‘m

Well, well, so I’m back in Sweden again after about two and half weeks in the Himalayas (planned to take a short nap on the sofa when I got home yesterday but woke up 13 hours later… ). It was after the major earthquake that devastated huge areas in Nepal last year the Swedish adventurer Annelie Pompe and the legendary climber Chhiring Dorje Sherpa, planned a charity trip in order to help the people who suffered from the quake. Somehow I ended up on it with seven other swedes, something I will never forget or regret.

It was a trekking trip to the remote Rolwaling area were Chhiring grew up, with the goal to summit Yalung Ri (5630 m). I will tell you more about the trip later but it could be summarized in one word: awesome! Much due to the fantastic crew and therefore I will start with this post to thank them all.

The summit was not especially technical or difficult but when you take look at the sherpas that helped us you might think the peak should have been K2 or Everest. In short, we had some of the very best climbers in the world assisting us…

 

Chhiring Dorje Sherpa

(click to enlarge pic’s) 

 

Chhiring was the expedition leader and head of the Rolwaling Excursion company. He has climbed Everest 12 times (in 2007 he made the summit three times within two weeks…). One time he carried a Buddha statue to the top and spent hours mounting it all by himself… Climbed 7 of the 14 peaks over 8000 m and has arranged countless of expeditions. He is something of a living legend…

And what a wonderful character he turned out to be; he looked after as all, noticed every little detail about how we felt and took care of it. I will never forget his laughter and his  ”Gomorron”-wake up call in the morning while serving the tea …

Annelie Pompe

Annelie is a Swedish professional adventurer and was ”co-guide” on the trip, recently finished the 7-Summits (i.e. climbing the highest peak on all continents), world record holder in free diving, former member of the Swedish national climbing-team, photographer, yoga teacher and much more… Don’t think I ever met a person with such positiv and inspiring attitude without ”playing a role”. She too had a contagious laugh and took care of us all and made us all feel happy, much like a mother on the trip 🙂

Pasang Sherpa

An energetic guy who has summit Everest four times, climbed seven of the fourteen >8000m peaks in the world. He loved to talk and showing off in the camp 🙂

Just before the trip I saw a documentary  on TV about a K2-expedition i 2008 that went terribly wrong. Eleven people died. Both Chhiring and Pasang were there and it was really touching to hear them talk about when Chhiring saved Pasang’s life. Due to a ice fall/avalanche all ropes had been cut off and Pasang lost his ice axe, climbing down the steep mountain would have been impossible without it. Chhiring then more or less carried Pasang down using his axe to get them both down that day …

Norby Sherpa (not sure about the spelling…)

Been up Everest 13 times … A silent guy but still very helpful and strong.

And then there are all the others which names I don’t remember (I’m pretty lousy on names, even when they’re swedish 😉  ) and of course all the porters. I often felt a bit uneasy about them carrying such heavy weights (40-50 kg) while we were trotting on with our 35L rucksacks and special made clothes and shoes …

 

Nevertheless, I’m sure I talk for all of the team members when I say it was an fantastic trip and it should not have been possible without such a marvelous crew.

Thanks!

For more photos take a look here and here.