Annapurna Trek – part 2

May 12th, 2009 by Elizabeth Kruithof

Ok back again. I think I left off at the end of day 4.

Trek -day 5:

The chilly rain last night meant bright blue skies this morning and we even saw our first snow capped peak (thank god!). The day was beautiful, sunny, and clear, with a dry heat and scenery of tall rock-faced cliffs/hills…I could have been convinced I was somewhere in BC, right down to the pine cones scattered on the path. I think the scenery and weather made a positive difference to my mood. Everything was mostly climbing up for the morning, which I find better than the ‘up and down’ we’d been doing (much easier to convince myself that we were gaining altitude). At some point along the road a black puppy started following us and stayed by our side as we got stuck behind a herd of goats on the narrow trail, through Timang where we had our first real look at snowy peaks, and along beautiful forested trail where our first mountain (Lamjung Himal) appeared. At a tourist check point in Koto, Hari told me that the policeman said a Nepali guide had died yesterday of acute mountain sickness (AMS) at Thorung Phedi (yes, on our itinerary, and not even the highest altitude we’d be reaching). Most of the rest of the day was “Nepali flat” (little up, little down). We arrived in Chame, a ‘large’ village which is the district headquarters of Manang and dropped our stuff at the New Tibetan Hotel (quite a common hotel name actually, or some variation on that) beside the Marsyandi river. I huddled in my surprisingly comfy bed until dinner.

Trek – day 6:

Woke up to a beautiful view from our hotel (note: when I say hotel…you’re probably picturing an actual hotel…try to picture lodge/guesthouse instead) of a flashing white mountain across the river. After the usual breakfast we headed out on the ‘Nepali flat’ trail in the sunshine. Our path was hot and dry with a few tiring climbs, but we had clear scenery of the towering sheer rock hills (including one named ‘the Gate to Heaven’). As we climbed, the pines grew shorter and shorter when we came to a village with a few decrepit stone houses looking almost abandoned, but still with a spattering of brightly coloured guest houses. I had my usual chapatti and 2 boiled eggs for lunch, but the eggs are becoming much less hard boiled as we gain altitude (needless to say, didn’t order them after that). We marched along the path after lunch in what we decided looked just like what an old abandoned Western town might look like (you know, from old movies), with a desert like feel and small crumbling stone buildings. We arrived in Lower Pisang and stayed in very cute wood cabin type things (or as close to that as you can really get). The wind whips through here and it cooled down fast. It started to thunder, rain, thunder, hail, and the hills surrounding us were suddenly covered in cloud. I put on the down jacket I’d borrowed from another volunteer on for the first time. This might be a graphic scene (but you should be used to that by now), but I had this intense pressure in my guts all of a sudden. As I tried to eat my dhal bhaat (which I really wanted to because it was actually delicious and I was hungry), every bite went down as though it were pushing against a great painful gaseous force that was expanding in my stomach. I couldn’t eat any more…too much pain. I think the altitude was making the gas on my insides expand….damn the physics of air pressure and volume! We crossed above 3000m today.

Trek – day 7:

Woke up early to thunder and rain. Stomach pains were gone after some high altitude flatulence (seriously). Laurel and I (note: I don’t think I’ve mentioned the group yet….it consisted of me, Laurel, Ben, Mike, Alex, and our guide, Hari. All are VSN volunteers that started at the same time as me, with the exception of Mike, who came over from Canada to do the trek. 2 Canadians, 2 Americans, 1 Aussie) packed up all our stuff into ziplocks and garbage bags inside our backpacks and got outfitted in our warm clothes and rain gear. The boys seemed to have come without packing any rainjackets (or even pack covers to keep their bags dry)…so it was garbage ponchos for them. It was gray and cloudy for most of the day, but it didn’t take long for the rain to subside enough for us to take off some layers. We made it to Manang, which is probably one of the largest villages on this side of the Thorung La pass (more on that later) and Hari brought us to an impressively large lodge that actually had a bakery downstairs. The food for lunch was amazing, but that didn’t stop Laurel and I from going down to the bakery and getting some good old apple pie….worth every one of those 85 rupees (especially when you consider just how incredible it is that they can even make apple pie up here in the first place…remember now that all supplies are either carried up the mountain by unbelievably strong porters, or trains of donkeys). Manang is a rock-house filled village surrounded by a desert-like landscape, with the river running below it and the mountains closing in around it. Buddhist prayer flags fly off poles poking out of every rectangular stone house.

Trek – day 8:

Today was our acclimatization day in Manang (Manang sits at 3540m). We had a late breakfast of fantastic apple pancakes (still definiately no match for Dad’s home made blueberry cheese pancakes, however…plus, they have no maple syrup here!). We packed up our day packs to do a day hike up to an ice lake and burial site at 3800m, to help with our acclimatization (hike high, sleep low, as the adage goes). The short but steep hike up had me noticing for the first time that I was sucking back air, and I wondered what it would be like to breath on the Thorung La pass. The views were beyond fantastic at the top of the hill. We stayed up there for quite a while taking photos. I won’t bore you with my description of the mountain range that surrounded us, I just have it written in my journal so I know which mountain is which when I look at my pictures and back to my map of the Annapurna circuit. I will say, however, that we saw Thorung Peak for the first time, which holds behind it the Thorung La pass (the world’s “biggest pass” at 5416m) which we would be crossing in a mere two days. It seemed impossibly high and far away…and put in to perspective that we really were doing a high altitude hike. We returned back to the Tilicho Hotel for lunch and I had an impressive Yak cheese sandwich (apparently the cooks here have been professionally trained in Kathmandu…so I just keep stuffing myself and claiming I’m builing up my calories for the climbing ahead…right). In the afternoon the Himalyan Rescue Association puts on a seminar about altitude sickness, so we went to check it out. The clinic is run by volunteer doctors and provides medical aid to both the community and to trekkers. A few of the many interesting things we learned:

-60% of trekkers will experience symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS) on this trek

-most trekkers spend two nights after Manang before going over the pass (apparently you should only gain 600m from one sleeping point to the next). Our group is planning to gain nearly 1000m tomorrow to Thorung Phedi and then another 1000m the next day to cross over the Thorung La (so only taking one night to cross). I asked the doctor about it and she said some trekkers will cross in one night, but it’s an aggressive route. I started to question whether I’d actually be able to do this…

-100% air pressure at sea level (what I’m used to); 67% air pressure at Manang (if you transplanted someone here from sea level- say by plane – they would go in to shock); 50% air pressure at the Thorung La

-high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) and high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) can rapidly become fatal; high altitude flatulent expulsion (HAFE) is normal, and apparently what I’d been suffering from!

-made a 100 rupee donation to get my O2 levels checked at the clinic – it was at 94% (anything above 85% is considered good at this altitude)

-most people take porters over the pass (but of course, our group wasn’t about to make things easy on ourselves…haha)

Now I’m late for dinner with the group here in Pokhara…hopefully I can wrap up the trek tomorrow!