The Kali Gandaki, Khobang exited, it no longer looks like a river, but that of a lake . Pines, firs and apple trees, we leave them behind. In front of us, now, opens a desert landscape buffeted by the wind coming down the narrow passage between the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri. From here to the capital of Mustang and the wind will rise every morning at 10. Gusts of sand and dust, sometimes so violent that need to move forward with his face covered by a scarf.
glasses, however, are a must. The sun burns at high altitudes. The skin and eyes.
A Tukuche finally shining and the sky is blue. For the first time in five days, the sky was completely cloudless.
Tukuche means "valley of the grain." How to Khobang, again conquer architecture Thakali. Whitewashed houses. Courtyards square. Windows, doors and balconies of carved wood. Bundles stacked on the roofs.
take advantage of the sun like lizards. On the roof of a restaurant in large baskets of apples and apricots and left to dry in the sun devour a cake, a sort of strudel, local specialties.
A Tukuche you notice the signs of a past glory. The era in which the village was the meeting point of the caravans of salt and wool coming down from the north and those of corn that went south. The beautiful homes, the central stone-paved road, a Gompa. The gardens hidden behind high stone walls are rich vegetables and flowers. But from the roof terrace where we'll bask in the sun know that many homes have wood stocks that allow people to survive the winter stiffness. Are abandoned. Slowly, with the disappearance of trade villages in the valley is empty.
Marpha A, the next village, we take a rest sitting on a wall. It is early afternoon and many farmers within the camps. On the door of the house groups of elderly people who are chatting. A man sitting on the floor with his back against the wall playing with her child.
After less than an hour, when I see the first houses of Jomsom feel the excitement of those who return home.
Jomsom is a real milestone. An important crossroads along the trails of Annapurna. The last bastion of modernity before the Mustang or the ascent to the Himalayan peaks. For those who return and those arriving Jomsom is electricity, a satellite phone, a runway airport, a queer couple of shops that sell the rest of the material left by expeditions. It is a place of passage, Jomsom. A frontier town. On its single straight road paved with stone, passing through the houses and lodge a guy runs up and down motion. A Jomsom there are some motorcycle taxi and a jeep on request transports tourists up to Lete. It is here that when the wind blows or not there are clouds landing the airplane coming from Pokhara. And this is where you find the walkers and climbers waiting for those same planes to go down. Sometimes for days. You never know if the aircraft landing. The two companies that provide connections, and the Cosmic Air Gorkha Airlines, can not predict in advance whether the flight will or not. They are the pilots who decide. And passengers are waiting. Every morning at six o'clock rush along the ribbon of asphalt that runs along the river and scan the sky hope. In summer, during the monsoon, the wait is short. If within eight in the morning does not come from Pokhara nessun aereo tutti se ne vanno per ripresentarsi l’indomani. Dopo le otto il vento si leva soffiando sempre più violento sulla vallata e atterraggi o decolli sono impossibili.
Al caffé sopra il posto telefonico pubblico ritroviamo Kaila, uno dei porter che ci aveva accompagnato tre anni prima sul Thorong La. È felice di vederci. Incontrarlo mi fa sentire ancora di più a casa. Gli chiediamo notizie di Razu, il nostro vecchio sirdar. Razu è partito a cercar fortuna in Europa, ci dice. È clandestino da qualche parte. E aggiunge : « una brutta scelta, la sua ».
Al caffé quattro svizzeri che bivaccano abbandonati su due poltrone sdrucite. È da tre giorni che sono bloccati a Jomsom. They hurry to get to Kathmandu and had called that morning with a helicopter, satellite, a helicopter taxi that was taking them. About to get on board but had submitted a Russian, a famous Russian astronaut, tell us. He offered $ 1,000 to the driver who had picked up a couple of friends. The Swiss, furious, had been left stranded.
The story circulated in a few minutes and everyone is aware. In Jomsom, that day, just talking about this. Russian's conceited, arrogance, money, and how we can get. How many days does it take to come on foot? How to reach Pokhara from Beni now that the road if the rivers are taken away?
A pair of French, her blonde, ethereal and beautiful, dark and a little depressed him, sipping a Lhasa without looking. From Jomsom had gone five days prior to the Mustang, he says. In Pokhara had managed to jump on the last airplane that landed in these parts and the next day they left on foot.
Then the crisis.
You speak of anguish. Mountains of immense sense of loneliness and abandonment. His feeling lost in a hostile world. He's altitude sickness. Nausea, migraines, heart pounding a thousand. After three days and spent last night sleeping in a shepherd's house because the wind was so strong that the tent was not even standing, the decision to go back. I did not have done to continue and were sad. Their job is to reassure each other that return was the best choice. But we understand that they are not convinced. Kaila, who followed them, shrugs and winks at me.
not want us to fear, love, and make the clumsy attempts to encourage us. We are told that they, not the mountains so huge they had ever seen. Who had walked up to the Alps What if they had arrived there directly from Paris. That three days before were still behind a desk. But they
thirty years. We twenty more. I reassured I think we're doing the right thing. We ascend slowly and slowly our blood will produce those precious red blood cells that enable us to continue upwards without suffering the drawbacks of altitude sickness: nausea, headache, tachycardia, loss of appetite, insomnia, vomiting, lack of balance. And then, I say, you can always get off. Guido, my cousin, a veteran of several expeditions in the Himalayas and doctor told me and repeated. The Golden Rule, Clare, is one: When three of the classic symptoms are added together, do not hesitate, come down quickly ... just five hundred meters. If you go down you do not run any risk.
Since we can. At the base camp of the Thorong, three years first, Claudio, at 4900 meters of bad symptoms had been four. Tachycardia, headache, nausea and vomiting. But you could not get off. It was night and snowing. And the trail was very exposed. Too risky for someone who had difficulty standing.
Towards night I Kishan to the store that sells hiking equipment and buy a pair of shoes. They are the first shoes he owns, he says Goma, the first time that Kishan takes off his tong. He, as intimated, is left to do. And let me touch the feet to see if the big toe just touching the tip of your shoes. She looks at me as watching the children. The next morning brings new shoes at the foot, but pretends not to notice. After a bit ', but if the looks and smiles at me.
dedicate an hour to recent purchases. From then on, it will be hard to find batteries, cigarettes, toilet paper, biscuits. As a precaution rented two sleeping bags heavy. At night, even at Jomsom which is just three thousand meters, it is cold.
Carriers spend all afternoon at the lodge to wash shirts and socks, then dry in the wind. And to play cards. I'm beginning to know them. In addition to Goma, the Sirdar, a Ram, his assistant, Dilish to cook, there are another Ram and Chitra, who come from a village in Kumbu, at the foot of Everest, which is Gurkhas and Dinesh Kumar, Arjun, that always laughing, and Kishan. In a few chewed a few words of English, but gradually each of them becomes a person. The second
Ram, the well-known because it is great. Has beautiful almond-shaped eyes, a serious look and a natural elegance. It seems straight out of a Benetton advertisement.
Chitra, mumbles a bit 'of English. I hear that it has already done the Manaslu and Makalu. Not until the top, we would point out. On Makalu came only seven thousand, down to base camp.
Kumar, when I have to pass something, the salt, a cup, a sign of respect he puts his hands together and bowed his head.
Dinesh, always walks in front of everyone and wearing a pirate scarf on his head.
Arjun, what you ride, is the most elusive. And then there is Kishan. What I am always near. It is always just a glance. Never leaves me. Do you follow me. Like a dog.
the evening we have dinner by candlelight because the power fails. Before we go to sleep for a walk up to the cadets' barracks. Bobim ask that his friends and the guy who is guarding the Garritt. It's dark and he lights up his face with a flashlight. Then we invite you to sit in what is grandly called 'sitting room' and che in realtà assomiglia più ad un deposito di materiale da spiaggia fuori stagione. C’è qualche sedia di legno sbiadita dal sole e un materasso arrotolato per terra.
I ragazzi, che avevamo incontrato sul Tata bus per Beni, non si fanno aspettare. Hanno l’aria assonnata ed è evidente che sono stati tirati giù dal letto. Resta che sono felicissimi di vederci. Li baciamo e abbracciamo, all’occidentale. Loro sono impacciati nel fare quel gesto, ma non si tirano indietro. Finiti i baci uniscono le mani davanti alla faccia e chinano il capo pronunciando il saluto nepalese. Namaste. Siamo onorati della vostra visita, ripetono. Molto onorati.
Erano riusciti ad arrivare in tempo in caserma, tell. They had walked the course, all evening and all night, illuminating the path with flashlights. At dawn, arrived in Lethe, had managed to take the jeeppone up to Jomsom. In time to avoid being punished.
It was tough, they say, smiling. We wrecked our shoes. And his feet, he adds Bobim the citatore of Shakespeare.
return to the lodge in the dark, admiring the night sky.
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