I waved goodbye to Pokhara early that morning and began my week long solo trek towards Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) 4,130m. After the first day and a steep final ascent I arrived to Landruk - a beautiful village on the east side of the valley. I sat and had a cuppa, looking out at the villages which I'd be passing through over the next few days spearheaded by the tenth tallest mountain in the world - Annapurna1 (8,091m). With a couple of hours of daylight left I went to explore the village and met a man called Prem - a guide with good English and deadpan sense of humour. I went with him to some fields at the top of the village to help collect some grass for his buffalo. We sat and looked over the valley and I rummaged around in my bag to see if I had any food for us - I found a pack of biscuits and some pastries I'd bought in the bakery back in Pokhara, his eyes lit up "BREAD!" he shouted up to a nearby house and his brother-in-law came from nowhere to join us. I ended up carrying the bundle of grass down to his farm, much to the delight of the locals - and at one point just as I felt the 40kg load weighing heavy on my back down the steep cobbled steps - I saw on old woman with a similar load - walking uphill - those nepalese eh? His wife and daughter invited my into their home and began feeding me. Several glasses of their homemade curd, tea, and a purple stirfry-powdered maze-porridge kinda thaang which hit the stop. FULL POWER.
He'd built the family home himself 15years earlier and like most of the families around lived day by day on the crops they grow and animals they raise. 'BYE PREM!’ and I retired to my homestay at the bottom of the village, tomorrow was going to be a big one - I could feel it!
DAY TWO…
I was taking a breather at the top of a monster climb when a beardy looking fellow arrived and said "HI" with a Catalan accent. "OLA" i replied in Yorkshire and that was that - Xavi and I became best buddies.
Stopping off for tea's here and there we saw pictures of 'REAL' trekkers on the walls and quickly realised that we weren't all that well prepared - no water purification tablets, no sunglasses or hats, a pair of fingerless cotton gloves between us and Xavi in a pair of running shoes. We’ll be fine. We bedded down that night in Chomrong (2340m) when the rain started - knowing little at that point that a massive storm was looming. The next day was fucking dark, wet and windy so we decided to hold out in the tavern, smoke some excellent hash and play some extreme chess with a cool Ukrainian guy I’d made friends with.
The following day was clear and we condensed two days trekking into one, probably because we’d eaten so many ‘Rotties’ (magic food)and made it all the way to Machhapuchhre Base Camp (MBC). Along the way we saw the trail of destruction caused by the storm - streams had become rivers, paths had disintegrated in landslides and avalanches filled up nearby valleys. Despite the 10hours solid trekking to MBC (3900m) we didn't sleep that night - I guess due to the altitude but we rose nonetheless at 04.30 to make the final 1.5hour climb to ABC for the sunrise. Yeh it was cold, dark and I struggled to flick the switches on my camera with the frozen sausage like fingers poking out of my stiff cotton fingerless market vendor glove (singular) but the magic of the mountain filled us full of energy and we made it up there just in time to see the warmth of the morning sun rise behind good ol’fishtail (mt.Machhapuchhre). Woo. Alrighttt.
Then we found out the reality of what had happened in the storm - many people had died when an avalanche hit on the 5,416m Thorong La pass pass after almost 2meters of snow had fallen in 12hours and caught trekkers and their guides right out. Others were still stranded and waiting to be rescued. Many were missing. It's the worse trekking disaster ever to happen in Nepal. We descended feeling 100% alive, our lucky escape from disaster combined with the buzz of the mountains and had another full power day of trekking. I later ended putting the flames out on a woman's burning bamboo house and was rewarded with a stick of ganja. That’s how they roll in the Himalayas.
