UKC

Always wanted to explore the mountains in the North of Burma. Anyone been? Anyone want to go? I've just got 2 months of work in late summer. Looks like monsoon season, but I'm not sure it reaches the mountains in the north? Any beta would be greatly appreciated.

Stu

In reply to Stuart Johnston: Wiki'd and came up with: Kumon Bum is a mountain range in the northeastern province of Kachin State in Burma.
Bumhpa Bum is a mountain with an elevation of 3,411 m (11,191 ft) in the Kumon Bum Mountains.
>schoolboy snigger<
If you are serious, I presume you have given some thought to how on earth you could go climbing in this weird, closed dictatorship?

In reply to Stuart Johnston:

Forgot to mention, my UKC email has stopped working so email [email protected].

In reply to Stuart Johnston:

Won't you need some sort of military escort before they allow you into the north of the country?! Isn't that the home of most 'rebel' groups?

In reply to Neil Kazimierz Sheridan:

Just dug out my book "Among Insurgents - Walking through Burma" - Shelby Tucker (2001).

Pretty good insight into the north and some of the remote areas - even if the writer is a bit weird imo.

Yup, read that. Not a totally unsurprising outcome.

In reply to Richard Baynes:
It's certainly a dictatorship, but it's by no means closed. The last burmese visa I got took 30 mins at the embassy in london and cost £14. You need a permit from the ministry of tourism to go to remote areas though and I have no idea about the permits required for mountaineering.

In reply to Stuart Johnston:

Hkabo Razi, the highest peak, was first climbed by Japanese guy not so long ago, on his second try. Not sure there's much more interesting there, though maybe an unclimbed 4000er just to the east.

All this well seen on GoogleEarth nowadays. The weather is terrible in that region (I've climbed in NW Yunnan) but Nov-Jan probably best.

D

In reply to Stuart Johnston:

good luck.

northern myanmar is not controlled by the junta, instead loosely held in a state of cease-fire with several tribes that make the govt look like babysitters (wagh, shan etc).
getting to the peaks is really difficult as visas only permit you entry to central myanmar. beyond that you need escorts and liason officers and even then cant get too close to borders, especially anything towards india.

even from the chinese side its heavily patrolled. theres one crossing at ruili that occasional one-way (from china) crossings can go thru, but its non-stop with escorts all the way to central myanmar where the normal visa comes into effect.

all that said, ive heard of one group getting up to some peaks in the far eastern himalaya (lead by a guy who does seven summit trips as well). took a year or two of redtape.

as for the monsoon - it sure does reach the mountains here. the eastern himalaya has some of the highest rainfall on earth. SE tibet, W yunnan, sikkim, arunachal etc all get hammered. sub-tropical rain forest goes all the way to 4500m.

its a shit of a thing. the eastern himalaya has so much potential yet the bloody governments of the world constantly get in the way.

In reply to ice.solo:

Thanks for the beta. Chamonix, here I come.

In reply to Stuart Johnston:

sichuan and the kunlun in xinjiang is good that time of year. pakistan too.