Day 11

Last night, as the sun set on the high mountains, a solitary cloud partially obscured the summit of Makalu giving it the appearance of being on fire.

This morning, as if the embers were still alight, it glowed clear and bright in the early morning sun. We crisscrossed the frozen river and, as we descended, the temperature rose from a breakfast low of -5 degrees Celsius to a warm +21 by lunch time. As we had gone an extra hour from the planned camp the night before we arrived at Thudam (3500m) by about 11am. This Bhotia village consists of about 30 houses built entirely of wood including roof planks simply held down by rocks. There is a school of 22 pupils all, apparently, from the village.

We couldn’t help feeling that the equivalent settlement in Bhutan would have electricity more substantial houses and the more trees left in the valley- much of the tree felling we witnessed is for fuel in Thudam. We were now very close to the border and this village has strong trade and cultural links with villages in Tibet.

As we entered the village we saw an old lady sat on the veranda of her house making thread from yak wool, it was a scene probably unchanged for hundreds of years. We stopped here for lunch as a cooling wind came up the valley then continued another hour to one of the many ‘yak kharkas’ or yak pastures. It was not a planned site and with a herdsman still on the site we had to do considerable excavation to make sufficient space for our seven client tents as well as kitchen, dining and trekking team tents. The water in the river was now a bearable temperature and the routine of clothes and body washing far less agony!

Distance 7km 4hrs