| Annapurna circuit: Manang to Muktinath (via Thorung La Pass 5416m) April 20th - April 22nd From Manang, the climb to the top started. The days got a lot shorter because you're not allowed to sleep more than about 400m above the place where you slept last night. On the first day to Yak Kharka, we met up with a group of English and Australians (who we would meet again and again after that). The group consisted of Helen (Eng), Debby (Aus), Malcolm (Eng), Ben (Aus) and Thomas (Eng). They had met eachother along the way. The scenery is still beautiful (gets a bit boring when I keep saying that, doesn't it ;-) ). Great mountains in the background. It turned out we had made a wise choice not to let the 100 rupee monk bless us. The three guys had gone up to see him and all had a dodgy stomach from the milk tea he gave them (or that's what they suspected). It's from these people that I learned the term: dodgy stomach, by the way. Next day we walked up to Thorung Pedi (4420) which means something like: foot of Thorung Pass. Over here, it was suddenly much busier with people. Some had stayed an extra night here because of altitude problems. On the way to Phedi, we encountered some snow on a downhill section and I was really happy we bought some trekking poles (like ski poles, but you can collapse them and make them small). Allthough, I feel these poles are more for old German ladies, I had realized on the Everest trek, they can be really handy to get some of the weight off your knees (when going down) and keeping your balance when it's wet and slippery. In the afternoon it started snowing and some guide or porter started shouting that NOBODY was going to go over the Pass tomorrow. The whole dining room got pretty nervous then. When it stopped snowing people were talking about leaving at 4.30 (AAARGH!!!!) in the morning to be sure to be over the pass when the clouds would come again (they usually come in the afternoon). Well, it would be freezing cold at that time in the morning so Onno and I decided to leave at 7 (we're not very tough you know). Having breakfast on summit day, we did get a bit worried. The whole place was deserted, everybody had gone already. We weren't sure if we were doing the right thing. However, the walk up was really nice. It was really hard because of the altitude and the problems breathing. However, because I had done it before, and knew what to expect, it didn't bother me too much. We started overtaking people (some Israeli's who had left at 4.30) about halfway up the 1000 metre climb. So of course we felt really good about ourselves. There was quite a bit of snow (sometimes waist high), but it wasn't fresh, and pretty packed. There always was a well visible trail through it. We got to the top around 11.00 a.m. (after many times thinking that it should be around the next hill, but it never was). The group of English/Australians was just leaving and we met Marcel and Tamara just before the top. The weather was great and we spent some time drinking tea and taking pictures. Onno had a headache so he runs down towards Muktinath. I take it a bit easier and slide down through the snow. After this a very very long 1600m in total downhill. At a teahouse at 4100 m, I'd lost most of the enjoyment, but Muktinath (3800m) wasn't far. All in all, I felt very happy about the whole accomplishment. It was a long day, but we all made it!! We celebrate with some beers and a burrito (yes, you can get mexican, italian, chinese and even dutch (as we will see later)) in these mountains. No dahl bat (rice and lentil soup) for us!!! Actually, Onno started eating lots of dahl bat because the other dishes were never enough for him and the dahl bat usually comes with free refill. Back to Main Nepal Page Previous part of Circuit Next part of Circuit |
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| The pictures: Top Left: a little town on the way up Top Right: Thorung Phedi (from where we went to the pass) Bottom: Onno and me on Thorung La Pass |