Lé Makalu

I need my spot for thought

In a snowbound Yangle...

A Nepali porter (smilingly) adjusts his 40-kg load on the penultimate day of trekking to the Makalu Basecamp. This day is a walk up vast snowfields and lots of streams crisscrossing in to the summer melt.

You are terrifying and strange, and beautiful and cold, someone not everyone knows how to love.

Approaching the lodge at Yangle Kharka.. on the way in, and on the way back.  These magical meadows really do change overnight.

@highrealities strikes a pose

Singapore’s Khoo Swee Chow pensively sits by the window, perhaps planning about the expedition.

Time for wood. Killing the cold at Yangle Kharka, Day 6 on the Makalu Basecamp Trail.

Cairn-hopping on the penultimate day to the Makalu Basecamp at 5700m. Just keep walking, don’t stop..

Day 5: the valley shrinks and the trail crisscross with moraines, as we make our way from Kongma(3300m) to Yangle Kharka (3450m) a trail that first climbs 1000m then descends almost the same amount. Tough day, but feels rewarding at the end of it.

An entire day on the Makalu Basecamp trail spent in shadow of this peak, Mahali, a six-thousander in the Makalu-Barun region. The mountain keeps grunting and groaning through the day, as ice blocks melt and reshape.

Mt. Makalu seen far, tall and proud, as another day at the Hilary Basecamp comes to close. The mountain’s East Ridge is so well defined here - surprisingly nobody has managed to successfully tackle that.

Krushnaa gets out for a stroll in the snows of Yangle Kharka meadows, at 3450m. So many things to give up to be here. So many things to make work to be here. So many warm clothes to put on to be here. Satisfying rewards for all the senses, though, so totally worth it.

The young and crazy Indian mountaineer Arjun Vajpai, is leaving for Makalu for a third climbing season. He has been very, very close to the summit both the times earlier, but not exactly there. I would not say he failed twice, he has learned more than anybody else about the mountain. This time, godspeed, will see him summit and bring glory. Foro Eorlingas!

Sherpas unfurl the Indian, Canadian flag at Mt. Makalu Basecamp (5700m) on its West Face, following the Puja ceremony. Brings the climbers luck and their nations pride. In 2014 season we had the first Indian and the first Canadian summiting Makalu. Luck and pride, indeed.

Catching the last of the light on a damp day at 5700m

Our various foods after the completion of a morning of Puja (prayers) to bring good luck when on the mountain. Seen are: cake, Nepali black tea, beer, salt crackers, real fruit juice, Pepsi cola? Sandwiches. Plenty of eating options even at 5700m.