Lost in the Himalayas

by Lora Vasileva
(Sofia, Bulgaria)

This summer I spent in Nepal, together with my boyfriend Evgeni, trekking for 25 days to take a glimpse of Everest and the highest mountains in our planet. Every day was unforgettable adventure, but the crossing of the Cho La Pass I will never forget. We started early for the pass, but there was snowfall and thick fog. We walked another 4-5 hours, when the path disappeared into big boulders and we found ourselves surrounded by peaks and steep slopes and ice-falls. We lost several hours in climbing up the boulders, looking for the path and finally we saw some stone pyramids, which led to a steep slope. We began to climb almost crawling over rocks and rolling down stones, but after 10 hours of ascending our strengths were on the edge. We were over 5000 and we felt the lack of oxygen, strong headache and fatigue. It started getting dark and there was still a long way to the top.

Descending at dark on the other side was not a good idea. We found a rock under which was not so steep and we decided to sleep there. We put on all our clothes and took out everything from backpacks with which we could cover ourselves. All wrapped up in the sleeping bags we waited the longest night in our lives to pass. In the evening it started snowing. It was so cold that the water was frozen. Sleeping was impossible. We woke up every 10 minutes because of the the cold or to make sure that we’re not going to slip down the slope. It was a scary and cold night. Luckily the morning was clear and the sun warmed our bodies and melted the frozen water bottle. With new strengths we continued up.

The climb became increasingly steep and difficult, but the hardest part was when we got almost to the top and we realized that this is not the pass.
It turned out that we followed the markings to a peak and climbed almost 6000 m above sea level without realizing. We had to descend all the way back. After 3-4 hour descent through brutal rocks and rolling down stones we were back on the path and soon we found the real way to Cho La Pass (5420m). It turned out an easy an hour and a half ascend and we successfully reached the other side and rested from all this adventure. We felt really happy. The places we saw when we were lost were beautiful and this remains the best and the coldest memory of the summer.