Pokhara for a few

To Pokhara and a relative sense of civilization that has alluded me over the last couple of weeks.

Pokhara is a decent size town on the Fewa lake about 7 hours west of Kathmandu.

It seems to be either a jumping off point or finishing point for most treks and rafting expeditions in this part of the country.

Lots of shops, restaurants, and bars.  Not to mention warm water and a long awaited shower that felt soooo good.

A typical meal of dal baht I has for lunch 

First cofee in most 3 weeks

A well deserved frosty cold one or five post trek.

So over the course of the next two days I had the good fortune to hook up with a group of Belgium peeps to do a day of white water rafting on the upper Seti river (hopefully some good pictures to follow upon my return home) and then am amazing 45 minutes of paragliding off of one of the nearby peaks and going up over Pokhara and then over the lake. 

Towards the end my pilot  asked if I was interested in doing some tricks.  What the heck.  We proceeded to do some crazy crock screw turns and barrel rolls.  Amazing and stomach turning.  

More pics to follow upon my return home.

View from hotel room

Next:  I'm going to Kathmandu...

Ghoropani ~ Poon Hill at sunrise ~ New Bryss

A 4:15 wake up to get geared up for the hour trek to the top of Poon Hill.  The weather was a bit clouded in last night when we arrived,  but the weather gods were kind this AM.

It was cold but certainly manageable from a point of reference. Probably around 25 or 30 degrees. 

This particular area gets a lot of travel as it's possible to wrap it into a quick 3 or 4 day trek from Kathmandu.  So it made for a crowded hike up.  

We started up around 5 o'clock so we could make sure that we were at the top for sunrise.

It typically takes roughly an hour to climb the 500 meters but as we're were pretty well acclimatized, we were up in about 35 minutes and passed a slew of people in the dark.  

At the top there ws an very enterprising local selling hot tea which we took full advantage of.

To say the sunrise and views were unbelievable  would be a massive understatement.

The suns rays just starting to crack the horizon.

Over the course of the next 45 minutes the skies lit up in all shades of blues, oranges, yellows, and red.  Amazing.

Over looking parts of the Annupurna circuit valley at sunrise.  

Annapurna in the background - 10th tallest peak in the world.  

Poon is the name of a caste of people in Nepal.  

Dhulageri; the worlds 7th tallest peak

Got a slew of photos with my guide Kewal and my porter Sujan.  Lots of laughs were had then it was down back tea house for breakfast,  porridge and toast which apparently pegged me as American to a Spanish girl who thought all Americans eat porridge?!?

After breakfast we hit the trail which with few exceptions was downhill and a major quad killer.  Imagine going down stairs for 4 hours straight but then replace nice evenly spaced stairs with boulders/rocks/pebbles/loose scree that is slippery and throw in a little mule poop and you've got an exciting and exhuasting couple of hours. 

The views were also spectacular on the way down as we followed a strong flowing river most of the way.

Net fishing for salmon in the river.

We reached the trailhead in New Bryss at around 4:00pm and grabbed a jeep to Pokhara, a great lakeside town about two hours away.

A common site: the jeep 4x4 to get around some really rough terrain.

Next: Fun in Pokhara

Tattopani to Ghoropani

A beautiful morning opened up before us and after a bowl of porridge we were on the trail.  This was to be an uphill day as we took back a lot of the down we gave up yesterday.  A total of almost 2,000 meters of climbing by days end with still sore legs from the relentless down from the pass.

The last view of the Kali river that morning 

This day was all up but the views were unforgettable and the the tiny villages we traversed were incredible.

Cute kids at the top of one of the steep sections selling apples for 2 cents

Great views from the ridges above the deep valleys

This is the time if year a lot of crops are being harvested so there was a lot of work going on

More fields

Drying out herbs and onions at our lunch stop 

At various points around the Annapurna circuit there are checkpoints to keep track of where Trekkers are at and to insure fees have been paid.

So we rolled into Ghorapani around 8 hours after our departure to pretty cloudy skies.  This was a bad sign, as the main reason for coming to Ghoropani is to make a predawn hour long, 500 meter hike up to the Poon Hill look out.  Also, my guide Kewal made a 100% guarantee that it would be clear or I could "ice hammer" his quads as were both still walking a bit gingerly from the previous days endeavors. 

A quick run to a bakery for some wifi to update and it was to bed for a 4:30 am wake up.

Home sweet home in Ghoropani.

Next:  Ghoropani to New Brys/Pokhara (the trailhead)

Jomsom to Tattopani

Jomsom is a dusty and windy mountain outpost that has a smallish landing strip that has flights to Pokhara (a lakeside city 7 hours west of Kathmandu) but they only fly until about 10 in the morning due to the extreme winds after that.

A flight to Pokhara takes about 25 minutes.  To 'drive' it means a combination of 4x4, sketchy buses and police checkpoints that can easily take up to 2 days. Our plan was to take a local (read insane) bus ride from Jomsom to Ghasa to skip a really bad trail section and then foot it the rest of the way to Tattopani.  The bus had seats for 32 and we had 46 including 4 on the roof.  

Me controlling the anxiety of a packed bus with zero ability to move much less exit 

Local bus travel

We had a 30 minute stop for a hand pump refuel of diesel from a 25 gallon can

Anyway,  we got to Ghasa in one piece in about 4 hours (32 miles) and had an awesome lunch and hit the trail.

Guesthouse in Ghasa stop for lunch.

The next 6 houra were a nice hike to Tattopani.  Almost the entire route was directly next to the Kali Ghadeki river which is as beautiful as it is loud due to its rapids.  It goes through some of the deepest gorges in the world.  In mind i hiked that part with Callie, as the river's name was Kali.

A couple if great Kali river pictures 

Quite possibly the best sign ever.

We arrived in Tattopani around 4 and at 5 we hiked the extra 10 minutes and hit the natural hot springs that are there.  Mother natures hot tub.  They were over 100 degrees and felt amazing asy quads were still sore from the prior days huge descent.

Sleep came easy this night.

Next:  Tattopani to Ghorapani

Over the pass!

Sleeping at 15k feet is not the easiest to say the least.  You are cocooned in your sleeping bag, full clothes sans boots and ready to go for the early morning wake up and it's hovering around zero.  

I called it a night at around 7.  I fell asleep watching a Breaking Bad episode and woke up to what I thought would be something close to the 4:30am alarm,  only to look at my watch and find out it was 10:15pm...a long night just got longer.

So a 4:30 wake up followed by a 4:45 breakfast of porridge and bread with a side of cliff bar (chocolate chip for those keeping score) and we were on the trail by 5:00.  

The moon was just past full so the amount of ambient light was nice but headlamps and full out down gear to stay warm was needed.  About an hour in there is a little hut that we stopped at for tea just as the sun was starting to rise behind the mountains.

View of sunrise from the tea hut.

The trail was straight forward but also straight up.  Once the sun finally cast it's warm rays around 7:30 and we reached the top of the pass at around 9:15.  

My guide and friend Kewal

Flat Mr Roberts and travel monkey make it to the top of the pass at 17,800 feet.

Much fanfare, high fives and struggles for a deep breath and photos and after about 25 minutes at 25 degrees we were ready to hit the trail down.  

One typically forgets about the trip down when being focused on staying healthy and getting to the top.  This was a big mistake as the distance on the down was pretty big.  

Going up the pass was a gain of about 900 meters and 3.5 hours.  Going down was 5 hours and a drop of almost 1,700 meters and it hurt.  A massive quad killer.  Still walking a little gingerly from it.

A shot from my boots perspective and I was totally gassed.

A view of the other side of the pass down in to the Mustang valley

We finally arrived in the village Muktinath at roughly 3:30 for a late lunch and a quick jeep ride not for the feint of heart to  the town of Jomsom.

This jeep carries 12 passengers and the driver with gear on top.  My head still hurts from being slammed repeatedly on the roof.  

Not happy face.  Can't feel my quads and my feet were screaming after being on them for pretty much 12 hours.

Jomsom to Tattopani next 

Leder to Thorung La high camp

P

A cool little glacial lake with the morning suns reflection 

Wake up was 6 and breakfast of oat porridge and warm soup with black tea to get the day off to a warm start.  Last night was pretty cold as it got down into the teens. 

We were on the trail just short of seven and had another amazingly clear day.

On the way to Thorung La high camp there was a fun 1/4 mile "landslide" stretch that was pretty exposed and yaks about 1000 feet above knocking bowling ball size rocks down the hill. If you can dodge a wrench a you can dodge a rock.

Thorung La high camp, or mars. Take your pick. 

About 4 hours in we saw a helo land and pick up a man with acute mountain sickness (ams)

The last hour was pretty much straight up but there was a nice sense of accomplishment when arriving at the last camp before the pass.

Tonight we would be sleeping at over 15,000 feet+.

Amazing views from high camp 

Manang to Ledar (Monday, 21st)

A good breakfast of a 3 egg omelette and toast and on the trail by 7:30.  

We awoke to absolutely stunning cloudless neon blue skies that had been hiding for the better part of 10 days.  It revealed peaks and glaciers that were literally only kilometers away but were unable to see.   

And

We gained about 5 hundred meters today to rougly 4,300 or ~13,000 ft.

Tomorrow we head up to Thorung La high camp another 700 or so meters. 

I've met only 3 other Americans thus far on the trip but that makes it all the more interesting.  For example, at dinner tonight there were Trekkers from Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, England, Scotland, and Israel.  A truly international bunch.

As I type this in my sleeping bag I have a naglene bottle of boiling water at the bottom of my sleeping bag to keep my toes toasty and a hat on to fend off the colder temps.  It's roughly mid 30s outside and about the same inside. 

Flat mr Roberts in Nepal