Monday, October 10, 2011

Stairway(s) to Heaven…if Heaven is cold, wet, and serves dal baht



The last time Brian and I had seen anyone we know was back in April, when Brian’s brother made a stop through in Vietnam to visit us on his way back home from India.  As you can imagine, we were looking forward to seeing Brian’s dad, Ashley, and his wife, Peggy, who were flying to Kathmandu to join us for a "teahouse" trek through the Annapurna Sanctuary to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) at 4130m (13,546 ft). Teahouse trekking is a very cushy form of backpacking – every hour or two while hiking, there are simple lodges that serve tea, food, and provide a shower and bed to sleep on. All we have to carry on our backs is water, clothes, sleeping bags, and toiletries.  Admittedly, this adds up to being much heavier than it sounds. When we did the Annapurna Circuit trek a couple years ago, we managed to see the mountains named Annapurna II, III, and IV, but not the biggie of the Annapurna massif - Annapurna I.  At 8091m, it’s the 10th tallest mountain in the world,  but is also the most dangerous of the 8000m+ peaks  - it has three times the death rate of Everest, and a summit success rate of half.  Since we were trekking with self-proclaimed “old people” who want to live a few more years, we stayed safely on the non-dangerous trail, our destination being the base camp where the real mountaineers start their expeditions to the summit. We  enjoyed the incredible views far from the danger of avalanches.  (If you are one of our mothers, do not read this paragraph any further.  By “non-dangerous” trail to base camp, I really meant some of the time there isn’t any avalanche danger – which there wasn’t while we were trekking, just in case the moms kept reading despite my warning. )

 We decided to start our trek in the last week of September, with the intent of staying slightly ahead of the crowds that flood the trail during the high trekking season of October and November. Of course, the reason that is the high trekking season is because the monsoon has ended, the days are sunny and bright, and the temperatures not too cold yet. We took the gamble a couple years ago that the monsoon would pretty much be over by that last week of September  and it paid off for us. This time, the monsoon season was clearly hanging on – at least on our side of the Annapurna massif, which is the wet side of the mountain.  It rained almost every day we were on the trail, which in and of itself wasn’t that bad since we were only caught hiking in the rain shower a couple times. However, it also meant we were in clouds much of the day, we were stepping on wet rocks slick with moss, and not only was it chilly at night, it was that special kind of damp and chilly that chills you to the bone. We also discovered it means that the sweat on your clothes never really dries out overnight before you put them on again in the morning, and drying anything after completing laundry is nearly impossible.  In general, we learned the Annapurna Sanctuary is a much wetter climate than the rain-sheltered Circuit on the other side of the mountain, and it reminded us very much of hiking in the Pacific Northwest.  Judging from Ashley’s dinner-time attire of shorts every evening, I don’t think he was too bothered by the cold, but the rest of us, Brian included, were pretty bundled up every evening. 

Something else we did not quite expect on this trek was the amount of climbing up stairs, then climbing down stairs, then climbing up stairs, then climbing down stairs, then climbing up stairs…you get the picture.  There is nothing more heartbreaking than spending a couple hours gaining 2000-3000 feet in elevation, only to lose most of it in the next couple hours of hiking.  We also discovered that Lonely Planet trekking itinerary we were trying to follow has rather unrealistic expectations as to how far one should be able to go in one day when carrying a full backpack (and being above the age of 50).  We ended up splitting the first two days planned into three days, and were still pretty exhausted and sore.  Although we stayed on the recommended itinerary after that point, there were still some decently long days heading up to the base camp.   

On the plus side, almost every village we stayed in had propane-heated piping hot showers, which was appreciated more than you can imagine. We can appreciate it even more given that some porter carried that huge bottle of propane up the mountain on his back, so we could have the luxury of a hot shower on the trail. Admittedly, the food on the Annapurna Sanctuary trail was better than I remember it being on the Annapurna Circuit trail. Although by the end of the trek I was getting  tired of seeing the same menu in front of me (Dal baht, pizza, or fried rice/noodle/spaghetti/macaroni), most of the time all these options were prepared pretty well.  When we stayed in Chhomrong village on the way back from ABC, we found a guesthouse – Chhomrong Cottage - that had phenomenal  pizza, veg curry, dal baht, and - best of all - chocolate cake.  We stayed two nights.  The woman who was running the guesthouse was among the sweetest and most personable of all the Nepalis we met on the trail, which is saying a lot since almost every guesthouse we stayed in were run by friendly, conversational local men and women.

I’ve talked about some of the downsides to the trek, and some of the upsides. The big question is: was it all worth it? The answer? Without a doubt!  For all our bad luck with the weather, the day we headed up to Annapurna Base Camp was beautiful and sunny, and we had excellent view of Annapurna South, Machhapuchhare, and Annapurna I through the scattered clouds. The morning we woke up to leave ABC was even better. The sunrise cleared all the clouds, and we had a 360-degree panorama of all the mountains around base camp.  Brian and Ashley were in photography heaven. It stayed sunny and beautiful as we headed down from ABC, so we had constant mountain views for a few hours of hiking.  I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like it. Not to be too overdramatic about it, but we worked pretty hard and the tough trek pretty much chewed up, spit out, then body-slammed certain members of our group a few times, and as a result we were rewarded with a mountain panorama that relatively few people will ever see outside of a picture.  Wow.

Annapurna 1 (Elev. 8091m)

We took about five days to get back from ABC to the trailhead in Naya Pul, including a much needed rest day in Chhomrong, home to the amazing chocolate cake.  The most excitement we had on the way back was an unexpected encounter with leeches close to the village of Ghandruk. On the way up to ABC,  our trekking book had warned of certain areas where leeches could still be a problem this time of year. Sure enough, on our very first day on the trail, Brian and Ashley both picked up a couple leeches on their feet that made themselves fat and happy from the looks of the blood spots on their socks.  However, we never had any issues with them the rest of the trip, and by the time we were getting close to Ghandruk, were in a much drier area of the mountain and had completely forgotten about the possibility of leeches.  As we were nearing the village, Peggy and I both decided to make a bathroom stop along the side of the trail – there was a little side trail that headed up and out of view, which seemed to be the perfect place to relieve ourselves. However, after doing my business and heading back down the trail, I noticed a leech on my arm. I flicked it off, then noticed one on my leg, and flicked that one off, too.  When I got back to the main trail, we started doing a leech search and found about four more on my shoes, trying to make their way to my feet.  I got those off, then suddenly remembered that I had just had my pants down while doing my business in leech invested bushes.  Sure enough, there was a leech that had started sucking on my butt.  According to the guys, the scene was very comical with my freaking out with my pants half down as Peggy was trying to flick it off of me, right before she discovered another leech on her back and proceeded to freak out herself. How did I not feel this right away? Leeches have an ingenious little system of a) injecting a bit of a novocaine-type substance when the bite, so you don’t feel it, and b) also injecting a bit of anti-coagulant, so that the blood really flows out of that little bite they made.  All was well again after a little antibiotic cream and a band-aid…and I will not be making any more pit stops off the trail.

We are now happily back in Pokhara resting and recovering, and enjoying good (at least, different) food and happy hour beverages.  Ashley and Peggy head back to Texas in a couple more days, and Brian and I will head out on another 19 day trek in the Everest region of Nepal. Believe it or not, between our trip in 2009 and the almost 3 weeks we’ve been in Nepal this year, we’ve never seen Mt. Everest.  We have had a great time with Ashley and Peggy these three weeks, and give huge props to the self-proclaimed “old people” for successfully completing this journey.  They live in Texas, where there isn’t the access to hiking and backpacking in the mountains that Brian and I have in Washington, they carried their own packs on their back (most people we passed on the trail were using porters to carry their stuff for them), and Peggy dealt with not just one, but two minor illnesses on this trip. It’s pretty awesome that they persevered and can say they’ve been to Annapurna Base Camp and back.  We will miss their company on the next trek – the evenings were quite enjoyable with conversation between four people and the many games of Euchre and Monopoly Deal.  

I’m looking forward to this next trek, and a bit nervous, as well. Nineteen days is a long time in the mountains, although we have a couple of large villages on the way (Lukla and Namche Bazaar) that should give us a few more comforts.  Wish us good luck and good weather for our next journey!