It is our pleasure to announce that another of our dreams came true. WE CROSSED THORANG LA PASS 5400m and basically it means we stepped over ourselves and concurred another height, the new record.... for now :)
You can read below about the Pass. Enjoy!
...3 days left till the moment we cross Thorung La Pass, I realized during the dinner in Manang while it was snowing outside.We started to think, is it even real to go there if it’s gonna snow for the whole evening and morning as well? We felt a little bit scared, what if the storm has arrived?! What if we will be stuck in Manang for another 3 or even more days.?!
After this I started to feel myself like in the movie called “Everest” :D Knowing that fact about the oxygen, if you go higher than 5000 m you need an oxygen mask, but our reachable altitude is 5400 m and you never know in which second you can get an altitude sickness. Hallelujah!
Manang - Yak Kharka, 9 km
Day 10
We were hoping that the next morning will be good and we will be able to continue our way. I don’t know which universal power helped us, but it was kind of a miracle, waking up with a sunrise, it wasn’t snowing anymore. After the breakfast we packed our bags and slowly moved to Yak Kharka. The path was extremely beautiful and comparing to others, super easy.
The minute we left the guest house, everyone felt the cold breeze, but the sun was shining as never before and the snow was gloving with those ‘swarovski’ moments into your eyes.
We got to Yak Kharka in about 4 hours, which is quite fast. We had a whole day to chill and get ready for the next 2 days, physically and mentally.
Yak Kharka is a small village, so we didn’t waste our time doing nothing, we took the camera and went to take some photos of nature and animals. By the way, all the way up yaks were wondering around completely free, no one was looking after them.
After we had our delicious lunch, we realized that our insurance has ended and we need to get the special one (extreme sport) for crossing the Pass. What options we had? Not much. No Internet, no mobile network, no WiFi...nothing to connect us with outer world. Thank god, Yan offered an option to call my mum from a satellite phone, which cost us 20 minutes for 4000 rupees (40 USD). Not too bad :D
P.S. If you want to have an Internet up in mountains, choose the Nepali Telecom not the one we had Ncell (Ncell is working good in cities not villages and even with a 4G Internet). However, Nepali Telecom is very slow up in mountains, but at least you can call your insurance company if something happens.
Some words about local people, they are very kind and helpful. Always trying to be the best for customers. But sometimes, in a word of marketing, they tend to lie. For example, every guest house has a hot shower and wifi, and when you ask if the WiFi is working or the hot shower is available, they say YES, yes, everything is working, and when you start to use...non of them is working 😄 If you want to try the uncomfortable option like we did, then having a cold shower is more than nice and being without WiFi makes you chat with each other, not with your phone 😊
Tip
If you go 500 m every day, I mean the altitude change, then everything should be fine with you, that is one of the most important rules for acclimatization, even if you are an athlete or whatever, safety first.
Yak Kharka - Thorung Pedi, 6 km
Day 11
We woke up around 8 am and without any rush we did our everyday morning routine. One more day, one more step closer to our goal. This day was more difficult than a previous one, in addition, we lost our way and gladly we had our lovely app maps.me which can be used without the Internet and it shows you all the paths and roads. Thumbs up for this one! In some places the path was very steep and we couldn’t see the Thorung Pedi for a long time, so it felt like we are going for 3 days already. The path was different all the way and dangerous as well, because one step aside and you’re going dooooown.
It was around 1 pm as we arrived to Thorung Pedi, as we were quite tired we ordered ourselves a vegetable soup to charge up.
Everything was going okay till the moment when everybody started to think about going up to a High Camp which is 1 km away, but veeeeeery steep and it takes you about an hour or more to get there. Why we had to do this? Actually everyone who comes to Thorung Pedi is always going to a High camp, because it is good for acclimatization. Luckily, we went without bags so it was a bit easier...or no :D I felt myself like a turtle, one step breath in, other step - breath out. I thought I won’t get to that High Camp, but thanks to my hero - Yan, not that he got me to a High Camp, but he motivated me and in situations like that, it means a lot!
Literally 5 steps left to be at the High Camp aaaaaand here we go, now we can rest for only 15 minutes and after that way back down to Thorung Pedi. You say it is pointless to go up only for 15 minutes? I would say, it is pointless :D But your body will thank you later :) So be careful.
When we went for a dinner in Thorung Pedi, everyone around was talking and gossiping about the weather for the next day. The storm is coming, heavy snow, blizzards and what not. So me and Yan started to think about which day we have to go now. Tomorrow or the day after as we planned. other groups agreed to go tomorrow, because if not, they are gonna be stuck in Thorung Pedi for 3-4 days.
OK, we decided to go the next day, because our insurance cannot wait and why not to go? Only 6 hard km and we are going to be higher than we have ever been. I will never forget that feeling that I had inside of me. I felt like the night before the most important exam in my life, scared, excited and many more mixed feelings.
After one hour we left the dinning hall and went to our room to pack our bags, because we had to wake up at 3:30 to be over the Pass around 10 am (it is better to get over the pass after 10 am, because the strong wind is gonna come up and reaching the Pass won't be so pleasant, maybe even impossible).
Thorung Pedi - High camp - THORONG LA PASS, 6 km
Day 12
Beep, beep beep, the alarm woke us up and full of energy we got up (full of energy at 4 am? :D) Weird feelings were mixing our brains. The brave heart kept beating a bit faster than usually, we had our champion's breakfast and left the guest house. Now here comes the fire.
It was complete darkness and the cold wind was blowing, the bags felt twice heavier than any other day, if yesterday I went up to a High Camp without bag and still were struggling, than you can imagine how I felt in the morning. At least in the darkness we couldn't orientate and it felt like we arrived faster to High camp, magic. We were already tired and cold, our hearts kept beating like crazy, we took a rest for 20 minutes and at 6 am we left the High Camp to challenge ourselves.
Luckily, the sun was slowly showing up, so we didn't use the headlights anymore. GUYS, it was so tough to walk, I just can't even describe. Now I can say for sure that, crossing the Pass was THE MOST DIFFICULT THING I DID IN MY LIFE.
Fingers were frozen, sunglasses were fogging up, the bag was uncomfortable, it was hard to breath because of the lack of the oxygen and to add one more thing to this hell - I was starving, now you can imagine how annoying EVERYTHING was. It felt like small little demon got into my head and he couldn't let me relax and just breath.
Yan was going behind me..just in case if something happens and if he would go in front of me, he would cross the pass 2 hours earlier than me. We stopped each 200 m, I think. I thought those 5 km were like an endless story.
If we are talking about the pass, then of course it was spectacular, the views and the rising sun...mmmm, yumm. Only in that moment I thought , how can I focus on something beautiful, when it is so fckin hard to walk. We were planning to cross the Pass around 9-10, but we did it at 11, THANK GOD the weather was like a gift, no wind, no clouds, just a perfect day for a high altitude trekking.
During the trekking, we were glad to see many more people to do this miserable thing. Students, elderly people, youngsters and more and more. It was like some kind of a motivation.
I was always asking a question, are we far away from the pass? Oh, is this the Pass i see there? What do you think, how far are we? i think, you know what I meant by that..:D I was fuuuuulllll of hope, that he's gonna answer,- Yeah, darling, nothing left, just about 200 meters...but it didn't happen :D
The time was going by and around 11 am WE DID IT., the Pass was ours, every mountain, every hill, every glacier we saw felt like it was the part of us, so personal and unique. While being at the Pass we took some photos with other guys, showed them our Steemit flag and they wanted to take picture with it, we were quite happy to hear that. At that moment we couldn't even realize where are we and what a looong way we did to get there. Only after several hours the feeling came..the feeling of beating ourselves. For doing such a great thing, I think a tiny part of our personality will change forever for sure. That feeling of being proud and confident of yourself, probably, is the best feeling in the world.
Himalayas! We will never forget it! Thank you!
About 12 am we left the Pass and only after checking the map, we saw HOW many kilometers we have to go till the next village - Muktinath.
Thorong la Pass - Muktinath, 10 km
10 km down, down ,down and one more time down...If you think that the going up is difficult, then you can try going down for many km. This is the hell for your knees. At least, it got easier to go with every step, the oxygen was stabilized and the sun was warming us up.
The minus of this way to Muktinath ( the nearest village from the pass) is that you are already tired from all the way you did, so you need to spend 5-6 hours more, and the next food place is in about 4 hours. It means that you have to take a fridge with yourself, full of food and WATER! Otherwise I don't know how can you survive there.
We were super lucky with the weather we had during the whole Annapurna trekking. 2 weeks without rain or snow. OK, it was snowing and raining only 2 evenings and it didn't bother our trekking. Also the big plus was that it wasn't the season to go there, only at the end of our trekking we saw people coming in big groups, because during the peak season time there are around 200 hikers that arrive daily. JUST IMAGINE :) Rooms and everything else gets way more expensive.
We spent 2 days in Muktinath, small village and the only option you can do there is RECOVERING. Eat, sleep, play cards or whatever, because there is nothing else to do :D So after that we moved to Tatopani and spent there 3 days, relaxing in very nice hot springs 150 rupees for one. It was a great time there, catched a bit of sunlight on our pale skin. We stayed probably in one of the most luxury hotels, I think :D They had an amazing kitchen, service and rooms with hot shower and toilet. After the trek it felt very nice, to be in a place to relax. Thumbs up for Tatopani.
When we were completely relaxed and ready to go we took a local 7 hours bus to Pokhara (5000 rupees per one). Now we are here enjoying the good weather and beautiful views around.
This was our story about Annapurna circuit. Next post will be about Pokhara, stay tuned :)
P.S. We are quite surprised about how many fellow travelers asked us about our STEEMIT t-shirts and the flag. So we told them everything and many of them were interested to join this great and friendly community.
Original content, photos taken on SONY ALPHA R7II.