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TIBET: KAMA CHU and KHARTA VALLEY TREK and FRIENDSHIP HIGHWAY TIBET May, 2019 PART 1 by WILLIAM D BOEHM

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TIBET: KAMA CHU and KHARTA VALLEY TREK and FRIENDSHIP HIGHWAY TIBET May, 2019 PART 1 by WILLIAM D BOEHM TIBET: KAMA CHU AND KHARTA VALLEY TREK AND FRIENDSHIP HIGHWAY TIBET May, 2019 PART 1 BY WILLIAM D BOEHM Above: Makalu, Chom Oyu left, Mt Everest and Lhotse right from Langma La; Bottom: I am at 5000 m at Shaola la pass and Makalu in the background Tibet: a land of mystery and remarkably tough nomadic tribes who depend upon their yaks for sustenance and endure bitter cold and high altitudes. The Himalayas and Everest lay at its southern edge with the third greatest area of snow and icefields in the world other than the north and south poles. The landscape of Tibet encompasses both the largest and highest plateau in the world that supports wildlife that includes white lipped deer, antelope, kiang, wild Above: Shishapangma peak 8,027 m/ 26,335 ft Himalaya Range from friendship highway, Tibet; Kiang (Tibetan ass), Tibetan gaxelle; Bottom: Fort Gyantse, Tibetan nomad, Rt: Tingri Horseman 2002 (H Jans) yak, wolves, brown bear and the snow leopard. The Tibetan mountains and plains attracted me over the years, having heard about its immense beauty and isolation. My explorations over the decades has included remote wilderness areas on most continents except China and Antarctica, and I have been privileged to have experienced God’s incredible creation and diversity of cultures. I have especially enjoyed the beauty and tranquility of the mountains, having shared with my father as a youth many trips into the Washington Cascades and climbed many summits. Over the years that desire for adventure extended beyond Washington State into Alaska, and British Columbia as a young man, then the Peruvian Andes, the mountains of Uganda and Tanzania, the arctic, and finally the Himalayas of Nepal. Only recently I have explored the Hengduan Range of Yunnan and Sichuan China, but had yet to explore the more mysterious side of the Himalayan peaks facing the Tibetan Plateau, including Mt Everest and Makalu, Shishapangma, and Gang Benchen. Tibet is still a land of mystery and unique culture for westerners, an expansive area that extends north from the remote foothills of the Himalaya Range to the Taklamakan Desert, known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, a vast elevated desert in Central Asia and East Asia. This vast and mysterious wilderness covers most of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Qinghai in western China, and Ladakh, India. I planned to explore both the edge and central area of the Tibetan Plateau this year: the remote Kharta and Kama Valleys immediately northwest of Makalu and Mt Everest, then the source wetlands of Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve in Qinghai plateau of the major rivers in South Asia including the Yangtze and Mekong, and finally eastern Kham, the Hengduan mountains and unexplored forests that extend from Yunnan, China into Tibet. The Tibetan Plateau lies in the rain shadow of the 2,500 kilometres (1,600 mi) east-west length of the Himalayan Range, and extends approximately 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) north. It is bordered to the south by imposing mountain ranges that include the world's two highest summits, Mount Everest 8858 m (29,029 feet) and K2 8,611 m (28,251 ft). The Tibetan Plateau is called "the Roof of the World" because it rises almost 3 miles (4.8 km) above sea level. It is the world's highest and largest plateau, with an average elevation exceeding 4,500 meters (14,800 ft) and with an area of 2,500,000 square kilometres (970,000 sq. mi) nearly the size of western Europe. Nicknamed the ‘third pole’, Tibet holds the third largest store of water and ice Tibetan Plateau from space with the Himalayan Range bottom, and Hengduan Mountain Range bottom right Above: Mt Everest (Tibetan Chomolungma) 8,848 m/29,029 ft; Bottom: Gang Benchhen 7299 m/23946 ft near Paiku Co lake Tibet from Friendship Highway near Nepal Border in the world following the Arctic and Antarctic poles. With an abundance of lakes, rivers, and glaciers within this dry terrain, there is an immensity of the region’s water resources. Six of Asia’s biggest rivers originate from wetlands of Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve, including the Lacang Jiang or Mekong, the Chang Jiang or Yangtze, the Indus, and the Brahmaputra or Yarlung Tsampo (jiang). The Hengduan mountains in SW China lie immediately east of the Himalaya arcing from east west towards Yunnan and Sichuan north south, and connect the southeast portions of the Tibetan Plateau with the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau Grassland ecosystems, including the Tibetan Plateau, are sustained within the rain shadow of mountain ranges world-wide, supporting a wealth of megafaunal wildlife. I am familiar with the Serengeti of Africa, the great plains of the North American continent, the altiplano of South America, and the north slope of Alaska, areas that still, or once supported vast great herds. The North American prairie for example supported 60 million bison in the late 1700’s, and large populations of pronghorn antelope, elk, and bighorn sheep along with their predators: wolf and grizzly bear. I had yet to visit the Tibetan plateau where there are similarities, only additionally species of antelope and Kiang or Tibetan ass, where bison are replaced by wild yak. The remote Tibetan plateau varies from cold semi-arid desert to steppe grasslands, and like the North American Prairie, is a grazing ecosystem that supports a unique assemblage of wildlife. Wild yaks are still found in large herds, great concentrations of Tibetan antelope and Tibetan gazelle continue to migrate between their winter pastures and summer fawning grounds, and herds of wild ass are found from the edge of the Himalayan grasslands across the steppes. The Ruddy shelduck, black-necked crane, guldenstadt's redstart Below: Tibetan gazelle, white lipped deer, kiang Argali sheep, Tibetan fox, Bharal sheep, Tibetan wolf (K ross) mountains support blue sheep, argali sheep, and white-lipped and Tibet red deer. And predators include the Tibetan wolf, brown bear, and snow leopard that prey on these large mammals. I desired to explore both mountains and grasslands in my visits to Tibet. The Tibetan plateau covers such a vast area that it has a major impact on the climate of central Asia due to its landmass at a high elevation. Here the atmospheric pressure is 50% less than at sea-level, and the arid climate has few clouds conducive to strong solar heating. A large landmass area of low pressure is formed due to strong heating, resulting in low pressure created by air uplift which draws moist air inland off the Indian Ocean, giving rise to the Asian and Indian summer monsoon systems. In others words solar heating and high altitude drives the atmospheric climatic conditions of Central Asia. In contrast, winters are dry and cold as winds blow out of central Asia under the influence of the Siberian high-pressure area, reversing the atmospheric currents towards India and Myanmar. The annual cycles of summer monsoon are an atmospheric response to seasonal changes in thermal heating between land and ocean. Phung Chu River, source of the Arun River in Nepal at Youluocun village jct kharta R. A water gap through the Himalayas that is theorized to be formed following post flood; Below: north side from same position Everest and Himalayas Gyatso La (Lhakpa La) 5200m Left to Right Makalu, Everest, rt Gyachung Kang 7952 m 26089 ft and Cho Oyu 8188 m/ 26863 ft highest mountains in the world, where warm monsoon clouds thread north through the Arun River, penetrating the normally cold, dry valleys and permitting lush temperate forest. Little of the summer monsoon rain penetrates north of the Himalayan Range at the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau with the exception of a few river water gaps, creating a massive rain-shadow effect. The Plateau is extreme dry with a total annual precipitation of about 100- 300 mm (3.0 -11.8 inches) that is driest in the north, forming a harsh landscape of mainly high- altitude steppe, semi-desert, and desert. As the monsoon effect decreases further north, climate becomes drier and the vegetation becomes steppe and to the north steppe-desert. Exceptions include two water gaps that include Yarlung Tsangpo of eastern Kham that flows between Namche Barwha 7782 m (25,524 ft) and Gyala Peri 7,294-metre (23,930 ft) forming the deepest canyon in the world, and the Phung chu River and Kharta River between Makalu 8,485 meters (27,838 ft) and Kangchenjunga 8,586 m (28,169 ft) massifs the fifth and third highest mountains in the world, where warm monsoon clouds thread north through the Arun River, penetrating the normally cold, dry valleys and permitting lush temperate forest growth. Lying within the rain shadow or lee side of the Himalayan Range, the Tibetan plateau is lacking in rain and oxygen at 50% atmospheric pressure, and battered by desiccating winds, blistering daytime heat in the summer with exposure to high ultraviolet radiation, and sub-zero temperatures at night and in the winter, an unforgiving high-altitude ecosystem. The mountain air is bitterly cold at night and for the scattered population of nomadic herders. The Plateau has been subject to human activity and associated yak grazing for the past several thousand years, which as negatively impacted wildlife populations. Yaks are the primary source of protein, fuel from their dried dung, and for plowing and working barley fields in the south. They are worth $600-4100USD per animal. Nomads protect themselves with the hand sling, made from yak hair that are the same design as King David used to slay Goliath. Dry air and increased respiration due to altitude and inversion make dehydration a real threat and a necessity to drink water.
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