22nd – The beginning of the end (Birethanti (1025m) – Pokhara (820m))

Morning routine was as usual except for the fact that breakfast wasn’t until 0830. Departing we started the day with a short half an hour walk which brought us through the village we were staying in and getting us to the bus stop where our private bus was already waiting for us. At 1130 we arrived at our hotel in Pokhara after a mostly paved drive.

Despite it being Sunday most children seemed to be on their way to school while we were passing through; wearing school uniforms and all walking in the same direction gave it away.

On arrival in Pokhara we were given an hour to get our rooms and to a nearby ATM if necessary before saying goodbye to the assistant guide and porters and handing over their tips. We also had complete group photos taken; while going through the cameras an elderly local man came by and wanted to join in the photo and it was very difficult to make him understand we weren’t interested in having him there – even when our guide took hold of him and led him to the other side of the street. At one point he claimed “I like all foreign countries! Except India!” but it would end up being nearly impossible convincing him we were Indians in an attempt to leave us alone.

During the one hour our guide had fed the porters and assistant guide and after the photo session we said our final goodbyes.

Until meeting for dinner at the hotel at 1830 we had a free schedule and most of us went out for lunch nearby followed by spending an hour on rental boats on Pokhara lake. Having a short walk around in the neighborhood we ended up in a bar with drinks and card games.

Dinner was nice (when our guide talked about the restaurant for dinner we all heard the name “Rambo”. We found out when arriving that that was heard wrong; the name was “Rainbow”) and we ended the night at a bar/nightclub. It was weird being the tall one; standing next to the dance floor I could only see a layer of heads jumping up and down. Much fun and drunkenness was had.

Being watched when going through the village.

A quick look of the mountains just after leaving Birethanti.

View from the boats.

The group before saying goodbye to the porters and assistant guide.

You can just see the shadow from the old local guy to the right.

21st – Monkey business (Ghorepani (2870m) – Poon Hill (3200m) – Birethanti (1025m))

We woke up at 0500 for a quick getting dressed and a cup of tea before leaving half an hour later to get to the top of Poon Hill to see the sunrise and surrounding mountains. The 400m climb was done in 35(!) minutes. While still arriving 20-25 minutes before the actual sunrise (around 0630) the view was still worthwhile. As it got brighter a window of app. 5-10 minutes came and went where the mountains got a nice red glow. It was quite beautiful and worth the walk. The top, while large and open, ended up being crowded from the masses that had arrived for the sunrise. Walked back down to pack and have breakfast at the teahouse and we left the place at around 0900 to get to Birethanti, a 7-ish hour walk down.

Almost from the beginning we were walking through forest. I was walking behind the front of the group (4 + assistant guide) and we suddenly saw a group of monkeys playing around on the path. Before I had time to react and getting hold of my camera the rest rushed ahead shouting “Monkey! Monkey!”, effectively scaring them away- Loving wildlife photography this bothered me – probably more than it should have. Also blaring music from their phones I got the impression that people cared more about getting down than actually enjoying the environment. In an attempt to cold down from this disappointment I held back and continued walking by myself enjoying the silence of the forest. Coming out into the open after two hours of walking we had a short tea break and feeling I had cooled down enough I joined the front group again. We continued steeply down steps almost all the way and around 1300 we had lunch. The break was longer than usual, mainly due to the kitchen’s speed (or rather lack of it), and afterwards we kept going and arrived in Birenthanti at around 1615.

As usual we got our rooms and this time all rooms had own toilet and shower. And the showers had hot water. VERY hot water. Score!

Tomorrow we will have a short ½ hour walk and an app. 2 hours’ drive before arriving in Pokhara before lunch where we will say goodbye to our porters and assistant guide. The day will otherwise be a rest day before driving for 7 hours back to Kathmandu the day after. It’s probably a good thing there is no more “real” walking left as we in the group have a few worn knees and ankles. People being worried and surprised by the 7 hour walk today surprises me; it seems people are surprised that walking in the Himalayas doesn’t require the occasional long day.

Sunrise from Poon Hill.

The mountain range seen from Poon hill during sunrise.

Walking through the nice and quiet forest.

Tea break.

20th – Being on point (Sikha (1935m) – Ghorepani (2870m))

Morning as usual; breakfast at 0730 and departure within an hour later. Today’s plan was to ascend app 900m to Ghorepani and a lot of the time was spent walking through forest so the sun wasn’t as bad as the previous days. But as the day had been estimated to 4 hours there was a certain steepness involved. My surprise was therefore big when realizing that the walk had only taken us 3 hours when arriving.

Lunch was had and room keys were handed out and with nothing else really planned our guide grabbed a couple of bows and arrows and took us to a shooting range minutes away. Having done archery quite a few years in the past it would be fun returning for a short moment to the discipline. The material was of quite a different level than the stuff I once used so getting used to it was half the trouble. The second half was not remembering the techniques. People did seem to appreciate the tips I had to handle the equipment so some good did seem to come from it.

Coming back to the teahouse we were given lessons in how to make mo-mos. While they did end up tasting as they should it was a perfect example of a situation to apply the saying “Don’t judge on the looks”.

Our assistant guide had his birthday today so we (the group) got together to get him a cake. He (all locals, really) don’t really celebrate birthday so when he saw the cake with the candle he was visibly very happy and touched. He said he had never been given such attention on his birthday so overall it was a great success.

The views from today were often spiced with the presence of Dhaulagiri.

19th – There is no slaughter without laughter (Tatopani (1200m) – Sikha (1935m))

Breakfast was at 0730 and an hour later we were on our way to our next stop; Sikha, 700m higher. Like yesterday the trek was hard due to the heat and sun out in the open, the difference was that it didn’t take longer than 10-20 minutes before we were cooking.

At some point we had a break at a pace where they were serving slices of a huge cucumber. I have never seen one this big; the radius of it was close to that of a watermelon at home.

Around half an hour later at 1230 we arrived at our new teahouse. One from the group left/forgot his camera behind at the cucumber place which our guide picked up. As he (the forgetful one) was one of the first to depart the place we were several who saw what happened. Despite the multiple comments from us along the way containing multiple instances of “photo” and “camera” he never took the bait, and it wasn’t until we had been sitting for 10-15 minutes at the new place he noticed something was missing. Our guide started backtracking today’s walk with him until a few steps down the path where he wanted to show one of the others’ new camera….

In the afternoon two chickens were bought for the porters as a treat and we could watch them kill them, clean them, taking them apart and preparing the more unusual parts and eating them before they took the “real” meat with them into the kitchen for cooking. It was fun to watch. The unusual parts were basically put directly onto a small fire and were then charred before eating. I got to taste a small piece of charred head with salt; you couldn’t see it was the head due to the charring and it just tasted like salty charred fatty chicken.

Tomorrow we will ascend 900-ish meters, estimated same time as today.

A slice from the largest cucumber I have ever seen.

Hmmm... Let's take different route.

Charred salted piece of chicken head.

It didn't take long for two fully grown chickens to end up looking like this.

A small moth hanging out outside the dining room after dinner.

Dhaulagiri (8167m) seen from the teahouse during sunset.

18th – The hot tub (Ghasa (2010m) – Tatopani (1200m))

We had a late start with breakfast at 0730. This meant more than 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep which was very welcome. We departed an hour later and walked around 5 hours to get to Tatopani. The start was effortless and nice, but when the sun came out from behind the surrounding mountains it got very hot. The last part was though because of the heat, the walk itself wasn’t too bad.

Close to the end we bumped into what were probably the two most confused goats I have ever seen. They were walking around bleating at everything and nothing, seeming to be looking for something. They ended up following us until reaching Tatopani, stopping when we were stopping and standing close bleating, continuing when we were continuing, all while looking very confused. One of the weirder things I have seen.

At around 1330 we arrived at the hotel and had our lunch.

In the afternoon we went to the nearby hot spring. There were two pools; a warm/hot one and a hot/”oh shit it’s lava” one. We ended up staying a couple of hours in the less warm pool before returning for dinner. The altitude combined with the heat and not drinking enough during the surprisingly hot day made several of us quite lightheaded sitting submerged in the water. The very hot water was hard to get into; the body reacted the same way as if it was similarly cold. Strange experience.

That's spiderwebs in the bush.

Another lizard.

Soaking in the cold (less crazy hot) tub.

17th – The massage drive (Muktinath (3800m) – Ghasa (2010m))

Breakfast was at 0730 but some of us opted to meet at 0630 to go and see the town’s monastery. It’s a compound including both Hindu and Buddhist buildings and shrines. We started with the Hindu with tabs with holy water – 108 of them – which you’d use to either splash on your head for a blessing or fill a bottle with it. The Buddhist had two eternal flames going fueled by natural sulfur (which could be easily smelled in several places in and around the compound). We ended up waking up a small kid to come and unlock the door so we could get in and see them. To be honest the flames were less impressive than I had expected. Hadn’t it been as dark as it was inside the flames would hardly have been visible.

Two people in the group had had some bad chicken yesterday so they had been sick all night and struggled today. One of them was my roommate; waking up during the night I saw him perform probably the fastest exit from a sleeping bag I have ever seen. It was pretty impressing, despite the circumstances. We were supposed to leave by vehicle but when being time for leaving we were missing a jeep or finding a bus instead. After an hour or so we were informed that a bus had been located at the bus station so after a short walk we entered a very rundown bus with barely enough room for all of us. I managed to find a seat in the back with very little leg room which wasn’t improved by the seat not stuck to the frame which meant it tended to slide forward. The roads’ conditions were… hell. Or rather; roads didn’t really seem to exist, instead it seemed the driver just drove where other had driven before. After a very bumpy 1-1½ hour drive leaving my left knee ruined we reached Jomsom where we had lunch. After this we boarded another bus – in a much better state – where I managed to get two seats so I could survive without having any limbs worn down.

After a just a bumpy – but more comfortable – 2 hour drive we arrived in Ghasa and today’s teahouse.

The holy water.

Mountain range outside Muktinath. Dhaulagiri (8167m) can be seen to the left.

Would you feel comfortable stepping into this bus?

16th – Passing the pass (Thorang Phedi (4450m) – Thorong La Pass (5416m) – Muktinath (3800m))

We started the day with breakfast at 0400 and left at 0430. The estimate was to make it to base camp teahouse 400 above in 1 hour and the remaining 600m in 3 hours, making the climb 4 hours and following that a descent of 1600m in 4 hours. An optimistic schedule, but no matter how the day would turn out going up 1000m and down 1600m would make an intense – or at least interesting – day.

While we were having breakfast the porters where preparing our non-daypack bags while we were eating (or in some’s case; trying). We left on schedule with the porters but they soon sped up and went ahead of us into the darkness. The view of the stars was beautiful, the temperature was probably around -5 – -10, but there was a chilly breeze blowing.

We reached BC teahouse at 0545 and after a short break we continued upwards. The sun started slowly to rise behind the mountains behind us, but the wind also started picking up. We also starting passing through patches of hard snow and ice, and I caught myself occasionally missing my crampons. The paths were quite narrow at times and it didn’t always feel comfortable walking on the snow/ice.

At around 0900 the first of us (app. half the group of 14) reached the pass. Great views, sun was out, good temperature but the cold wind was harrowing. We stayed for a while waiting for the rest, and when arriving it was obvious some of them were struggling. It didn’t seem to be the altitude that was the issue but rather the cold. Finding a spot out of the wind would result in an amazing stay. At around 0945 we left and started descending on the other side. The wind was unrelenting so even when we got lower and the sun baking it was still quite cold. After a while, though, the winds died down and we could gradually start de-layering. At 4200m we stopped at a café – one of the first buildings we encountered on the way down – to have a small snack (sandwiches, small bowls of soup etc.) before continuing down. We ended up in Muktinath at our hotel at around 1500, a bit later than estimated.

The hotel is called Hotel Bob Marley, and they are playing his music nonstop. Things could be worse.

The porters gave our guides a call on our descent and informed them it had taken them 4:15 to do the same route as us. They made it to the hotel before we reached the pass. Absolutely ridiculous.

On the way down we saw 2x2 metal houses, almost barn-sized, with app. 500m altitude between the two pairs. It is apparently shelters if a storm like the one last year hits the area. Muskie walked in the back keeping an eye on the rear (secondary guide Puspa was in the front leading the group) and had a talk with those with him and pointed out 2 bodies from last year. Despite the non-technical area there are still un-approachable areas rescue people cannot access. Welcome to the inhospitable places of the planet where you don’t have a say in how things end.

To my surprise there was a kiosk at the pass and also an hour after BC there was a small teahouse (only with serving, no sleeping). Prices were as one would expect but it was still weird to see them on the way.

People were struggling, especially towards the end, and after finishing dinner most people couldn’t get to bed fast enough. I didn’t feel I had much of an issue – I felt surprisingly fine. Mind you; I did fall asleep instantly when going to bed but I didn’t feel the tiredness during the day like others seemed to. My legs were worn, obviously. It seemed as if some people were surprised by the difficulty/altitude/temperature which I (still) don’t know how to feel about. Then again; the last three treks/climbs I did were Stok Kangri, Aconcagua and Mont Blanc which cater to a slightly different clientele, so having those in mind this trek seems like a walk in the park (almost), but considering that others might not have similar experience I can easily see how this trip might be pushing their boundaries. I have to keep that in mind before being a judgmental bastard. I was surprised by the snack-/early lunch break on the way down – I would have preferred a short drink break before continuing down so we didn’t get too comfortable. Powering on and rest a bit more at the end instead. I might have been underestimating how much some have been struggling, though. Having experienced some tough summit days I was expecting to go straight up and down without too many breaks and them only being 5-10 minutes to get a short rest and something to drink. So having a drink break sitting down and relaxing for a while in a tea house on the way up and long break on the way down was a bit unusual for me.

G Adventure trips are different than the technical climbs I have been doing and it being a while since I did a trek with them I need to remember to adjust my mental approach to things. It’s also confusing because I tend to be among the last that end up struggling towards the top which wasn’t the case this time.

But to be honest I like the fact that I for once seem to be the one with the most mountain experience in the group.

The view at the pass in our walking direction.

The view from the pass from where we came.

A very happy group at the pass.

Emergency shelters.