Day Eleven: Mesokanto Pass – Jomsom
We would cross three passes today – an unnamed pass (which someone called Tourist Pass!), Tilicho Pass (5134m++) and Mesokanto Pass (5099m). Seemed impossible – two passes almost killed us yesterday - but our guide promised it wouldn’t be as difficult. After Mesokanto-La, it would be a 6-hour, 2200m-downhill dash to Jomsom, across a vast track of wilderness.
Tilicho Peak, once again
4am: Hot tea was served in the tent. Too cold to even think of getting out. Breakfast was Rara noodles… again. My lips were beginning to hurt from all the saltiness.
530am: Bid goodbye to High Camp. As the day broke, Tilicho Peak was awash in a purplish morning light, and in the distant, Dhaulagiri was bathed in golden rays.
One last look at Tilicho
645am: We ascended Tilicho Pass (5134m) soon after passing the unnamed pass (4900m). View was spectacular. You could see Mesokanto Peak, like a inverted black blade, piercing the fog. It was not very difficult. Perhaps we had acclimatized much better than expected.
Mesokanto Peak
730am: We peaked Mesokanto Pass. I whooped, ran up to kiss the signboard that marked our final major ascent. I looked around for a view - there wasn’t any. We were walking in the clouds by now. It was like being marooned in a sea of cloud atop an island. There were many chortens (Tibetan prayer altars made by stacking up rocks). Without a photogenic finish, we spent our time basking in the sun. I made a crude crucifix from 2 long stone blocks and added my own touch to the chorten. “Uh, Jesus Christ!” said Khusang. I smiled.
“Next time you come up here and see this cross, remember we were here.”
10am: Passed a bunch of Taiwanese tourists. From far, we thought we stumbled into yet another festival or pilgrimage. The Taiwanese were all covered up, protected head to toe from the sun, and marching slowly in a neat row. They weren’t old, mostly late twenties and thirties, but from far, they looked like a Korean senior citizen group. We learnt that the party of 10 trekkers (and about 4 guides, 6 herders, and 8 mules) were doing our trek in a reverse manner. Sheer suicide. We had plunged 60 degrees down from Mesokanto Pass for 600 metres (almost an hour’s descent). Going up would take triple the time and ten times the effort! Later we saw some ‘deserters’ heading back to camp.
By now, the landscape had changed. We were once again in the sub-4000m region, and grass had begun to cover the slopes once more. Flowers of all colours decorated the otherwise monotone ground. We were still walking above the clouds. On either side of the ridge was a whiten sea of nothingness.
Walking in the clouds to Jomsom
11am: Our last Rara noodle party, by the riverside. I told Danny to go easy on the salt. It was at this last meal that I witnessed him adding generous amounts of salt to Knorr instant soup. No wonder I had blistered lips!
Our last real day of trekking wasn’t the crescendo – it was yesterday. Doing the new Eastern Pass was like playing soccer against an opponent who shifted his goal post back by another football field… Sleeping at the High Camp at 4900m was surprisingly easy, except for the stony floor which once again forced us into contortionist poses.
Mystical Dhaulagiri
240pm: Jomsom and its neighbouring village Thini lay in plain view. Mobile phone coverage was back. I made my first call to Maria on the mobile, since Day Four in Chame. Although I have been in Jomsom last year, this was the first time I’m taking a good look at this airport town. Perched on a ledge was a five-star hotel frequented by rich Japanese retirees, though its facade could use a make-over – it looked like a boarding school from far. Nearer to us was Thini, the original village, and on the left is Syang. On the far side of Jomsom was a large white amphitheatre, used for filming purposes, I was told.
The journey to Jomsom (and civilization) from this point took us around a long detour on the perimeter of Jomsom’s farmland. There wasn’t any shortcut. It was a good hour’s walk along a jeep trail which sends flying sand ever so frequently into your face. Not the most pleasant of walks, but boy, we were so close to our first chicken sizzler dinner for the entire trek.
Jomsom, civilization
4pm: We walked about the cobbled road of Jomsom. It wasn’t the same Jomsom Desmond knew from his last trek – a dusty cowboy town with lots of horses. Horses have been replaced with buses, plying the Muktinath – Jomsom – Marpha route. Kali Gandaki‘s dark-gray waters gushed below the bridge like angry cement mix.
At Himalayan Inn, we had our first shower in 4 days. It was in fact, our first real show in the trek. The water was actually hot, the shower had good pressure and the drain wasn’t clogged. We switched on the TV, and Nat Geo channel was airing this quiz show with lots of brainy kids doing trivia that would stump most of us.
Uh… back to civilization.
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