10th, 11th & 12th April 2008

12th April

Team 2
It was Team 2's turn to walk from Monjo through Jorsale, finally arriving their destination for the day Namche.

The latest is that while all team members suffered from some degree of mild altitude sickness, Birendra continues to have slight headaches and will have to stay back in Namche and go upto Thame by tomorrow and wait for the team to come back from Dig Tsho. The team is putting in extra effort to make up for the day lost with the cancelled flight from Kathmandu. They expect to reach Thame around 3 p.m.

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11th April

Team 1
Lhakpa Chamjee Sherpa, owner of Thame Teng Guest House is an eye witness to the 1985 Dig Tsho GLOF. Mother of two and wife of another brave Sherpa climber, Lhakpa says that landslides still occur and the river has grown wider.

Thame Teng Interview 01

Thame Teng Interview 02

Team 2
Team 2 consisting of Andreas and Verona Schild and Milan Tuladhar set off for Lukla from Kathmandu without a hitch. They walked onto Monjo, spending the night there.

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10th April

We are between the boulders and massive landslides. The boulders are the final leg of the obstacle course before we get to feast our eyes on Dig Tsho Lake. The landscape does not give the eyes a break, filled with huge rocks and landslides and no human settlement in sight.

Dig Tsho Lake lies right behind the huge boulder at the the far end in the centre of the picture.

Sharad Joshi, flexes his muscles (leg muscles) climbing on a rock by the ridge to get the clear view of Thame Teng Valley. While Paribesh has the title of the youngest member in the team, Sharad is now claimant to the title of the strongest in the team…the competition is heating up.

Putting democracy into practice, these women were walking all the way from Langboche Village to Thame to cast their votes for representatives to the Constituent Assembly. When one of the women asked which party to vote for, the ICIMOD team decided to reconfirm how complicated democracy can be by presenting her with multiple choices, not making her life any easier.

Samjwal Bajracharya and Sharad Joshi of the Eco Everest Research Expedition Team 1 on a small ridge overlooking Dig Tsho glacial lake.

Pasang Namgyal (link video) was in his yak shed above the Dig Tsho Lake when the GLOF took place. Pasang now 40 years old recalls that in 1985, prior to GLOF event, the lake had risen to a very high level. Suddenly one day a heavy rainfall, followed by snow fall caused a huge mass of snow from Langboche Langmoche Glacier to fall triggering the Dig Tsho GLOF (link Google Earth).

This is the outlet of Dig Tsho glacial lake from were the outburst took place.

Basanta Shrestha shares his observations on the GLOF effect in the context of landscape and terrain of Thame Teng in the Thame Overview, (link Google Earth Video)

Landscape of Thame Teng viewed from a ridge on the way to Dig Tsho Lake.

After six and half hours of rigorous walk, alternating between ridges, valleys and steep trails (most were trails in name, but did not appear so to us) boulders (trust me when I say those were not rocks), below and above active landslides, the stunning sight of the Dig Tsho Lake was breath taking. Of course by then the research team sounded like they were whistling more than breathing at an altitude of 4700 meters. The wind was intense and cutting through our skin sharply every time it blew past us. The sight of Dig Tsho Lake was sheer bliss combined with an equaling chilling sight of the devastation around it.(Google Earth Video link)

Today, the research team made up for the day lost due to the cancellation of the flight to Lukla on 6th April, by pushing on to reach Dig Tsho that day. A rewarding end to the day despite the terrible headaches, fatigue and chilly wind blowing from evey direction.