Mon. 16. [16 February 1903] Up at 6.30, the valley and mountains a
mass of cloud, white frost on the ground and on all the trees. As we
breakfasted, the sun struck across the cloud floor, the cloud wall
broke and parted and Kinchinjunga [Kanchenjunga] shone out whiter
than ever. After breakfast I went into the village which consisted of 3
houses, apparently inhabited by frontier guards, and onto a little hill
behind from whence I had an exquisite view of the great mountain,
Everest, a floor of clouds towards Darjeeling [Darjiling] and a
foreground of frosted trees. Lots of iris seeding. We started at 8.15,
sunny, very frosty, the path quite hard and frozen snow in all the shady
places. We went up and down, needing very careful going. The
streams a mass of ice between exquisite clusters of bamboo hanging
over the road in every possible beautiful form. We went along the
hillside, then dipped down quite low into unfrozen paths; lots of purple
primrose. By this time the mists had enfolded Kinchinjunga; the last
we saw of the hills was the tip top of the chain to the right, incredibly
high above the clouds. Then we went up again; then down onto a
wooded col where we met and passed a cheerful lady carrying my[?]
bedding bag. Up again and down onto a very bare col where we met
Nanga and the other coolies. Here the mists came right over us and it
began to snow a little. The character of the vegetation completely
changed. The next hill side was almost bare, a few blasted great
pines and clumps of frost bitten rhododendrons. We wound up to the
top, turned, as we thought, completely round in the mists, descended
and went up again a long way through companies of pines. At last we
met a few people; a cheerful party of Nepalese carrying immense
packs. They offered to sell me their fat little black dog. They had a
pack carrying sheep with them. At 12.45 we reached Sandakphu a
DB, 2 houses, 11,929 ft. Very cold. Our tiffen gnome came up at once
and we had an excellent cold meat and hot tea. The mists never lifted
and we sat indoors and wrote letters. Had a long discussion also on
morality. We have been following the Nepal frontier road and the
forbidden land is always to our right. We should have liked to have
gone on to Phallut [Phalut], 13 miles further, but have no time. Our
day's stage was only 15 miles, but it took us 41/2 hours riding our
best.