On our final, twenty-fourth, day of trekking we walked for three hours, mostly on the road. As we descended towards the highway the temperature rose and the intensity of human activity increased. We completed our walk at Naya Pul, a town on the highway that was the historic terminus of the Annapurna Circuit before the more recent road construction. From Naya Pul the highway to ...
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 ...
It was a pretty three hour walk, with 900 metres of climbing, to reach the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). We crossed stretches of old snow in avalanche chutes, before bursting into the sunshine above the Macchapuchare Base Camp. Helicopters buzzed overhead, much closer than they were yesterday.There are four lodges located at ABC, at an elevation of 4130 metres. There is not a cloud in ...
It was a pleasant climb through a mature hardwood and bamboo forest today. We are in a narrow valley leading into the Annapurna sanctuary, so despite the clear conditions we did not have direct sun until 10:30 am. There are monkeys in the forests we passed through, but unfortunately we did not see them.All morning there were helicopters thumping past us in both directions. It ...
Today was rather uneventful, but we did have some of the nicest weather we have experienced. It often gets partly cloudy starting at midday, but today was blue sky from dawn to dusk. Because we were at moderate altitudes of 1800 to 2400 metres, it was also quite a pleasant temperature, possibly 17 degrees in the early afternoon.The quality of the light had me grinning ...
The walk today was distinct from previous days in a couple of ways. In the first place, the vegetation was much richer. It is apparent that the rainfall is greater here than in other areas around Annapurna. We walked through a lush forest of large hardwoods and conifers, rhododendrons and bamboo. At lower elevations (we were between 2200 and 3200 metres) it seemed like a ...
Today Matthew and I climbed a net 1600 metres to Ghorepani. This is the biggest climb on the Annapurna Circuit. We felt very strong at first, sucking in the viscous and oxygen rich air at 1200 metres. The last hour, with fatigue and thinner air, was more difficult. It took us almost seven hours to do this stage, including an unprecedented two stops for soft ...
Today all four of us descended 800 metres to a land of bananas and oranges. The first half of the day we walked on extraordinary trails cut into the sidehill above the river, or rising or falling on stone staircases. I frequently imagined that we were walking on an Inca road. The second half of the day was more of a trudge, with the noise ...
We have walked 5 hours each of the past two days, mostly on trails on the opposite side of the valley from the road. We started in conifer forests, but now that we have dropped to 2000 metres, we are walking through bamboo and other subtropical plants. It is so nice to feel warm again.Dhaulagiri, at over 8000 metres, has dominated the landscape for the ...
Matthew and I set off from Thorung Phedi at 5:00 this morning. It was a clear and cold night and the ice crystals on the juniper shrubs twinkled in our headlamps. We could see other headlamps grinding there way up the steep slope above us. (Some people left at 3:00). It was a difficult climb, but we made steady progress for the first couple of ...