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LANGTANG LAMENT

Only a memory now

By Nepali Times

May 14^th, 2015

before

The Swiss have always had a great affinity for Langtang, ever since a yak cheese factory was established there in 1955, which is still running. I first trekked to Langtang via Sundarijal and Gosainkunda in 1975 when I came to Nepal to work for Swiss Development Cooperation.

Langtang Village with its stone houses, carved wooden windows and shingle roofs was bucolic, the villagers had all taken their yaks to high pasture since it was summer. In Kyangjin, the cheesemaker proudly gave me a slice of hard yak cheese to taste, cut from a disc that would be carried over Ganja La to Kathmandu. That night we set up our tents on a flat meadow, the mountains glowed in starlight.

Photos of Langtang village taken in 2013 by Fritz Berger.

When I went back there in 2013, there were 40 new lodges in Kyangjin and many more in Langtang Village. There were more than 300 trekkers in Langtang that autumn, and the locals were busy, and the cheesemaker was happy to announce that there was shortage of cheese.

I appreciated Langtang not just for the scenery and the warm hospitality of the people but also for the enormous biodiversity of the pristine Langtang National Park that goes from sub-tropical to bamboo groves, the birch and rhododendron trees alive with red pandas, and then the coniferous forests, the alpine meadows and the Arctic desert of the mountains.

Few visitors go to the other side of Langtang River from Kyanjin to enjoy several small lakes with crystal blue water reflecting the fluted ridges of Gang Chhenpo in the distance. I still cannot believe that the village is gone, but Langtang is still there and so is the indomitable spirit of the people of this incredible holy valley who will rebuild their lives and heritage.

Fritz Berger

during

A joyous day turns to pure terror

Kyangjin Gompa village after an avalanche triggered by the earthquake destroyed half of the houses there. Aymeric Clouet

25 April 2015 will remain in my mind forever. I thought it was the end for me, my pregnant wife, Pauline, and our two-year-old daughter, Margaux. It started well that Saturday morning in Langtang. It was Pauline’s birthday and we were together with our little family, waiting for the fourth one to come.

My friend Colin and I put on our cross-country skis and left the lodge owned by my Nepali friend, Gyalbu. We crossed Kyangjin Gompa village (3860m) and went down the bridge leading to Ganja La on the other side.

The weather wasn’t that great, the snow hadn’t frozen enough, and I hadn’t slept well. So we went back to our rooms. Around 11.30AM, Margaux proudly gave her mum a bracelet we had bought together in the village. She’s only two and we were at 3800m: I’m proud of my daughter.

A few minutes later, Colin joined us in the main room of the lodge. It was great to start an expedition in Nepal in such a serene atmosphere: with a friend and my family all welcomed into Gyalbu’s lodge.

Just before noon, the ground started shaking. We had enough time to understand that it was an earthquake. “Everybody out!” I grabbed Margaux and rushed outside. The quake became stronger, and we jumped over the terrace to get away from everything that could crumble upon us.

Stones were falling from the walls and we wondered which building was going to collapse first. All the villagers were out, there was a terrible commotion. As the shaking stopped, we heard a loud scream. A monstrous snow cloud burst out of the fog from above the moraine. We were already sprinting in the opposite direction.

I looked back, the avalanche was already upon us. We couldn’t race it. I took shelter behind a house and protected my daughter. Dirty snow was falling on us, my daughter started to cry. The walls were not able to resist the shockwave. I put my polar fleece over Margaux’s head so she wouldn‘t choke in the blowing snow. I was wondering where Pauline and Colin were.

I have seen avalanches before but nothing as big and powerful as this one.

The snow stopped blowing, I have seen avalanches before but nothing as big and powerful as this one. Margaux had ‘snow dreadlocks‘ in her hair. I got rid of the snow so she wouldn‘t get sick. Pauline came out of the crowd, she was safe but she was covered in snow.

I wanted to take Pauline and Margaux to a safe area so they would be protected from another avalanche. There was still mist all around us. We were away from the cliffs below Langtang Lirung, and I hoped Kyangjin Ri should have protected us, but it was hard to tell where it would be the safest.

Colin was still missing, and I went to look for him leaving Pauline and Margaux sheltered under a makeshift tent, made of plank, tarpaulins and bed covers from a devastated hotel.

Colin had apparently ran towards the slope below the village. I reached the edge of the slope but the fog prevented me from seeing below. I think I called out for Colin.

I found Nepalis helping each other climb up the slope. There was one with a bleeding head due to a scalp wound. Another one was lying with his body contorted and head down, no one was helping him. He was unconscious, and moaning when I tried to wake him up, he seemed to be in pain. Then I saw Colin slowly walking towards us, painfully climbing up the slope.

The village was not there anymore. Half of the houses had disappeared.

We carried the wounded back to the village. I couldn‘t believe what was happening, It took a few minutes to turn a joyous day into pure terror. We reached the ledge overlooking Langtang Village, and couldn’t believe our eyes. The village was not there anymore. Half of the houses had disappeared.

The ground was still shaking, and we were worried that there would be another avalanche. What if it happened at night? We wouldn‘t be able to see anything. The aftershocks came through the night, but no avalanche.

This lasted three days but it seemed like eternity. We left, but many of our Nepali friends are still there. There were more landslides and avalanches, and the Tuesday aftershock must have made it worse.

While waiting for rescuers we learnt that Langtang Village, only two hours on foot from Kyanjin, had been wiped off the map. All those living in Kyanjin are originally from Langtang, many of their families were perished.

After travelling for 24 hours, we found ourselves safe and sound in our own house in France. The memories make it hard to sleep. Our only wish is to try to help the people of Nepal the best we can.

Aymeric Clouet

after

“I had never seen an avalanche like this”

After details of the full horror of the avalanche in Langtang started trickling out a few days after the 25 April earthquake, a specialised team of Spanish mountain rescuers with sniffer dogs and forensic experts arrived in Kathmandu, and immediately took helicopters to this scenic valley 40km north of the capital.

What they saw on 2 May was a scene of utter devastation, an entire village of about 500 people had been buried under 100m of boulders, mud and ice. A huge chunk of the Langtang Lirung Glacier had broken off at 6,000m, bulldozing through the moraines and tumbling over a cliff to the settlement below.

Shock waves preceding the avalanche of thousands of tons of ice and rock falling 3km straight down had blown away dozens of houses with people in them. Such was the force of the blast that it flattened a forest on the other side of the Valley.

“I thought I had seen everything everywhere. I have been to a lot of disasters, but I have never seen an avalanche like this,” Fernando Rivero Diaz of the mountain rescue team of the Spanish Guardia Civil told us on Saturday before flying back home.

Spanish rescue workers with sniffer dogs look for bodies on what's left of Langtang village on 4 May.

The team made 12 sorties from Kathmandu in dawn-to-dusk search and rescue, but it was obvious that the village with everyone in it had been wiped off the map. The mission turned into retrieval and identification of the bodies of some of the hundreds of villagers and trekkers. Some 50 tourists are still missing, and the Spanish team could find only two of the bodies of the eight Spanish trekkers in Langtang.

Many of the photographs taken by the Spanish team are too gruesome to be shown, and there is a video of the dogs barking through the buried roof of what used to be a trekking lodge. Some of the victims had been blown right across to the opposite mountainside, the shock waves having torn the flesh away leaving only skeletal remains.

“This was a multidimensional crisis, we had to do search and rescue, forensic identification, evacuate the wounded and the survivors and get them on flights out of Kathmandu,” explained Spain’s ambassador to India and Nepal, Gustavo de Aristegui who was in Kathmandu for the past two weeks to direct the operation. “We are grateful to the Nepal Army, the Indians and the Chinese. We are just saddened that it wasn’t possible to find all the remains.”

This week, the Nepal Army evacuated remaining families from Kyangjin, which is threatened by more landslides and avalanches following aftershocks. Settlements along the narrow gorges of the Langtang River near Ghoda Tabela and Lama Hotel, which were hit by avalanches and rockfalls have also been taken to Dhunche.

Kunda Dixit

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