It was cold, it was exhausting, it was miserable but every moment of the trip was exciting. This is about my experience of trekking to Tilicho.
Me and my friends - Bishal, Bibek - out of the blue decided to go trekking to Tilicho, partially planned. We did some findings on the itinerary and planned how to reach tilicho.
We took the bus from Kathmandu to Besishahar and from there took a jeep to Chame. While travelling to Chame, it got dark and late in the evening. We were anxious to reach Chame, but that feeling disappeared, for me once I saw the mountain in the moon light - snow glittering at the moon light. It was just beautiful.
Next day we took the jeep and reached Manang, from there we started walking. There were partially snow covered mountains, that filled our view while we walked towards our next stop - Khangsar. Tired we were, cold we were but still had some energy left to joke and mock among friends. After waking tomorrow Bibek was like “Did you see there were fireflies on our bed?”. And Bishal and I were convincing him it was static electricity due to our woolen clothes. I think he believed.
It was walking and more walking, after all we were trekking. The roads were narrow, turns, uphill, downhill. The uphill were most difficult and on downhill due to pebbles it was slippery. We rest for a while and again continue. We reached the landslide area. There was a walking trail on the landslide area, but on the left it was steep. There were loose rocks and pebbles everywhere. Not quite dangerous but had to be careful. Finally after walking for almost a day we reached Tilicho Base Camp in the evening.
Yes we were excited had a smile on our face and were looking forward to tomorrow, the day we will reach our destination.But first we were hungry and cold. We ate dinner, sat near the heating stove and went to sleep on a warm mattress and blanket. We did not get the room in the hotel, and slept in the dining room. It was warm and comfortable.
Today we are going to reach our destination, after breakfast we started towards Tilicho lake. We had asked a few people who live there how long it would take, they said around 3-4 hours to reach Tilicho and returning to Tilicho Base Camp would take around 3 hours. So almost 6 hours, we thought that’s pretty quick.
On the way, the water we bought ran out. It was hot while walking and drank most of the water. We ran out of food as well but we had to press on. We knew it was going to be difficult. We reached the foot of the hill named 22 Ghumti, it was a steep hill and the trail was uphill full of bends, it was the most difficult part of the journey. Bishal and I reached the middle part of the hill. Bibek was at the bottom of the hill giving up, saying “you guys go I will stay here and wait”. Bishal and I got mad and replied “get up here, we have to reach Tilicho lake.”. I must have cussed him too. He started climbing and we reached the top of the hill. It took us around 3 hours to climb that hill alone. 6 hours must be for experienced trekkers not for us, it took us almost 10 hours.
On the top there was snow, it was mesmerizing. It was afternoon when we reached the lake, it must be around 2 pm. There was nobody, it was empty and everyone had returned. In that emptiness there was silence, I could not hear the sound and there lies Tilicho lake, in the right Tilicho mountain. I just sat quietly on the bench and drowned in the beauty of nature.