Journey through Tibet

A swim on any of these rivers is unacceptable

Photos

By Phil Boyer

After arriving home from Tibet and having a chance to reflect on my trip, I came to realize what an amazing adventure we had kayaking and exploring a land that has just begun to open up to foreign travel.

I spent about a month in Tibet traveling with Mariann Seather, Tyler Curtis, Simon Hirter, David Gore, Marcus Gacond, Lucas Wielatt, and our guide Jed Weingarten.

Our trip began in Lhasa Tibet after we were picked up by Dorje and Pasang our cook and driver. They work for Wind Horse Travel and were awesome at getting us where we needed to go and keeping us fed. Jed Weingarten was our kayak guide and I cannot say enough about him. He is a guides’ guide. Between the three of them we were well taken care of.

The elevation:
While in Tibet, our elevation stayed between 8,000 and 17,000’ and took some getting used to. We stayed in Lhasa for a few days to acclimate to the elevation, since it was hard to climb the stairs of our hotel for the first few days without getting out of breath. The elevation of Lhasa is near 12,000’ so this is a great place to acclimate and explore.

Whether you are kayaking, scouting, or portaging the thin air makes it much harder to move around in a safe manner. Moving at a slower pace was not only necessary but mandatory, and that going at a fast pace would not only zap your energy level but could also make you very light headed. As we all know, being tired and light headed while on or near a river is very dangerous.

When I kayak at these elevations it is very important to not only concentrate on my line in the rapid, but to also increase my focus on breathing. I would try to take as many full breaths as possible while in the rapid, and when I would get into an eddy or to the bottom of the rapid I would sit and take huge deep full breaths trying to get as much oxygen back into my lungs as possible. This was a big help in keeping my energy level up so I could continue on downstream without being exhausted as well as speeding up the recovery time of my muscles.

Not only does the thin air take its toll, but the temperatures we had were downright cold. We would wake up in the mornings to frozen gear with fresh snow only a few hundred feet above us, and the rivers all flowed out of glacial lakes with a cold stiff wind blowing upstream. We all wore dry suits and on some days I would wear two to three layers of fleece underneath the dry suit. The extra gear made it harder to paddle and portage but was totally necessary. I give thanks to modern technology for my warmth on the river.

Our highest put-in was nearly 13,000’ and the lowest was around 8,500’. I found it amazing how good my body felt when we would boat a river at the lower elevations. It was much easier to breath and my body would recover at a much faster rate. I actually felt strong again.

The Mountains:
As we all know, when we think of Tibet we think of mountains rising above us. Well we were not disappointed. After a few days of rain and wondering if we would ever see the mountains of Tibet we were very excited to wake up to blue skies and snow capped peaks rising for thousands of feet above us. We knew we had finally arrived. My neck hurt from looking up at the mountains all of the time. Wherever we looked we saw mountains covered in snow. This is a photographers dream. You could hear the cameras clicking away and the sounds of awe coming from the group.

Being in Tibet in the fall not only gave us the snow covered mountains but also the changing colors of the trees. The Aspens, Cottonwoods and Birch trees changing colors created a beautiful contrast to the white of the snow just a few hundred feet above. As luck would have it, we had clear skies and a full moon while camping out at Rawu lake.
We could see for miles that night. With the mountains around us and a great camp fire burning we all realized how fortunate we were to be in this part of the world.
The mountains of Tibet are incredible and the only true way to grasp their beauty is to travel among them.

The People:
The Tibetan people and diverse cultures is unlike anything I have experienced in my travels around the world. As we traveled across the country we were able to see the Nomads of the high plains, the Farmers in the villages deep in the river canyons, the Monks living in monasteries and the Pilgrams traveling to Lhasa.

The first Nomads we saw were living at an elevation of about 16,000’ in tents made of wool from the Yak. The Yak is a large bovine which lives at elevations above 13,000’ and is the primary food source for the nomads. They will use their herd for food, milk, cheese, (fun to try but need an acquired taste) butter and meat (yak meet is great), clothing spinning the wool into clothes and the tents in which they live, and using the skin for shoes, and bedding materials. The Nomads will follow the herd around picking up the Yak dung and stacking it into large piles. After the dung dries they will burn for heat and cooking. Their tents are portable so they can move to different pieces of land in search of more food for their herd. In the winter months the Nomads will move to a lower elevation until the spring thaw.

We had the opportunity to visit two Monasteries. The first one was the Sera monastery in Lhasa and is one of the biggest in Tibet. We were there during the Monks’ debate. During the debate the less experienced monks will sit on the ground while the more experienced will stand in front of them asking questions. If the question is answered correctly the standing monk will take a step forward and slap his hands together palm to palm in agreement, if the answer is incorrect the standing monk will slap his hands together top of hand to palm. The most amazing part about the debate was that there were a couple of hundred monks debating in different groups throughout the main plaza of the monastery.

The second monastery was small and on the shore of the Parlung Tsangpo. We were given a tour of the main hall by one of the Monks and were able to take some great photos of the inside. The energy I felt in the monasteries was very powerful and peaceful.

The Pilgrams are the most amazing of all. These are Buddhists who are on a journey of for some several thousand kilometers to Lhasa, Tibet to visit the Jokan. The Jokan is considered to most sacred of all buildings in Tibet. The journey for the pilgrims is not easy, they are not walking or driving to Lhasa, but they are prostrating the entire way. Prostrating is a way of praying to the higher power and is not easy. The Pilgram will lie down face down with their arms stretched out above their heads then they will rise to their feet face up to the sky then they will step to the point of which their heads rested on the ground and begin all over again. This is done through out their entire journey in all types of weather and over all passes. Sometimes they will travel in groups with a cart carrying all of their gear for the journey and they will trade off pulling the cart then walking back to begin prostrations. The pilgrims need to protect their body from wear and tear so they will wear wraps over their shoes either made of wood, metal, or tire treads that they found, the same for their hands and torso.

We chatted with a pilgram one evening and he was saying how much pain his body was in, and he had another 800 km. to go.

Once in Lhasa they will prostrate around the Jokan then visit inside of the Jokan before either returning home on a bus or continuing their prostrations all the way to Mt. Kailas another several hundred km. away.

The Rivers:
We were very lucky with respect to our water flows while in Tibet. We had low flows which meant we were able to kayak a lot of stretches of river that could not be run at higher flows. We experienced flows between 3,000 cfs on the Drugoola, all the way up to approx. 50,000 cfs. on the Po Tsangpo.

After our warm-up run on the Kong po getting used to the elevation we headed to the upper and lower Tong chu and the Sum Zum. All three rivers were class 3-5 and had some really fun rapids. The Tong chu had one of the most fun 3-4 km. stretches of river I have ever been on. It was one long class 3-4 rapid with large standing waves and plenty of holes to miss.

This was all in preperation for the headwaters of the Parlung Tsangpo which drains out of Rawu lake. The start of the run is just under 13,000’ and is very braided for about a ¼ of a mile. Once the river joined back together we were able to kayak everything for the next 12 km. This section was very steep around 100’per mile with a very good flow, somewhere around 5000-10000 cfs. any higher and it would have been unrunnable due to the consistency of the rapids and the large river wide holes.

As the Parlung continues downstream it continues to take on more volumne and the river takes on a whole new characteristic. When we ran one of the lower gorges we estimate about 20,000-25,000 cfs with again some steep gradient maybe 80’to 100’ per mile in this stretch. Having a wider river made it runnable but we had some very long portages and when we went out into the middle it felt like a runaway freight train. In a six hour period we were able to kayak about 6 km.-not a very fast pace.

The Parlung joins up with the Yigong to create the Po Tsang po and now has about 50,000 cfs. We took a 2 hour dump truck ride up the Yigong to Yigong lake and ran from there down. The first mile is nonstop class 4-5. I made the mistake of venturing out to the middle towards the bottom and got spanked in a hole. After getting surfed for several seconds I was able to roll up and head down stream making my way through the rest of the rapid in one piece. I was very tired from both the surf and the altitude and I quickly realized how lucky I was to have made it out of that hole in my boat.

One thing to remember is that a swim on any of these rivers is unacceptable. The water is cold and the rivers are big and moving very fast. If you swim, you have to get to shore and trust that your paddling partners are willing to chase after you!

After running both the Parlung and the Yigong we decided to kayak the Po Tsangpo down to the final road access point before it disappears into the gorge of the Yarlung Tsangpo.

The final few kms. were very exciting for us with the high volumne and the ability to run all of the drops. We found that with the high flow if we saw a rapid coming it was very wise to begin getting to shore sooner than later so we would not get caught out in the middle of a rapid.

We all had great runs and with safety as one of our major concerns we all made it out unscathed. That is the true testament of a group and the knowledge each one of us brought to the trip.

My overall experience in Tibet was amazing and I would recommend traveling there to anyone. Whether you are looking for some amazing white water or just an amazing cultural experience or both, Tibet has it all and will not disappoint you!

Phil Boyer Team Jackson