We started out sometime between 3:30 and 4AM (so that we would get over the pass before it got super windy) and all of my enthusiasm from the day before disappeared. I got to High Camp (elev. 4925m) alright and then started fading pretty quickly. It was hard enough climbing steeply at high altitude but it was also dark (the sun wasn’t up yet) and really cold (so cold that my chest ached) and my headlamp kept flickering and dimming (because the cold was sapping the batteries). No one was talking much because of the effort (and breath) it took and even though I was walking in line with everyone else, I felt a bit isolated.
At some point, the trail became really icy and crossed a steep icy slope that seemed to drop off into infinity. I started getting panicky about slipping and falling down to who knows where but then my brain sort of went “yeah, I really can’t handle this right now” and just blocked it out, which made crossing the slope a lot easier.
I should have stopped to eat a snack because I needed the sugar but my stomach had started to hurt and then I felt nauseous and I really didn’t want to have to take my mittens off to rummage through my bag for food. I was feeling pretty tired and miserable and was wondering why I ever thought that this would be fun. After a while some guys in my group stopped ahead for a rest. I stopped when I reached them and sat down. They asked if I was alright and then made me drink some water, helped me fish out some granola bars from my pack and waited for me while I rested. While they were waiting, a man walked by (I think someone else’s guide or porter). He asked if I was alright and then told the guys to go slowly for me. I was mortified! I hate being the weak slow one! I'm very stubbornly independent and it was bad enough (in my head) that I was leaning on my group for help – the thought that I looked in bad enough shape for some random guy to comment on it didn’t do much for my mental state. I felt like crying but that would have been even more embarrassing so I just got up and kept going.
I did eventually start feeling a lot better – the granola bars kicked in, the sun came up and the scenery was incredible – and I made it over the pass, slowly but without any other problems. It felt great to reach the top! We milled around for 10-15 minutes at the top and then started our descent. It was a long, steep, tiring descent but was a piece of cake after the ascent.
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| View on the way up (I didn't take many photos on the way up because it meant taking off my mittens) |
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| Another going up view |
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| Tada! I made it! |
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| Thorung-La Pass |
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| View at the top |
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| The view on the other side of the pass |
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| View on descent |
It was a really draining day – for me, more emotionally than physically. I’ve never really had to rely on other people for moral support like that before. I’m really grateful that my tour-mates were there and that they helped me out without making me feel like an inconvenience.
I also learned that my brain works funny at high altitude. After I was feeling better, my roommate stopped dead in her tracks so I stopped to see if she was alright and helped her get more water out of her pack. She was having trouble carrying the new water bottle because of an empty one that was clipped to the front of her pack. I had the mental wherewithal to realize what the problem was and the dexterity to unclip the empty water bottle but then I couldn’t even begin to think about how to clip it onto another part of her pack. So I just clipped it to my pack (which would have been the exact same as clipping it to her pack) and kept going. It wasn’t until a few hours later on our descent that I realized how weird it was.
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