Day 15

Friday 12 Oct 2018

We woke to a thin layer of snow and only a faint glimpse of Gangla Karchung. As snow continued to fall we made easy progress to to bottom of a buttress before the final steepening to the Karakachu La (5280m).

Sue and I chose to put on Yaktrax which provided a reassuring grip on the snow covered rocks. A glassy lake with reflections and the glaciated flanks of  the mountains above our camp were our last distant views of the day. What was slightly amusing is that the trip notes from KE Adventure say this pass “provides one of the finest mountain panoramas in Bhutan. What makes it even more special is the fact that only a relative handful of foreigners have seen it!” The reality of the situation is that, according to both our’s and the NZ guides this poor visibility is the norm and we were in fact extremely lucky to have had views at camp the night before!

As we descended the pass, the snow fell thicker and, as we lost height, it became wetter. It was all rather reminiscent of a typical day in Scotland so we all decided to blame Graham, our jolly Scot, as he confessed to having adjusted the traditional “haa Gey lo” at the col to “haggis below”. After descending off the nose of a hogs back moraine we plunged into rhododendron forests with a muddy track that eventually brought us into the pretty Tarina Valley, and our camp site at 3980m.

Distance 14km 9hrs

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