Many a ranges crossed, some colours vanished and some new became bright and predominat. The noise and crowd of Manali and the Rhotang Pass were behind. The Chandra river welcomed with its desolate indifference and soon after Kunzum Pass (4550m) we were in Spiti. The country in the middle! Reminding me of the fantasmal "middle earth". The journey has begun. The fellowship is bestowed upon. We were now in Manirang county.
Sitting in the Tata Sumo for 14 hours, the only place I could relate to in Manali was the 'German Bakery'. It was only place where life was a bit settled and one could get a decent cup of tea and croissants! Although there is no German connection to the shop; but the food is pretty good. There was even Yak cheese for sale (Rs 1000/kilo!!!). To my surprise we found another "German Bakery' in the bazar of Kaza. Both the Manali and Kaza shops are run by Nepalese.
Interesting but not surprising; as they are the hard working and enterprising lot indeed! Our expedition cook Indra ( who happens to be Nepalese also) did not like me praising all the eatery food and started his own chef's specialties as soon as we reached the road head ( the village of Mane Yongma)!
We hired khotes ( small breed of donkeys) from Singhe Dorjee of Mane Yongma and they dropped our loads to Base Camp (Sapona, 4400m). As expected snows were much more than July 2006. It actually helped on the moraine as we ferried load to camp 1 (4900m) and Summit Camp (5500m) over the next few days.
In 2006, we had pitched 3 camps beyond base. But thanks to Thendup and the snow deposition in the lower flanks of glacier; we found a direct route to summit camp from the glacier below Manirang Pass (5330m). having 2 camps saved us some precious time indeed; but took away some acclimatisation factor from some of us. It was strenuous walking up the snow covered fine scree.
On June 19, Kiran and Thendup fixed rope to the summit of Manirang. They took the same route as 2006; south ridge to be specific. June 20, 2009, Martin, Matt along with Thendup climbed the summit of Manirang. It took them 14 hours to gain the top and come down to the camp. Rajeev had decided not to go for the summit and so was I. I knew my chest infection was not going to get any better over 6000m and turned my attention to exploration climbing.
On the same day, me and Kiran went down to camp on the un named glacier South of Manirang. We had been eyeing two unnamed peaks. June 21, Kiran and me climbed peak 5650m from Camp 1. It was a free climb. The final section became pretty exposed and climbing without a rope seemed stupid enough some times! We got great views of Manirang and over and beyond towards the Ropa valley and kinnaur peaks. It was a glorious day and we down climbed carefully, step by step to the apparent safety of the col. A probable first ascent. But we still need to cross check references.
On June 23, 2009, Martin and Kiran climbed a fine looking dome shaped snow peak from Camp 1 and walked down to the village of Mane. Thus this rendezvous with Manirang came to an end. 3 weeks, 3 summits!
Photos coming up on this page soon after this!
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