Showing posts with label nepal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nepal. Show all posts

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Power couple of grand-scale mountaineering

Romano Benet and Nives Meroi are the most legendary mountain-climbing couple I've come across. Their individual accomplishments aside, few hours back, these two summited Mt. Makalu, completing 13 of the 14 eight-thousanders.

In true alpine style, all of Nives's and Romano's 8,000 m climbs have been completed without supplementary oxygen and without sherpas. It has been said that "(...) their style of mountaineering belongs to another era."
1994 K2, attempt
1996 Everest, attempt
1998 Nanga Parbat, summit (Nives becomes the first Italian woman to summit)
1999 Shisha Pangma, summit
1999 Cho Oyu, summit
2003 Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and Broad Peak summits (in 20 days)
2004 Lhotse, summit
2006 Dhaulagiri, summit
2006 Annapurna, attempt
2006 K2, summit (Nives è la prima donna italiana in vetta)
2007 Everest, summit (Nives becomes the first Italian woman to summit without supplementary oxygen)
2008 Makalu, attempt (winter expedition)
2008 Manaslu, summit
2009 Annapurna, attempt immediately abandoned
2009 Kangchenjunga, attempt immediately abandoned 
2012 Kangchenjunga, attempt
2014 Kangchenjunga, summit
2016 Makalu, summit

 Note: Nives is the more popular of the couple - having a Wikipedia page even in English. Romano Benet,  only Wiki-d in Italian, has an introduction that Google cheekily translated as
Romano Benet ( Tarvisio , 20 April 1962 ) is a mountaineer Italian .
It is one of the largest Italian mountaineers, known for the exploits of the wife, also a mountaineer Nives Meroi 

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Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Tessaratoma - naam to suna hi hoga


Thanks to Ted, who maintains the "Beetles in the Bush" blog, I could get an ID on the painterly insect, that I came across in the Nepal Himalayas this May. Ted was prompt in his reply, inside a day of my email. Thank you!
Awesome bug – that is a nymph in the family Tessaratomidae, or giant shield bugs. I don’t have much literature on the group, but there are about 350 mostly Old World species. It seems to be in the genus Tessaratoma and could be T. quadrata, which is the only species in the genus listed from Nepal at this site: http://www.heteroptera.fr/tessite/Tessaratoma/index.html. For comparison, here is a photo of a T. quadrata nymph from China: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hibiscustown/9363794127/ - they look pretty similar to me, if not the same.

This bug is from the family of Tessaratomidae under genus of Tessaratoma.
Tesseratomids, like most heteropterans use chemical defenses (allomones),[20] the source of the common name for pentatomoids - 'stink bugs'.[13] When threatened, tessaratomids may squirt a strong jet of caustic liquid up to a distance of 15 to 27 centimetres (5.9 to 11 in).

Taxonomy:
Phylum : Arthropoda - Arthropods
Class : Insecta - Insects
Order : Hemiptera - True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies
Suborder : Heteroptera - True Bugs
Superfamily : Pentatomoidea
Family : Tessaratomidae
Genus : Tessaratoma

[heteroptera.fr] Tessaratoma quadrata Distant, 1902
Distribution: China (Guangxi, Ghizhou, Guangdong, Sichuan, Yunnan), India (Assam, Sikkim), Indo-China, Nepal, Vietnam.

 Here's Indian govt's brief on the Tessaratomidae in India. 
"Indian tessaratomids are represented by 41 species under 14 genera of 2 subfamilies. "

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tessaratoma_papillosa_nymph.jpg
Here's a shield bug spotted in Solapur, Maharashtra, India

That wraps up an interesting recall.
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Monday, June 10, 2013

The triumphant return

I roll back along the Indo-Nepal borders. I'm making it back into India on a Rickshaw and bribing the policeman at the closed border gates using flawless English (as has been advised by the Rickshaw-pullers) to let us - me and girlfriend - through.

That I made it back from Kathmandu with 220 bucks left is amazing. That I made it with a ton of luggage is amazing. That I made it back without diarrhea is amazing. That I tramped down from the MBC is amazing. That I super-tramped solo up to it is even more so. That I didn't die on three separate days I instinctively thought I would is amazing. That I saw the most appealing of village girls is amazing. That I fought a hundred leeches is amazing. That I - sheltered precariously behind a rock - witnessed yaks fighting was amazing. That I walked for days along the Barun River was amazing. That I felt close to my condition in being with nature was amazing.

That I'm blogging this late, lost in laze and in purple haze, is the lesser amazing thing.
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Monday, May 13, 2013

Off to the MBC

Whew, my backpack feels heavy - heavier than ever it has been. Just overnight, a few more kilos were added to the burden that I need to keep firm on my back while keeping my feet firm on the earth. As the serious/challenging nature of this trek becomes more evident, I'd keep adding things to my backpack, which in this present state of inexperience and anxiety, is the only thing I could do, since there is no time for a dress rehearsal. "The Thamel List" - stuff that I need to get soon as I get to Nepal - is already a page long, which means one more page to cram into the tiny backpack before I vanish (for a coupla weeks).

In the brief days of planning that a mismanaged and directionless soul like me could do, convictions have changed fast. My poetic take on doing this trek - in a region, and a nation that I've never even been to before - has been modified by the narrations of reality by 'friendly advice' of experts and elders. Polite people have been politely concerned about this whole upcoming ordeal, which is clearly evident in all recent conversations that have descended into survival talk.

I, however, live by the conviction that I have to, can, and will do this - for love, if not for adventure, if not for misadventure, if not for nature, if not for survival, if not for a reality check (or rather a slap), if not for the novelty, if not for the escape, if not for the compensation (to an average, dull life in the urban centers, and to years of misdirected institutionalization), if not for an identity, if not for the ego, if not for the isolation, if not for the companionship, if not for finding myself in losing myself, if not to experience a state of no-mind, if not for the death, if not for a good piece. So it goes.

If anything conveys that this trek - the whole episode - is about moi, then let me assure that I am the least significant part of it - more like the insect on the wall that sits and observes. There's already history-in-the-making regardless of my inclusion into any equation (unless I have already affected the equation in subtle ways - how and when is for explanation later). Wait for the bigger players to take over the thought-space.

I'll be missing the tactile feel of keyboards for a while. My cab is waiting. Goodbye.
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