Bram Adventures

A Tribute to my Grandmother

bramski — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:17:18 +0000

Grandma and I at Tanque Verde Ranch.

On December 15th, 2011 my grandmother turned 80 years old. I know because I was there for it.

I get this question all the time – “Don’t you miss your family & friends?”. It’s the #1 reason people tell me they couldn’t travel like I travel. The answer is YES, absolutely I miss my friends and family. All the time in fact. It’s a big sacrifice you make to live the vagabond lifestyle. I missed a good friend’s wedding this year (I swear I will meet your husband someday Andrea!), and missing out on big events in the lives of people I care about is tough. I pride myself on being dependable and selfless; it is however an attribute which this trip has not been excellent at fostering. So in keeping with being good to my family and being dependable I returned for Grandma’s special birthday. The importance of family to me grows every year and so being there became an important priority. It made mom & grandma especially happy to see me, and for those of you in Seattle & San Francisco I’m sorry to have not seen you and spent more time with you, but family is family. I’ll return to the states in the future for a lengthy reunion I promise, but I didn’t want to come back to see people for a few bittersweet days; my journey is far from over and I’m not ready to come back yet.

Enough of that though, let’s talk about my grandmother. She’s amazing and it’s hard to believe she’s 80. What’s more impressive is she may be the first person to read this statement. Not just because she gets up at 530am most days, but because she’ll read my blog on her laptop when she gets the email update first thing in the morning. I’m pretty sure Grandma was the first in our family to own a kindle too.

My grandma is cooler than your grandma. I was 17 and had flown once again to ever interesting Middlefield Ohio for a family get together on my Aunt’s ranch. It’s 8 hours of travel at minimum to get there from the west coast. I sit down at the plaid table and grandma says, “You look tired dear! Would you like a beer?” I’m pretty sure mom never offered me a beer before the age of 18.

My grandma is hardier than your grandma. When I arrived in Tucson, Grandma suggested we go to the national observatory to have a tour of the evening sky. What was somewhat overlooked was that the tour would go from 4pm-9pm, and temperatures in December in Tucson at the observatory at night were dropping into the teens. Most of an evening tour of the observatory involves sitting in the frozen & cold atrium of the giant telescopes and gazing at absolute wonders of the universe. I recall there were two girls there from Philadelphia in their early 20s. They ditched out on the tour because it was too cold for them. Grandma didn’t complain a bit. She’s tough like that.

I’ve met some ancient looking women in my travels. 70+ year old ladies in Nepal who’ve probably never ridden an airplane. Old chinese grandmothers who don’t know what the internet is. It makes me proud to look back at the savviness and self-reliance of my own grandma; she’s not old or ancient, she’s savvy and well to do.

Here’s to you Grandma. May I have something equally fun to write when you reach 90.

Thank You: A year goes by

bramski — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 05:38:39 +0000

On November 3rd, 2010 I left my job to begin embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. On November 3rd, 2011 a year has passed and I am now at 5360 meters, viewing the tallest mountains in the world. My journey has taken me halfway around the globe and I have experienced an incredible amount of life in the past year. However, my adventures would not be possible without the support of friends, family, and those that I meet and show me great love & compassion.

For those of you that have had a special impact upon my journey, I’d like to thank you personally. Below is a list of everyone who has been important to me & my journey over the past year. Aside from this public call out, you’ll be getting something from me in the future. Here is everyone, in chronological order. THANKS!

Emily & Shadrack: For the garage space, I hope Chance hasn’t grown out of that FCB hat yet!
Paul & Audria: For taking the rest of my stuff, enjoy my speaker system!
CJ Favour: For your company, your furry company, and the great place to live.
Glen Trickett: For hosting me in Van and the great ski days.
Evan Kutter: For being my ski-bumming buddy. I will never be able to eat couscous without thinking of you.
Andrew & Alison: I love spending time with you guys in Utah. POWDER!
Mikey, Aili, Gen, Kelly, Amber & Cory : For the ice! And for the surprise birthday cake, nobody has ever done that for me.
Kristen: Your company in CO was great. I’m still a dirtbag, so I’m sure more embarrassing Safeway moments are in our future.
Jed: For the fun & beardy times in Aspen.
Kelly & Aili: For the rad couch in Minturn.
Jay Amin: For the basement bed in Denver, and an awesome dude to do some partying with.
Matt & Rachel : For the great trip to RR and Utah. And helping me keep my head on straight when my stuff was stolen.
Robin & Chad : For the home, good friends, and great company in Montana!
Cora & My Brother : For a beautiful wedding, and great family.
Ben Brown : For the bed & buddy in Seattle.
Greg & Tatiana : For giving a good home to a wonderful car.
Erika: For the company and all your help. It really meant a lot to me.
Zack Jessel: For the whole roasted chicken, the french cheese, and the skiing of course.
Dave Kesonie: Oh. Yeah.
Tim & Kristy: For the big mountain. I can still taste those brownies.
Matt Livingstone: For the place to crash and good times in Cham. Hope to climb again someday!
Chris Joosse : For being my “ship it” guy. There are more beanies in my backpocket for you!
Jonathan Holgersson, Angel, & The climbing crew: Having friends like you guys in Granada was pretty amazing.
Eva, Lidia, and Luckio : For being my family in Granada. Particularly when I was so sick, not sure I would have survived without those cinnamon apples.
Kristin : For the Fanta, and for your company for almost 2 months. Hope to see you in Asia!
Kosta : For the travel company & the BRRRRR! *Drinks Beer *
Markus : For the climbing & beautiful views of Finland.
Irina : For being the greatest couchsurfing hostess I’ve ever had! Amazing!
Vera : You made Moscow amazing. I’ll miss you.
Julie & Sean : For the snowy, beautiful days in Mongolian saddles.
Lorenzo : For the climbing. We’ll have another reunion sometime and demolish beerpong players and routes again.
Sabrina : For the goods from home! I hope the Mongolian warrior has a good resting place.
Rem & Johnson : For the trekking. The dripping noses, the strange chinese goods, and the endless Dhal Bhat.
My Mother : For handling all my mail, and not freaking out when I’m out of touch for over a month.

THANK YOU ALL!

Everest and the Long Journey Home

bramski — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 08:25:29 +0000

Oh strange places to find a starbucks.

Day 24-26: Bram the Human Drying Machine

Lukla

2 rest days

I thought I might be developing some tendonitis from all the steep downhill, and felt it would be best to take 2 rest days. I washed my clothes, and then it seemed, the bad weather in Lukla was starting. This bad weather would persist for about 8 days and strand 3,000 tourists in Lukla. Since Lukla was constantly enshrouded in a cloud my laundry wouldn’t dry. So I sat at the starbucks with free wifi and wore my clothes so they would dry and shivered over cups of hot milk tea. This is why you never hike in cotton clothing, fyi.

Namche Bazaar.

Day 27: Tourist Land

Lukla to Thame

Distance 23.9km Gain: 2049m Loss: 1120m

The Khumbu was an interesting place compared with where I’d just been. Prices for goods skyrocketed, and I passed hundreds of tourists of all kinds on the trails, old ones, fat ones, giant groups, porters carrying absolutely ridiculous loads. You could set up shop between Lukla and Namche in high season and have some entertaining people watching. The park entrance reported 10,000 people in October, yikes! Apparently most people do this section of the trail in 3 days. Meh, I hate wasting time.

A video of the panorama of Renjo Pass

Day 28: The Big Mountain at Last

Thame to Gokyo

Distance 19.5km Gain: 1702m Loss: 718m

Nothing but clouds all day. Then I finally hit the pass, at about 3pm. The clouds parted, the vision was sublime and I had time to meditate and to reflect. One year had gone by and I was staring at Everest on the other side of the planet. Sweet.

Gokyo Lake.

Day 29: Fitness Test

Gokyo to Gokyo Ri to Namche

Distance: 25.4km Gain: 1600m Loss: 2959m

The most commonly thing done when you’re in Gokyo is to go up Gokyo Ri for great views of Everest, Cho Oyu, Ama Dablam. It’s an amazing view, I recommend it. I wanted to see what kind of shape I was in today, so I sprinted up Gokyo Ri and logged an ascent time of 53’54″. Fully acclimatized and unencumbered I can do 640m/hr (2092ft/hr) at an altitude of 5000m (16350 ft). No idea how that compares, but it’s a good benchmark. I then trail ran the majority of the distance to Namche with a Nepali guy who was moving pretty fast with a small backpack, it’s always nice to have company .

A frosted tree near Namche. Weather conditions were not very good at the time.

Day 30: Far from Over

Namche to Khare

Distance 28.96km Gain: 2067.4m Loss: 3021m

As it turns out, there’s a 6 day backup of people waiting to get out of Lukla. Unless I want to wait 8 days, it will be likely more expeditious for me to walk out. I really didn’t want to, but, I wanted to be back to Kathmandu to enjoy some real food and lower altitudes. I dropped fuel, excess food, sunscreen, and anything I didn’t think i needed. The trail to Jiri is easy and covered in villages, you hardly need to carry snacks, the food is cheap and frequent enough that there’s little point.

A destroyed house between Kharikola and Junbesi.

Day 31: Everything hurts

Khare to Tonenko
Distance: 27.3km Gain: 3530m Loss: 2688m

About halfway through my day I caught up with a couple of Nepali guys going relatively the same speed as me. We pushed it until 6pm, which made the 11th hour of hiking that day for me. All I remember was that at some point, everything hurt that day, fortunately not all at once.

My Nepali trekking partner and I in a snowy village just below the pass. Conditions were very icey that morning from the fresh snow.

Day 32: DONE!

Tonenko to Shivalayu

Distance: 27.3km Gain: 2368 Loss: 3668

I tear out of Tonenko at 630am with my Nepali company. Keeping up was tough for me, the downhill was hard on my knees and the fact that the first 10km were covered in ice was less than helpful. Finally the days cleared though, and we hit Bhandar just after noon we were making such rapid work of the trail. Some blisters were starting to form on the bottom of my feet just as I hit the top of Bhandar and met some other trekkers and decided I would slow it down and be a bit social for my last 2 hours. Beer tasted really good, I was done and caught the bus the next morning at 7am and arrived in Kathmandu the next day at 6pm.

Elevation Profile for Lukla to Renjo to Namche

Elevation Profile for Khare to Shivalayu

The Google Earth Tour

I’ve spent significant time and taken the GPS coordinates I logged, the maps we used, and what’s visible from the satellite photos to bring you an interactive and extremely accurate representation of our trek in Google Earth. You will need to download Google Earth to watch the tour. Hit Play and watch our path across the GHT. Hit Pause at any time and check out the views.

Khadbari to Lukla

bramski — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 07:38:42 +0000

The jeep is stuck, happened many times on the ride to Khadbari.

Day 18: Bram Solo

Num to Khandbari

Bus

Most of my socks had the consistency of cardboard, so it seemed like a good morning to do some laundry and take a rest day. Num is a simple place, but with just enough facilities to charge mobile devices, do laundry, and have a pseudo shower in the town’s well, which is just a glorified spout. It’s socially acceptable to wash everything you can get to without taking off your pants. I got stared at for doing it in my tights, which was the only clean thing that didn’t need washing. The bus ride to Khadbari, which I took at about 1pm, is a cramped ride along some seriously muddy 4 wheel terrain for 5-7 hours. Fortunately I was seated in the front seat which was holding 4 people rather than the usual 2, so the gear shifter was located between my legs; occasionally the driver would have to drop it into low 4 wheel and knock me in the balls when he did so.

A personal video by me, probably not going to die.

Day 19: Mapless

Khandbari to Manchewa

Distance: 13.4km Gain: 1077m Loss: 1074

Well, here’s the day I felt a little fucked. Khandbari is the “district headquarters”, e.g. the biggest place you can find east of Lukla. Turns out you can find everything here BUT a map. So, I got the names of 6 towns to go through from the locals for the best way to Lukla. I still had a map that would cover me to Lonkuwa, but even with a map finding the “right” trail here is excessively confusing. There’s no signs, and an absolute madhouse of splitting trails going to every which village in the land. I made a lot of wrong turns.

A strange bridge across the river near Dobani.

Day 20: Infinite staircase town

Manchewa to Jobani

Distance: 18.5km Gain: 2028m Loss: 753m

Without a map I was constantly asking the locals to make sure I was on the right trail to my destination for the day. So, it was an awesome surprise when I hit a fork in the river valley clefted by a giant ridgeline and asked this guy “Jobani?” that he pointed up to the top of the ridgeline. The village is about 500m tall and the sole road is a giant stone staircase that leads you up towards Salpa Pass. Then I’ll make a big mistake, applying spicy achar to my food with the wrong fingers, and then taking my contacts out. My eyes didn’t stop fully burning until a day later.

The river between Bung and Godel.

Day 21: I’m a spectacle

Jobani to Bung

Distance: 20km Gain: 2017m Loss: 2647m

I moved like a rocket ship this day, big distance, big up & down. I arrived in Bung, hungry as hell, and just in time for their club meeting. 30 Nepali surrounded me, threw a lay over my neck, and asked that I make a donation. I either had denominations of 1000 rupees ($12, which is a lot in nepal) or 25 rupees (like 25 cents), I had to give him the 25 as I knew money would be tight as there was probably not an ATM until I got back to Kathmandu. Then the guy invited me over to where a crowd of 60 people was gathered and having a party. He announced my generous donation of 25 rupees, d’oh. They partied all night. I ate delicious pig curry and rice, yum.

Pangum

Day 22: Nepal, the greatest stairmaster in the world

Bung to Pangum

Distance 15.6km Gain: 2778m Loss: 1475m

The elevation profile tells me I hit a 75% incline this day. I’d believe that. Up the other side of Nanjingdingba bridge was practically a rock scramble up over 1000m to Pangum. The steep and consistent downhill staircases are starting to hurt my knees and calves really well.

Looking east from the valley near Lukla.

Day 23: Lukla at last?

Pangum to Lukla

Distance 15.8km Gain: 1523m Loss: 1638m

Ahhh, the Lukla valley. Real lodges, snickers bars, menus, and food other than Dal Bhat Tarkati. This would have been excellent had I not gotten some bad food for breakfast from the lodge in Pangum. I stumbled my way through the first 6km of the day, and then started feeling much better until I puked my brains out after dinner in Lukla. Fortunately, that was the end of it, just some bodily chills and then I was fine in the morning.

Elevation Profile

The Google Earth Tour

I’ve spent significant time and taken the GPS coordinates I logged, the maps we used, and what’s visible from the satellite photos to bring you an interactive and extremely accurate representation of our trek in Google Earth. You will need to download Google Earth to watch the tour. Hit Play and watch the journey. Hit Pause at any time and check out the views.

The Kanchenjunga GHT: A Trail Less Traveled By

bramski — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:35:01 +0000

The GHT

The GHT is a high alpine trail which crosses the himal east to west. The trail currently starts in Kanchenjunga and begins going across the entire Himalaya. You would think for the beginning of the GHT that it would be more frequented, but it’s one of the more remote areas of Nepal, permits for treks are difficult to get without a guide, and perhaps 10 people walk it a year. We purchased two different maps covering the high GHT route, and discovered inconsistencies between the maps, mostly in the elevation of the trail between Thudam and Chyamtang. This area is a serious adventure, and backcountry navigation is an absolute requirement.

Trail Conditions

The earthquake at Kanchenjunga in September has done an immense amount of damage to this trail. Upon meeting a nepali park officer in Ghunsa he said, “be careful, the way is bad”. Landslides have wiped out lots of the trail and left absolute destruction. Giant boulders, downed trees, destroyed bridges, difficult to locate detours make route finding “difficult” to say the least. Sections of the trail are most frequented by yak herders, and so in areas where the yak can spread out and graze the trail often becomes a dizzying array of livestock paths and scattered yak droppings.

Food & Supplies

Ghunsa and Chyamtang are extremely well stocked. We were able to get yak meat, yak butter, noodles, and potatoes in Ghunsa. Ulong Chong Gola receives a great deal of supplies from China as they’re on a china trade route, but you’re unlikely to find everything you’re looking for. We made do with an array of chicken feet, chinese army rations, spicey achar, and ghee. Our biggest mistake was not taking more food from Ulong Chong Gola as there is almost no food available for purchase in Thudam.

Our camp below Nango La Pass.

Day 9: The Trail Less Traveled By

Khambachen to Kharka Campsite
Distance: 12.3km Gain: 1006m Loss: 950m

Kharka is a term often seen on Nepali trekking maps. It essentially means “yak parking area”, so an area where you will camp that is a yak poop wonderland. Yum. Today the steepness begins, the trail becomes less clear, and the GHT begins. We made a noontime stop in Ghunsa for a shower, and food for our night between there and Ulong Chong Gola. Had we known we’d spend an extra night out before reaching Ulong we probably would have taken more food.

Our bridge bivy site

Day 10: Full of surprises

Kharka Campsite to Bivy Spot
Distance: 19.2km Gain: 1440m Loss: 2754m

Our ascent over the pass and subsequent descent was quite pleasant until we got under about 4000m again. We lost and picked up the trail quite a few times, and then hit the “muck”. With many landslide washouts, plenty of yak shit, the trail became a watery, muddy, poop filled nightmare. It snakes far higher up the Yangma Kola than indicated on the map to cross the river to the less steep side. We left our camp at 8am, and hit the bridge at about 2pm. After a brief discussion about the 2 packets of ramen we had to make for a dinner, we thought we could make it to a village called “Ramite” right near the junction of the river for the turnoff to Ulong Chong Gola. Tenting it just didn’t seem great given our pitiful amount of food. Then the trail became the “Jeckyl and hide trail”. About every 200m there is now a large landslide that deposited some boulders the size of houses with their accompanying trees. Once we exited landslide hell, the trail went along a stone & concrete staircase bolted to the cliffside. The most unfortunate thing though, was exiting this wonderful trail the town of Ramite simply did not exist anymore, and at 8pm we pitched the tent on the side of a broken bridge and ate what scant remained of our food.

Ulong Chong Ghola

Day 11: Funky Chinese Supplies

Bivy Spot to Ulong Chong Ghola
Distance: 1.89km Gain: 393m Loss: 0m

This really ended up being more of a rest day for us. There was but one steep landslide to scramble over to get to the village of Ulong Chong Ghola. After some discussion and having difficulty locating shops or food we decided to spend the rest of the day and enjoy this great village and stock up for our trip across to Thuddam. There was one kid who spoke english, and was our guide through the village, as well as showing us where to get our wide array of chinese goods (chinese biscuits, chicken feet, strange snacks, and noodles). We filled up on some delicious food there, checked out the local temple, and prepped for our 2 day journey to Thuddam.

Rem walking across the high flat area.

Day 12: Yak herder territory

Ulong Chong Ghola to Pass Camp
Distance: 12.5km Gain: 1341m Loss: 41.3m

There are two great indicators you’re on route when following a yak herder trail. Either a herd of yaks, or their poop. It was more interesting when we ran into a yak herder early in the day who had studied in London and was taking his yaks up to China (seriously… wtf?). He gave us the low down on the trail and how one of the parties in front of us had made a wrong turn on their way over the pass (apparently Susannah and her guides). We had a fun time bushwhacking, our way up to the campsite. We never found the “bridge” on this section of the trail, and eventually found a route over the river down low to get us onto the main trail. My suggestion for this portion of the trail is to stay on the left hand side and follow the river until you come to a bouldery waterfall. Find the crossing (some stacked rocks over a huge boulder) and proceed up yak trails and boulders on the left hand side of the major boulder field until the trail becomes obvious again. The trail then emptied out onto a flat stream valley with some primitive fire sites where I got us a fire going very briefly on a little bit of kindling and some grass (FYI, yak dung is hard to burn).

Johnson looks south from a perch between the passes.

Day 13: High Pass Challenge

Pass Camp to Thuddam
Distance: 16km Gain: 785m Loss: 1681m

Wow! For once a trail that improves as you go. Despite threatening weather we made it to Thuddam this day with no hangups. From our camp we ascended the right side of the drainage, and then made our ascent up via cairn hopping up and over both passes. You go over the second pass mostly on scree to a clearly flagged pass where we saw a yak herder driving his herd to china. From there the trail was mostly clear with some funky river crossings which eventually lead you to a very nice trail going to Thuddam which starts at the V of the two adjoining river valleys. Arriving in Thuddam things became a bit more challenging, there was a guy who spoke a few words of English, and despite having a note in Nepali from the family we were with in Ulong Chong, most people in this village couldn’t read, so it wasn’t that helpful. We found a strange family who had almost no food to offer us, some yak butter tea, a few boiled potatoes, and steamed dough with nothing in it. We went to bed fed, but still pretty hungry. They asked us to pitch our tent and sleep on their porch.

Sketchy waterfall behind me.

Day 14: Where’s the trail dude?

Thuddam to Waterfall
Distance: 8.25km Gain: 1031m Loss: 1221m

“What the hell is that guy doing with my trekking pole? Did they just lock us into their house? What is going on?” We got our impression from interacting with the family who invited us in that they were a bit backwards. We gave them 500 rupees for our evening meal, and in the morning they gave us some plain bread and some more yak butter tea. Then they locked the door to the house and requested 3000 rupees (nearly triple what we’d paid anywhere else), meanwhile the cross-eyed father of the family grabbed my trekking pole and started swinging it wildly in the air. Things had gone from nice to nasty in an instant, we handed over an extra 1000 and high tailed it out of there. They stole Johnson’s hat too. Most unfortunate. Then it started raining… cats and dogs … for hours. The trail at this point became in places, almost non-existent. We’d go for 10 minutes on the trail, and then it would suddenly disappear and we would search for it for 2 minutes until we located the continuing trail. Drainages pouring water out of them, we’re getting soaked and hiking straight up and into a slowly lowering snowline, hypothermia central. Just around 1pm we find some yak herders making some soup and gathered around a fire under a tarp. They don’t seem to think we’re on the “main trail” but they don’t know where it is.
The rain eventually lightens, and we do our best not to eat shit too much on the extremely wet, snowy, and virtually nonexistent trail. At 4pm we hit the mother of waterfall crossings, wet slabby rock over a death waterfall. It’s 4pm, we cross the waterfall and set up camp next to a bamboo filled cliff face with only just enough space for the 2 tents. After dinner we observe the remaining food. 3 chinese biscuits, 3 packets of ramen, some tea bags and sugar. Gonna be tight.

Bushwhacking up high

Day 15: Off Route

Waterfall to Chyamtang
Distance: 7.83km Gain: 692m Loss: 1815m

The trail worsens. We spent nearly an hour refinding the trail at one point. And then we find salvation! Stone huts and crops, or so it seems? The trail we were on ends at a couple of stone huts and then turns into deer trails and nothing, the trail ends. It’s noon, and we’re at 3400m, way too high for the trail, and we’ve got a pretty pitiful amount of food for 3 guys. At least the weather is good, and we can see across valley to Chyamtang. So, we bushwhack it straight down the ridgeline hoping that we run across the other trail. The two maps we have disagree on height of the trail at this point. The left of the ridge drops off into some cliffs and landslides but the right keeps going through steep trees and brush. We hit a notch in the ridge at about 2750, and head right side in valley thinking we see a faint trail. BOOM, we see the highway, a nicely punched in trail dead in front of us. Saved.
A few hours of hiking on the nice trail brings us to Chyamtang. We find a guesthouse and Susannah! We’ve caught up to them despite their over 5 day lead on us. We, as it seems, are not the only people to have gotten a bit off route up there. Just that morning, Liz Hawker had arrived in Chyamtang, battered, bruised, and hungry from having been lost where we were for nearly 3 days, poor girl. Chyamtang is well stocked, we eat like kings, and drink 100 rupee beers. Life is good.

Sheep and goats!

Day 16: The Steepcut Sheepcut

Chyamtang to Namse
Distance: 11.7km Gain: 1389m Loss: 1870m

It’s here that Johnson and I split ways with Rem. The trail is in great shape, and to save time, Johnson and I are suggested to take a shortcut through a village called “Namse” and save ourselves a day of travel. We save 1.5 hours in the end, hardly worth the effort. The shortcut goes down valley, straight up a staircase to a high point at 2800m, and back down to Namse where we get stuck behind a herd of over 100 sheep and goats for an hour.

Elevation profile for the GHT.