North Sikkim New Year

Sikkim, January 2008 by Joel Schone

The first month of the year - and if it continues like this, it is going to be an amazing one...

Just what are we doing in the far north of Sikkim in the depths of a Himalayan winter? On our Goecha La Sikkim trek the previous December, our guide, Tega of Marco Polo treks had given me the first solid information on the possibilities of trekking in the North of Sikkim, the kingdom known by Tibetans as the 'Land of rice and fruit', And what he told me really brought home how we had only scratched the surface of this remarkable state in India's far north east.

We made loose plans for me to come up and look around at some point this winter - and then Richard Lynch, who had been going to the Antarctic, then the Chadar, but was up for any adventure in January, and Manish Lakhani, a likeable Gujarati I had met in Leh in 2005, both sounded interested - and then Tega asked us if we wanted to visit the festival in his village, Lachen, on the 5th, and then he reported the winter snow had not fallen - so why not trek?

So we flew up, and early January had us driving through the beautiful wooded hillsides of the Teesta valley, to Lachen, settled along with the Lachung valley in the 1600s by Bhutias from Bhutan, heading for their annual winter festival at which they bid goodbye to all the evil of the old year, a few weeks before their New Year festivities. Lachenpa (people of the Lachen valley) assemble from all over the world for this event, and as we took our front row seats pre festival, we were introduced to many of Tega's cousins from many Himalayan redoubts.

Over my two decades of Himalayan adventuring I have attended many, many Himalayan festivals, but nothing could compare with sitting among the Lachenpa on this day of bright winter sun for this very special event - incredible costumes, meticulous choreography, and the very special moment when the son of the current Ringpoche (and by the intricacies of the local traditions, Ringpoche-designate) moved down the gompa steps to a hushed audience, and with the perfect concentration that showed his perfect devotion to a religion centuries old, circled the auditorium with Drilbu and Dorje in hand. Later, released from his duties, I saw him releasing energy of a more earthly kind - chasing his mates with a cap gun!

Wandering the stalls selling candy floss and trinkets, sticking my head in the beer tent, or meeting more of Tega's cousins as they pulled off their heavy wooden masks bathed in sweat, an incredible privilege it all was.

And then we 'headed north' as my dear brothers would have it, with the plan to take a loop high over the Lachen valley looking west to Kanchenjunga and other Himalayan giants. We arrived in Thanggu a few hours beautiful drive north in time for a solid acclimatization walk, and a visit to the old Dak bungalow that all the greats - Shipton, Mallory, Tilman, Kellas among them stayed in over the last centuries - deep armchairs and an open fireplace, a wonderful piece of history (in 2009 we are staying there, watch the website). Tea with more of those Sikkim cousins, and then we settled in to our dining tent - to a shock; we were told by a regretful captain of the army that they were having live firing exercises on the route we planned to take...and we could not proceed.

But the ghosts of Shipton and Tilman, those masters of improvisation, must have been having a sundowner in that bungalow - and literally on the back of an envelope, and with help of a more earthly kind, our sat phone to summon up some jeeps - by nine the next day we were on the road to the Lachung Valley, the other main route to Tibet in North Sikkim, and a plan to cross the 5000m pass traversing the two valleys.

And so we did, climbing on stunningly lovely trails through pastures, to views of unknown and unclimbed alpine peaks as we acclimatized. Then off to our pass, the 5000m Lhaba La, after we sent the porters to recce the snow conditions. We reached the top by noon, Richard and I waiting for Manish who was chivvied to the top by Tega soon after.

From the top we could make out the bulk of Kanchenjunga, before descending to a campsite that is now in my top five for the most beautiful, the local name simply translating as 'Plain of the Gods' where we camped among crystal streams and watched the play of light through the misty gloaming on the peaks all around...again, in the autumn of 2008 and in 2009 we will be back.

Next day we descended through thick forest on a trail that barely deserved the name, through mist and rain, to the hot springs at our last camp, and on to the coal fires of our Raj era hotel in Darjeeling.

Now in Kathmandu a week on, I am amazed at what we packed into a short fortnight, a trip that illustrates perfectly what Project-Himalaya is all about, a blend of adventure, travel and scholarship, pushing ever outwards our boundaries of knowledge motivated by our joy in and delight with our home in the Himalaya.

Thanks to Tega, Richard, Manish, Marco Polo treks of Sikkim, and the Gods for delaying the winter snow.