TREKKING ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD

Lanetta Paul did an extensive amount of hiking in Nepal. Paul is shown here with Annapurna IV, amountain with an elevation of 7,525 meters, in the background. (Submitted photo).

Dick Mason

The Observer

More than 7,000 miles separate the Elkhorns from the Himalayas. Still the Northeast Oregon range can provide passage into the world's highest mountain system.

Lanetta Paul of La Grande understands this first-hand.

Paul hiked extensively in the thin air of the Elkhorns this past summer in preparation for a three-week trip to Nepal this fall.

The conditioning she gained from her Elkhorn hikes paid dividends in the rarefied air of the Himalayas. There she hiked to places such as Nepal's Ice Lake — elevation 15,158 feet.

Coming down from Ice Lake was an eye opener.

"I couldn't believe we had been able to hike up it because it seemed so steep (while coming down),'' Paul said.

She would have liked to have hiked higher than 15,000 feet, however, her hiking party would have had to stay a day at the site to get acclimated, and it did not have time.

Fifteen thousand feet is not considered a rarefied elevation by some in Nepal, a nation fittingly called the roof of the world. It is home to Mount Everest, at 29,028 feet the highest spot on earth.

Everest, on the Nepal-Tibet border, is one of 30 peaks in the Himalayas at least 24,000 feet high. Everest does not stand out when seen from an airplane because it is in such tall company.

"It looks like another little bump. I thought it might stand out like Mount Hood but it didn't at all,'' Paul said.

Mount Everest is not what first comes to mind when some people think of Nepal today. The nation is plagued with increasing political violence because of a Maoist insurgency that started because of poverty in rural Nepal.

The first attacks against the Nepal government began in 1996, and violence has escalated since then. Maoists have killed 4,500 Nepalis, according to the November issue of National Geographic. The Nepal government has killed 8,200 people in an attempt to quell the insurgency during the same period.

Paul, who also visited Nepal in 2000, has seen noticeable change in the past five years.

"There are soldiers with rifles in many places,'' she said, explaining that they are there to protect people from Maoist attacks.

The unsettled political situation is scaring away visitors. Tourism is down 38 percent since 1998, according to National Geographic. Still, Paul could not pass up the opportunity to visit Nepal. The unusual mix of cultures and people there is what inspired her to make a return trip.

"Every culture is so amazing. There is such a wonderful diversity of people, costumes and colors,'' said Paul, a music teacher.

The population is of mixed Mongolian and Indo-Aryan origin. Its many ethnic groups include the Newars, the Bhottias and the Gurkhas, according to the New American Desk Encyclopedia.

Gaining insights into these cultures was easy for Paul because she was a guest of two long-time friends, Don and Kareen Messerschmidt, who are from the Pacific Northwest but have lived in Nepal for 40 years. Don Messerschmidt is a cultural anthropologist with extensive knowledge of the people of Nepal.

"It was amazing all of the things he would point out when we were hiking,'' Paul said.

She will never forget the time Messerschmidt pointed out a Gurung tribal cemetery during the hike to Ice Lake. To the untrained eye the site looked like just another piece of ground. Messerschmidt, though, pointed out mounds that were grave sites.

Each grave had a small tree growing over it. If the tree is thriving this means the person is enjoying a good afterlife. A tree that is not doing well is supposed to indicate that the person buried there has an unsettled afterlife.

Paul's party met many people in rural Nepal. She was most impressed.

"They are so gentle and treat everyone with such dignity,'' she said. This despite the fact that they have little in terms of possessions.

"It is like stepping back a century,'' she said.

Paul's three-week visit was in September and October, a good time to visit because it was after the monsoon season and before winter. She left Nepal just a week before a large snowstorm hit. The storm caused an avalanche that killed a party of 18 in the Himalayas and left many tourists stranded in the country.

Despite unpredictable weather and an unsettled political situation, Paul hopes to return.

"People ask me why I went. I ask them, ‘Why wouldn't I?' ''