Day 11 - Thorong Pedi (4500m) to Muktinath (3700m) and the Thorong La pass (5416m) - 14 km

Toby Diary

I felt extremely grumpy as did everybody else.  It was bitterly cold and I thought I had the squits (probably altitude effects as it turned out).  The reasons for getting up early seemed intangible.  I am wearing five layers with a baseball cap and a head torch as we plod up the start of the slope.  We are forced to go at the pace of the French party ahead as it is impossible to pass in the dark safely.  The peak of my cap prevents me seeing much other than the feet of the person in front of me as we trudge up the slope.  Jules has managed to get ahead and when we find him at the high hotel we are behind the French group again.  It remained black for another hour before light started to appear in the sky in the east.  By this time we were overtaking everyone.  Marhis seemed to be turbo charged and it was all Thorpey and I could do to keep up with him.  The guide book is not joking about the many false summits.  Lots of moraine humps keep appearing after the one you thought might be the top.  We passed the small tea hut at 5030 metres and were climbing strongly but every step was an effort.   There really is bugger all air up there.  However, we were at the top of the pass by 7.20am. The sunrise just beats us to the top making the glory of arrival even more impressive but there are not amazing views from the head of the pass – or at least not of any of the major peaks. Dhalagari is hidden round a corner.  The two Guardian Mountains of the pass seem much smaller close up and the southern one seems easily doable save for no ice axe and crampons.  After the obligatory photos we head down the knee and foot jarring descent to Muktinath.  After two hours plus we get to a tea house where we have a coke each.  Stomach rumbling but happily not for squit reasons – just plain hunger.  By the time we get to Muktinath a three course meal (11.30am) goes down without touching the sides.  As we approach Muktinath we finally get proper views of Dhalagiri and Niligiri on the west and east sides of the Kali Gandaki valley respectively.  We also pass the temple compound on the way into the village.  The trinket sales girls/women are particularly insistent and Mark A caves in and buys a scarf for twice the price he should have according to Marhis. 

After lunch and a shower Jules and I explore the temple compound and also buy woollies as gifts after some hard bargaining.  We then troop back into town to dump the gifts off, before heading down into the valley to try and investigate the brightly coloured buildings there.  After picking our way through tiny villages and fields we end up at a compound and quickly realise it is a Buddhist monk training school.  They are in the middle of the equivalent of evensong so we can not get into the temple Gompa itself but it was still an enlightening experience to see what was going on.  The young trainee monks mucking around like choir boys and peering out at us in the courtyard.  We leave them to it and head back up the hill to Muktinath to rouse the sleeping Marks from their sleeping bags and settle down in the upstairs restaurant of the North Pole Hotel to watch the sun set behind Dhalagari and drink hot lemon.  Get moved downstairs as it is warmer.  Underneath each table there is a tray of coals that warms everyone’s legs – a Japanese item apparently – but very welcome on a very cold night.  Sit next to a Dutch couple and the two English Guide Dog girls.  Take the piss out of the Germans who are still on a large table of their own. 

Pipes all frozen in village so loo very stinky.

Very tired and fall asleep almost immediately.
 

Mark Diary

We rose at 3.30 in the cold and the dark. It had been an issue of some debate as to what time to set off for the pass 3000 feet above us and nearly 18,000 feet above sea level.  It is four hours away.  Two of us believed we should wait until daylight before setting off while two thought we should begin what was going to be a long day early and in the dark. 

We stumbled up the first 1500 feet in the cold and somewhat blind in the darkness. A series of lights ahead zig zagged up what seemed an eternal slope above us; other trekkers ahead of us and making their way to the pass.  These lights would occasionally disappear as one by one the trekkers would pass behind a rocky outcrop only to reappear a few moments later. We plodded up after them but it felt far too fast and was certainly harder than yesterday’s climb with Jules. Whether it was the cold, early morning and the result of a poor night’s sleep or just the vagaries of acclimatization I do not know.  At this height of 15000 feet the 4am sky was a deep, deep purple, lit by pin pricks of stars, so many more than you see at home, and you would also regularly see the bright, short lived streak of a shooting star.  We moved steadily and slowly along under this early morning sky, pressing forwards into the cold air. 

Topping the initial steep slope, the route became a series of winding stretches, some relatively flat, others with a climb.  None were too steep but at this height it took a mental effort to move.  We rose higher, the dark of the night turned grey and then the sky ahead lightened.  But the sun was still not above the mountains that surrounded us and so the valley we were heading up remained in the cold of the morning shadow with an icy headwind coming over the pass somewhere ahead of us and higher up.  The last half hour as we approached the pass was the worst for me.  My energy had lapsed and the strength I had felt walking up with Jules yesterday had deserted me.  Progress was a series of slow steps and calculated stages, choosing a point some five or six feet ahead to reach before I might stop for a rest but then, on reaching it, carrying on and doing the same again knowing to start walking again after any sort of stop would have been so much harder.  And so, stage by stage, short of breath, tired and cold we reached the pass.  We are on a saddle in the mountains and what seem like small peaks either side are in reality large Guardian Mountains.  And we are 17,769 feet above sea level.  This the highest point of our trip.  If we had come straight to this height a week ago we would likely have passed out through lack of oxygen; only our acclimatization in the last few days has allowed us to cope. 

Snow covers the ground and prayer flags are fluttering in the strong winds coming over the top.  It is still early morning and ahead on the horizon is a string of snow covered mountains that splits Nepal and somewhere below us on the other side of the saddle is our next destination, Muktinath.  We stop for a few photos and then head off.  It is a knee jarring descent.   We soon leave the snow behind and return to grey, scree covered and barren slopes.  There seems little but scree and the occasional brown hill.  We head down.  Always down.  Down steep, scree covered hillside for two hours.  There is a tea house on the hill where we stop for a drink.  A box of hot coals under the table keeps us warm as we drink our coke at an outside table in the cold of the mountain air.  After this the surrounding area changes; we reach grass but still we head down but eventually the hill levels off and we descend the final part into the village of Muktinath.