Day 9
High Camp to Muktinath
14 km
6 am - 3 pm
At High Camp ready to tackle the Pass |
At 5.30am we were packed and eager to be
off, and even though we weren’t particularly hungry we decided to have a decent
breaky before heading up. We met Neville and Louis in the common room as we
hurriedly ate our porridge and potato pancakes (both actually very tasty).
They offered to hike up with us, aware that we’d had a terrible night and that
Dave was quite scared of heights - which was going to be interesting since we
would be walking on an icy path with a sheer cliff on one side. They had a
guide/porter, Carlu, with them who could lend a hand if any of us got into
trouble - so we gladly accepted their offer and the 5 of us set off together.
The first section of the hike, just
passed High Camp was probably the worst part of the entire ascent, definitely
the most treacherous. We crossed the dangerous sections very slowly, thankful
that we at least had one pole each but also wishing that we actually had two…
The ascent had us both panting for
breath and Sarah's arms and legs were quite tingly from the Diamox she’d taken
during the night and again in the morning to help fight the altitude sickness.
Nevertheless, the frequent stops to catch our breath were rewarded with stunning
views over the snow capped Annapurna ranges, glistening in the still early
morning sun. Carlu was great and knew the best places to rest and enjoy the
magnificent panoramas.
We made it!! 5416m high - breathtaking :) |
We trudged higher and higher, it was a
matter of just keeping on and keeping on, and in almost a perfect 2 hour time
frame we arrived at the pass – 5416m above sea level!! We were ecstatic, such a
great feeling of achievement to not only have hiked the route from the very
beginning in a tight time frame, but also to have done it under our own steam,
carrying everything ourselves and learning so much about the country and its beauty
along the way. We of course enjoyed the moment with a hot cup of tea, along
with a Snickers bar that we’d bought back in Manang and had been carrying for
this exciting occasion.
We had chosen a beautiful day to climb
the pass, no wind and crystal clear skies with a view from the top that was
breathtaking – literally. It seemed our
luck from Switzerland (where we seemed to always have perfect weather whenever
we went up a mountain) had followed us into Nepal…
Around 9am the skies began to grow
cloudy so we decided it was time to begin our descent, and what a painful 3.5
hours followed - steep, consistent, shale and rock – terrible! It was
especially tough on Dave’s knee, even with his brace on, again we regretted not
having two poles each. Neville and Louis went on ahead as we were really
slowing them down, even Andy and Miriam caught us up and they started from
Thorong Phedi! They had no poles at all and we’d planned to give them ours at
the end of the day as we wouldn’t need them afterwards but unfortunately we
didn’t meet up with them again.
Finally after an agonising descent we
arrived at Charabu and stopped for coffee and lunch. Neville and Louis had
waited there for us to make sure that we'd made it down ok. They had long since
finished lunch so we exchanged emails before they continued on. We enjoyed
fried noodles and mo-mo’s before facing the last hours descent into town. The rest of the way wasn’t too bed except that
our knees and backs were already aching and the adrenaline of crossing the pass was beginning to really wear off. We were very relieved to finally
hike under the stone archway and enter Muktinath right on 3pm as it had been a
mammoth 1616m decent in altitude.
Our companion while waiting for the jeep |
It took us a bumpy, no suspension, everyone needing more deodorant filled hour to get to Jomsom and no sooner had we arrived then we were walking the streets trying to find a place to book a flight out of there. (This is no reflection on the town itself which was really quite picturesque, but rather a reflection of our time-frame and need to pick up our Indian visa's back in Kathmandu....) After a bit of a run around we manage to get the last two seats on the early morning flight to Pokhara, however the flight would only take off if the weather was good so there were no guarantees. We'd talked to other travelers who had wasted two or three days for the weather to clear enough to fly and in the end given up and taken the two-day jeep journey instead, we really hoped that this wouldn't become our story.
A local lady in Muktinath |
By 8.30pm we
were in bed exhausted, marveling that we’d hiked 122km in 9 days (including one acclimatisation rest day), ascended 4600m, reached the dizzying heights
of 5416m, and had one of the most amazing experiences we’d ever have in our
lifetime. To be honest at that moment we felt like any future obstacle that
confronted us we would be able to deal with together after achieving what we just
had. But before sleeping we were mainly thankful for the small things :- like not to be sleeping at
altitude and that it wasn’t -20°C outside.
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