Friday, May 13, 2011

Nepal-Ghopte Khola (Day 86)

Jeep 6:45 am   Start hiking: 7:20 am      Canyon start: 9:00 am

Exit Canyon: 1 pm                   At Camp: 1:50 pm

BY ANJA: Another canyon with the Germans!  Elke, Michael, Manu, Wolfgang, Sandra, and Railey.  They were keen on paying for a jeep ride (2,500 rupees each way for the group).  We were told it was a 1 hour jeep ride but it ended up being 30 minutes.  The most interesting part of this canyon was the guided rappel at the end using 2 60 m ropes.  The purpose was to prevent the rappel rope from shredding but the sharp edge was near the top and the rope got shredded even through the guided rappel.  This was the 1st guided rappel and a lot of fun!

“German’s never do anything for fun, except drink beer”  Manu about guided rappels.

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After being stuck behind the French group the first day and having no one in front of us the second day I twisted Elke’s arm to go on the first Jeep of the day.  So no one would be in front of us.

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The approach.

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At the entrance to the canyon another party showed up right behind us.

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There was a cool hole we crawled down into to get to one of the stations.

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Sandra at the top of the big drops.  We’d heard from the American/Mexican group that they sat waiting here for 2 hours two days before.

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Top of the guided rappel.

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Michael on the guided rappel.

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Manu and Railay manning the tension.

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Me setting a short rappel and Railay feeding me out the ropes from the guided rappel to set the next rappel.

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Last rappel, you can see the other big rappel above it.

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At the end of the canyon Nepalese kids were playing in the water and bathing.

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