Jannu party sets out with purpose

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33942, 8 September 1975, Page 10

Jannu party sets out with purpose

(From

ROGER FOLEY)

DHARAN (East Nepal). There is a feeling of relief and purpose among the members of the New Zealand Himalayan expedition, their eyes now set on the 25,000 foot north face of Mount Jannu. Almost all of the expedition members are in Dharan, close to the Eastern Nepal foothills. Vital equipment that was mislaid between Sydney and Katmandu has been found and is on: the way to the expedition; organiser, Keith Thompson who is still at Katmandu. Almost five tons of equip-| ment has been sorted and, packed at Dharan and is; now ready for the journey! into the base camp. The adventure really I began when the expedition! leader, Peter Farrell, the or-1 ganiser, Keith Thompson i and Dr Brian Feamley ar-1 rived in Katmandu. Keith Thompson stayed to! await the main party and to handle customs problems. The other two flew to Dharan to check and re-pack the 4.7 tons of equipment that had been sent in advance. FASCINATING The main party — J. Graeme Dingle, lan Jowett, Jim Strang, Geoff Wayatt,' Brian Pooley, Noel Sissons, I Lynn Crawford, Don Cowie, ’ Warrick Attewell, lan John,' Keith Hawke and myself — arrived by various routes at! Katmandu. The flight from Bangkok! to the Nepalese capital was: fascinating. We flew high; over the Bay of Bengal and I landed at Calcutta for re-1 fuelling. Then as we headed: toward Nepal an India,! awash with monsoon floods,; was spread below. As we approached the: Nepalese foothills we looked west to see the magical Mt Everest poking through ] puffy white clouds. Katmandu Valley was i quickly beneath us and ex-' pedition members went into! raptures over the tiny vil- j lages clinging to valley sides! and dotting the lush green; valley floor. We banked be-: fore the steeply rising foot-; hills close to the city and| landed at the Tribhuvan air-: port, the most accessible door to Nepal. Having expected the! worst, we were gratefully] surprised to find the customs staff very helpful,! quickly we passed through] the barriers to meet Keith Thompson and a Red Cross ; disaster relief organiser. Bob;

McKerrow, a New Zealander. For the next two days, expedition members were busy buying food and small items of equipment and getting to know the city. We hired

i bicycles for about five! (■rupees (US5Oc) a day and lispent most of the time, i; weaving between the) throngs of people in the nar-i . row streets of the city. Katmandu is still medie- i val. Rubbish is commonlyl thrown on to the narrow] streets, but while the smell of spices, people and their j refuse mix to produce ai pungent aroma, it is perhaps; surprisingly not in the least ; offensive. Old wood and brick houses rise two or more storeys above the narrow brick alleys filled with chattering people, animals, bicycles and blaring car horns. Tiny shops occupy the basements. Salesmen, sitting beside their wares, choke intersections where the cacophony of colour, noise and movement dulls the mind. . From windows and doori ways hang hand-made jerI seys, jackets, bags, hats, pots, pans and thousands of ; other items. Children par- • ents, grandparents, all sit quietly in the shops, waiting for a sale. The are food stores where, if you dare, you can buy bread, buns, butter, spices, and sweets. Peppers, apples, mangoes ; and all sorts of strange vegeI tables and fruit can be purchased from old women and men sitting cross-legged beside their produce. While Peter Farrell and Dr Brian Feamley worked at j Dharan and while other expedition members searched Katmandu for stores, Keith Thompson was trying frantically to get equipment freighted from Katmandu to Biratnager, near Dharan, and j locate 16 loads of vital J equipment missing between Sydney and Nepal. The lost gear — 10,000 feet of climbI ing rope, equipment and cooking utensils — had to I be found. I Cables were sent and urgent inquiries made, but the | loads remained missing. , On the third day in Nepal I Geoff Wayatt, Noel Sissons, Graeme Dingle, lan Jowett,

i Don Cowie, Lynn Crawford, ; Brian Pooley, Jim Strang, Keith Hawke, Warrick Attewell and lan John flew to Biratnager and were driven to Dharan to join Peter Farrell and Brian Feamley. I stayed with Keith Thompson to arrange press credentials. Keith was still trying to trace the missing equipment. The next day I flew to Bratnager, a large centre just above the Indian border and on the hot Terai Plains. I was met by our Army liaii son officer, Lieutenant Gau- ! ran Shumsher Jung Bahadur I! Rana, who arranged Army , transport for the 45-minute , I drive to the Gurkha camp at ! Dharan, where the other exi pedition members were stay- : ing. ; The camp was like an |oasis, beautifully laid out ] with sealed walkways and ! lined with large canopy I trees. The foothills were i close, rising steeply into the I monsoon clouds. I knew the ! track to Dhankuta, the first | big village on our walk into base camp, zig-zagged somewhere into the most. RELIEF Two days passed as we re-packed loads and tried to enjoy the facilities at the camp. A decision had to be made about replacing the equipment lost overseas. Peter Farrell was very worried and said the expedition could be in jeopardy. Thursday morning dawned and with it came a short Army signal from Keith Thompson to announce that the missing equipment had been found in Bangkok and that it should be in Katmandu by Saturday. Relief, incredible relief. Peter Farrell said it was the first time Since leaving New Zealand that he knew where all the equipment was. “I can now rest easy at night,” he said, “instead of worrying about bits and pieces scattered around the world.” „ Expedition members are now busy packing last-min-ute purchases and personal equipment. Already 40 loads have left the Gurkha camp and 170 will go with expedition members. A sherpa and one expedition member will stay behind and wait for Keith Thompson to come through with the last of the equipment, but the rest of us leave at 7 a.m. for the end of the road and for the start of a 14-day walk into base camp. Our patron, Sir Edmund Hillary, has arrived and will be coming with us for several days. So the adventure begins.

A “New Zealand Herald’’ staff reporter, Roger Foley, a member of the New Zealand Himalayan expedition that will attempt the north face of Mt Jannu, sends his first : despatch from East Nepal.