NEPAL 2009

We have returned from our trip to Nepal where we joined a trek to the Annapurna Sanctuary.
The trip was organized by Mountain Kingdoms UK (formerly known as Himalayan Kingdoms), there were 12 people in our group led by KC, a Sherpa by profession who had won the international Sherpa of the Year Award a few years ago. He was indeed a great leader assisted by 3 other local guides and 10 porters.

The trek as such was superb. The scenery is difficult to put into words, the size of the mountains, the vastness and the beauty of it. I am hoping to put a little film clip together and will post it here to give you an impression. For now there will be a link to some photos on facebook at the end.

Our highest overnight point was 4130m, the Annapurna Base Camp or “ABC”. The trek started at around 1000m, but instead of gradually going higher, the trek leads through lots of small villages that are reached by going up and down all the time. There are a lot of “staircases”, built into the mountainside, that let the Devil’s staircase look like a walk in the park.
On one morning alone we climbed 2500 steps up to reach a village, not to mention 2500 down in the afternoon and – yes!, up again the next day! It was harder than I thought though I did not have any big problems with the altitude.

After 6 days into the trek Thomas was known as – yes, “crazy German”! Where have we heard that before? While everyone of the group was glad to have reached the Machapuchare Base Camp at 3700m for an overnight stay for acclimatization purposes, he decided to go for a run! He returned after 1 hour stating that he had actually ran up to ABC at 4130m and back again in 59min! The uphill alone would take us 2 hours of slow walking the following day. Realizing that most people might not believe him, he had scratched our initials into a big boulder up at ABC!

A few days later he and 3 others of the group wanted a “fast day” so we split into 2 groups. The fastest and fittest Sherpa was sent with them (Phuri, he recently summited his 1st 8000m mountain, Manaslu) and only Thomas could keep up with him!
Anyway, not to bore you with any more of the details of our trip, here is a summary:

HIGHLIGHTS
- Spending a whole day and night at ABC amongst some of the highest mountains on earth and watching a magnificent sunrise
- Walking through sub-tropical forest for days in sunshine and bamboo forest until around 3000m.
- Being invited by Phuri Sherpa after the trek to meet his family in Kathmandu. Thomas & I were given typical Sherpa food and saw how he lived.

LOWLIGHTS
- Kathmandu (KTM): a city that seems to have descended into chaos and corruption over the past few years according to the locals. It is unbelievably noisy, dusty and dirty.
- Mt Everest flight: great views over the whole Himalayan range, but unfortunately no close up views of Everest as expected. I did see the cloud shrouded top though!
- I must have brought a bug with me as I have been off work since Monday with N&D. Slowly recovering though.

A trek worth doing and thoroughly recommendable!

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