Riding the Russian Beast

Jamie's birthday and Christmas rescue 2004, by Jamie McGuinness

The rotor blades literally slice through the air, and believe me you can hear the knives, also the penetrating whine of the gearbox and engine above my head, and mundanely I begin to wonder how the Russians make the impossibly tacky blue plastic that lines the inside of this helicopter. The engine with its high pitched whine and the whirring thrashing above sounds ready to go, but I tingle as the revs and whining climbs further as the beast works itself into a frenzy and with a sudden throbbing chop-chop the ground seemingly magically drops away. Saved again by the Russians, I have a deep smile as the pulsing basket under the blades speeds towards Kathmandu.

Billi (my flatmate in Kathmandu) and Baba, a friend of hers with Namgya as sherpa flew to Lukla in the no bigger Twin Otter aircraft with my friend, Ang Gyelu, as pilot. Our plan was originally to go climbing in Tibet, we were now on the fallback plan, to go exploring up to the Nangpa La, the trading house that leads to Tibet, and climb a small peak somewhere.

In Namche we picked up the stray Dr Mike, Billi's ex boyfriend, who just happened to turn up at the lodge at the right time and took no more than a second to decide to join us, reminiscent of the first time I met Mike and Billi. They were in Lobuche a wanting to cross the Kongma La but their gear was at Island Peak, on the other side. I had the gear but the two people with me wanted to take a lower route, so to everyone's surprise, we arranged everything in a few minutes and had quite an adventure.

Now we were off on another 'back of an envelope' job.

Baba, Billi, Dr Mike, Namgya and Pemba lighten Namgya's load of juice before the pass

The lodge's were a delight, and so was the camping. And to cut a long story short, I found myself sleeping alone on top of the 5700m Nangpa La while the others stayed in our base camp. At least I thought I was alone as I made water for a soup. Several caravans of yaks past in the fading light, then to last Tibetans with a recalcitrant yak. This was the one some friends had asked me to drive back into Tibet, it had wilted with exhaustion and simply sat down in the snow, and would slowly die if nothing was done. However, my goading had done nothing except anger it, the two Tibetans with two rocks that they had to pick up each time they threw and a two meter a bit of wood were having more success though.

The yak was still angry but they were easier targets than the armed Tibetans, he took one look at the foreigner lying in a sleeping bag and charged. I leapt out, thankfully still wearing socks, longjohns and a thermal top, dodging it then 'donged' it on the head with my ice axe and it tossed my sleeping bag, pack and things with its horns. I backed off, dancing around in the snow in a real -10 to -12C while the yak plonked itself down and guarded my things. It took us half an hour of chucking rocks, my ice axe, my crampons and the length of wood at full force before it would give up its territory and charged down into Tibet.

Finally I could settle down for this, my third night sleeping on the exact top of the Nangpa La. The previous times had also been in December and each was a real -38C night, but this was warmer, only touching -25C for a few hours then dropping back to around -16C. Yes, I have one of the best sleeping bags made. I wasn't cold.

We continued with our adventures, crossing an unmarked 'pass' into the Gokyo region (What fantastic lodges!) and climbing a 6000m peak that I hope will be turned into a trekking peak. The others headed down back to Kathmandu and home, I headed across the Chola to meet Duncan and his DCXP group and assisted in the guiding on Lobuche East. They weren't silly, opting to charter a helicopter out of Pangboche rather than another two days walk, but I still had some update work to do on the guidebook so after a second circuit around the region to visit the places I had missed, I trekked out to the Jiri roadhead.

Thanks, Greg - this is Greg's photo from their heli charter out of Pangboche

My birthday was on the track, as were Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, without even another foreigner around, but I did treat myself to two Clif bars those days. Of course, my plan had been to get back to Kathmandu for Christmas, but a cold and too many friends in the Khumbu delayed me.

So finally here I was in Jiri on Boxing Day, resigned to the twelve hour bus ride. The only problem was that the Maoists had blocked the road, in fact the road had been blocked for five days and there was a puzzled look when I asked when it would be opened. It was only once in Kathmandu I learned it is an indefinite blockade. The army are being given a tough task.

For the last days walking everybody had told me there was a strike, implying that I would have to turn back, but I knew better, as I had watched the cargo helicopters flying over. Jiri is the nearest roadhead to the Everest region and therefore the cheapest option for transporting building materials, rice and flour, and the hundreds of trekkers up there require a lot!

There are advantages to being a foreigner with money, and at the 'airfield' I was told the helicopter about to come in was flying to Syangboche (above Namche) then the next flights would be to Lukla although this would be back where I started, I could easily get a $94 commercial flight to Kathmandu from there. The piles of cargo for Lukla looked dauntingly big, days of flying, but as I looked at them, cigarette dangling, refilling the Russian monster with over 1000 litres of fuel I realized they had virtually no fuel left here, and no possibility of getting more with the strike. The Russian pilot explained in that halting soft accent they use around 600 litres an hour (!).

This is Nepal, and absolute logic doesn't always apply here, so rather than pressing to working out any details, I waited, and acted noncommittal as the Nepali ground handler offered Lukla. Sure enough once the beast was shut off there was a big discussion, and suddenly Kathmandu was on the cards after the next Lukla flight. Yes!

The nice but obviously business orientated Nepali copilot said it might cost $200-300, the ground boss initially said $200, which I didn't complain about but he felt guilty and said it would probably only be $150, to which I told him I would be met at the airport and give the money then, no problem.

The helicopter landed with a rocking bump in the difficult crosswind, but the pilots had a smile on their face, they were going to end sixteen days of continuous work and I hopped on without the price decided. As we took off, the interior filled with car batteries and empty but leaking fuel drums, they asked me how much money I actually had with me. I pulled it all out, around 7000Rs, US$100, giving me back the small change they kept the big notes. A deal and a small price to pay for what was virtually my own helicopter charter, and flying in THE classic Russian helicopter. Awesome! Sure beats at least another six days walking.

Yep, I had a smile on my face!