Sikkim - a stunning trek

What a trip! Three weeks with KE Adventure Travel guiding a great group into the Himalayan foothills below Kangchenjunga one of the world's highest mountains at 8,586m. The actual mountain is on the India-Nepal border and has name is rather poetic meaning The Five Treasures of the Snows as it is made up of five mountain peaks, with four of them over 8,450m. The 'treasures' apparently represent the five repositories of God, being gold, silver, gems, grain and holy books.

Until 1852 Kangchenjunga was in fact assumed to be the highest mountain in the world, but calculations based on various readings and measurements made by the Great Trigonometric Survey of India in 1849 came to the conclusion that Mount Everest was the highest! It was 1856 before it was officially announced that the mountain had moved from the highest to the third highest. Must have been a bit of a blow for the area. Kangchenjunga was first summited by Joe Brown and George Band in 1955 who were part of a British expedition. The team did however honour the beliefs of the Sikkimese, who hold the summit sacred, and stopped a few metres short of the summit. Nice one guys !

We began by flying into Delhi which is a bit of a culture shock to Westerners to say the least. Yes, the pollution and poverty are disturbing but interestingly the locals told me that now the Government carries out checks on cars to control emissions and, to be applauded, they have banned plastic bags. So any shopping experience is without the ubiquitous plastic carrier bag - just an interesting fact to share ! Not sure it makes life any better for the locals but at least they are 'nodding' in the direction of trying to introduce some environmental measures. The Holy Cows it seems were chocking on the bags :-)

So, off we headed into the foothills and a night in Darjeeling that world capital of a great 'cuppa'. The Brits introduced tea to the area during the Raj and the rest is history. I have to say its the only time I have spent the equivalent of £20 on buying some decent tea.

The following day we set off for Sikkim in three jeeps with I have to say excellent drivers. I had been worried that India would truly live up to its name as the one of the world's most dangerous driving experiences, but just apply the horn and overtake on a blind bend and it seems to work. Probably because the roads are so bad that no one is going fast.

We spent the next 15 days trekking through remote, wild and unspoilt mountains and I think we were all surprised at how few people we encountered. Endless vistas of ridge after ridge of mountain ranges as we walked along high routes amid rhododendron forests. Blimey, they are huge ! I really want to go back in spring to see the flowers which must be amazing, but the weather is wetter at that time of year, so perhaps we had the best of it with stunning blues skis and crisp cold air.

We ended up with Kangchenjunga right in our faces as we watched sunrise hit the highest peak, a really special moment I have to say. After that it was downhill and back to Yuksom, and a bit of shock to see people. I was lucky to have a great group of trekkers who were totally 'into' the whole experience. We also had a great team from Rimo Expeditions who are based in Indian, and a Sirdar, and a team of Sherpas who have three Everest summits between them.

So thanks again to all those of you who made this a great trip. I hope to see you all again in the mountains at some time. Take care.

Lindsay x