From Chame we continued to climb and walked about 4 hours to Lower Pisang. We had seen very few people on the trails the previous three days, but now we started seeing people more regularly. We arrived in Lower Pisang just before another downpour and were once again the only people in our guesthouse. We were now over 10,500 feet up. Our guesthouse had a wood burning stove in the dining room and we spent the evening warming up next to it and watching Marvel superhero movies with the local boys.
The most amazing thing happened on day 7, the skies cleared of the haze and we were rewarded with views of snowy peaks for the entire four hour walk to Manang! Along the way we stopped at the Happy Yak Bakery in Bragha for a chocolate roll (the circuit has been dubbed the “apple pie trek” due its German bakeries).
Manang is the last sizeable town (large for the tiny villages on the trek, anyway) before the pass. Most people, ourselves included spend two days in or around Manang to acclimitize before getting up over 12,000 feet. We stayed at the Hotel Yeti and hung out with Natalie from London and her guide Ritu of Nepal Female Guide (Ritu has her own guiding business and I think that is awesome!). I ran into Heidi from SF in town and she joined us at the Yeti as well.
I attended a free lecture in Manang Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) and decided Rich and I were doing just fine. Western treats not typically found on the trail are available in Manang and Rich had some tasty looking chicken fajitas for dinner. It snowed for a bit in the late afternoon but the snow didn’t stick. Some students from Kathmandu were loving he snow as it was te first time they had ever seen it.
Day 8 was our acclimitization day so we decided to do a short, steep hike to get our bodies a little more used to the altitude. The snow had cleared the skies and this was our clearest day of views on the trek. We walked to Chowkar viewpoint, a 45 minute hike straight up a hill. We had tea at the tea house at the viewpoint and reflected on how amazing a place we were in.
The next morning we said goodbye to Heidi, Natalie, and Ritu as we planned to climb higher than them for the next few days. Day 9 we hiked up over 2,000 feet to Lettar in just over three hours. Along the way we saw one person who was suffering from AMS and needed to be helped down to lower elevation.
We stayed at the Snowland Lodge in Lettar and met our crew for the next few days. It consisted of a posse of Israelis, Juliana from Argentina, Cheryl, a US expat, and Lara, Tobias and Bianca from Europe. Lara led an impromptu yoga class in the dining hall. Everyone at our guesthouse was planning to make the push to High Camp the next day.
The day before you cross Thorong La pass at 17,800 feet (5416 meters- one of the highest hiking passes in the world), you have two options for sleeping. Most people stay in Thorong Pedi at 14,500 feet and hike 8-9 hours the day of the pass. The other option is to continue an hour and brutal 1500 foot climb past Pedi to High Camp and sleep at 16,200 feet. High Camp has beds for 110 people (I hear in high season, they manage to fit nearly 200) but is super basic. No running water, no stove in the dining hall, and only two squat toilets in the courtyard for everyone to use. Nights are brutally cold and most people have trouble sleeping due to the altitude.
We opted for High Camp. The hike up to High Camp on day 10 gave us some nice wildlife viewing opportunities. First we saw a flock of huge vultures up close as we crossed the river. About 20 minutes later a few blue sheep made an appearance as we stopped for tea.
The climb from Pedi to High Camp was as strenuous as we expected- definitely the toughest climb of the trek. We arrived at High Camp in the early afternoon and hung out in the dining hall trying to stay warm. It started to snow around 3 pm and that kept up until about 10 pm. Even with extra blankets, which we had to beg and plead for, it was a very cold, sleepless night.
We had breakfast at 5:45 am on day 11 and were among the last people to leave High Camp. Many people started at 4 am. The trail to Thorong La was not as steep as the climb to High Camp, but at that altitude, you feel every foot you climb. Both Rich and I felt our hearts racing and had to stop and rest every 5-10 minutes. We reached the summit just after 9 am to cheers from the Europeans who had beat us there.
The somewhat depressing part about reaching the summit is that the toughest part of the day’s hike is still ahead. After climbing over 1500 feet, you now need to descend over 5,500 feet before you stop for the night. The decent took over four hours and was quite steep. We were fully beat when we reached Muktinath atethe end of the day.
As a reward for the long day of hiking, we stayed at the Buddha Hotel which had attached bathrooms with hot water and Western toilets. The hot shower was especially wonderful since I hadn’t had one in four days. Ryan, Lucy, and Heidi also stayed at the Buddha so we had a social dinner complete with my first beer in over a week.
Day 12 was our last day on the trail and was rather anticlimactic. We hiked for close to five hours, all on a very busy, dusty, windy road. We stoped for lunch in Kagbeni and ate at Yak Donalds. The yak burger was fantastic! When we arrived in Jomsom around 4 pm, we booked a bus to Beni where we would connect to Pokhara. In retrospect, we shoud have flown. For dinner I had yak momos which were also quite good. Momos are tibetan dumplings and another new addiction of mine.
The bus to Beni was a bit trying. It took over 8 hours. We had two flat tires, one which held up traffic for 45 minutes until a spare could be delivered by taxi from a nearby town. The road was so bumpy that you were thrown out of your seat if you didn’t hold on. Both Rich and I hit our heads on the rack above the seats as we were thrown about. After this experience, Rich has sworn off Nepali buses for the rest of the trip. When we arrived in Beni, we split a taxi with a French couple to Pokhara.
We’ve been in Pokhara for the past four days. We had a chill day where I got a massage from a blind woman which was excellent. We went ziplining on what is supposedly the fastest, highest zipline in the world (although I have seen that claim elsewhere). Yesterday we went whitewater rafting and we were the only people in our raft. Makes it much more of a workout we discovered. Today Rich went paragliding. And tomorrow we head to Chitwan for animal spotting.
The adventure continues.
