The Walk Out

Yesterday we got up before dawn to watch the sunrise at ABC. The moon and Venus were bright, and we could see small groups of trekkers with headlamps making their way up from Macchapuchhare Base Camp. I am not much for sunrises, but it was a beautiful transition. There were scores of trekkers actively engaged in taking dozens of pictures. At times I could hardly watch as people posed for pictures on the edge of the moraine. They were standing on a frozen lip of earth overhanging 100 metres of nothing.

We walked 2000 metres down from ABC yesterday. It was relatively uneventful, although we did see two groups of monkeys and a couple of other animals that may have been giant squirrels.

Today we continued our descent to 1300 metres, where the climate is gentle and pleasant. From our guesthouse we have been watching “honey hunters” collecting wild honey. One fellow is on a ladder 50 feet down a 150 foot cliff. He is armed with some smoking vegetation and a basket in which to place the honeycomb. This site is harvested only twice a year, so our timing is fortuitous. I asked our host how much honey is being harvested through this hazardous process: two or three kilograms.