Annapurna Sanctuary - Part 3

October 25th, 2016

It's Tuesday.  I was up a few times in the night.  Something I ate, or possibly drank.  Otherwise, I slept pretty well considering I was in bed by 7:30 pm.  Once you eat supper, there isn't much to do. 

The sky starts to lighten by about 5:30 am.  I crawl out of my sleeping bag to see what the day is like.  Clear, with the tops of Machhapuchhre and Annapurna South poking up above the "hill" to the north.  They seem pretty close, but we won't be below them for a couple more days, at least.

After breakfast, we started with some down.  A few hundred meters at least, which we made up for and more on the other side.  We continue on in this fashion until about 10:30 am when we reach Chomrung.  This is a pretty big place, with many lodges, a German bakery, a number of places with reverse osmosis water outlets.  We pause for some liquid and press on.  Our objective is just across the valley.  It seems so close.  It takes a total of 90 minutes to get there, 30 minutes straight down to the river on a stone staircase.  Then more of the same up for an hour.

We are very close to Machhapuchhre, but the afternoon clouds have arrived and we can't see anything.  For the moment, we're too thirsty and tired to care.  We're at Upper Sinuwa (2350 m).

October 26th, 2016

For our Wednesday fun, we hiked for 4 hours and climbed 900 m.  We're now at 3200 m and on the steep uphill, it's starting to show.  It's just a bit harder to climb and you feel more like resting after a session with the stair master.

We are at Deurali, a small collection of lodges almost at the end of the line.  After this, there is only Machhapuchhre Base Camp (3700 m) and Annapurna Base Camp (4130 m).  We will probably spend the next night at the lower of the two, explore higher and then head downhill.  We're almost at the turn around point.

We're almost at the base of Machhapuchhre but we are too close to see it.  Can't see anything except the steep valley walls. The day's clouds have moved in.  Suddenly it's quite a bit cooler.

This afternoon's activities involve resting and drinking lots of fluids.  It's cold enough that I just roll out the sleeping bag, pull a quilt over top and crawl in for a nap.

October 27th, 2016

Given the weather pattern here, the strategy for today was to get up early, climb to MBC, drop our gear there and hike to ABC for the views which we hope will last long enough to accommodate us.

The strategy works.  There is space at MBC, the skies stay clear as we hoped, and we scamper up the 900 m of elevation, take in the views and scamper back down.  Scamper is probably the wrong word to describe our ascent, but we do make good time.  We don't feel that tired.

The peaks are amazing.  Surrounding the Sanctuary amphitheater is a ring of massive mountains.  All of them in the 6000 to 8200 m range.  We take pictures, admire the difference in elevation between where we are (4130 m) and the summit of Annapurna I (8200 m), for instance.  It doesn't look like it's 4 km higher than us.

The light is good and the air is very clear.

Eventually, there is little to do except head back down.  We drop the 400 m quickly.  A cold wind has come up and fog is drifting up the valley.  We have a couple of hours of sunshine at our camp before we are completely socked in.  By 3 pm, it is raining.  Just like yesterday.

We sleep, read and write.  First thing in the morning we will be on our way down.

October 28th, 29th & 30th, 2016

By morning, the everything had a light covering of snow.  Around 5 am, the lights of many headlamps could be seen from those making the hike up to ABC.  We were on the trail down by 7:30 am.  We hiked steadily, easy because it was quite cold and, after a quick lunch break at Sinuwa, arrived at Chomrong by 2 pm.  The last 40 minutes dealt with the looong stone stair climb of about 400 m.

It was nice to be warm again and not have to be wrapped up in a sleeping bag and all one's clothing just keep from freezing.

The next morning, we climbed briefly and then began an interminable descent into the next valley.  This took us an hour, step by stone step.

We had a very pleasant walk along the river on the shade, and ended our day near the small village of Tolka.  There are actual villages here, with hundreds of terraces climbing the steep hillsides.  We can see new road construction winding up the hills across the Modi Khola River from us.  Our passage is briefly interrupted by young children, singing us songs and asking for money.

It's sunny and warm so we rinse our clothing and get other items dry for the first time in several days.

The lodge for the night has spectacular views down into the valley in all directions, but in a few hours, the usual afternoon clouds arrive, the breeze picks up and it becomes cooler.

At night, the lights from houses on the opposite hillside shine out, all the way from the river up to the forest well above our elevation.

In the morning we continue on our way down the valley.  Lots of great views of the Annapurna range and, eventually, views down to Pokhara and Phewa Lake.  We will be back in Pokhara by mid-morning on October 31st.