4-30-07 // Himalayan Freeriders: Hans, Richie and Wade

Blake Jorgenson

Whilst sitting on another plane, I have time to reflect and write about the epic two weeks of adventure biking in Nepal, shredding some of the best trekking routes in the world with none other than freeride legends Richie Schley and Wade Simmons. Joining us on bikes were photographer Blake Jorgenson and our English film-crew with cameraman Rob Summers and his assistant Seb Rogers who documented this trip for a new TV series by ProActive TV. Unlike the usual Himalaya bike tourist, we choose alternative ways to gain altitude—helicopter, aeroplane or shuttle and we all brought 5 - 7 inch bikes.

After several long and gruelling flights we all managed to meet at the Kathmandu Guest House, where we joined our guides from Dawn till Dusk Mountain Bike Trekking Ltd., who helped us with their local knowledge. Kathmandu is one crazy city, it seemed like Tijuana on steroids, traffic and air pollution are off the chart. The first few days we spent around Kathmandu (KTM), which lies in the foothills of the Himalayas, surrounded by hills and mountains we found some decent trails and sampled the local culture. The climate was hot and humid—contrary to our expectations, inevitably we were stoked to leave the area to fly to Pokhara a gateway town to the Annapurna massif. Our flight itself was adventurous, as we were flanked by giant mountains left and right, it became a reality to us that the real trip, riding and our adventure was about to begin.

The next day was our shortest, all we had to do was ride the relatively flat river trail uphill to Kagbeni, the boarder-town to the, until recently forbidden, Mustang Kingdom. We rode an incredibly gnarly suspension bridge, this was one of the scariest things I have ever done, the wind was blowing so hard, with such force, I was afraid of being swept over the railing. Wade felt very sick upon arrival and went straight to bed, while Richie and I explored the medieval looking village. That next day we had to climb 1000m vertical to Muktinath, and now it was my turn to be sick. I had absolutely no energy and with such fatigue I had a hellish time making it to our 3850m-high destination. The landscape was extremely dry and desert like. We encounters a few trekkers along the way and a bunch of pilgrims who were on their way to the holy temple and the eternal flame in Muktinath that burns from a natural gas source.

The downhilling was about to start on our third day in the Annapurna mountains, my strength was slowly coming back, aside from a bought of diarrhea and unfortunately I wasn't alone in our team. But nothing could hold us back now, nor did we have a choice. We climbed to 4000m, the high-point of our trip, with great views of Dhaulagiri and other 8,000 meter peaks, nearby.

Blake Jorgenson