meters compared to over 5,000 at Gokyo. I considered it as an alternative to summiting this mountain, but now it is too late for us and we must return if we are going to see anything of interest.”

I nodded at him and thought about it. It was worth knowing about and at least an alternative to staring at fog and low-lying clouds. I pointedly looked at the book I was reading and slowly turned a page. I was still annoyed at his remark; calling me an American, as if that was an insult in and of itself. He got the message and stood.

“
So I will leave you reading your very interesting book. Ja? Okay.”

He turned and slowly walked back to his group. I heard him say something in German and they all laughed. I let it go. But now I wondered if there would ever be a break in the weather and if we would have to return without ever having seen the most magnificent mountain views in the world. I closed my eyes and must have fallen asleep because after a moment I opened them to find the Germans gone and Chris sitting across from me reading and Curtis improvising on my mandolinden. It is tuned four steps higher than a guitar and has a mandolin body, but plays the same as a guitar, just not the same step-notes. A G chord on my mandolinden is a C chord on a guitar. He was finger-picking it like a guitar and it sounded very sweet, very nice. I closed my eyes again and the next time I opened them Bim was helping Cook set up lunch. I sat upright.

He put the dishes on the table and a smell assaulted my nostrils powerfully enough that I started to salivate in anticipation. When he uncovered the dishes I saw pieces of chicken in a sauce and rice and vegetables. I couldn’t help myself, I reached forward and took a chicken thigh from the serving dish and bit right into it. It was stringy, tough and dry and it was delicious. I looked at Cook and thanked him. He bowed slightly and said that this bird had stopped laying eggs. Then he and Bim left and we ate a wonderful lunch. We are meat eaters and unapologetic. In this part of the world, however, a chicken is worth far more for the eggs it lays then the flesh it can provide for one meal. A chicken is never butchered if it lays eggs. Hey, there’s a lesson….

We idled away the rest of the day and prepared to leave the following morning. After another sleepless night we dug out our goose-down coats and hats and gloves and prepared to climb up to Gokyo. At 15,700 feet it was the highest we will have climbed so far and it is well over 1,000 feet higher than the tallest mountain the Rocky Mountain chain. In my youth I had summited five of Colorado highest peaks - the fourteeners they’re called – and thought I was standing on the top of the world. If the weather would clear we would be so close to Cho Oyo it would feel like we could touch it. And you can stack two of the Rockies Mountains highest peaks one on top of the other and still not be as high as Cho Oyo. Unbelievable!

We left and moved out slowly. The climb was steady and intense, but a step and then a breath was still possible if we were not going up a switchback or steep slope. No one spoke and the view remained the same: fog, low lying cloud, occasional drizzle or snow flurries. In such an atmosphere a person tends to withdraw and so we went, quietly trudging onward. Eventually we crested a ridge and I made out the form of Cook standing in front of a stone lodge. It was really little more than a shelter, but it was at least enclosed on all four sides, had a roof and bunks inside. There was a shelter below and alongside for porters and yaks. It was deserted.

We went inside and I chose a bunk and threw my duffle on it. Bim started a small gas heater that some kind soul had brought and either left or donated. It was enough to provide some warmth and keep the frost away, but I would really have enjoyed my wonderful old cast iron wood stove from my home in Maine. Now that was something that would have warmed this shelter to t-shirt comfort. Of course I did not have a clue where the nearest tree could be found so it would have done us little good.

It was tea time and Cook began the time consuming job of trying to boil water at 15,700 feet in altitude. I went outside and tried to lighten the mood by giving the guys a guided tour. I pointed east and said, “Down there is Ngozumba Glacier. It begins well up the southeast slope of Cho Oyo, one of the 8,000 meter giants. There are fourteen mountains in the world over 8,000 meters and we can see four from here.

“
Yeah,” said Chris, “the view is spectacular.”

“
C’mon Chris, I’m trying to…”

“
Sorry!” He threw a hand into the air and walked away.

I turned to Curtis and Christian and shrugged. “No. I’m sorry. But I can’t help the weather.” I went back into the shelter and found Bim and Cook tending to the water.

He saw my face when I came in and must have thought I was unhappy with the lodgings, such as they were. “Sahib, we had rooms in the lodge for last night, but when you changed, that is, when we did not come they gave our rooms to the next group. I am sorry.”

“
What rooms? What are you talking about?”

“
At the lodge. In Gokyo.”

“
I thought this was Gokyo.”

“
No, Sahib. “Gokyo is over there.” He pointed.

I stepped back outside and looked around. We could have been anywhere. There was only fog and drizzle. The last time I was here it had been glorious. The glacier sends crystal clear water cascading down into a series of lakes that are an intense emerald green. There are huge boulders that look as if they are just discarded playthings for giants. There was a lodge, I remembered, but not much of a lodge and yes, this was not the same type of terrain for the village. Now that Bim had told me I recognized that this was clearly not Gokyo.

My three companions walked up and I told them what Bim had said to me and Chris once again looked peeved. He was clearly not feeling well. Several nights of little sleep and thin atmosphere can combine to put a person severely out of sorts. “I want to go there,” he said.

“
Okay,” I slowly responded, “but Bim made it clear that there is no room for us. We have experienced this before.”

“
I know,” he said. “That’s fine. They’ll have something hot to drink and a place to dry off and get warm, won’t they?” He looked hard at the ground. “That’s all I want right now.”

“
Okay,” I shrugged. “Let’s go.”

I went back into the shelter and told Bim to lead us to the lodges. He bit his lip and glanced at Cook, but he stood and took his coat from a bunk and walked out the door without a word. Ten minutes later we came from behind a huge pile of boulders, some as big as a house, and walked into the yak pasture in front of the lodges at Gokyo. Now I recognized my surroundings and I was shocked. Two new guest lodges stood where the old one had been and they were large and looked very comfortable. They made our stone shelter feel like it was, well, exactly what it was. Cold, damp, uncomfortable, and ugly. There were people coming and going and a few standing under the veranda roof. We went into the public room in the larger of the two and Chris walked over to a bench in the corner and sat down. I turned to Bim and asked him to please see if we could get some hot chocolate and a piece of pie or a pastry or anything sweet or cakelike and he nodded. I took off my coat and had to admit that the warmth felt pretty good.

There were maybe a dozen people in the lodge and I recognized several of the women who had been in the American group we had seen at the entrance to the national park. They had made it and gotten our rooms, apparently. Well, I guessed that was probably better than them trying to stay in our shelter. They seemed listless and unhappy and we all understood.

“
You know guys, this might not be the best bet. I talked to a German who told me about a village on the other side of this mountain that’s a little lower, he says 3,500 meters, although I think he must be wrong about that. Anyway he says it’s more like a town than anything. Like a trading center… a miniature Namche Bazaar. They would probably have rooms for us and if all we can see is our hands in front of our faces, well, maybe we ought to go over there. It’s really close to the Tibetan border, so it might have some interesting things to see. All I know is that three nights in that little stone shelter sounds like a really hard way to go.”

I had barely finished when Chris agreed.

“
Yeah, he said. “If it means going down from here and finding someplace warm and dry we can stay I’m all for it. I don’t care about summiting some damn mountain. I just wanted to see the Himalayas and all I’ve seen so far is fog and rocks. Let’s go!”

Curtis, calm and quiet as usual just shrugged his consent. I looked at Christian and he smiled his big, typical smile and laughed. “Hey, it’s been a load of laughs, so far. I’m in.” I really loved this kid. What a great traveling companion.

“
Okay, we stay here tonight and tomorrow we go over to this town, Khundjole, and spend a couple days there and if the weather still hasn’t broken, we’ll head back to Namche. Okay?”

They all nodded and then we waited for Bim to return with whatever he’d found. He eventually came back with a very nice surprise; there was hot chocolate and an apple pie; we ate like starving children. After we finished I explained the change in travel plans to Bim.

He did not look happy. In fact he didn’t like it at all. He told me that we would have to go further up the mountain and then around and back down and that he had never been there, but had heard things were not good there.