Kathmandu

We hired a car to take us the 6 or 7 hours from pokhara to Kathmandu. The ride was a long series of harrowing escapes, passing the colorful trucks from India, with wide sayings and Hindu gods painted on the sides and back. When  a truck needs to stop or breaks down, it just stops, mostly blocking one lane. Since we want to get to Kathmandu before midnight, we must pass on curving mountain roads.  This is done by pulling out into the opposing lane, honking wildly and hoping there are no trucks hidden behind the next curve. I just concentrated on whatever wise advice was printed on the truck, which include the admonition to honk. 

We stop at a roadside dinner where they have a hot buffet of, what else? Dal baht. 

The next day we went to my favorite monastery, kind of like temple square, except it is a circle, very ole, surrounded by building and shops. We had lunch on the rooftop cafe and watched the prayer flags wave in the breeze.

Kathmandu and Nepal are full of rich contrasts, new construction, crumbling buildings, crowded store fronts, piles of junk, cows wandering around,dusty unpaved roads, brilliantly colored skirts and dresses, ceaseless honking, bad air on the street, dogs lying about, playful children, school children walking in pairs in uniforms of dark skirts or pants and white shirts. There are secreted along the city streets Hindu and Buddhist shrines and monks going about the business of being monks.  Everywhere are little storefronts selling both remarkably similar and widely varying arrays of goods. Young men in grey or black jackets ride motorcycles with young women on the back clothed in bright colors and red lipstick.  Above the traffic and noise and dust bird fly about and sing in the trees. have bcome accustomed to the place, it just seems like this is the way the world is. 

Jeep

Bridge

I had not seen one of these for a long while.

After two very long climbs we reached chumrung and then descended to jinruh where the hot springs are. Las

Last views of Annapurna south

Barley field. 

Those are the jeeps, and the dog that followed us down.

After the two hour jeep ride said goodbye to Dawa.

Down down down

It is, however a long way down. After breaking down high camp we descended, I chose to use a ice axe across the steep snow fields until we reached the death couloir, where Dawa nimbly descended like a mountain goat. I became soaked again in the waterfall and finally we had to kick and ice axe out of the moraine. I was greatly tired, since we had started at 3 am, but some garlic soup and fried potatoes revived me for the rapid descent to a village 4 hours down the trail. 

This time we were able to see much more since the fog and rain had temporarily lifted. It is a long descent, about 30 miles from ABC to the jeep road. We took two days and 3 hours of a third day to reach the jeeps,

At one point Nima and Dawa decided it was time for prayer flags in the forest next to a small shrine reliquary. 

On both sides of the steep canyon, beyond the prayer flags were continuous waterfalls.

As we descended the climate became humid and warm. I suggested when we stopped for lunch that some of the fresh garlic could go into my omelette.

Omelette and rice pudding.

This crazy guy was at Annapurna base camp, sitting at the edge of the conversation inside the dinning room. I found him again much further down.  

the humid Nepal jungle

First light

There is no other way to see the mountains like this except to walk into them and stay for awhile. 

It may seem like a lot of work and suffering, but it is a rare experience of sublime meditation to watch the sun begin to creep over the snow at dawn.

Or to watch the light slowly fade on the evening over unclimbable holy peaks such as Machhapruche.

Ascent under Himalayan stars

We woke up at 3:00 am and were walking up the snow by 4, with the bright Himalayan stars above us. I told Nima, this is why we are here, to see these stars. 

We saw the sunrise over Machhapruche and Annapurna as,we approached our mountain. We climbed to the top of the adjacent peak to assess the conditions. 

Annapurna 1 over 28,000 feet, 8,091 meters, 10th highest mountain in the world.

When we reached the glacier beneath the peak we could see the ascent ridge was deep in snow and and the glacier was breaking into crevasses, which were hidden under fresh blown snow. The report from other guides was that the ascent ridge was impassable because the snow was so soft due to the warm weather that climbers were sinking up to their chests. We confirmed their assessment of snow conditions and decided to spend the next hour romping on top of the dome taking pictures. It was a spectacular view all around.

High Camp

We woke up at 5 had my porridge and we were off to high camp by5:30. It was a clear beautiful day. Yesterday I sat in the cold unheated lodge for hours reading, surrounded by fog. Around 5 it cleared offering spectacular views of the mountains, this is why people come here, to see the views. We have met no climbers, So we set off, rappelling into the deep moraine, then walked over to the place we left our gear, serannaded by constant rockfall. Then we headed up the death couloir, which was mud and loose rocks, culminating in a slab which was streaming with water. I was carrying my large pack, 50 or 60 lbs, and moving very slowly. About 3/4 way up to the waterfall slab, Dawa came down to grab my pack. This guy is incredible, 66 years old, and unbelievably strong. When I reached waterfall slab, he had managed to set up a rope above the slab, so I climbed the waterfall, getting completely soaked. Then Nima sent up Dawa's pack and said, just throw it up higher. I could barely move it, let along move it up. The death couloiir continued above the waterfall, until we we on solid ground. The path crossed several steep snow fields, one slip would be a long slide and then over a cliff. Eventually we reached high camp and I set up the yellow tent at last. It was pretty foggy, so I sat in the tent and wrote. It was paradise. Around four it cleared up and I hiked to the top of the ridge to see our peak.

View from Annapurna base camp in the evening, Machhapruche.

Little picnic table.

The edge of the rappel into falling rock gully.

Vegetable soup and chapati, with eggs.

Water fall slab in the death couloir.

Snow traverse,

How to climb a waterfall 

Inside the steep canyon

High camo at last.

View of Machhapruche from high camp.

Closer view of Tharpu Chuli.

Doban

We walked into Doban at 1:00 just as it started to rain, 2,505 meters elevation. Lunch was at Bamboo, garlic soup and boiled egg, with potato chips, which we call fries. Along the way we walked through bamboo forests and rhododendron trees, and what the map calls stone staircase, which was a stone staircase, most of what we did today was walk up or down stone staircases, interrupted  by sections of mostly muddy trail. This part of the Himalaya is very wet, with much more snow on the high peaks. We did not gain much elevation, maybe 400 meters, but that was mostly because we climbed the stone staircase going down for so long. Tomorrow we go to Machhapruche base camp at 3700 meters and then to Annapurna base camp at 4130 meters, or about the altitude of Namche Bazaar, just below 13,000 feet. This is a new challenge for me because our progress is so slow in gaining elevation, we are mostly walking around mountains and up and down valleys. All that time sleeping at Brighton to acclimatize is wasted, since I have been languishing in the jungle. But not really, half the fun of climbing a mountain is having a reason to train, test equipment and learn about new places and ways to experience extreme conditions. So I should be glad it is pouring rain. 

We have added a third porter because we have so much climbing and camping equipment, including tents, crampons, snow bars (snow pickets for the belay), and 250 meters of rope, not nice dynamic colorful climbing rope, but the alarmingly thin white nylon cord that we will be fixing on the route, or using to climb with, depending on the conditions we find on the mountain. One porter carries my wheely beast, which I could barely lift into the car, his name is Dawa, and he has not many teeth left. I euphemistically told the agents at Air India that my bags weighed 15 kilo, but Nima says it is more like 35 or 40. 

I had a long talk with Dr. Williams before I left, he reminded me that I would have guardian angels, which fortunately have been actively employed while I have enjoyed the vicissitudes of vehicular transportation.  I told Rick that I scare myself just thinking about the dangerous situations I have been in during my last two expeditions to Nepal. He asked me how that felt, but I realized it was not that dramatic while it was happening, getting off the side of a mountain in a Himalayan snow and thunder storm was mostly a matter of paying attention to what was directly in front of me, making sure the rappel was set up properly and that I was anchored in when setting up the next rappel. It would have done no good at all at that point to worry about the anchors themselves, which were probably put in the previous fall, and had survived the Himalayan winter. I was carrying an expedition down coat and gloves.  And getting into that situation was an exhirating climb on a completely unknown (to me) mountain. But I told Rick I was not going to be soloing any more mountains. 

Machhapruche 

Annapurna south

We are slowing walking up the stone staircase watching school children skipping down, this girl was followed by her little brother in flip flops who was racing down the steps in quite a mad cap manner.

The stone staircase part one, descent to the river

Forest path

We are trying to get to the mountains at the end of the  green valley

Beautiful stonework that goes on for Miles's

Typical mountain lodge tea house