back from the trek

(Photo is of myself at Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal, at about 13,500 feet, with Annapurna 1 in the background; at about 26,500 feet it's the 10th highest peak in the world and one of only 14 peaks in the world over 8,000 meters.)

The trek up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) was really amazing. Just to clarify, the reason it's called "trekking" rather than just hiking or backpacking, is because it's hiking from one village to the next, staying at various guest houses or small hotels along the way, where they also cook up your meals for you. This is quite an established trekking route so there were plenty of places to choose from, so that you could pretty much hike as short or far as you wanted to, since at most the distance from one place to the next was maybe a mile or two. Some of the places to stay were in established villages, whereas sometimes it was just a couple of simple lodges along the trail. But it's a great way to hike through the mountains, since you don't have to carry your own tent, mattress and all your food, just a sleeping bag and clothes and a few other things, and then you get to sleep in a real bed and have someone cook up chow mein or pizza or omelettes or whatever else for you.

But, it still definitely wasn't a walk in the park. The taxi ride to the trailhead at Phedi (which I guess is Nepali for "bottom of the hill") didn't go uphill much. From there a simple path started climbing up right away, and the total elevation gain from there to the base camp was somewhere around 10,000 feet. But it was actually much more than that, since many times we hiked up and over one ridge, only to drop back down into another valley and then climb up again from there. So it took nine days altogether, there and back (we came back a slightly different route) without any days off from the hiking. Our couple of "easy" days ended up not being so easy because, although they were shorter, they had huge hills involved, which always seemed to come at the end of the day. So I got back into Pokhara yesterday evening, and am definitely glad to have a day off since just about every muscle in my body is seriously sore. The last two days were all downhill, down these big stone steps, which was a bit hard on the knees, but still it was a lot better than going up.

There weren't too many exciting events to report, mostly it was just hiking along and enjoying the scenery, or else the view of one's feet while grunting up the hills. It started off as a group of four of us, being myself, John from Eugene, Oregon (who's 55th birthday was on the trek), an 18-year-old Dutch guy, Talis, and a 25-year-old woman, Fiona, from Ireland. The Irish woman took a different, shorter route so we said goodbye to her on the second day. Then the three of us continued hiking the next couple of days up to the base camp at 13,000 feet.

That was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip, which was the most stunning scenery I've ever seen. Annapurna is actually the name of 5 different peaks, Annapurna 1,2,3,4, and Annapurna South, with Annapurna 1 the tallest and one of only 14 peaks in the world that are over 8,000 meters (about 25,00 feet). So this hike takes you up into the center of all these mountains, which basically form a ring, along with several other peaks. There was about a foot of snow on the ground at the base camp itself and for the last couple of hours hiking up to it, although the trail was pretty well broken and easy to follow, besides it went up a narrow valley so you really couldn't get lost at that point. This was a good thing since I was hiking alone at that point (our paces went pretty much by age, with Talis, the 18-year-old up ahead and John behind me) and also the clouds socked in as they did generally in the afternoon so there wasn't much visibility, plus it started snowing slightly. But I arrived at the base camp, which was just a cluster of about 3 or 4 different lodges, to a dining room with a heater and tons of windows that looked out at the mountains. The clouds cleared a little bit that evening so that I at least got a glimpse of them. Then we all just spent the evening, as usual, hanging out and bullshitting with all the other hikers, since there was generally just one big table that everyone sat around.

My room that night was right next to the kitchen, and so I was awakened at about 6am, after having a crappy night's sleep (probably because of the altitude or else the sweet Tibetan bread I'd eaten right beforehand). But since it was getting light I took a glance out the window, to see if I could see the mountains. Things almost always cleared up in the mornings and this was the case, I could see Annapurna 1 right outside my window, and a pink glow from the sunrise was just shining onto the peak. Part of me wanted to just try and go back to sleep, but I quickly realized that was a dumb idea. I knew I didn't have long, so I grabbed my camera and went out into the snow in just my long underwear, and took a couple of photos as the sun was rising on the mountains. Then I got properly dressed in basically everything I had, and spent the next couple of hours watching the sun rise and taking plenty of pictures, along with a dozen or so other folks that were also up early.

The one bummer was that I slipped in the snow at one point, and dropped my camera directly on a rock, which it bounced squarely off as plastic seemed to fly everywhere. My first thought was that at least I had changed the film right after taking those first few pink sunrise photos, so at least I had those for certain, along with pictures of the way up there. Then when I went to grab the camera, and fortunately it was just one piece that ran all across the top which had broken off, which was still intact, although you could see all the working components exposed. But, the actual film area didn't seem to have been affected. So I was able to snap that piece back on, although the screws were lost in the snow and the flash indicator bulb was gone, and there were a couple of tiny cracks on the top. But miraculously the camera still worked, so I kept using it and am getting that roll of film developed here in Pokhara. I think there's a pretty good chance it'll still come out, but I'll find out tomorrow when I pick it up.

So, we'd been considering staying up there at the base camp for the day and spending another night there. But our lodge was already booked full for the next evening, so once we had packed, although we could have probably gotten a room in one of the other lodges, we decided to get going. For one thing, I figured getting back to Pokhara sooner rather than later was a good idea, to give me more time to get ready for the long haul back to Delhi, in India for my flight to Thailand. Talis was especially ready for a good long hike, so he sped ahead of us, saying that he might hike farther than us, which was the case. After talking to some other people last night, who we'd met along the trek, and then saw him back here in Pokhara, he took a shorter route and hiked out in just two days, so we actually haven't seen him at all since up at the base camp. But he's also going to Thailand in a couple of weeks, so it's possible I'll see him again there.

So, that day coming down from ABC I hiked farther than John and we ended up staying at different lodges. But he got up earlier than me the next morning, so we met up along the trail and then hiked partly together that day, and stayed in the same lodges for the next two nights. Then the following day I was ready to get back to civilization, so I went on ahead and stayed in a great place with an excellent view from the room, partway down that long flight of stone steps. Then I hiked the rest of the way back yesterday, and caught a bus about an hour-and-a-half from that other trailhead back to Pokhara. John will most likely arrive today, so I'll probably see him again before I leave, since it's easy to run into people here.

Since I'm waiting for that film to get developed, and have plenty of other things to take care of, I'll be taking off back to India most likely on March 24th, which gives me about 3 full days to get back to Delhi. There's a bus that leaves Pokhara early afternoon and then goes direct to the border crossing at Mahendrenagar, in western Nepal, a different border from where I initially entered in south-central Nepal. It's going to be a hellish bus ride, as it'll be through the night on most likely winding roads (although that area of Nepal is at least less hilly than around here). But once I get that over with and arrive at the border, then I'll be within about a day's bus or train ride from Delhi, so I should have an extra day leftover. Then my flight to Bangkok leaves at around 1 in the morning on the 27th. Well I should wrap this up for now, but I'll be getting back online sometime before I get on that bus in two days.