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Ski the Roof of the World Update

Monday, 18 February 2008 00:00

With less than 3 weeks before we fly to China it has typically reached 'manic' stage with gear strewn everywhere, emails and Skype calls flying back and fore between Australia, New Zealand, UK and China, lists made and remade and not enough training done amongst it all. We actually fly to Beijing on March 7th then follow that with a flight across China to Kashgar via Urumqi.

One of the beauties of this journey are the large unknown elements. Reaching our mountain range, finding a route through it at those hefty altitudes of 6000-6500 metres and finding a way back to the lonely track that snakes it's way into Western Tibet. Another element has added to the uncertainties in recent weeks. As some of you may have read, China is experiencing its worst winter for over 50 years. Huge snowfalls have blanketed much of the country, millions have experienced food shortages and I even read last week that China had lost 10% of it's forests to the extreme conditions. We have been trying to ascertain how the snowfalls have affected the far west of China, the far west of Tibet. These words were received from our Chinese agent last week:

'Yesterday I call Kashgar to find out about the road condition from Yecheng to Aksay Qin , the news is that the main road is still open but very difficult and risk becuase of the heavy snow , and the new snow is still falling , the snow in the plateau is about 1 m deep , and it is impossibleto drive out of the main road ,in this case we have no way to get close even to Aksay Qin .according to the weather forecast it will be snowing till the end of Feb .So I need urgently disccuss with you to put off the expedition till middle of May . sorry for the bad news but I must tell you the road and weather condition at the movment . maybe it is very late to make this decision but no one can contral the weather and we never had so much snow in Xinjiang this winter in Feb . hope you can Urgently talk with your friends and tell your decision as soon as possible !!!'

So it appears that even the bitterly cold but usually snow free high altitude Tibetan Plateau (approx 5000metres) is now under a metre or more of snow. As you may recall our plan was to drive onto the plateau, leave the track where it came closest to the mountain range, our objective, and drive as far as the (normally) frozen surface would allow. From there we would haul gear, using wheels on our sleds if necessary, to the mountain snows. It is obvious that, even if the road is open, conditions will prevent any 'off the road' driving. We are likely to have to ski from the track the 100km to the range, find a way up the glaciers commencing our primary objective to traverse eastwards along the high mountain range for 200km. Should we make it we then need to find our way back another 100km to the track. The added complication here is that if Spring has arrived, rather than just slowly thawing frozen earth, it will first melt the snow topping. This could result in large quantities of meltwater swelling the creeks and rivers which may prove very difficult barriers between ourselves and the relative sanctuary of the track. The suggestion from our Agent to 'put off the expedition till middle of May' is, we believe, a non starter. By then the plateau country will likely be one large quagmire of snowmelt mitigating against both approaching the mountains and returning from them.

In summary we may find ourselves having to ski/walk some 400km instead of the possible 200-300km originally envisaged and we would have to set off with the full 40-50 days worth of food/fuel from the start. The chances of success of this committing journey were always never a given (as no mountain journey ever is) but we will certainly face additional challenges now. But hey, even more skiing which is why we are there!