Bryan Crosby Dot Ca » trekking

Margo Carter – Queen’s of Tiger Leaping Gorge II

Bryan — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:46:35 +0000

A few weeks ago I wrote a post regarding the passing of Margo Carter, a long time Australian resident of Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province, China. I received some email feedback and have been asked to post the following.

I read with great interest the comments on running into Margo Carter, the Australian woman who moved to Tiger Leaping Gorge about ten years ago, ran a cafe at the start of the Gorge and became a life partner with Sean, a Tibetan who runs the Sean’s Guest House in the center of the gorge.

The comments that Margo was eccentric, or rude, seem so totally out of place with our experience, and thus I thought I should relate our tale. Mel and I met Margo in March 2009. I had heard about the great trek through the gorge and was very excited to do it. Mel (the more cautious half of our team) was a bit apprehensive because it was unclear from the maps and our reading, what we would do if we found the hike too hard and wanted to quit mid way (it actually is quite easy as you can always walk downhill to the road and hitch-hike back).

At any rate, when we arrived at the Gorge we ran into Margo…I told her of my desire to hike the entire gorge and sleep overnight on the trail… Mel on the other had mentioned his apprehension. She said "no problem" – I can help you both… and proceeded to offer to accompany us for two to three days (at an exceptionally modest fee) and be our guide. So the three of us took a taxi to Sean’s guest house, in the middle of the gorge, where we had a wonderful night in relatively luxury surroundings. We all ate at Sean’s by the campfire, and enjoyed meeting many other travelers and learning a bit about the gorge history. It was a delightful experience. The next day we took off on our trek. She was an interesting woman who had moved from Australia to explore China, and fell in love with the natural environment and decided to stay.

During our two days together we traded tales, and she was very accommodating to walk and talk at our pace. We stayed overnight at another guest house, enjoyed a fresh chicken stew (the chicken was killed in front of us) and continued on the next morning. Margo was opinionated… she did not like the commercialization of the gorge nor the fact that she saw many locals trying to take advantage of visitors. However our experience was that she eluded kindness, sensitivity, and had a keen intellect.

We continued to communicate when we returned home, and were shocked when a few months later we heard about the accident. The details were always very sketchy, and disturbing. I have a great picture of Margo, which I’d like to send you… so let me know how I can do it, and hopefully you will post it on your site. I’d like to promote in her memory the kindness she showed us during the few days we were together.

Diane Drey & Mel Winokur New Jersey, USA

Sean Xia (夏山泉), Diane Dey, Margo Carter, Mel Winokur – Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan 2009. Margo Carter & Diane Dey – Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan 2009

I was just as surprised to receive an email from Ms. Dey (as well as Mr. Xia).

It was never my intention to offend, disrespect or instigate sadness among anyone. I wrote largely based on my memories of my brief time in the Gorge three years ago. The above description is more fitting.

Technorati Tags: china, margo carter, tiger leaping gorge, travel, trekking, walnut grove, yunnan

Margo – Queen of Tiger Leaping Gorge

Bryan — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:12:01 +0000

Sometimes my RSS feed tosses a news morsel my way. Today is was a piece regarding the passing of an apparent fixture on the Yunnan backpacking circuit.

Via In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock

His group were surprised – to say the least – to be passed by a lone western woman traveling at speed (alone, that is, except for her dog and a local guide with a horse, left trailing well to the rear) and they noted that she was only lightly clad for the trail. Not only that, but they were taken aback by how rude she was to the trekking group, refusing to talk with them at all during their brief encounter on the trail.

Things got stranger later in the day when they saw her again and she chose to camp alongside them, but again was uncommunicative. That was until she started saying that she would ‘turn them in’ to the local authorities and warning them that they would be turned back at local police checkpoints further up the Salween (Nujiang) valley and the local Tibetans would shun them. The group were un-nerved by her unfriendly and bizarre behaviour (she would only talk to them in Chinese at one point) and her apparent threats.

Margo left early the next day and they never saw her again. In fact, they were some of the last people to see her alive.

…Margo’s body was found several weeks later at a large tree near the Shuo-La pass, and the Yunnan PSB are now investigating the case. It appears likely that she simply underestimated the harsh conditions of the trek and the difficulty of the terrain that she would encounter.

I ran into this woman, Margo, when I trekked Tiger Leaping Gorge in the summer of 2007. It was about halfway to Walnut Grove, about 2/3 way through the gorge. She was leading this motley crue of travelers with a mixture of backpacks and suitcase on a Intrepid tour through the gorge. Intrepid Travel is a company that organizes tours at the grass-roots level, largely utilizing public transit options and accommodations. I’ve kind of viewed Intrepid tours as traveling for people who want the independent experience but are too afraid to do it themselves.

I recall thinking to myself…”Who the hell is this woman and how’d she end up here?” She looked like she was in her 50’s, but was dressed like she was in her 20’s and blabbed away like she was the encyclopedia of all things China…in the loud, obnoxious way. She also had a rather ‘in-your-face’ condescending approach when talking to locals and to travelers. The kind of approach that makes one wince and think “I’m not with this person…” I attributed it too eating too many gorge mushrooms.

Exiting the gorge, one had three options…trek back the same way, take a taxi back (the road was washed out at the time) or trek out the backside, take a ferry across the river and hope that there is a bus/tax on the other side. I opted for the ferry because I don’t like retracing my steps, however there was concern about transportation on the other side, so I cut a deal with the tour leader (a former American ESL teacher, I believe) to tag along on the bus they had arranged on the other side of the ferry that would take everyone back to Lijiang. Margo was along for the whole ride. It’s been awhile since this trek, so I can’t remember too many details, other than the tour leader shaking her head and lamenting simultaneously about the many, many problems she was having with her tour group and how outrageously embarrassing this Margo woman was.

I remember after I did that trip and I would hear of other people traveling through Yunnan and up to Tiger Leaping I would always say “yeah, you’ll probably meet this weird Aussie woman when you trek the gorge…it makes the trip even more interesting!”.

Highly eccentric/weird people who choose this sort of life are in a way, sort of timeless and part of the cultural landscape of the region. Cringe? Yes…but they make life interesting. Besides, if one wants to be a modern village/city/town in China these days, you’ll need your foreign loonies.

I was thinking to myself, “oh yeah, I probably have a travel post archived somewhere about the time I met this incredibly odd foreigner in the middle of Tiger Leaping Gorge”. So I searched around…and searched again…and found out that not only do I not have a post about that interesting trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge, I can’t seem to find any record of any of that summer 2007 trip from Kunming to Kathmandu. To be honest, I can’t remember if I even wrote anything. I just assumed that I just did given that it was a trip that fulfilled many, many of my adolescent travel goals. But, it seems I didn’t…and I’m kind of down about that. I’ve got stuff from my time in Mongolia and Japan to Europe and India…but nothing about South East Asia either. Bummer.

I was traveling with my friend who maintained this beautiful written travel journal complete with doodles, glued-on business cards, flora/fauna and other tidbits of travel memorabilia. Granted, she was an artist, and had a knack for the creative, but I’m quite jealous.

Technorati Tags: blog, china, margo, tiger leaping gorge, travel, trekking, walnut grove, yunnan

Triund – India – August 2009

Bryan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:07:11 +0000

Triund is seasonal pasture land located about 1000m above Mcleod Ganj and is where I spent six days just wandering around the surrounding hills, meadows and valleys, eating Maggie and drinking too much instant coffee. Initially, I was planning to trek Indrahar Pass but decided that I would rather spend my last few days in India in laid-back leisure rather than in hard-core trek. One can see Indrahar Pass in the photo below…it sits between the two peaks in the background…the steepness of this route takes the term “pass” to the next level. The weather was also being unpredictable and I wasn’t keen on being stranded on some mountain slope with a flight leaving Delhi in 7 days. I did climb halfway up the pass to a ‘cave’ that one would set up camp in should they wish to attempt the pass.

Looking down into the Indian plains. The urban area directly below is Dharamsala and the reservoir on the hazy horizon is NOT the Sardar Sarovar Project, but I’m sure it has all of the same problems (inside joke for my SURP 811 peeps).

Not a Swiss girl in sight.

Triund pasture has a few tea houses selling typical trekking staples, renting out tents and selling beer (which is apparently illegal as they are not licensed). Most people will hike up for the day, with some venturing a bit further into the hills and then returning to Triund for the night before heading down to Mcleod Ganj. I liked it so much, I just stayed in my tent and ate at the Tea Houses…I don’t think I’ve ever lived that cheaply before. New groups of people would come up each night which made for a variety of interesting campfire conversations.

I broke my camera just before Triund and because being up there without some sort of camera was not an option, I dropped my stuff and blasted back down to Mcleod Ganj and picked up my old point-and-shoot Olympus (which these photos are a product of) and went back up to Triund the next morning. Unfortunately, the SD card on the Olympus became corrupted and 75% of the photos I took are unreadable…these were the only ones that I managed to salvage.
Triund Teahouse.From Triund there are great day hikes further into the hills. The most common is up to the ‘snow-line’ which is about an hour above Triund. From there one may continue further toward Indrahar Pass or explore one of the other surrounding valleys or hills. Snowline pasture below. he remnants of an old guesthouse. Apparently 10 years ago this area was at the snout of a now deceased glacier.
Trail marker for Indrahar Pass.
Moving up toward the Indrahar Pass cave. It’s not really a cave, but rather a massive sloping rock one can take shelter under.

Last day at Triund. Amazing sunsets, nightscapes, full moons and the occasional full rainbow at 3000m. This wasn’t the last photo of India that I took (I have some crappy mobile phone shots from Chandigarh) but I like to think it is.

Northern India – 2009 :-)

Technorati Tags: camping, climbing, dharmasala, india, indrahar pass, mcleod ganj, photography, photos, tents, trekking, triund

Stok Kangri IV

Bryan — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:22:38 +0000

Morning on the final day.

Heading back down with the help of gravity.

Looking back.

Back to Stok.

6121m – a new altitude record for me.

Technorati Tags: ladakh, leh, mountaineering, photography, photos, stok kangri, tired, travel, trekking

Stok Kangri I – August 2009

Bryan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:19:04 +0000

6121m above and behind the picturesque village of Stok is Stok Kangri and the main reason I ventured into this part of the world. I like culture, but I prefer views. On a good day the summit offers vies of Mt. Kailash in the TAR and K2 in Pakistan.

Initially, I was going to attempt this solo (and in retrospect, I am completely confident that I would have had no problem) but given the lack of information regarding the ascent and uncertainties regarding routes/food I opted to go with a 4-day supported expedition through one of the agencies. I like carrying my stuff myself, but given the height of this bad boy, I felt that having donkeys pack the stuff wouldn’t be that bad of an idea…real expeditions never carry their own stuff anyways :-p

For about $225 myself and a British fellow received two guides, donkeys, food and cooking services for 4 days. I received a discount given I had my own equipment.

Two days to base camp, followed by an epic 10 hour summit attempt beginning at 1am, and then one day down to Stok. The following photos are from the first day.

Stok Village and the Indus Valley can be seen in the extreme distance.

Another group returning to Stok. Could be either from Stok Kangri or one of several other treks that conclude in at Stok.

Some kind of shelter.

The Stok Kangri approach is extremely dry and rocky with little vegetation.

First camp at about 4200m asl.

Technorati Tags: climbing, india, kashmir, ladakh, mountaineering, photography, stok kangri, trekking

Nepal Photography III

Bryan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:35:21 +0000

I’ve placed several more base camp photo groups in the gallery. These ones will take you right up and into the Nepalese Base Camp. I was extremely lucky to have this opportunity as it is not common to have expeditions in camp during this time, nor is it common for trekkers to be allowed into such expeditions should they be present. However, it was still pre-trekking season (which officially begins on October 1st of each year) and this expedition was particularly special and particularly well-funded. 2007 was the King of Thailand’s 80th birthday and in an effort to commemorate this occasion, Thailand was mounting their first ever expedition to put a Thai national on the top of Everest. Apparently the climb was being documented as part of a Thai reality TV program (I was interviewed by the Thai network broadcasting from the base-camp. Nothing spectacular – I was just asked to say a few words of encouragement to the team and to Thailand.

Not only were we permitted to enter the camp, but we also had coffee, tea, biscuits and snickers forced down us in the mess tent. Again, I was a bit star-struck by all of the climbing power present at this camp and didn’t have that many unique questions for the climbing Sherpas. I exchanged emails with a Thai climber who informed me that there were 12 of them (each with 2 Sherpas) and that they were hoping to summit within the next few weeks. He promised a summit photo. I received an email from him in January 2008.

Hello Bryan Crosby.

We comeback to Thailand after no summit Everest because Weather not good.We go on Everest to 8000 m.Weather forcast is -50 c and wind 110 km/h. It not good Ohhh….I have picture you and girlfriend too. I’m send to you after day.

Good Luck Too.

Carina and I were somewhat of an enigma to most locals and probably pretty much everyone. We met one another in Lhasa through a mutual friend and had been travelled together through Tibet and into Nepal. In addition to Everest, we also trekked the Annapurna Sanctuary. Most locals thought were were either married or at the least a couple but you could sense their confusion regarding our interaction which didn’t exactly suggest a romantic relationship (we always paid seperate, for example).

“Who the hell are these two? They must be a couple…but they sure don’t act like it….”

Despite large numbers of tourists, Nepal appears to remain rather traditional regarding male-female relations. The guys seem to hang out with guys and the ladies with other ladies. Platonic relationships are most likely rare.

I don’t want to come off as arrogant…but then next batch of Everest photos will blow you socks off ;-)

Technorati Tags: annapurna, base camp, everest, mountaineering, nepal, photography, sherpa, thailand, trekking

Nepal Photography

Bryan — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:43:19 +0000

The total gallery count is up to 2153 photos. This number only includes half of my Nepalese photos and none of the shots I took this past winter in Southeast Asia. By the time I get those up the count will most likely be pushing 3000.

New additions from my time on the Tibet/Nepal border, Kathmandu, the lake side town of Pokhara and trekking into the Annapurna Sanctuary.

Side note on the previous post regarding the Greenland Financial Center. I was browsing a local real estate magazine today at lunch and leases for this location are starting at 18000RMB/square meter. That’s about 2570 USD/square meter, for something you don’t really own.

Technorati Tags: annapurna sanctuary, greenland plaza, kathmandu, nepal, photography, trekking