Our 2002 newsletter

Written 18 January, 2002

A big hello to everyone

Seasons greeting and happy New Year (and no, we are not late, it is Losar - Tibetan New Year - soon)!

I (Jamie) am stuck in the web pits in Kathmandu, my fingers have been super-glued to the keyboard since Christmas and the result is lots of new photo galleries and more great treks up on the web site. And there is still more to come but Losar is already nearly here...

For me 2001 was a fantastic year, many fabulous treks and some successful and not so successful but always fun expeditions. A major highlight was seeing a snow leopard and cubs. Reading of previous explorers, those times were often thought of as the golden years, but for myself and Joel and many of our trekkers these last few years have been the golden years. I don't just mean fun; we have undertaken some classic exploration, climbed almost virgin peaks and been away from email and the crises of the world and the like for months upon months of the year.

Not that these crises are far away; perhaps we should rename ourselves "Himalayan Hot Spots Trekking". First there was the front page Royal massacre here, then the fallout of the "11th September" attacks was in the neighborhood, then in Nepal the talks between the government and the Maoists broke down resulting in some major attacks, and now it is India's turn too. Only Tibet has remained stable (but at a cost that has been born since the late fifties).

Unfortunately, in one way at least, Nepal has fundamentally changed. The Maoist uprising has changed forever the life of the hill people, it is so sad it had to come to Nepalese fighting Nepalese. Although amazingly enough it has little affected trekking, the fabric of society and the trust in government has been ripped apart and although the country has avoided revolution it will take some time to truly return to real normalcy.

India and Pakistan are having their usual tiff, but with a major twist and the beginning of the resolution of the festering Kashmir issue is happening.

For all the trouble across the region it is still completely safe (true!) to come trekking here (Nepal, India and Tibet), and I have sent out a separate email on this and we have updated article on the security situation here.

Has our business been affected? Amazingly enough, for 2001, no. Here's for hoping for 2002.

What sole-wearing for your boots do we have? I won't bore you with a detailed packing list, but we have a few utterly classic exploratory trips (new areas opening galore!) as well as our more regular trips. Jamie will be going to Cho Oyu at least once this year also.

The milestones in our trekking business (or rather trekking charity, as most people who have trekked with us know) are having some temporary business cards made and sometime soon we will have a new logo that actually says Project Himalaya. The then we might get some real business cards made, perhaps. But getting out there trekking has always been more important than these minor things.

And what of our Great Himalayan Trail (the GHT) project? Slowly, slowly this will become a reality but first I have to finish the fourth edition of the Everest book and a few other things.

A few of you know that we have other interests besides trekking, we are helping Temba's son, who needs an operation to correct a cleft palate. I think that Don and Sylvia will provide the finance, while we provide the time to sort out the details and the follow-up therapy required. We are also helping Singge, a Zanskar orphan. I will send more news on these people as things happen.

Apologies for not sending out much more personal emails, sorting the pictures out brought back many memories and thoughts, but it just takes time to transfer thoughts to e-mail. Also the internet has not been up to full speed in Nepal, otherwise I would have been telephoning around the world frequently.

Personally, life is good, but I am always far too busy in Kathmandu. Having our own house has been wonderful, and with two families with kiddies living with us, life has been more satisfying in the important ways. The 2001 season trekking in India was the best holidays I have ever had, Lobsang and Temba and the crew (and Joel!) are just the best, and becoming good friends as well; Lobsang came to Kanchenjunga for a busman's holiday this year. Let the good times roll.

Thoughts, wishes and sincere regards, Jamie

From Joel:

Yes, it has come to this, a group letter for far flung friends from Joel here in India. For those of you reading the press about Kashmir, there is no danger here. The main leader in the Times of India a couple of days ago was "Bush chokes on cheeseball: unconscious for 2 minutes" as if it makes much difference what state of consciousness he is in...

Anyway, I am up here in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya with Tibetan friends, spending evenings in Johnsons cafe, sipping excellent Indian army rum (there is an awful lot of black market rum around as retired soldiers get half their pension in it!) by a huge fire watching the drifts pile up, weaving webs of fantasy with Lobsang and Temba about the coming treks.

Basically, this last year has probably been the happiest and most fulfilling of my life; sounds totally over the top but it has been the year when all the supply teaching with nightmare classes and all the budget trekking in the vacations, all the contacts I made over the years and my ideas of how treks should be run came to the point where they paid off. I was leading or co-leading treks with the staff I wanted, the way I wanted! I trekked for over 300 days in the year, got to my highest peak of 6500m, spent endless days in Ladakh under brilliant skies, turquoise lakes, high snowy passes, and all with the best company as our website seems to attract the finest people.

I guess it is a job because we do make a living (cue: laughter from you who have trekked with us), I think the hardest part is surviving the post trek parties which have tended to be on the riotous side. Finally I have settled into the apricot (the unkind call it pink) house in Kathmandu where the antics of Lhakpa, the Sherpa boy who is in the "terrible 2's", kept us entertained, and perhaps another surrogate child soon as we have adopted Singge, an underweight Zanskari orphan. It is nice to have a kitchen, a huge one, with a deck outside to look at the views of Kathmandu, we had a few great dinner parties, me getting compliments for my cooking!! (cue: London friends saying, mm, let me guess, Mexican?) seriously, dinner for 8, $20, and $15 for wine, decent Australian Red is now available in Kathmandu.

2001 was also the year nightlife in Kathmandu grew old for me, endless "hanging out" in bars, is -horror- no longer my scene; New Years Eve I left the party people at 10pm and did endless koras, the circuits Buddhists do, around the stupa at Bodhanath, till the stroke of midnight, and felt good for it. Dear me I am getting crusty in my old age! Now I am in India because we have one (!) keen trekker who wants to walk the Chadar (means white sheet) at the end of this month, basically the Zanskari people use the frozen rivers as a highway in winter, and we are going to follow the route.

This morning Lobsang and I left to attempt to walk in, we jeeped as far as we could then encountered gale force winds and deep snow drifts so we bailed and are now thawing out. Luckily we had the sense not to take porters with us, and now we have to fly in (the original plan), but we hear the weather up there on the Tibetan plateau is fine. Tomorrow then we take off along the old Indo-Tibetan highway to do a recce for the September bike trip.

I am often haunted by the ghosts of old friends and trekking companions long scattered but thankfully many still in touch. I hope things are as they should be for all of you.

Love Joel