‘You think about the worst’

Durban24102014Cuan Cronje back home with some of his family after his expedition he survived in Napel with the snow drama.Picture:Marilyn Bernard

Durban24102014Cuan Cronje back home with some of his family after his expedition he survived in Napel with the snow drama.Picture:Marilyn Bernard

Published Oct 25, 2014

Share

Durban - The longest and most excruciating eight hours of her life… that is how the wife of a Durban adventurer – who was among the local tourists trapped in a blizzard in the Himalayan mountain range in Nepal – described her ordeal of not knowing whether her husband had survived the heavy snowstorm that claimed the lives of 43 people.

“I was out of the country and had just landed at OR Tambo Airport last week on Thursday when I received a frantic phone call from a friend asking if my husband was okay,” said Lucy Cronje.

Her husband, Cuan Cronje, 54, of Mount Edgecombe, the co-owner of Lizzard clothing, and his two friends, Graeme Duane of Ballito, and Dean Burscough from Joburg, had ventured into Nepal’s hiking trails earlier this month when they got trapped in one of nature’s savage turns last week.

For two days, the trio trekked through an endless world of heavy snow in Nepal with limited food and water in a desperate attempt to survive the blizzard, ranked as one of Nepal’s worst mountain disasters.

As reports trickled in that at least 43 people had died in the terrifying blizzard, and not being able to reach their husbands, all three wives feared they had died. “You think about the worst, but you don’t want to think about it,” said Lucy, as she tried to fight back tears.

After the brief phone call, the mother of four went into a panic, trying to contact “anyone and everyone” who could furnish her with information about the disaster unfolding thousands of kilometres away.

“I tried to contact officials in Nepal and here, but I had no joy. I was in such a state… I thought the worst had happened,” said Lucy, speaking at their Mount Edgecombe home yesterday, a few days after her husband returned home.

Her frantic wait at the airport was punctuated by constant phone calls with the wives of Duane, the director of Earth Hour, and Burscough, an account executive, who were all updating each other about the latest developments.

Lucy, who trekked the Himalayas with her husband two years ago, said she breathed a huge sigh of relief when later that day she received a phone call from Cuan, telling her that he and the other men had made it.

“I was a bag of emotions as I spoke to him, but I was relieved that they had made it,” she said.

Still adjusting to the daily “normality” Cuan, who has trekked through Nepal four times, said their experience still felt surreal.

“But I’m starting to settle down,” he said.

Speaking about their trip, which they had been planning for two years, Cuan said that by all accounts, the storm was unexpected and was unusual for October, a popular month when tourists flocked to Nepal’s mountains.

He recalled the harrowing days and how the friends held on to life.

“We thought we might die. All I kept on my mind is that we needed to keep moving. If we were going to stop, we would die,” he said. “The only time that we could stop was if we found a dry place. The cold from the snow gets into your body. We had no food or water for two days. We had no fuel for our body. We had melted snow for water.”

Their journey started on October 9, when they arrived in Nepal, and cycled to the Tilicho base camp to start a mountain route less travelled.

“The weather was beautiful. It was warm. We arrived in T-shirts and shorts. Nobody, out of all those 80 people that were in that area, knew this was coming,” said Cuan.

After a few days of walking, snow stopped them in their tracks.

“Monday night (October 13) is when it started snowing. We were really high up in the mountains. It was totally desolate,” he said.

They started walking in search of the nearest village, following a river they trusted would lead to safety. “We were beyond exhausted. That first night, if we had to sleep, we would have had a problem. When you get that tired, you just want to lie down and sleep. As soon as you do that, you will die. And they kept their bikes with them at all times.

“It saved us that we kept going. It was a long two days. It went on forever,” said Cuan, adding that the snow was so severe their socks had frozen rock-solid.

The friends had hoped to see civilisation around each corner but then were constantly greeted by endless snow. “Eventually we came around a corner and saw a bridge.”

That led them to a small village from where they could find their way back to Manang, a larger village that was connected by trails to the outside world and eventually to Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

Duane recalled that once the snowstorm trapped tourists, “base camp was a disaster zone”.

“By nightfall the snow was halfway up to the roof, and we had to constantly dig our way out of the room… We were surrounded by high slopes on all sides, save for the river which now charged into the valley below,” he said.

He said one “hardcore” hiker attempted to tackle the snow, “but turned back after going just 100m”.

When they eventually left base camp, they wrapped their socked feet in plastic bags, cable-tying and taping in various different ways.

“We’d be walking the whole day with our feet deep in snow… this route was a terrifying prospect,” said Duane. “We were still unaware of the deaths to the east… Even without this knowledge, lying exposed in the Himalayas not knowing what’s going to happen next, and thinking of your wife and family back home is a terrible feeling.

“You feel so far away, and you realise that you’re in a situation like you’ve seen in the movies, but that this is real.”

Duane recalled they “hadn’t eaten more than a handful of peanuts for over 24 hours”.

“We eventually reached the teahouse at Kanshar… with a huge feeling of relief. We were back in the mix, plugged back into life and out of that wild valley that had held us for 36 hours,” he said. “Over the course of that evening, the extent of the disaster was revealed. We’d been fighting our own private battle in the valley… Other hikers were dead or missing… A herd 100 strong yaks had been wiped out by an avalanche.”

Duane said a different storm had since erupted after this snow tragedy.

“There’s the usual blame game going on,” he said. “(People are asking) why were we not warned of oncoming weather? Has the Annapurna (mountain trail) become the Disneyland of Nepalese mountaineering? Does it attract an unqualified crowd of hikers?

“Not one lodge had weather information; there is no way of knowing where each hiker is at any given time… but to me that’s part of the appeal. The Annapurna is so accessible, but it’s so wild. And that’s a rare thing these days,” he said.

Catching up yesterday with his three daughters, who were relieved to have their adrenalin-junkie father back home, Cuan said he was preparing for the Roof of Africa motorbike race in December.

His daughters protested, advising him to either take up golfing or knitting.

I ndependent on Saturday

Related Topics: