Trekking in the Himalayas

Over break, nine of the SJPDers headed north to Darjeeling- a city in the Himalayan Mountains. It was from this beautiful city that we departed on our 3 day trekking adventure. All nine of us piled into a jeep and drove to our starting point. The day began with a 2 kilometer stretch of steep hills. After much huffing and puffing we made it to the top of this 2k start where we stopped for lunch and, of course, tea. At this little village there was a stunning view of Tibetan prayer flags at the top of a hill. As the clouds rolled in we watched the landscape disappear. We left our resting point and trekked a further 9 kilometers to reach our dinner and beds but it was not, thankfully, all uphill. We stayed at the top of Tonglu at an altitude of 3070 meters. We changed out of our sweaty clothes and went to the dining room to warm ourselves by the fire. We had a wonderful dinner at this village on a mountain and went to bed early.

The next day we woke up early to see the sun rise and light up the mountains. We watched the mountain range called Sleeping Buddha as the sun changed the color of the snow from white to bright pink. We were also able to see Mt. Everest in the distance. It was a perfect morning, cuddled up with my classmates for warmth looking at the spectacular sunrise. All too soon it was time for us to leave for another full day of trekking.

Our group split up that day, six people returned to spend more time in Darjeeling, and three continued the climb. The group of three, Kate, Annabel, and I, trekked through Singalila National Park for most of the day which was even better than the first day. We were actually in the mountains this time on small footpaths rather than roads. This day we had to trek 19 kilometers, most of which was uphill and often even steeper than the day before. But it was worth it. It was almost sunset when we began our last 3k stretch which was going to be all uphill and extremely steep but just before the hardest part of the day began we were rewarded when we turned a corner to see the Sleeping Buddha Mountain Range and Everest again, this time at sunset. This breathtaking sight gave us the encouragement we needed to finish the day. We did not reach the top of Sandakphu, the mountain we were climbing, until after dark. We arrived at a small village at the top where the three of us were led to our room for the night which was quite cold and without electricity. We lit the two candles in the room in hopes that they would offer us a bit of warmth. We sat in the kitchen drinking tea until dinner was ready. Our guide helped to teach us a bit of Tibetan and Nepali. Our poor yet valiant attempts made everyone in the kitchen laugh. After dinner we again went straight to bed. This night I tucked my clothes for the next day under my sheets so that they would be warm for me to put on in the morning.

Morning came quickly and we got out of bed and put all of our layers on again and walked out to watch the sunrise. The view on the second morning was indescribable. We were so much closer to the mountains and it was easier to see everything this time as we were on the mountain that the day before had blocked our view. Again, we did not have as much time as we would have liked to admire the view because there was a lot of ground to cover. We left at six in the morning in hopes of covering 24k by 11:00am. Whoever planned this trek had been very optimistic concerning our abilities. By 11:00am we had only gone 11k and it became clear that there was not a chance of us making the 24k in time to catch a jeep back to Darjeeling. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish the trek and had to stop at 18k in order to make it back to Darjeeling that night. We were very sad that we didn’t finish and that we had to leave the mountains behind but it was so nice to sit down. Each stop along the way we were barely able to get ourselves out of the jeep and packing to go back to Visthar the next day was a struggle. We were all in so much pain but it was all worth it.

Pictures coming soon!