Crystal Frontier

Annapurna iii, Nepal

We started another cold morning with some enjoyable scenery, that was; enjoyable until the most unstable landslide yet! Carefully crossing it we looked back and wondered how scary it would've been to have been the first person to put solid footprints in the loose dirt.







We soon cut into some glades that reminded me of the Alps. Christmas Tree's topped with snow made me long for my snowboard. As we walked, more trekkers were returning from up high where they had been stranded at Manang without the possibility of getting across Thoring La Pass. We had accepted that we probably wouldn't get to cross either and that we would simply have to return over the section of trek we had already completed.

As the altitude soared, I'd noticed that it didn't take quite as long to lose breath. But as we arrived at Pisang at Midday, the sunshine was beating down hard. I spent the afternoon in shorts, T-shirt and flip flops soaking up the sun. An awesome day walking through the crunchy snow - topped with a beach like atmosphere - sadly no rocks to sit on.

***

The next day, we set off for Manang. This was where we would find out our fate - if we could make the high crossing. The preivous day had been nice in the snow as it wasn't deep enough to cover the path - so we were still walking on dry dirt. Today was a little different and meant we were trudging through snow the entire day. Because of this, it was quite boring as you basically stared at the person in front of you's heels and rarely looked up to appreciate the landscape.

The walk was long and hard and by the time we saw Manang (about a mile away in the distance), my feet were soaking wet. Not nice. As soon as the end were in reasonable site, I jogged the final section. As I entered the town and got to dry ground, I whipped off my shoes and socks with shear relief. More relief still was that one of the local restaurants had Spaghetti Bologniase on it's specials list! After about 8 Dal Bhats I couldn't wait till lunch. It was however Spag Bol with a difference - no lamb - but fresh mountain Yak! (Still better than Dal Bhats though!)

Manang sits at 3540 metres altitude and so it was required that we take a rest day to acclimatise ourselves. It couldn't have been better - we had big clean rooms, hot showers and great food - and for the first time; internet access (at a hefty cost!)

From the fooftop, we had an absolutely awesome view so I decided to record a short video diary. Since my shoes were soaked and now drying in the hot sun, I had no choice but to make the uptown trek to the cybercafe in my flip flops. After around 30 foot steps - my toes were ready to fall off.. but it got better. The street turned to pig-sty. I had to flip flop thru manure courtesy of chickens, goats & yaks. With my shorts on I could feel the 'nature' hitting the backs of my legs - then with my next foot step - I felt it even more. My flip flop got stuck and I stepped bare foot in the 'produce'. Nick was killing himself with laughter as I picked out my flip flop - then took another step and lost the other foot.

***

Our rest day wasn't much about relaxing - we went on a short mini trek to see the Manang lake from up high - it was by far the most rewarding walk I made all trek. From the top, we could see the Gangapurna glacier. So peaceful and scenic - I coulda stayed up there till sun down.

***

The morning of the 28th October was all about getting more height before we got ourselves up to High Camp. The walk through the snow was far more enjoyable this time since the cooler temperature stopped it from melting into my shoes. We made short work of the trek and soon we were stopped at Yak Kharka for another afternoon and night.

We got some awesome news when we arrived. The Pass was now open so we would have the opportunity to try and make it over.

***

The next day was the most challenging for me. The altititude meant I only got around 6 hours sleep. The sun had gotten particularly hot throughout the morning and as we continued along the snowy passes, some even bigger challenges lay ahead. It was almost like being transported into a video game as we got to another rock slide - this time the rocks hadn't stop sliding. So there we were, looking out for rocks the size of grape fruits and picking our moment to leg it across the narrow pebble path without taking a hit to the cranium! Nick had to duck to miss one but we managed to get through from there okay.

We stopped for some light refreshments at Thorong Phedi (4450 metres). Some groups stop here for the night before making a 6 hour hard ascent to the Pass - we still had energy and plenty of daylight so we opted to finish our day at the High Camp - which would shave off over 2 hours of the final ascent. Now, imagine the steepest hill you've walked up, add a few feet of snow, an English August Summers days sunshine and a stupidly high altitude and you've got yourself some hard work. It was taking me around 8 foot steps to lose my breath completely. As we got to the top, there was nothing but relief as I finally got to walk some flat ground and order a coke.

As the sun set in High Camp, it got very cold, very quickly. The next day we were to leave way before sunrise as we had several hours ascent to 5416 metres before descending 1600metres verticle.

***

The morning had arrived - well actually it was nothing like morning - more like "late last night". I donned everything I had - I felt like Joey in that episode of Friends where wears all of Chandlers clothes. I was fat with clothing, I strapped on my head torch and we got trekking. In pitch darkness. Behind us we saw illuminations of the other groups torchlight following us. It was minus 12 degrees and my hands and feet felt... well they didn't really feel a lot. We got to a lone guest house which we could just see by the candle light eminating from the windows. We dashed in to try and gain a few degrees body temperature, just as I noticed the sillhouette from behind the mountains. All I could see was a faint jagged line with a crescent moon above. I figured it could make a great picture so I ran outside and set up my tripod in double quick time.

The result on the back of my cam made me happy and spurred me on to get moving. I snapped the same scene some more times as we slowly moved up the mountainside.

Finally the sun rose - bathing us in not-so-freezing photons.

The gradient was nothing on the previous afternoons, but even still it was hard going - I'd make around 30 quick footsteps before stopping to catch breath each time. Then as we passed another snow drift, there it was - Thorong La Pass. As I neared it, a German I'd met the day before was waving at me - the breathing mattered not - I sprinted the final 50 metres and threw myself a backflip into the snow. He and his girlfriend came and congratulated our party. Five Thousand Four Hundred and Fourteen metres - the highest I'll ever walk to.