Annapurna Base Camp/Annapuran Sanctuary Trek and Ghorepani loop trek

Well, I have a lot of blogging to catch up on after several weeks out of touch with the internet trekking in the Annapurna region. So again, I am just going to kind of copy straight from the little journal I keep with me, which is just mainly info and a tad bit of rambling, but it should serve the purpose of letting you all know what I have been up to and giving an idea of what it was all about.

11/15 Take the bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara. Bus ride is wild (crazy roads) and scenic of course, following several raging rivers and through junglish terrain. Walk around Pokhara. It’s a nice an quiet town, especially compared to Kathmandu, along Phewa lake. Good and cheap food in Pokhara. Its quite cloudy so there is no seeing the famous mountain views.

11/16 (Day 1) Walk a bit next to the lake, but still no views of the mtns as per the clouds. Hop on a local bus to get to Phedi, but the bus driver forgets to tell me where Phedi is, so I go all the way to Naya Pul and instead start the trek from Naya Pul (1070m/3510ft). Hike from there up to Ghandruk (1940m/6365ft). The hike goes through lots of little villages and lots of rice (and other crop) terraces and a few waterfalls. Nice views down into the deep gorge below, but foggy/thick air, so you can’t see the big mountains =(

11/17 (Day 2) Woke up and looked out my window from my bed to an amazing sunrise setting Annapurna South to a blazing red as well as Macchapulchre (aka fishtail). Very nice! Macchapulchre is the only ’virgin ’ mountain left in Nepal as the government doesn’t allow anyone to attempt to climb it. Today I walk through lots of little villages and rice terraces complete with farm animals of all kinds, interesting houses, lots and lots of flowers, and brightly dressed villagers. I really like walking through the villages. It’s quite a unique experience and a feast for the eyes and other senses. Nice views of the big looming mountains in the morning before the clouds roll in and also nice views into the deep gorges with their raging rivers. Very green and at some places quite jungly. Found a hidden waterfall off of the trail that I spied from a suspension bridge and had to bushwhack to get to. Walked from Ghandruk (1940m/6365ft) to Chhomrong (2170m/7119ft) via Kotdanda (2344m/8288ft) and Kimrongkholagaon (1800m/5904ft). Took the ’long cut’ to get to Chhomrong in order to walk through more villages. I could tell the Ghuesthouses in C-rong would have amazing views, but it is still cloudy. This bad weather is extremely unusual (it is perplexing the locals and guides), and I am praying it passes and goes back to sunny and clear! Had a burrito and hot brownie at a lodge famous for them.

11/18 (day 3) Still cloudy in the morning. Walked to Himalaya Village (2920m/9577ft) along a steep canyon w/ of course a rushing river at the bottom and lots and lots and lots of waterfalls. Walking through rhodendron and monsoon forest. Walking in a very steady and cold rain the last 1.5 hours. My roommate in Himalaya is a nice Chinese guy that shared lots of his Chinese food with me that he brought along including the famous dried Yak from Lijiang that Richard and Sally and I enjoyed so much. Lots of nice people in my lodge that day and we had a really fun night despite the bad weather. New friends: Jude and Casper (Denmark); Jason and Helen (England); and Ondre and Stefani (Slovakia)

11/19 (day 4) Beautiful weather in the morning! Hiking up through the steep canyon. Waterfalls everywhere again. Reached Machhapuchhre Base Camp (3700m/12,139ft) will with clear weather and nice views of Annapurna 1 (8000+m peak), Tare Kang, Ganggapurna, and Machhapuchhre. Strange to have a base camp for a forbidden mountain, eh? By the time I reach Annapurna Base Camp (I am the 1st one there) (4150m/13,616ft), it is snowing pretty decently. Walk around a bit to see the glacier. I am lucky I ascended fast, b/c I was the only one to see the mountains. Snowing hard all afternoon and evening. Hanging out playing cards and reading in the lodge. Lods of fun with the same group as back in Himalaya.

A quote I saw from Ondrej (they just did the ABC trek and did not continue onto the Ghorepani loop like I did) on his facebook wall once I got back to Pokhara that I thought fitting: back from Annapurna base camp trek, 8 long days of wind, rain, snow, clouds, fog and a bit of sun + great people around.. all in all it was an amazing experience! The group, including Ondrej that I was with from Himalaya up were not quite as prepared for mountain weather as I was (some had no sleeping bags, only blankets, others no rain coats, or wind pants or warm jackets), so it was quite the physical test for them. For me it was more of a mental test b/c I wanted to see the mountains, but in the end it all worked out well for me bc by either waiting a day or doubling back I was able to see the mountains clearly from all the big viewpoint areas


11/20 (day 5) Several inches of fresh snow is upon the ground, but gorgeous clear morning!! Get to see the awesome sunrise view from the base camp where the mountains of Annapurna South, Annapurna I, Annapurna III, Tent Peak, Machhapuchhre and others rise straight up from the rock and glaciers there at base camp. Watched some glaciers and avalanches slide down. At the basecamp, you are surrounded by huge peaks in a mountainous amphitheatre. Hike all the way down to Chhomrong (2170m/7119ft) in 1 day (it usually takes two, but with the decent morning weather pattern the past few days, I am hoping to see the views the next day from there) via MC, Derauli, Himalaya, Dovan, Bamboo, and Senua. Of course all the multitude of waterfalls are there going down as they were going up and no less impressive. Drizzling most of the afternoon as I walked through the bamboo forest and jungle. When I get to Chhomrong after a very long day, I had a Cadbury chocolate from the cheap wholesale kerosene depot and a fresh hot brownied from Didi again!! to celebrate making it to ABC. Met Sam (a graduate of Dakota Ridge HS, that’s Colorado Spgs for those non Coloradoans) at Chomrhhong. She is in her senior year at Pamona College (one of the Claremont colleges in CA) but is taking the semester off to volunteer at orphanages in Nepal. Also met Matteus from Germany and had a nice night chatting with them and two other Germans. Skies cleared in the evening and had breathtaking views of the snowy mtns in the full moon!

11/21 (day 6) Amazing views in the morning from Chhomrong looking up at towering Annapurna South and Machhapuchhre. It is especially cool view since Chhomrong village is on a steep rice terraced slope and just across the steep gorge are the towering snowy mountains. I hike through some villages and down a canyon to Kimrongkholagaon (1800m/5904ft) then steeply up through dense rhodendron forest (rhodendron forest reminds me of the temperate rainforests in Washington with cool looking trees and lots of moss). At the end of the day I am hiking through clouds and mist as I reach Tadapani (2630m/8526ft). Nice evening in the lodge with 3 funny Polish, 2 older and sarcastic aussies, and 2 jovial brits).

11/22 (day 7) In the middle of the night when I get up to pee, the full moon on the peakes was stunning with the snow glistening. Sadly, by morning clouds had rolled in so no sunrise or mtn views. I hung out longer than everyone else though b/c it looked like clouds were thinning and I was rewarded with some nice close up views of Annapurna South, Machhapuchhre and others in the range through the clouds. Walked to Ghorephani (2860m/9381ft) via Thulo Odar (2420m/7927ft) where shortly after I saw a couple groups of Langurs (monkeys) in the trees. The majority of this hike was through gorgeous forest along steep cliffs and ravines. Then I went up a long and narrow canyon with a small, clear stream flowing through it that was just gorgeous with the forest transitioning from rainforesty to more of a pine forest. Eventually I reached Ban Thanti (3180m/10430ft), where I had some hot chai before going down a bit and then going up over Deurali Pass (3090m/10,135ft) where the clouds parted a bit and I got good views of the Annapurna range just as I was catching up to my new Japanese friends Masato and Chihiro. Then descended down to Ghorepani (2860m/9381ft) in the mist. Explored Ghorepani a bit and had some delicious Yak Cheese! I am staying at a very nice guesthouse up on the hill with a very warm fire and a nice family. They even had a TV and dvd and we watched Ocean`s 13 at night with popcorn. Met a really nice Chilean gal (Caroline) who is uite adventurous and very friendly and she gave me lots of good tips for the Annapurna circuit. At the guesthouse, it is just me, her, and the Japanese couple, so we have the run of the place. It is very foggy in Ghorepani, but to me the sky looks somewhat light directly overhead and thinking that a bit higher up I might be able to get out of the fog, I go for the hike up to the top of Poon hill (3210m/10528ft) and am rewarded with amazing sunset views over the entire Annapurna range and Dhaulagiri (8172m, worlds 7th highest mtn) with some high clouds lit up above and fog below in the valleys and gorges. Very beautiful! And also amazing b/c I am all alone up there, so it is nice and quiet. As poon hill can just be an easy 3 day loop and it has one of the best views of the range and does not have the altitude or cold weather problems, it is an extremely popular trek and the next morning there would be over 100 people on top of poon hill taking away from the serenity of a peaceful mountain sunrise.

11/23 (Day 8) Leave at 5:15am to climb poon hill for sunrise with Caroline and the Japanese couple. Snowing and sleeting at the top unfortunately, so no views. I meet two of Carolina’s friends from her circuit trek at the top: Polly and Artie from Donnelly, ID, though they had met when they lived in CO—Artie working at Breck and Polly at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes. Now they are photographers working in Whitefish and McCall/Tamarak. Though they are looking to move since Tamarak closed (wow, I had no idea, look what happens when you travel abroad for so long) and a lot of their business was weddings there. I don’t know how much they were exaggerating or not, but they said you can get houses dirt cheap in Donnelly now (50,000 dollars) or on the actual slope for 200,000. This seemed like an amazing opportunity/possibility bc in my best guess a ski resort will come back there. I guess the French guy who ran it, just was poor at managing it. Plus, I think that Idaho is going to eventually go the way of Colorado in that it is being discovered now and will se a huge population boom, especially in the treasure valley and bogus basin and Brundage will not be enough ski resorts to support the budding outdoor enthusiast population so they will need more ski resorts. We also talked about working in Antarctica as they want to as well and they gave me some contacts of people they knew who had worked there and might have some advice for getting a job. They also told me about a sweet idea of if you work in a town with an airport to work like 1 shift a week doing check in or baggage or something for an airline and you get to fly for free standby anytime you want anywhere the airline or its code share partners fly. They don’t do it, but Polly’s sister does and she also gets to give immediate family members free standby flights and that is how they are traveling. That sounds totally awesome to me! On top of poon hill I joined in on a jumping photo with Polly who is jumping for a photo everyday of the year. If you want to check out her jumps go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jumping-Polly/120796064605428 and check out her albums. Those in Idaho/Montana may be particularly interested to see some of the places she has jumped up there. Had a good breakfast w/ the three of them talking about Idaho, CO, Patagonia and Antarctica. The Japanese and I decided to stay another day to hope for the infamous sunrise views from Poonhill. Masato and I hike towards Tatopani (as opposed to Tadapani). We go through lots of nice agricultural and farmland and reach the villages of Chitre (2390m/7447ft) before going back up. I hike back up to the top of Poonhill even though I know it will be foggy and have no views, but just to do something and get a good workout. I don’t minde staying an extra day here bc I love the guesthouse I am staying at and the food is amazing there!!

11/24 (Day 9) Amazing day1 Walked up to Poon hill early again with the Japanese couple to see sunrise. Gorgeous sunrise w/ spectacular vies of the Annapurna range gloing pink, Back down in Ghorepani (also with nice views), I have apple crumble pie for breakfast to celebrate, outside in the bright sunshine. Then walked the long way down to Naya Pul at 1070m/3510ft (so lost 7018ft) in one day! Go through lots of picturesque villages like Banthanti (2250m/730ft, Ulleri (1960m/6429ft) and Hille. These villages were really cool b/c there was lots going on in them from making millet for local spirits to plowing fields with buffalo (not so jovial bison) to kids playing around and trying to sell me oranges. Lots of villagers dressed in colorful garb and flowers and poinsettias everywhere. Add this to the green backdrop and rice terraces and distant snow-capped peaks and it was just purely fantastic. Even some macaque monkeys running through the forests between the villages. Lower down there was lots of agriculture and non-stop villages, all w/out roads of course. Just subsidence farmers. Back at Naya Pul again, I get some fresh oranges and then take the bumpy and winding road back to Pokhara. I have a `pre` Thanksgiving and welcome back to civilization feast with lassies, chais, good food, and chocolate. I had enquired at a guesthouse for rooms, but all they had were expensive rooms left, so instead the owner let me stay with his family in a cool homestay.