Langtang Trek Diary – Day 4 (Langtang)
7 hours of “Slowly walking” trek took me 10 hours to complete. Knees hurt a lot, but its better than yesterday. I started early today. At first the young and visibly fit people passed me, then it was middle aged groups with families, and lastly the 60+ people went by! Thankfully, it wasn’t a race, or even the finishing line would have disappeared by the time I finished today’s trek.
The people on the trek, any trek, are so nice. They support each other, push each other and most importantly encourage each other. Miguel, a guy from Madrid said “you are a tough guy”. I kept thinking about it the whole way, and it gave me a lot of strength.
The village of Langtang sits on a valley, I think 3400 meters above sea level. It can be seen at least couple of hours before it can be reached. The valley is surrounded by tall peaks – grey and barren. The landscape had already changed in the last 3 hours or so – we are now above where large trees can’t grow. I love this!
The village of Langtang bears a tragic story. In the earthquake of 2015, the whole face of a mountain came crashing down in an avalanche. It destroyed the whole village, killing 200 locals, 50 tourists and 15 armed men posted to secure the national park. The shockwave from the avalanche broke all the trees on the mountain across the valley. It was 2 minutes of earthquake, 5 minutes of avalanche and shockwave, and that ended all. But life prevails, they created a new village towards the east!
We all knew about it, but crossing this massive pile of white rocks gave us a eerie feeling. It was already late afternoon when I arrived at this glacier and took around 30 minutes to cross. Locals cross it running as there is always a risk of a loose rock coming crashing down at your head. I couldn’t run, I could barely walk.
By the time I reached our lodge in the “new settlement” it was already dark. The warmth in the dining hall helped to unwind and get ready for bed.
October 5, 2018
Langtang
Read the other parts of the Langtang Trek Diary
About Irtiza
A small town kid, stuck in a big city!