"Truly a magnificent and wondrous place, full of mystery and exploration yet to be done. From the foreland to the slopes of Kanchenjunga and Kabru, it is a place shrouded in mysticism. I was fortunate to witness various geologic features such as different terrains cut by major faults, deformed gneiss intruded by granite and overturning fold among others. Ecotones so different occurring spatially adjacent to each other. Are mountain ranges the birthplace of terrestrial species origination? I observed the pattern of climate that drives the South Asian monsoon. Numerous glaciers and glaciers terrains that showed how the earths climate has varied over geologic time. Fascinating, alive, challenging, mystic and exactly what I needed most before starting new, a life." - my field notebook conclusion after reaching Kanchendzonga base camp, May 2019. At the time, I had just quit my career in hi-tech to join grad school in geology.
We (my Mom and I) flew from Kolkata to Siliguri. Took a taxi from Siliguri airport to a hotel in 'downtown Siliguri'. Nestled between West Bengal, Bihar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet (China); Siliguri is a smugglers paradise and can be a bit intimidating. Nevertheless, there is never a dull minute on the streets of Siliguri. One can sit on the roads and watch the beautiful chaos of busses overtaking trucks-while narrowly missing a rickshaw-that swerved to miss a bull nonchalantly enjoying his afternoon siesta in the middle of the most strategic road in all of Eastern India. Siliguri forms a thin bottleneck that connect 'mainland' India with the northeast of the country. In short, as long as you watch your wallet and know how to bargain, it isn't the worst place in the world to spend a few hours.
Video 1: A normal day for the Bull of downtown Siliguri.
Video 2 a and b: Super hit Bhojpuri song "lollypop lagelu" playing at a wedding procession. I sat on this balcony for several hours.
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) base camp or Kanchendzonga base camp is nestled in the high Sikkim Himalayas right on the border with Nepal. Kanchendzonga is the words third highest peak at 28,169 ft or 8586 m. The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute conducts a month long basic mountaineering training course at this camp. Many decades ago my mom had attended this course and wanted to return. The base camp is difficult to reach because of the shear change in elevation (my watch recorded a total of 15,000 ft of elevation change) at an altitude where the lack of oxygen (or an individual acclimatization to lower oxygen) begins to affect the human body. It is infested with leaches (luckily we didn't run into very many) and lies within one of the wettest regions of the world.
We were accompanied by our guide Anush, in his 20's and a local from Yuksom, his friend and a local yak herder and three yaks, two of who's name I can still recall as Sheru (a really big yak and cow cross back with white spots) and Sherri (a smaller, more traditional looking black yak). Over the last couple of decades, yaks have interbred with local cattle resulting in cow-yak hybrids. More importantly, anthropogenic climate change has affected the Himalayas significantly, this has made temperatures too hot for full blooded yaks to thrive at lower altitudes owning to their thicker coat and has promoted the spread of yak-cow hybrids.
Day 1 05/21/2019
Siliguri-Yuksom
I wanted to observe the Himalayan Frontal Range, note vegetational gradients, Shivalik sedimentary sequences and Lesser Himalayan structure & metamorphic fabric.
We took a jeep from Siliguri to Yuksom. Located in Western Sikkim, Yuksom was the first capital (1642 AD) of the Sikkimese Chogyal.
Route: We rose from the Terai (lowland foreland basin south of the foothills) through Rimbi and Teesta Bazar. Tea gardens have replaced much of the Terai, but dense isolated forests still exist in patches. We remained at relatively lower elevations of about ~700 ft during this period. We followed both the Teesta and Rangit River Valleys. We then took a 'short cut' super bumpy dirt road along the ridgeline to reach Yuksom.
Video 3: Short cut road to Yuksom.
Biosphere: The Terai has very thick vegetation undergrowth. Teak trees w/ broad leaves are common. After crossing the frontal thrust we went in a general northwest direction. The vegetation appeared to transition to more tropical bamboo forests, possibly due to increased average rainfall.
Geology: The foothills appears abruptly, the Shivaliks are steep and rise rapidly from the Terai below. Bedded Sandstone was easily observed in the Shivalik road outcrops. Eventually, I noted low grade metamorphic rocks in road cuts. This probably meant that we crossed the Main Boundary Thrust and had now entered the Lesser Himalayas. At Yuksom, the slopes appeared to be semi vertical. This is probably a result of river incision due to intense rainfall. The Eastern Himalayas is one of the wettest regions in the world.
Human alterations: Several Hydropower projects have been developed on the Teesta and it's many tributaries. So much so, that these dams are in cascade. For most of it's mountainous coarse, the once wild Teesta is stagnant as a pond.
Dams on the Teesta have robbed the youthful spirit of this mountain river. Cascade dams (one dam after the other) in region of intense seismic activity (mega thrust earthquakes Mw > 8) could potentially be devastating in the event of the collapse of one or a couple dams upstream. However, India (especially Eastern India) is a developing region and is in immense need for electric power for its growing population.
Nice views out the Yuksom hotel balcony.
Chhaang is a local liquor a relative of beer made of barley, millets and rice and stuffed in a barrel of bamboo. According to folklore, Chhaang is a poplar drink with the Yeti (Abominable snowman).
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General directions from the Yuksom Hotel. Note the extremely steep mountains and the general heading direction. The green highlight signifies the lushness of cover. KBC = Kanchendzonga Base Camp.
Day 2 / Trek day 1: 05/22/2019
Yuksom to Sachen
We started walking from Yuksom (5840 ft) at 9:40 in the morning after drinking tea and feeding the local dogs. It rained heavily in the morning, the sun showed itself for a while before it got cloudy again. We observed lush vegetative cover with textbook V-shaped ravine valleys. We reached Sachen at 7070 ft (according to my watch) at around 1:40 PM. There is a small seasonally operated tea stall that is open during the busier times of the year.
We hiked through gneiss the entire way. Where outcrops were visible through thickets of angiosperm vegetation, I did not notice any prominent joint of vein sets, stylolites or garnets in outcrop specimen. However there were textbook examples of foliation and bedding planes. I noticed some fungi growing on the rocks.
Field sketch of foliation and bedding
Vegetation did not visually indicate that the heavy monsoon rains had arrived, as there were still dry patches, and dust on the understory. It was cloudy, damp and not chilly. We heard the banshee like scream of a great Indian hornbill and had I been alone in the thicket and not known what it was, I would have sworn I heard a creature from realm of the dead for it is a scary and loud, and a scream that resonates.
While sipping lemon tea later in the evening I set up my new Northface tent that I had spent a fortune on, and which the locals also agreed was quite fancy and offered to help set up. Our conversations drifted towards crazy Himalayan black bears that shred anything in their path, much unlike the generally tame temperament of the North American black bear, and my mind drifted towards thought of dense trees, hornbills and ravaging bears. Is it possible that in the very deep and dense forests that lie in steep terrain, like this one, birds outcompete mammals, because the lack of space on the ground makes life as a mammal difficult? In my experience all large mammals seem to like open spaces, at least a little openland. Tigers prowl the grasslands of Asia, Jaguars in South America hunt on the tributaries of the Amazon and while bears are great climbers you'll still see them wandering in open fields of Yellowstone. That night the three yaks carrying our supplies decided that my tent should serve as a mighty comfortable pillow, and despite our half hearted attempts to move them, slept right next to us, resting their heads on the brand new tent until the sun came out in the morning. Of course, we wondered if they knew that the marauding black bear or a leopard were nearby and slept on top of us for nightly protection. Yaks when are large loud creatures, and had I not been tired I would not have been able to sleep that night. By morning they had munched up all the moss and fern that were clinging on the the gneiss outside our tent. Yaks are not tame as cows, they are almost always semi-feral, herders will often leave them in the wild to graze in the deep forests/high alpine meadows. The herdsmen have a remarkable ability to bring their yaks back to the village when the herdsmen require.
All set to leave from Yuksom.
'Tropical grapes'?
Dog companion
Gneiss- For scale, I used the stick as a walking pole. Note the metamorphic fabric and abundant kinematic indicators such as porphyroblasts. Using these kinematic indicators one can reconstruct the direction of pressures that this rock was subjected to. Using many such observation one can reconstruct how the Indian plate has been subducted under the Asian Plate that has lead to the rise of the Himalayas.
Physical and (bio-)chemical weathering of Gneiss.
Yaks sleeping on tent.
Ground Orchid?
Day 3 / Trek day 2: (05/23/2019)
Sachen to Tsokha
We started early at 8 AM from Sachen for Tsokha. The climb was steep, accompanied by four river closings which meant gaining and loosing altitude multiple times. It was breezy, cloudy and misty and ultimately started raining. By the time we reached Tsokha it was raining torrentially, and despite the arguably fancy 'rain gear' designed for 'torrential' North American rain, I was completely drenched. A traditional plastic bag rain cover seemed to work much better.
Overall vegetation appeared to transition from very verdant, very lush densely packed predominantly angiosperm forests to lush less densely packed cloud forests with considerable gymnosperm cover. Vegetation had started to space out with gain in altitude, however, the odd bamboo was visible even at 9000 ft. Rhododendron shrubs with the occasional short rhododendron tree started to appear. We observed the first flower at 9000 ft and the first cluster of flowers at 9400 ft. I noticed the first grassland at Bakim at 8500 ft. From Bakim the hike was considerably less steep but still a considerable grade. Bakim has a large dilapidated hostel that was destroyed during the 2015 Nepal earthquake. Locals claim it is haunted. But in this land of misty cloud forests with draping moss, with shrieking hornbills, and marauding bears, everything you look at is haunted, and one is possessed by its weirdly eerie beauty.
I observed some outcrops of what I interpreted to be phyllitic gneiss but interpreted most of the outcrops to be Kanchendzonga gneiss. It took us a total of 5 hours of walking to reach Tsokha. Tsokha officially lies at 9806 ft (2989 m) while my watch read 9530 ft. Thus, a ~300 ft uncertainty should be assigned to my observations of this day. There is a monastery at Tsokha and a few buildings and farms.
Haunted cloud forests of Bakim
We camped at Bakim on the route back to Yuksom
Haunted Bakim hostel that collapsed during the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
Picking tasty wild strawberries at Bakim.
Day 4 / Trek day 3: 7.5 km (05/24/2019)
Tsokha to Dzongri
This would have had to be the most grueling day. Tired from getting wet the day before, slight altitude sickness, mild nausea and reducing oxygen with altitude, the inclination of the walk from Tsokha to Dzongri was one I won't forget easily. It was a long walk, accompanied by a mild headache, breathlessness and the headache would reduce with a deep breath, wherever I could steal one.
We started in the cloud forest of Tsokha with huge pine trees covered in mosses. Short Rhododendron trees were numerous. Flowering was in full effect at 10,500 ft. Red flowers were most numerous between 10,500 ft and 11,500 ft.
We stopped at a considerably large meadow where we ate boiled potatoes and eggs. We were greeted by a local dog that had fur like a husky. Needless to say, he enjoyed a lunch of biscuits and scrap food and headed on tending to his many responsibilities for the day. By this time we were accompanies by another black slim mountain dog, who had first crossed us on the first day of our hike. He was with a party of five-seven Australian/Britishers at that time, and after having safety returning them to Yukson had decided to join us the second day of the trek. He stayed with us, intermittently, until we too had returned to Sachen on our way back, and then probably, found another group. Interestingly, he didn't have much of an interested in food, but he would snack ever so often. We suspected that he hunted pikas and other rodents. Regardless he probably burnt more energy from trotting up 15,000 ft than he gained from the few biscuits handouts and rodents he ate. He also risked becoming dinner for a leopard, which are numerous in the lower altitudes. Why some dogs in the Himalayas choose to follow people around acting as guides, waiting patiently for us to keep up, will forever be a mystery. Food can be easily obtained at the local tea stall in Yuksom, or via the farmers outside Yuksom. These were healthy dogs in their prime. Perhaps its the same reason we chose to walk up to Kanchendzonga/HMI base camp. I would like to think that the thrill of adventure and perhaps curiosity is engrained in all animals. It's a fools errand, but so is life.
After our stop at the meadow, the rhododendron flowers were mostly white in color, the few red flowers appeared to have dried up or fallen to the ground. This led me to conclude that the red rhododendron variety blooms at cooler temperatures, earlier in the spring season when it is cooler than the white rhododendron variety. As we neared Dzongri multiple purple flowers were visible. Above Dzongri vegetation changed to scrubland/grassland.
Gneiss continued for most of this section. During a steep climb to the ridge that then cross over to Dzongri, at around 12,000 ft, gneiss foliation started to show signatures of deformation, potentially mylonitic fabric. As we continued up, we started to notice pretty white felsic diorite, potentially some granite (~>5% to <10% mafic minerals). Later at 12,400 ft we noticed that this diorite/granite had intruded the gneiss. I thus concluded that this must be an example of Kanchendzonga gneiss being intruded by Cenozoic (Miocene) felsic diorite/granite.
Until now all the soil sections we had observed are red below and dark on top. Below 8000 ft there was abundant organic rich O horizon. Some of the soils were quite shallow with bedrock and C-horizon near the surface. These outcrops were all on steep mountain slopes. I concluded that theses soils were shallow alfisols. We also observed the gneiss being genesised to soil by the action of lichen and by the presence of the green secondary mineral epidote that showed the presence of chemical weathering.
It was a cloudy and misty day for the most part. As the day progressed the sun would would show itself and then retreat behind the cloud every fifteen minutes.
Tsokha monastery
Red rhododendron tree
White Rhododendron tree
Yellow rhododendron large shrub
Husky dog.
Intrusion of magmatic felsic diorite/granite in the metamorphic kanchendzonga gneiss.
Dzongri camp with the Himadri's (Greater Himalayas) in the background.
Day 5 / Trek day 4: 05/25/2019
Dzongri Rest Day
This was our much deserved rest day. We walked to the top of the ridge (dzongri top) at 13,000 ft. If I remember my literature readings correctly, the ridge is the remnants of holocene land slide, possibly during an earthquake. Regardless the ridge gave us a panoramic view of the Himadris. From left to right- Koktang, Rathong (6679 m), Kabur (Black Kabru), South Kabru (7338 m), Kanchendzonga (8585 m), Gocha La, Pandim (6691 m), Tinchen Khang. The rhododendron bushes at this altitude had gotten significantly shorted and were little more than scrubs. These scrubs gave way to open grasslands. We returned and our guide had prepared vegetarian momos (similar to dumplings) and sauce. There are few kinds of food I find tastier than momos and I could eat momos for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so needless to say, my tummy was satisfied that night. And I slept soundly, except for the throbbing altitude sickness headache that I was suffering from.
New dog, rest at Dzongri.
Purple rhododendron shrub.
The many peaks one can view from Dzongri top. The right most large visible peak is Pandim (6691 m).
Himalayan Monal
Day 6/ Trek day 5: 05/26/2019
Dzongri-Dzongri La-Bikbari-Kanchendzonga/HMI Base Camp-Bikbari
Starting at 7:30 in the morning from Dzongri, we visited Kanchendzonga/HMI base camp and returned to camp at Bikbari at 5:20, which we had set up on the way during lunch. The base camp is located at 14660 ft according to the Indian army medic from Pondicherry at the base camp, while my watch recorded an altitude of 14260 ft (thus a correction of 400 ft must be attributed to elevation estimates for this day). In order to reach the base camp from Dzongri, one must cross the Dzongri La pass which is around 13,850 ft (on my watch). From here one crosses into a large U-shaped glacial valley, with magnificent views of Kabru. A relatively gradual decent into Bikbari reveals a nice patchy verdant grassland. We set up camp here, drank lemon tea, and then continue our march towards base camp. We walked through classic glacial moraine, along lateral moraine possibly deposited during the last glacial maximum. The sides of the valley have been sliced and polished by glaciers. Outcrops with vein sets are visible on the walk up to the base camp. Angular, unsorted boulders liter the valley. Several lateral moraines are visible which indicate the terminal extent of the glaciers as they retreated to their current extent. Tired by the time we reached the base camp we were greeted by scores of mountaineering trainees, and invited for tea. Everyone was very excited to learn that many decades ago my mom had once partaken in the very same mountaineering course that they were currently in, and were even more fascinated to learn that she was able to walk up all this way at her current age. In fact once we ran into a group of them at Yuksom on our return, many of the girls my age expressed their fascination at my mom for having returned after all these years, and they had a half an hour conversation regarding the same.
Dzongri Area generalized geology and vegetation notes.
Meadow above Dzongri.
Dzongri La Pass (13850 ft on my watch)
Guiding us across Dzongri La
Last observed rhododendron shrub (couple hundred feet below Dzongri La at about ~13,000 ft).
Camp for the night at Bikbari meadow.
The yak herd in the morning at Bikbari. The black and white and fully black yak in the left corner of the picture chased me in the morning.
View from camp in the morning (after being chased by the feral/wild yaks).
Ice age glaciers have sliced out the sides of these hard gneiss mountains like butter.
HMI base camp.
Day 7/ Trek day 6: 05/27/2019
Bikbari - Dzongri
As we started to wake up, we observed a heard of 50-100 yak grazing on the meadow across the valley. I walked out to brush my teeth. While brushing i glanced over to my tent, and I noticed two adolescent yaks, their winter wool half shed, staring at me. There was a look in their eyes, a look that is primeval, you know it when you see it, it almost commands you, to flee- prepare to run, here comes the charge. And so as instinct ordered, I obeyed. After running a couple circles around a rock, our guide realized what was happening and made a loud noise with a trekking pole and bluff charged the yaks, prompting them to flee. Anyways, we were camping on their pasture land and they wanted us to leave. We proceeded to head back to Dzongri that day. We saw a Himalayan Monal which is a beautiful blue colored bird, that looks a little bit like a small peacock.
Day 8/ Trek day 7: 05/28/2019
Dzongri-Bakim
General altitudinal relation of rhododendron color with altitude during the end of May 2019
Day 9/ Trek day 8: 05/29/2019
Bakim - Yuksom
Generalized topography and vegetation type between Tsokha and Yuksom.
Day 10: 05/30/2019 - 05/31/2019
Yuksom to Baghdogra
As we came down from Yukson the mountains got significantly, shorter and had a milder slope. The observed lithology was Slaty, quartzite and dark coal horizon. This meant we were in the Lesser Himalayas. We then headed down through the Shivaliks and Terai to Baghdogra Airport.
Pictures below are in order of increasing elevation
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