Thoru Chuli camp 1

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We lost one of our porters yesterday and so we split up what he was carrying, but Dawa carried the most, here he is arriving in the fog. It was a little depressing being in the rain and fog all day, so I visited all four guest lodges and did a few drawings.

The owner of the lodge, sitting next to me, informed me that I would be getting a roommate. I immediately thought of quequeg and Ishmael, but he turned out to be a young Korean man, I told him the rules and cleared off the extra bed of the mountain of gear I was sorting. 

Dawa posed for his portrait. He is our main guide to this region, and is extremely strong. 

This morning, as we had arranged, Nima knocked on my door  at 5:30 am to tell me that it was clearing. So I ran outside to see the mountain. This is the sun grazing Annapurna south.

This is our first view of Tharpu Chuli.

Everyone else got out of bed also, but they were all going back down.  I was so excited I told Nima that we needed to start climbing right now, forget about breakfast lets get our boots on.  But Dawa said it was not that simple, we had to negotiate some fixed line rappels and difficult route finding through rock and snow.

The view of Machhapruche from the bottom of the rappel. It was my job to rappel down the fixed line and clear any obstacles and untangle the ropes.

The view of Tharpu Chuli from the top of the ridge.

The idea was to rappel into the canyon  below the ridge so that we could walk over to the ascent coullar. Because it has been so warm and raining, there were constant rock slides coming down the side of the ridge. We could also hear the occasional distant roar avalanches on the slopes of Annapurna

This is the glacier moraine we traversed beneath the ridge. 

The ascent to high camp was up this very loose couloir. We decided to make a camp here, and left the gear we were carrying, which did not include boots, crampons or sleeping bags. We contemplated leaving me there, while. Nima brought up the remaining equipment, but opted to return to the Annapurna base camp and do a very early climb tomorrow, the charge up to high camp. We are very worried about the loose rock and the prospect of soft snow higher up the mountain. 

Annapurna base camp

Dal baht the dinner and porridge and boiled eggs the breakfast.

It rained most of the night I could hear it on the roof. In the morning it was cloudy and as we hiked it slowly began to rain more and more. It was foggy wet high altitude bamboo forests. We encounterd snow at about 9,000 feet, with many waterfalls.

And a raging river.

After Machhapruche base camp it was mostly snowy foggy glacier travel. It is a long day, gaining maybe 7,000 feet elevation.

After two days flying, a day on the bus, a very long jeep ride and about 30 miles of hiking up and down, I arrived at Annapurna base camp. 

Typical room in trekking lodge.

Chhomrong

Nima at the junction at the top of the ridge, we hiked at least 3,000 feet higher, but only gained 500 feet because in this part of the wolrld you must hike down before you can hike up. 

Porridge and ginger tea 

Hair washing

When we hiked down to the river, I saw a lonely figure carrying a large load of straw and sticks, when she came to where we were sitting I saw that it was a very elderly woman with no shoes and very worn looking feet.

The views from Chhomrong are impossible to describe, which we saw briefly before it started to rain again, views of a Annapurna south 7220 meters and Machhapruche.  Annapurna is a huge mountain with several peaks, the highest of which is the 10th highest mountain in the world. 

Monastery Ghandrek

The monastery at Ghandrek played its mournful horns and cymbals into the night .

Ghandrung Nepal

First view of the himalaya, in pokhara. But in Ghandrung it is raining, it rains here every afternoon, we are still in low elevation Nepal jungle, at the end of 5 hours of driving and a couple hours of hiking about 6,000 feet elevation. 

These are the early morning views of Annapurna and Machhapruche, while sipping hot lemon by the side of the road while they loaded the jeep. 

This jeep provided many more bone rattling thrills, especially in the back where we were bounced around mercilessly. The road started out nice and paved, but then turned to one lane of precariouly winding, rocky, muddy, trail up the mountain. The driver had to stop periodically and put water in the radiator, I though this was going to be like Mexico where the jeep just broke down and started rolling backwards, except here rolling backwards means going off a thousand foot cliff. This road made the trip up orizaba look smooth and mild. 

But we made it, us and the two porters and the several other local people.  I was worried how the porters could even lift our gear, let alone carry it into the mountains, and asked Nima to take on an extra porter, which we will do a ways up the trail. 

My view of the drive.

The fairly mellow walk up to Ghandrung. Reminiscent of Kharakhola, same humidity, same smell left by the donkeys, same children running up the hill with their bright clothes and brilliant chatter. 

The town itself has slate stone stairways for streets, streets paved in slate, and mostly streets that are stairs. Very steep, everything in this part of the country is built on the side of a mountain. 

pokhara

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We took the 5 hour bus ride to Pokhara, and it only took 8 hours, including the buffet style dal baht at a little river resort. This is part of the bone rattling highway, Nima thought I might enjoy the view better by riding shotgun with the driver. But, like looking too closely into the cooking tent at base camp, sometimes the mysteries of life are better unknown. For example how we pass slower vehicles on narrow winding mountain roads. This is done by acts of faith and much honking of the horn.

It's pouring rain in the thriving lakeside town of Pokhara. I can tell it is thriving because the streets are all torn up outside the new future hotel.

pokhara

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We took the 5 hour bus ride to Pokhara, and it only took 8 hours, including the buffet style dal baht at a little river resort. This is part of the bone rattling highway, Nima thought I might enjoy the view better by riding shotgun with the driver. But, like looking too closely into the cooking tent at base camp, sometimes the mysteries of life are better unknown. For example how we pass slower vehicles on narrow winding mountain roads. This is done by acts of faith and much honking of the horn.

It's pouring rain in the thriving lakeside town of Pokhara. I can tell it is thriving because the streets are all torn up outside the new future hotel.