Careening Through the Universe: Nepal - Annapurna Circuit

The Annapurna Circuit is 210km long. The tour I did included a jeep ride for 30km and a bus ride for another 30km so in total we only walked 150-ish km. We started walking at an elevation of 1100m and worked our way up to an elevation of 5416m at the Thorung-La Pass. It took 15 days and some hard work but I had a fantastic time and got to meet some great people. Here’s how the first half played out:

Day 1:
We took a bus from Kathmandu to Besisahar and then a jeep on a bumpy cliff-top dirt road from Besisahar to Syange where we stayed for the night. So first day, no walking.

Besisahar

One of our jeeps

Room prices are less than dinner prices

Day 2:
First day of walking! We walked 17km from Syange to Bagarchap and gained 1060m in elevation. It was a long day full of beautiful scenery but I could have done without the last hour.

Huge shopping centre...

Village

Day 3:
We walked 12km from Bagarchap to Chame and gained 510m. Today we had our first glimpse of Annapurna II (this was also the day I stopped noting which mountains we saw... I lasted one day).

Scenery

Wildlife

Mountains!

Day 4:
We walked 11km from Chame to Lower Pisang. It was only 11km with a gain of 530m. After we got to Lower Pisang, we walked up to a monastery (which I think was in Upper Pisang?), which had great views of the valley and Annapurna II. Lower Pisang is at an elevation of 3200m and it was starting to get noticeably colder at night. We stayed at tea houses each night on the trail and none of the rooms had heating, which was never a problem for me while sleeping because my rented sleeping bag kept me quite warm and there were always extra blankets we could use. There was usually a fire going in the dining room to make it warm enough to sit and eat and play cards but in Lower Pisang, the wood stove really wasn’t up to the task.

Trail

More trail

Scenery

Praying for good weather

Lower Pisang

I feel I should also mention that it was around Lower Pisang that personal hygiene standards got a bit altered. When showers are likely to be cold, water sources freeze, rooms aren't heated and overnight temperatures are nowhere near balmy, one tends to not wash so much. I had hand sanitizer but there came a point where I'm pretty sure I was just sanitizing the layer of dirt coating my hands. I was definitely not alone and there were unwritten pacts to not judge anyone else's bed/hat hair, odour or dirty clothes.

Day 5:
We walked 11km from Lower Pisang to Manang with a gain of 340m. It was a really picturesque day of walking. I was surprised by the desert-like-ness of the mountains (although I shouldn't have been because I had experienced how dry the air was). We were staying in Manang (elev. 3540m) for two nights to help with our acclimatization to high altitude so it was a great chance to wash some stinky clothes and explore the town. Our guide told us that to help reduce our chances of getting (or limit the impacts of) altitude sickness, we should drink lots of water. I think I drank 4L today… and for the rest of the trek, I never got below 2-3L.

Manang

I guess having yaks enter your store
is a risk of living in Manang

Day 6:
This was our acclimatization “rest day” in Manang. To help with acclimatization we walked 300m up to a lookout next to the Gangapurna glacier and then returned to Manang. We also had an altitude sickness talk from a volunteer doctor and had a chance to have our blood haemoglobin levels checked. Mine was 94% so I was feeling pretty good about my acclimatization (although it also said my pulse rate was 117, which didn’t quite make sense).

Goat stampede!

Day 7:
On the move again, we walked 9km from Manang to Yak Kharka (which became affectionately known by my group as Yak Carcass). It was an elevation gain of about 500m and once we got there we climbed another 350m up a hill for acclimatization before returning to Yak Kharka.

After passing this hotel, I had
"Hotel California" in my head
for the rest of the day.

Day 8:
We walked 6km from Yak Kharka to Thorung Phedi, gaining 400m elevation. It was the shortest distance and least elevation gain so far but it was hard work. It was the highest elevation I had ever been for any sort of extended time and I could definitely feel the altitude. I turned into a very slow walker (as did most of the rest of my group). Any sort of incline was really noticeable and made me out of breath. We got to a part of the trail that had a high risk of landslides and our guide said “try to walk quickly over this part” – I tried but I’m not sure I accomplished it.

We got to Thorung Phedi (elev. 4450m) and had lunch and a bit of a rest before we did another acclimatization walk up the path that would take us over the Thorung Pass the next day. It was nice to be able to do part of this path in the daylight because I knew we would be hiking it in the dark early the next morning. I was so pumped when we got back to Thorung Phedi! I was so ready to take on the Pass.