Around the world in 168 days: To Annapurna Base Camp and Back in photos!

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As you can tell from my previous blog post, Katy and I have just returned from our 10 day trek in the Himalayas, specifically the Annapurna Sanctuary region. Annapurna is the 10th highest peak in the world (8091m), located about 240 km from the "Top of the World", Mt. Everest (sitting at 8848m). When Katy and I (hopefully) summit Kilimanjaro in a few weeks, we will ascend to 5895m. This task was not as daunting, as Base Camp is at 4130m....therefore that is the highest we climbed and slept on this trek. It was definitely challenging, though....and kicked our butts into shape as we prep for Kili very shortly!

I think pictures much better define this part of our journey, so I'll mostly let them speak for themselves. As a brief summary, we pretty much had the same routine every day:

Up around 6 (sometimes extra early to catch the amazing mountain sunrises. Breakfast at 630 or 7, start trekking at 730 or 8. We usually had a brief tea stop about 2 hours in, and then a long lunch break (usually from 12-2; Nepali food takes a while to prepare and mountain kitchens are very small). Most days we encountered some afternoon rain but made it into our teahouse for the night around 4 or so. We would swap out our wet, sweaty clothes for warm and dry ones, and then hang out in the common area drinking tea, playing cards, and enjoying dal baht (standard Nepali cuisine: rice, dal (a lentil soup), vegetable curry, and pickle (achar)). Bedtime was usually around 8pm, no joke....we were drained from hiking and knew that we always had a long day awaiting us.

We had a good crew! Bharat and Krishna were our guides and these guys were awesome. Nothing we do is a challenge for them, even at elevation. Not only did they guide us up and down the mountain but helped to serve us dinner every night, take care of us when we got sick, and provide more knowledge about the area and Nepali culture than I could ever ask for. Our group of trekkers started as 15: Katy and I were the only Americans, then there were 4 Canadians (all traveling independently), a Swedish guy, an Austrian girl (who was raised in Germany but currently lives in Switzerland), a Swiss girl, a German girl, a British woman, a couple from Germany (however the guy is Turkish), and our honeymoon couple: both living in England but Andy is actually Scottish. We unfortunately had to leave one guy behind on Day 3 as he got too sick to carry on. The rest of us made it up and back but about half of the group did struggle with some sort of cold, food posioning, or mild altitude sickness. Luckily, Katy and I dodged the bullets and were perfectly healthy the whole hike!

Days 3 and 6 were the highlights.....Day 3 we were up at 430am to hike up to Poon Hill (elevation 3210m) to catch an amazing 360 degree view of sunrise and the mountains around us. Fast forward to Day 6...where we reached Annapurna Base Camp (on the OTHER side of the mountain from Poon Hill) at 4130m. It was cold and the air was definitely thin on the way up, but so so worth it. Day 6 (with the altitude) was definitely rough, as was Day 9 (kind of unexpectedly....lots of stairs!!). As much as I love trekking, I can confidently say I will not be partaking in any physical activity until our Kili trek....my body is drained.

Enjoy the millions of pics below...I apologize as they are completely out of order, but you have to give me credit for at least uploading a bunch....it's quite the process in India :) I've put captions of most of them to help you place where we were.

The final couple 100 m or so of vertical elevation change before we reached Base Camp. The air was thin, it was cold, and I (right in the foreground of the pic) was exhauuusted.

Holy Hell we made it! It looks like I am super happy about life in general but I'm really super happy that I am sitting on that rock......

Morning after ABC (Annapurna Base Camp). This was at about 630am....nbd-just a little early morning mountain viewing before breakfast. You can see Katy and myself along with our two guides, Bharat and Krishna

I love life :)

4130m.....360 degree mountain view

Our trekking group: 14 of us that made it to the top, one of our guides (the other one is taking the picture unfortunately), and our porters. This is the morning after we slept there, on our way back down.

Descent

Anything that goes up must come down :) Our final day of trekking....a steep staircase on our way to the bottom

This was our final night of trekking....we endured a GIANT hail storm (luckily from inside our teahouse.....) I don't think I have ever heard anything so loud before. You can see the ground is completely covered in hail.

View of Machapuchare (or "Fishtail") mountain. This peak followed us around everywhere we went, standing at 6993m

You may say that Katy and I were not "roughing it" since we were not camping....however, please picture our rooms when you think this: a plank of wood, covered with some sort of sheet. The temperature outside at ABC was about 20 degrees F and the temperature inside our rooms MIGHT have been 40 degrees F. However, the above picture is the view you wake up to at ABC.....I'll say that's worth it.

One of about 500 cows that were blocking our path along the way

A lunch stop

Probably early on in the hike....we both look pretty clean and are only wearing one layer :)

Lunchtime tea

Himalayas

Another lunch stop

Katy and Bharat

Our porters goofing off at a lunch stop

And we're back to being on our way up to ABC

Our room at ABC

Anyone order chicken for dinner?? This guy went guesthouse to guesthouse dropping them off.....I stayed veggie for most of the trek. We read that eating dal baht (the typical Nepali food) was more economically friendly as far as using energy for cooking, etc etc. Also then you knew some poor guy didn't have to carry your chicken all the way up the mountain.....

2nd highlight of the trip right behind ABC: sunrise at Poon Hill. Well worth waking up at 430am for.

Masala tea does a body good :)

Ready to set off in the am: Bharat (our guide), myself, and the honeymoon couple: Andy and Helen

Don't get lost!!!

At lower elevations we walked through beautiful rhododendron forests...how could you not be in love with this view??

In Peru these rock towers were everywhere....offerings to the "Pacha Mama," or Mother Earth. I assume they serve the same purpose in Nepal

An example of our rooms....not the highest ceilings

Our two guides in our favorite shirts...."Dal Bhat Power 24 hour". Katy and I got them made as well. The shirt is funny because Kathmandu and the whole Kathmandu Valley practices load shedding, which means the government turns off the electricity for 12-18 hours a day....you can never count on "power"....unless it comes from Dal Baht, of course :)

Packing up post re-fueling. You can't see from this picture but just to the left is an amazing view of Machupuchare and a few of the Annapurna peaks (there are 5)

Our crew day one (minus our porters, who were far ahead of us). This is pre blisters and aching backs and knees :)

Apparently concentrating hard on walking.....

My leech!! Gross. Went in the hot springs the night before and there was a hail storm while in the hot springs. My shoes, which were perched uncovered on the ledge, got soaked. So I stupidly left them outside to dry at night and then put them on without looking inside....grosssss. Luckily, Katy is a great friend and poured salt all over him and he fell right off.

Lunch break

Another view of the chickens

Holy luxury. Katy and I got to camp the second night and two of the rooms had attached bathrooms. Our guide threw the keys on the table and we were lucky enough to grab the one that ended up having the bathroom. Please notice that we had an option between a Western or a squat toilet....