April 1999 SCREE

General Meeting

Date: March 11, 2007

Time: 7:30 pm

Where: Caliper Life Sciences

605 Fairchild Drive

Mountain View, CA

Program: Gangsthang and the Thirot Shivling

Presenter: Arun Mahajan

In fall-2007, an expedition from the UK spent close to three weeks, climbing and exploring in a small section of the Indian Himalaya that is in the Lahul-Spiti district of the state of Himachal Pradesh. In the process, the splendid pyramidal peak of Gangsthang (6162m/20,200+ ft) was climbed and 6 members stood on the tiny summit, having made a new route up the West Face, finishing up the normal SW Ridge. Prior to this, for acclimatization, the subsidiary rock peak of Thirot Shivling (5324m/17,500ft) was also reached. The team also enjoyed a superb journey into the area, taking the night sleeper from Delhi, the amazing narrow gauge railway to Shimla hill station, beautiful roads through the verdant valleys of Kullu and Manali, and a breath-taking drive over the 13,000 foot Rohtang Pass into the spectacular Chandra-Bhaga valley.

Directions: Park for the Caliper cafeteria on the south side.

From 101: Exit south on Ellis Street. Take the very first left (100 ft) on Fairchild Drive. From 85 northbound: Exit and turn right onto Moffett Blvd. to get to Hwy 101 southbound.

For a Google map click http://tinyurl.com/2k8ugr

Editor’s Notes

Advance Trip Planning Calendar

This month we are returning to a requested format for advance trip planning. We present a list of trips with no details so that you can see well ahead of time what people are thinking of doing this year. Permits have yet to be acquired so plans are not yet final. This is a preview. Leaders should not be contacted until 2 months before the trip when trips are listed in the Trip Details section of Scree.

Leaders

Trips are our “most important product”. Clearly the more trip leaders we have the more trips we can offer. We encourage anyone wishing to lead trips to pursue becoming a leader. We need leaders for a variety of different trips, especially less ambitious, single peak, 2-day weekend trips. Let us know if you wish to become a leader so that we can set you up to co-lead one of our outings.

The club requirements for leaders are specified on page 10 of the leader handbook at http://tinyurl.com/3apgpo. To see what you need to know to be a Sierra Club leader, start with the Basic Training page at http://tinyurl.com/3a6btc. You will find links to the 14-page curriculum which contains everything you need to know to lead day trips. It has links to many supporting pages. There is also a link to the web-based training which includes tests that you can take to satisfy club requirements for insurance coverage. The PCS plans to offer a course OLT 201 (Outings Leader Training 201) for overnight trip leaders.

To log in for access to these pages, use “clubhouse, explore” for the username, password entries. There is so much information on the Sierra Club “Extranet” pages that it can be confusing. For help sorting it all out send questions to Scree Editor at screeditor@gmail.com.

From the Chair

Lisa Barboza

We Love those Peaks!

We started to host Steering Committee meetings on a monthly basis, and our next one will be announced on our webpage soon. Everyone is invited, and depending on the group size, we even have dinner. Kelly Maas, last year’s chair, has graciously agreed to serve as our Training Chair, and we’re still looking for a publicity chair, which will complete our steering committee roster.

Kelly, Rod McCalley as vice chair, Louise Wholey as Scree Editor, Joe Baker as webmaster, Alex Sapozhnikov as treasurer, and Charles Shafer as mountaineering committee chair are a strong team and I really appreciate all of their, and your, support.

We’ve set goals for the PCS in 2008: 50/50/10 - 50 trips, 50 new members, and 10 new leaders. While these goals will be difficult to achieve, we have to remind ourselves that peaks are difficult as well and we have to aim high. This is a transition year and we need to grow the club in many ways.

PCS Meetings – I’m pleased to say that we had 38 attendees at our January meeting where Mike and Andrea McFadden regaled us with their Scottish climbing tales and over 50 at our Everest North Ridge slide show with the engaging and funny Bill Tyler. I encourage all of you to meet and greet new members and let’s get them on some of our climbing trips.

On 2/19/08, we had a very successful Trip Planning meeting, coordinated by Rod McCalley – We have over 30 trips planned for 2008, and I’m sure there will be more. If you’re a PCS Leader not leading a trip in 2008, I encourage you to lead a trip, and we actually could use more trips that are a weekend in length, and are CL1 or CL2.

Leader Training; All leaders are required to take OLT 101, a Sierra Club class, by July 2008. New leaders must take OLT 201, but existing leaders are exempted. To make this class easy and fun, we’re going to host a weeknight OLT 101 class in March and also a series of weeknight OLT201 classes in May – keep your eye on the website and Scree for upcoming details.

Finally, I have a poll question for our membership: It’s been suggested that we need to change our meeting format to have more talk, and less formality. Someone even suggested that we have a kegger 4 times a year. So we need your input. Send thoughts to pcs.chair@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org or catch me at the next meeting.

I really appreciate all of your help and good ideas – see you at our next meeting.

Lisa

Events

Banff Film Festival

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Comes to the Bay Area!
March 14&15, 2008 7:00 PM

Los Altos High School Eagle Theatre

201 Almond Ave.

Los Altos, CA

Tickets $15, REI Mountain View Customer Service $18 nonmembers, will-call, or at the door

REI is pleased to host these special evenings of award-winning adventure films and videos from the 2007 festival in Banff, Alberta. Tickets go on sale February 1-for the Berkeley shows at REI Berkeley*, Concord and Fremont; for the Los Altos shows at REI Mountain View*, San Carlos and Saratoga; for the Rohnert Park* show at REI Santa Rosa; for the San Francisco shows at REI San Francisco*; and for the San Rafael show at REI Corte Madera*. Will-call tickets will be available any time through the host store (with asterisk) or venue box office-for designated venue only. Doors will open half an hour before show time for open seating. Net proceeds will benefit the following nonprofit organizations: Berkeley shows-UC Berkeley's Cal Adventures Youth Scholarship Program; Los Altos shows-Snowlands Network; Rohnert Park show-Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition; San Francisco shows-California Academy of Sciences' Junior Academy; San Rafael show-Marin Conservation Corps.

Additional Dates/Venues:

7 pm, Saturday & Sunday, March 8 & 9, Cowell Theatre, Fort Mason, San Francisco

7 pm, Monday, March 10, Spreckels Performing Arts Center, Rohnert Park

7 pm, Tuesday, March 11, Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael

8 pm, Wednesday & Thursday, March 12 & 13, Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley, Berkeley

NOLS Wilderness First Aid

Sat / Sun April 26/27 NOLS offers a Wilderness First Aid Course at Auburn Ski Club on Donner Summit. Contact Carl at (530) 426-3313 or carlxc@gmail.com.

More on NOLS WFI courses can be found at

http://www.nols.edu/wmi/courses/wildfirstaid.shtml
Trip Planning Meeting

We have results!

2008 Advance Trip List

This is a tentative list of trips planned for Spring and Summer. Please do not contact the leaders until the trips are officially announced in the "Scree" or on the broadcast list. If you would like your trip to be listed in Scree send official trip notices to Rod McCalley, vice chair scheduler, and private trips to the Scree editor. Contact info is on the last page of every Scree.

DATES	PEAKS	LEADERS
MAY
Fri 2- Sun 11	High Sierra Route with peak bagging (private)	Louise Wholey
Sat 3- Sun 4	Sirretta, Taylor car-camp	Lisa Baboza
Sat 3-Sun 4	Mt. Hood (private)	Tim Hult
Fri 9-Sun 11	Olancha	Lisa Barboza
Fri 16-Sun 18	Cloudripper (backcountry skiing)	Louise Wholey
Sat 17-Sun 18	Mt. Shasta (private)	George Van Gorden
Fri 23- Mon 26	Mineral King (backcountry skiing and peak climbing)	Louise Wholey
Fri 23- Tues 27	Thompson, Powell, Wallace, Haeckel (private)	Lisa Barboza
Sat 31-Sun 1	Moses, Maggie (south of Mineral King)	Joe Baker
Fri 30-Sun 1	Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne (ascent)	Kelly Maas
Fri 30-Sun 1+	Striped, Cardinal, Goodale via Taboose Pass	Louise Wholey
JUNE
Sat 7- Sun 8	Dunderberg, Excelsior	Lisa Barboza
Fri 13- Sun 15	Eisen, Lippincott (Mineral King)	Lisa Barboza
Fri 20- Sun 22	Julius Caesar, Merriam	Louise Wholey
Sat 28- Sun 29	Disaster, Highland (car camp)	Charles Schafer
JULY
Wed 2- Mon 7	West of Whitney – Hitchcock, Young, Hale, Chamberlain, Newcomb	Lisa Barboza
Wed 2- Mon 7	Guyot, Joe Devel, Pickering, McAdie	Louise Wholey
Fri 4- Sun 6	Pilot Knob (N), Goethe	Tim Hult
Sat 12- Sun 13	Iron Mtn.	Charles Schafer
Sat 18- Sun 20	Junction, Keith, Bradley from Onion Valley	Lisa Barboza
Sat 26- Sun 27	Morgan (S)	Joe Baker
Tue 29-Fri 1	Red, Grey, Merced, Foerster	Louise Wholey
AUGUST
Sat 2- Sun 3	Mt. Davis	Louise Wholey
Sat 2- Sun 3	Silliman, Alta (car camp)	Debora Benham Chris MacIntosh
Sat 9- Sun 10	Mt. Baldwin	Charles Schafer
Sat 16- Sat 24	Wind Rivers	Bob Suzuki & Tim Hult
Fri 22- Sun 24	Rixford, Bago via Kearsarge Pass	Charles Schafer
Sat 23-Thu 28	Evolution loop – Darwin, Mendel (maybe Aug 16-22)	Kelly Maas Landa Robillard
Fri 29- Mon 1	Rodgers, Foerster, Electra	Tim Hult
Fri 29- Mon 1	Clarence King, Gardner, Cotter, Fin Dome	Jim Ramaker
Sat 30- Mon 1	Tower Peak	Stephane Mouradian
Sat 30- Wed 3	Kaweahs (Big, Black, Red)	Lisa Barboza
SEPTEMBER
Fri 5- Sun 7	Mt. Russell (maybe Carillon)	Lisa Barboza
Sat 6- Sun 7	Tenaya Canyon (private)	Kelly Maas
Fri 12- Sun 14	Florence, Vandever	Lisa Barboza
Fri 19- Sun 21	Twin Peaks, Virginia	Tim Hult
Sat 27- Sun 28	Sawtooth (N), Needham	Lisa Barboza
OCTOBER
Fri 3- Sun 5	Onion Valley car camp – University, Kearsarge, Gould, Dragon	Lisa Barboza Bob Suzuki
Sun 12	Blackhawk	Louise Wholey

PCS Trip Calendar

Mar 15 – Mt. Sizer

Leader: Landa Robillard

Mar 21 – Backcountry Ski Series (#4)

Leader: Louise Wholey

Apr 11-13 – Mt. Morgan (N)

Leader: Louise Wholey

Apr 19-20 – Sawtooth (S) and Owens Peaks

Leader: Charles Schafer

Apr 26-27 – Crag Peak and Smith Mountain

Leader: Lisa Barboza

May 3-4 - Siretta (9977) and Taylor (8802)
Leader: Lisa Barboza

May 9-11 - Olancha (12123)
Leader: Lisa Barboza

Private Trips Summary

Important: Private trips are not insured, sponsored, or supervised by the Sierra Club. They are listed here because they may be of interest to PCS members. Private trips may be submitted directly to the Scree editor. Details on these trips follow the trip reports. In this issue.

March 7-9, 2007 – Pyramid Peak (N)

March 23, 2007 – Round Top

April 5-6, 2008 – Pinnacles

May, 2008 – Nepal – Kailash – Tibet

May 3-4, 2008 – Mt. Hood

May 17-18, 2008 – Mt. Shasta

PCS Trip Details

Mt. Sizer Dayhike, Henry Coe Park

Peak:      Mt. Sizer
Date:       Saturday Mar 15, 2008
Leader:   Landa Robillard, 408-378-5311

Before the park closes (!) due to state budget issues take this opportunity to hike 14 miles to the top of Mt. Sizer and back.

Meet at Cottle Rd and Hwy 85 Park and Ride, 8:00am. Self-carpool from Page Mill Rd and Hwy 280 Park and Ride at 7:30am. Rain cancels. [Colisted with Dayhiking Section]

Backcountry Ski Series

Peak:      Tinkers Knob, Donner Peak or Mt. Judah
Date:       Mar 21
Leader:   Louise Wholey (louisewholey@yahoo.com)
Co-Leader: Jim Wholey

Join us for a day of backcountry skiing in the Tahoe area. Requires advanced skiing skills, avalanche training. Randonee or Telemark skis, climbing skis, avalanche beacon, shovel, and probe required. Location determined by snow conditions but we would like to try to climb Tinkers Knob. The focus is to find good powder snow and climb a peak. Limit 6.

Mt. Morgan (N)

Peak:      Mt. Morgan (N), class 2, ski mountaineering
Dates:     Apr 11-13
Leader:   Louise Wholey (louisewholey@yahoo.com)
Co-Leader: Lisa Barboza (pcs.chair@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org)

This is the ultimate backcountry skiing - ski mountaineering in the High Sierra. TH is Rock Creek if open, else Hilton creek. Ski to base of peak, snow camp, ski up and down peak, snow camp, ski out. Requires advanced skiing skills, avalanche training. Randonee or Telemark skis, climbing skis, avalanche beacon, shovel, and probe required. Expect a hedonistic experience. Limit 6.

Sawtooth (S) and Owens Peaks

Peaks:     Sawtooth (S) (7970) and Owens Peak (8453)
Date:       Apr 19-20
Leader:   Charles Schafer (c_g_schafer@yahoo.com)

Car camp at Walker Pass and climb these peaks in the far southern Sierra. Pace will be slow. Beginners welcome.

Crag Peak and Smith Mountain

Peaks:     Crag Peak (9480+) and Smith Mountain (9533)
Dates:     Apr 26-27
Leader:   Lisa Barboza (pcs.chair@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org)

These far southern Sierra class 3+ and class 2 climbs involve off-trail bushwhacking. Car camp in the Kennedy Meadows area.

Siretta (9977) and Taylor (8802)

Peaks:     Siretta (9977) and Taylor (8802)
Date:       May 3-4
Leader:   Lisa Barboza (pcs.chair@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org)

Join us for car camping in the Big Meadow in the Southern Sierra. Enjoy wildflowers, satisfying climbs, and early spring fun. Siretta is suitable for beginners (CL1) and Taylor will require intermediate skills (CL3). Drive Friday and return Sunday, climb Saturday.

Olancha (12123)

Peaks:     Olancha (12123)
Dates:     May 9-11
Leader:   Lisa Barboza (pcs.chair@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org)

Trailhead is Sage Flat 5770, 1 night backpack over Olancha Pass 9130, to climb Olancha, EL 12,123. Camp near Bear Trap Meadow; be prepared for snow. Bonus Peak: Dayhike Cartago if we have time. Send email with conditioning and recent experience.

Trip Reports

LeConte and Corcoran

Aug 31 – Sep 3, 2008

By Jim Ramaker

Over Labor Day weekend, Bob Suzuki and I (Jim Ramaker) led a group of seven to the Meysan Lake area just south of Mt Whitney, an inviting region of high, easily accessible, and closely spaced peaks. Team members included Eddie Sudol, Linda Sun and her very fit but non-climbing husband Harry, and Louise and Jim Wholey, an amazingly strong couple in their 60s.

We left Whitney Portal around 10 a.m. for the short (5 miles) but steep (3600' gain) hike to Meysan Lake. By the way, if you're looking for a scenic Sierra dayhike with plenty of elevation gain, Meysan Lake is ideal, with a well-maintained trail rising at an even grade through nice timberline forest with an abundance of granite walls and scenic views along the way.

We passed several small lakes and arrived at the north end of Meysan Lake at 3 p.m., leaving plenty of time for naps, much appreciated by some of us because of the 11,500' altitude. Meanwhile, Jim W. broke out his fishing rod and caught the first of many brook trout he would haul in during the weekend, providing much of the evening fare for himself, Louise, and anyone else who wanted some.

Saturday morning we rose in the dark at 5:30 a.m. and departed at 6:40, heading for McAdie (13,799') with perhaps Irvine (13,780') as a bonus. We climbed the long class-2 gully at the southwest corner of the lake, hidden from camp but obvious once you hike south a ways on the west side of the lake. This gully takes you to the high talus basin between Irvine and Mallory, where we took a break at 9:30 and decided, based on the clouds overhead and the possibility of rain, that we should bag Irvine first to ensure that we got at least one peak for the day. Forty minutes of easy boulder-hopping took us to the top of Irvine, where enthusiasm for McAdie began to wane, since it required a tedious 800' descent to Arc pass, a challenging class-3 climb and descent, and then reclimbing the 800'. After a long break, Bob and Eddie decided to head back to camp via an experimental route down the northeast gully or Irvine, while Linda, Louise, Jim W, and I headed for Mallory (13,845'), beckoning to us half a mile to the south across the talus basin. Easy boulder hopping with a bit of class-3 at the end took us up to what looked like a knife-edged ridge, but crossing its crest, we stepped onto class-1 scree on the other side -- a nice surprise. We topped out at noon, had lunch, then headed back to camp via the gullies at the south end of Meysan Lake.

There are five of these gullies, and looking up at them from the lake, #1 and #5 are steep and a bit ugly, #2 is short with smooth class-3 slabs, and #4 is the gentlest and easiest. Unable to see down them from above, I led us down #3, which had several short sections of steep frozen snow at the bottom. After some meandering, we managed to find a safe way down, though at one point I nearly resorted to the cave-man trick of using a sharp, hand-held rock as an ice axe. As on the day before, we arrived in camp around 3 p.m., leaving plenty of time for naps and/or fishing. In terms of altitude headaches and related ill-effects, there seems to be a big difference between spending your second day in the mountains between 11,500 and 13,800', as we did, compared to say, camping at 10,000 and climbing up to 12,000 or so, as on a typical Yosemite-area trip.

Sunday we got up at 5:30 again and headed off for LeConte (13,845') and Corcoran (13,714') at 6:30. We took Gully #2 at the south end of the lake -- I found the downsloping slabs on its right side a bit sketchy early in the morning, while the others found an easier way on the left. By 9 a.m. we were taking a break on the scree just below the north face of LeConte, along with three guys from a CMC group who had joined us on the climb. Instead of going over the pass and doing the waterfall route, the plan was to find the class-3 route on the north face, as described in David Harris' trip report from 2001. Looking up from below, it seems inconceivable that such a route exists. The near-vertical north face has a smooth, 45-degree downsloping shelf about halfway up, with a huge dropoff below it. Along the top of the sloping shelf is a faint line resembling a pencil line on the wall of a room. That's the route, and after going left a few hundred feet and fading out, the pencil line connects to some cracks heading up and right.

Bob led off, and amazingly, the pencil line was actually a little hidden sidewalk a foot or two wide. Bob found the easiest spot to traverse over to the cracks heading up and right, and this traverse is the hardest spot on the climb, with loose rock underfoot and the void yawning below. It's still class-3, with plenty of holds, but don't fall. We climbed up the cracks for 100' or so, then traversed left a second time to get into the gully heading up toward the summit. After climbing up another 100', we traversed left a third time to finish the climb on the east ridge of LeConte.

After a break, we descended the northwest gully toward the waterfall pitch, parted with the CMC guys, and headed for Corcoran at 11 a.m. The traverse to Corcoran is a miracle of geology and routefinding. Starting with the waterfall gully, you cross no fewer than eight gullies, all of them clearly visible in Steve Eckert's photo of the route.

Steve’s Photo of the Traverse Route

On most of the route, you'll find dizzying drops below you and steep walls and towers around you and above you, but at your feet you'll see class-2 scree about 90% of the time. And the other 10% is never harder than moderate class-3. It's pretty amazing -- the easy climbing actually helps you stay on this complex route, because if you encounter any hard climbing or big air, you know you're off route.

The notes I took during the climb are below. Each gully is defined by a distinct rib that completely blocks the view into the next gully, and of course, the key to the route is finding the right spot to cross each rib. About half of the crossings were well-marked with ducks and we added more, but of course, ducks can mislead you or be swept away by winter snows. Gully #1 is the gully with the waterfall pitch.

Gully #1 -- About 50' above the waterfall pitch, traverse left on a high ledge and cross into Gully #2.
Gully #2 -- Descend 50' on ledges, then descend another 200' down the gully. Cross into Gully #3 just below a smooth cliff.
Gully #3 -- Traverse level for about 100'.
Gully #4 -- Descend a narrow slot and some airy ledges into Gully #4, which is a double gully because you traverse across the bottom of a rib that divides the gully just above you. Traverse level for about 300'.
Gully #5 -- Traverse level.
Gully #6 -- Descend 30' in another narrow slot into Gully #6, which has two large windows in the south wall, just below the traverse line. Traverse a bit and then climb up 50' on class-3 ledges.
Gully #7 -- Descend 30' into Gully #7. This is the key gully to recognize because climbing it takes you to the summit, whereas climbing an earlier or later gully will lead to major disappointment. This gully has a huge tower just below the traverse line on the north side, and another tower on the skyline high above you with an overhanging rock on top of it. Climb Gully #7 all the way up to the North Notch, from where you can look down the east face.
Gully #8 -- Traverse into Gully #8 and climb 200' of easy class 2-3 to the summit of Mt. Corcoran.

The traverse took less than two hours, and by 1 p.m. we were looking for familiar names in the summit register.

Reversing the route was fun and went quickly. Some black clouds drifted in from the northwest, but we heard no thunder and felt only a few drops of rain. Back at the top of the waterfall pitch, we did not emulate our friend Arun Mahajan on the 2001 climb, who first dropped his pack down it, then figured out how to downclimb it. Instead, Bob set up a double rope to use as a handline. This sounds dubious but actually worked well, with the rope providing a secure handhold for one hand at all times. "Waterfall pitch" is too grandiose a name for this section -- the vertical part is only about 12' high, but it does have poor holds, and a fall from the top of it will get you injured.

From the bottom of the waterfall gully, we climbed 100' back to the saddle where we had started seven hours earlier. Avoiding my mistake of the day before, I led the team down the tedious but low-angle boulders and scree of Gully #3 to the south end of Meysan Lake, and by 5:45 we were back in camp listening to more tales of successful fishing from Jim W. Eleven hours for a really fun day of climbing on two fine peaks that I would gladly climb again.

On Friday, Louise and Jim W. climbed Lone Pine Peak, while the rest of us hiked out to get an early start on the long drive home in Labor Day traffic.

BSS #3 & Silver Peak, Feb 15-16, 2007

By Louise Wholey

The Backcountry Ski Series trip Feb 15 became a country-country skate skiing outing to Royal Gorge, the choice of the participants, Brenda Geise and I. Others chose to ski just for the long weekend and work Friday. On Saturday we climbed Silver Peak (from Squaw Valley) seeking powder (go north). It was a warm sunny day with great corn on the south faces and powder on the north and west tree-protected slopes.

Brenda Geise and Steve Thaw climbing

View south to Dick's Peak past Squaw Valley and Twin Peaks

Andy and JD descend on the corn

Private Trips

Note: Private trips are not insured, sponsored, or supervised by the Sierra Club. They are listed here because they may be of interest to PCS members. Private trips may be submitted directly to the editor.

March 7-9, 2008 – Pyramid Peak

Contact: Lisa Barboza pcs.chair@lomaprieta.sierraclub.org

On this 3 day weekend we'll go in on snowshoes from the Echo Summit snow-park, cross Echo lakes, camp above Lake of the Woods and summit Pyramid Peak. Crampons, ice axe, 3^rd class climbing. This is an intermediate level trip.

March 23, 2008 – Round Top

Contact: Arun Mahajan (arun.mahajan@att.net)

Annual day trip from Carson Pass on skis or snowshoes. Crampons and ice axe required.

April 5-6, 2008 – Pinnacles

Contact: Rick Booth (rwdbooth@gmail.com) or

Jeff Fisher (jeff_fisher_5252@sbcglobal.net)

Hike, Bike, and Climb at Pinnacles National Monument.

Come to the interesting and popular Pinnacles National Monument for a Spring trip. A group camp site has been reserved at the campground for Saturday night, April 5. This is a great area where you can hike, bike or rock climb. Plenty of good hiking and road biking. This is a private trip, no rock climbing instruction is available so be prepared to operate on your own.

October, 2008 – Trek Around Manaslu

Contact: Warren Storkman (650-493-8959, dstorkman@aol.com)

Manaslu 26,658 is the world’s eighth highest peak. My last visit was in 1992 an area of lush deep valleys. We will be in the highlands, and remote villages that are around Manaslu.

This is my 30^th year leading treks in Nepal and Tibet. I do not handle any of your funds. We pay the trip provider in Nepal.