MANASLU TREK SAMAGAON SAMDO AND RETURN LHO 29/30 MARCH 2015

A beautifully couloured sunset, presage bad weather . 

Sunrise on Manaslu 

The roof of the rita on the way out of the village on the way to Samdo

These cirrus clouds are a precursor of  bad weather ! 

The high valley between Samagaon and Samdo (3860m).

A wooden bridge to cross the river very close to Samdo.

Our path led us across many avalanches and we were very lucky because the top crust of the snow was frozen enough to walk on, this meant that we could walk faster . But even so we still got overtaken by a Swiss couple and our paths continued to cross for 2 or 3 days to come. 

The valley continued on for some kilometers and was hard going for Ju. 

3 hours after leaving Samagaon the sky is full off clouds. 

At long last , the entrance gate of Samdo, only to find that the lodge was full. A German group of 9 had taken possession of the whole place but luckily for us another lodge had just opened that morning, the cook having arrived from Samagaon just before us. It was extremely cold , no water and very little food. 

From Samdo we can go to Tibet ( 2 hours ) or Larke Pass 

The clouds are coming in and we know that it is going to snow very soon ! Today the pass is   passable but will not stay that way if it snows again. 
With Kaji we climb up the mountain Himlung (7126m) which seperates Nepal from Tibet we climb  600m higher   to arrive at 4400m , but it began to snow so we went back to the village before seeing Tibet over the other side of the pass.   

Samdo from 4400m on the pass to Tibet. 

Kaji and myself , view over the path to Larkye La 

Even in the kitchen with the wood burner it's cold. It is rare that the tea houses let tourists into the kitchen area, luckily for us solidarity in the face of extreme weather conditions takes priority over these rules !

The locals are trying to get the village and their houses back to normal, their livelihood is assured by tourism and this is the start of the peak season and with this snow they are losing a lot of income. 

It snowed all night and  continued in the morning. Porters from the German group started out for Dharamsala but there was 1, 5m of snow and the path was extremely icy, so they came back to Samdo. 

With no one knowing  what the conditions of the Larke pass was really like, having no weather forecast and no telephone reception we decided to turn back ;  a Swiss couple ( father and daughter) stayed on at the lodge for the day hoping for an opening in the weather and thus a go at Dharmsala and then the pass  the following day. 

Being the first to go down ( we didn't know at this time but many followed our example , the pass stayed closed during the whole of our 4 day descent ) Lokendra has to make the path through the new layer of snow.  

Kaji and Paul at the entrance to Samdo, the high wind has swept the snow off the area around the rita. 

Kaji , the path is not the same with snow than without, we have to follow where it has been traced out by others and it is sometimes on a 150° slope. 
On our way down we pass only 2 porters carrying supplies of food on the way up to Samdo but several different  groups of tourists : 19 Ukrainians with 3 young children ( 4 to 10) ,  a group of 8 Koreans,  3 Brits and a couple of small groups of 2. All these groups have their guides and porters with them, we  ask ourselves just where they are going to sleep and what they will eat ! We conclude that if some people have paid to go over the 5200m high pass that they insist on doing this at whatever cost !

Local women and children collecting wood from one of  avalanche areas. We walk with them down to Samagaon, their loads are so heavy that from time to time one of the women gets a leg stuck in the snow, we help them out but even with our help they struggle. Paul notices that one of the children has scarlet hands from the cold , he pulls off his gloves and gives them to her. She looks up at him and a tear comes to his eyes as he watches her face light up. it was a very moving scene and we were all touched by his generosity. 

We crossed many people on their way up to Samdo and there were just 2 hotels (20 places) open with very little  to eat. Only potatoes and barley still grow at this altitude and there wasn't any of this left up there either . 
We cross an expedition of 6 doctors and 15 porters and assistants (there are 50 in total). They are on their way up to Dharamsala to make tests on   altitude sickness .We have since read an  article concerning this and it states that if you wear a dust mask your body will support the higher altitude better ;  look at the following  presentation :  (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases_ml/2015-03/aaft-m2031815.php )

It is still snowing and doesn't stop, even when we got back to Lho.  

After a coffee break in Samagaon we ate in Shyala, we all huddled into this man's small kitchen , it is still bitterly cold. A bowl of chinese noodles prepared by Lokendra and we are ready to go down to Lho to stay in Manaslu View hotel just at the entrance to the village on the way from Shyala. 

Lho in the morning the weather is starting to clear.  

We met a local nurse in the kitchen at the Manaslu View Hotel, she works at the health post in Lho and has  the locals of 4 villages to look after. They are normally 3 but as it is holiday time and she is alone. She is only 24 years old and deals with everything from birth to death. We had seen a baby with bad conjunctivitis on the way up, we spoke to her about it and she will spend the next day trying to find him as the mother has not yet been to the dispensary. 
We also spoke hygiene, it is common for the locals to rinse their hands in water but they do not use soap, she explained that many children have the dysentery and that she often speaks to the women about using soap but they simply reply that they never used soap when they were young and that they have survived so why start now . Yes,  I suppose it is an added expense for a population who already have a lot of difficulty to just eke out a living. The women are often left alone to take care of the children, fetch water and wood, farm the fields, as the men have to work elsewhere,  either abroad or as porters. A village has only 4 months autonomy of food so someone has to bring money in for the other 8 months of the year. 

The Tibetan family ,  Manaslu View Hotel, if you do this trek please stay with them because as they are on the outskirts of the village they get less tourists. The rooms are clean , the mattresses comfortable and the view is fantastic. They still have some progress to make for the wc ( but it is clean) and shower but with suggestions from our guide they are going to try. 

View from the hotel courtyard , clouds still cling to Manaslu, Lokendra has had news of the weather, it will be clear today but the bad weather is due back tomorrow, the pass will stay impassable for several days to come.