The Plan
Our plan was very simple:
backpack our way from Beijing to Bangkok with climbing gear, trying to climb a few 6000ers here and there in the eastern reaches of the Himalaya. It turned out to be much more difficult than we had anticipated and we weren’t very successful with the climbing part, but we had nonetheless a wonderful time among the mighty mountains of Sichuan. That’s how my friends Ben, Martin, and I spent our 2002 summer vacation.
The Access
Crossing half of China in crowded trains and buses with 100 kilos of gear is as taxing as it sounds. We had ample time to find that out during the 27 hours train trip from Beijing to Chengdu, 3rd class of course to save our money for better uses like beer and bowling in Sichuan’s booming capital.
In this 10 millions + city we stumbled upon the “Mountains of China” guidebook in a shop selling mountaineering gear. Minya Konka (Gongga Chan in Chinese) was the obvious choice: it takes only one day by bus to reach Kangding, the starting point to this easternmost range of the Tibetan plateau. There are about twenty five 6000ers – most of them unclimbed at that time – around the 7556 meters high Minya Konka.
We reached Kangding after one more bus ordeal. The seven hours ride turned into a twenty hours affair due to huge roadwork. The traffic was held before a small one way tunnel until 19 pm. Then the road was open for two short hours… once every second day! Day one towards Kanding, day two towards Chengdu! We met people who had been waiting for 36 hours since buses were starting as usual every two hours as if there were no roadwork!
Base Camp
At last in the mountains! After a day-walk acclimatizing around lake Mugetso (3700 m), we bought what we thought would be enough food for two weeks, mostly tsampa, rice and instant noodles and took a taxi to a small Tibetan village at the very end of the road. There Ben, proud master of 200 words of Chinese, started negotiating for a horse. Needless to say that once the taxi had departed we weren’t in a strong bargaining position with our gear in a big heap in the middle of the village…
It turned out that we would need to pay 500 Yuan (about 50 euros) for two horses and a guide to bring us to our base camp, a two days walk. We thought that it was a terrible rip-off, but what could we do with 50 kilos of gear and food pro person? Looking back on it I realize it wasn’t that expensive, but I’m not a student any longer…
It was tiring enough to follow the loaded horses and we weren’t regretting the 500 Yuan anymore. The path cut through lush forests and green meadows. Our guide wasn’t very enthusiastic on day two. He had spent the night drinking cheap Chinese alcohol, hidden under a tarpaulin while a thunderstorm raged. Crossing icy cold streams in his canvas sneakers didn’t help his mood, so as soon as we saw the first towering mountains through the parting clouds he asked us to let him go back down (“because of the horses”).
We agreed, not wanting to have his ruined health on our conscience. Besides we were now close to huge snow clad giants. At the end of the valley a 6112m summit looked particularly alluring: it was called Leduo Manyin. We spent the following days hauling our gear at its base: because of the altitude it was hard work to go up and down with a 25 kilos backpack. Base camp was set at 4550m.
The Climb
We were realizing that mountaineering in these parts of the world was a serious affair. We didn’t meet anyone until our return to Kangding. Looking at these impressive mountains we felt respect, exhilaration and a deep sense of freedom.
The north face of Leduo Manyin consisted of a dazzling 700m high wall of snow. Climbing at its foot for acclimatizing we soon realized that it would be too great a challenge for us considering our experience and food autonomy, so we fell back on the beautiful north east ridge instead.
It was mid-September: still monsoon time. The weather pattern was as follow: drizzle and fog in the morning, clearing towards 9am, sunny and mild afterwards with surprisingly good snow conditions, and back to light rain or snow in the evening.
Weather wasn’t our main concern though. Our diet of instant noodles, rice and tsampa was becoming unpalatable and our stocks were dwindling. We had to ration ourselves since we were planning to go all the way round Minya Konka after the climb, which we reckoned would mean one week of trekking (we didn’t know for sure because our map didn’t cover the whole Minya Konka range). At least it’s easier to ration yourself when the food doesn’t taste good!
At 4 am we started from our advanced base camp (4800m) in the usual whiteout. The first part of the ridge was fairly easy, loose rocks alternating with 45° snow slopes. As we got to the second snow dome on the ridge (5500m) we were still in a snowstorm, wondering when the morning clearing would come. The next part of the ridge looked trickier with cornices on one side and crevasses on the other. We waited up there until 11 am but it looked like we had picked the wrong day.
Depressed, we climbed down to our tent. It snowed the whole day while we took a difficult decision. Due to our very meagre food stock we had to give up on the climb if we were to complete the trek around Minya Konka.
(At that time we didn’t know that you need a permit to climb in China. Besides we didn’t do anything illegal since we didn’t reach the summit...)The Trek Out
Our backpacks weighted now “only” 35 kilos, but we figured we could managed because after reaching a 5000m pass it would be all downhill, or so we thought. The valley had a gentle downhill gradient and we passed along 6000er after 6000er. They all looked beautiful and inviting to climb, but by now we had learned our lesson and were only thinking about getting out and enjoying the view.
Our food situation was getting serious. For the next week we had to be content with a shared box of cookies for breakfast, a bowl of rice and a bit of tsampa for dinner and precious nothing in between. And we kept lugging those damned 35 kilos of ropes, ice axes and carabineers! How I would have swapped them against a snickers bar! Or dumped them in the river…
But every time those negative thoughts came to my mind, a new jewel of a mountain appeared at a turn of the valley and everything else was forgotten. I guess beauty feeds the mind and the mind wills the body to shut up and keep going: that’s how we manage to achieve great things.
So with our eyes full of nature’s wonders and our stomachs empty, we kept going, now through deep fir forests. The path was going up and down much to our despair. Going uphill we were extremely slow with our heavy backpacks. Suddenly in a clearing of the forest carpeted with thick moss we met two Buddhist monks: a welcome apparition. Surprised stares, greetings, and they disappeared as soon as they had appeared.
Here we hoped to see Minya Konka, a much revered Buddhist holy mountain, but as the days passed it rained more and more. We kept going downhill through lush forests. Most of the trees were clad in Spanish moss, a sure sign that the area gets a lot of rain.
After some more days among those fairytale forests we reached “civilisation” again. It took the form of a huge construction site where the Chinese were building a resort for wealthy tourists. We had mixed feelings. We were relieved to be over with the strenuous walk with too heavy bags and too little to eat; on the other side we felt sad seeing that here too man was gnawing at this pristine nature.
The Rest
During these two weeks of intense efforts we had lost almost 10 kilos and learned that climbing unsupported in the Himalaya is a serious business. But we had had a great time and had developed a deep love for the “roof of the world”. We were here on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau: west of us lied range after range of mighty mountains and windblown deserts for more than 2000 kilometres all the way to Ladakh. We would come back, hopefully with better planning.
We spent the next month eating a lot, drinking just as much and hauling our climbing gear on buses and trains through southern China, Laos and Thailand. What a great journey it was!
Practical information
Minya Konka page on Summitpost
My friend Ben’s homepage
Leduo Manyin is also called "Reddomain" in some Japanese publications. First ascent in September-October 1999.
Account of the first ascent.
Trekking around Minya Konka with a normal backpack would probably require 6 or 7 days. Best time of year: before or after the monsoon (very active in the area), probably May or October.
Be aware that this part of Sichuan is modernising very fast due to its closeness to Chengdu: you could find a road around the mountain if you wait for too long!
Finally I apologize for the low quality of the images, but I had to scan them from my old dias.
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