May 12-13, 2010 - Haba Snow Mountain

In the town of Haba we met up again with the two Belgian cyclists and the 4 of us arranged a 2 day/1 night hiking trip up to a lake at 4100m on Haba Snow Mountain.  The hike began in Haba Village and ascended through farm land and alpine pastures used for grazing cattle and pigs.  We stopped for lunch in a picturesque pasture with a herd of very curious cows.  It's a little sad to see the extent to which high alpine pastures are used for grazing in so many of the mountains in China.  Pigs and cattle roam seemingly freely and the pigs in particular do a huge amount of damage to the land.  Large parts of the forests have been heavily logged and we had to go pretty high - around 3700 or 3800m before we were above the grazing and logging areas.  Once free of the areas heavily impacted by people and domesticated animals the scenery was very cool with azaleas, rhododendron and moss-covered trees in abundance.  Around 3PM we reached the edge of a large bowl containing the lake set at about 4100m.  Going was pretty slow due to the altitude but the weather was good so we took pictures and planned on a nice afternoon relaxing by the lake.  As we wandered around the lake checking out the various accommodation options (herders huts in various states of disrepair) the weather started to turn, the wind picked up and it started to snow.  We found a shelter that was the pick of the bunch (but still very basic) and spent 45 minutes or so assembling the roof shingles in an attempt to keep the snow out.  The shelter wasn't exactly what you'd call windproof but with a big fire roaring inside the shelter (and creating plenty of smoke for us to breathe) we were reasonably comfortable for the afternoon.  The wind was peretty strong and gusty but the snow seemed to have stopped.  Later we set up our tents and went to sleep - or tried to.  During the night I woke up and much to my surprise saw perhaps 10cm of snow had fallen.  With all my clothes on in my sleeping bag I was almost warm enough to sleep a little.  The snow certainly added an unexpected twist to our mountain mini-expedition.  The photos from the hike are in this post and the next couple.