Annapurna Circuit Day 10: Thorong Phedi to Muktinath via The Pass

Day 10, the big day! Also, the first day from the entire trek so far that I actually woke up extremely worried. The alarm went off at 4:30 am! The aim was to start trekking at 5:30 am. I knew I could handle a lot but that was gonna be the first time I was gonna put my body through the enormous challenge of going up to 5400m … so I felt uneasy. Would I make it? Would I even be able to breathe? Would it snow up there? – So many useless questions that weren’t giving me rest until I finally packed my bag and headed outside to meet Dyana and Andrew, my trekking buddies for the big day.

The guys were already having breakfast whilst I walked in all smiley and evidently looking super excited 😀 Sure I was terrified but I was also buzzing! I mean, how often does it happen to do such a crazy thing you actually have no clue whether you’d make it out alive or not LOL

Just like any other day, I wasn’t having breakfast that morning so I was taking my time to figure out a way to put in my contacts since mirrors were a true luxury this high up in the mountains and it was still pitch black outside. Eventually, I managed so one worry was over.

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Thorong Phedi (4450m) to High Camp (4850m)

It was a freezing foggy morning so we weren’t rushing to get going. And luckily so … around 6 am, all layered up, with gloves, beanies, scarfs and armed with trekking poles, we headed towards High Camp. Then all of a sudden, the sky cleared, just in time as we all remembered that was Dyana’s birthday. What a freaking cool thing to be doing on your bday. There was barely anyone in Phedi that morning so we had the first morning views over the Himalayas all to ourselves. I was so grateful we didn’t stick to the original plan to head out at 5:30 am because that would have meant missing on the views we were so unexpectedly amazed by.

The hike from Phedi to Hign Camp is only 1 km but we knew it would take us a while because of how steep the stretch was. It wasn’t more than 5 min after we headed off that we were already in need for a short pause. It was horrific. The steepness, the altitude and the cold were definitely not working in our favour. It was exhausting and we were feeling every single step.

About 30 min into the trek, I stopped in shock. The strongest pain I’ve ever experienced paralysed my entire chest. I could still breathe properly, yet I could feel my heart and my entire torso stiffing up as if someone at least triple my weight had sat on my chest just to see if I can still keep going. I panicked. I couldn’t understand what was happening. I could breathe ok. I didn’t feel that exhausted, yet the pain wasn’t going away. I panicked for a few long seconds until I realised that I had to pull myself together so I can be rational, judge the situation and see if I can even continue.

I smiled at Andrew who had stopped a few meters behind me, told him I had to take it easy, focused on my breathing and took some of the longest and deepest breaths I have ever taken. I stupidly smiled ear to ear, told myself silently that I’ll be ok and it’ll all go away, and magically this brought me back from my panic and horrific scare. I somehow managed to calm myself down and could slowly and happily notice my chest opening up again, my pulse was starting to get back to normal, my body was no longer shaking with fear and the pain was starting to fade. In those few moments, so many scenarios went through my head but the real horror of potentially having to go down or worse yet call a helicopter if the bloody pain didn’t go away, were kicking my butt to figure out a way out of this. And I did <3

I slowly started moving up again without anyone realising what I had just gone through. I kept the panic to myself. Dyana was boldly going ahead, holding up strongly whilst Andrew was having a much tougher time, powering through shortness of breath and dizziness which were the classic signs of the altitude knocking on the window. Inspired by the epic views though, we were going strong.

A few meters below High Camp we stopped! Not to take a break this time but to wow at the phenomenal views that opened up. The views truly were some of the best we had seen and we weren’t letting fear, time pressure or anything else steal those precious moments from us. We took a little side trek towards some blue sheep that were guarding the viewpoint entrance 😀 and filled up on truly remarkable views over the mountains and the valley. Words can barely describe the excitement and gratitude to be able to stand up there and experience all this first hand. It was so mystical and magical that I just couldn’t get it through my head why other trekkers were rushing ahead not even turning around to see the views they were walking away from. Wasn’t this the whole point of being in the Himalayas??? To allow yourself to slow down and just enjoy the moment???

At High Camp

Within exactly one hour from Phedi, we arrived at High Camp. The place was way nicer and bigger than I had imagined. I had mistakenly thought that at High Camp, there’s only one place where you could stay overnight which was like a big dorm room but that was a total lie. In fact, there were quite a few decent bedrooms, outdoor toilets for the passers-by and a restaurant with a good-sized dining area. The weirdest and most stressed-out birds I’ve ever seen were running around as if they’ve totally lost it whilst deers were casually grazing around, completely undisturbed by the occasional trekkers or totally oblivious to the spectacular views they had in their backyard. Honestly, though, the views were so phenomenal, I was totally speechless.

Just as we were about to head out after our little stop at High Camp, we saw our Nepali friends from the day before. Poor guys, they were totally smashed 😀 Most if not all of them were seriously hangover and at 7:30 am at that time, they were already complaining from headache and pain here and there. If these guys could pull it off, so could literally everyone else 😀 I mean, how do you even survive a hike to 5416m drunk. I was about to witness.

From High Camp (4850m) to Muktinath (3800m) via Thorong La Pass (5416m)

As soon as we started off from High Camp we were pleased by the flattened trail. We were still feeling the trek big time but it was nothing like the horrific zig-zag steep climb from Phedi. All of a sudden my worry that it’d be another Ice Lake day disappeared. I was starting to feel confident that after all, it’ll be ok.

The whole distance from High Camp to Muktinath was 15km with the portion to the pass making up just 5km from it. Pretty much the entire way was narrow and covered in little stones which were making it challenging and slightly dangerous to trek on but luckily it wasn’t a busy day on the trail so we could take our time and not risk being taken over by quicker trekkers that often. In fact, when I think about it, I don’t think we saw more than 10 people on the trail that day.

It was a good day to be tackling the pass. The sun was out most of the way to the top. The sky was clear, giving us the occasional panoramic glimpse over the mountains and most importantly it wasn’t rainy or freezing cold which was one of my main worries. Unlike any other day though, skipping breakfast got my stomach boycotting early on. There was a bridge we had to cross which made up for the perfect snack spot. My blood pressure had gone so low that my hands were shaking so I took out my boiled eggs and a few dates to play it to the rescue 😀

A few meters up from there, Maps.me was showing that there was a tea house. I couldn’t believe there was a tea house so high up in the middle of nowhere but it was true. Just as we were approaching the tea house, we got blown away by the most unreal views. Genuinely I couldn’t believe we were still on Earth. We were surrounded by sand-like mountains staggered one above the other in colours so unique that it honestly didn’t look real. To add to the otherworldliness of the scene, at the bottom of this crazy landscape was a dried-out river full of rocks. It looked like a mountainous super cool desert.

When we got to the tea house, we met the Nepali guys yet again. This time they weren’t just drunk … now they were also full-on stoned 😀 They even offered hash to Andy who, just like any other sensible guy on that trek would have done, passed on the tempting joint and found consolidation in a not so exciting protein bar 😀

From the tea house, we could see we had another steep stretch to hike up so we were getting ourselves mentally and physically ready to hike up 100m in 30 min 😀 That’s how bad every hiking up was at this insane altitude. A quick pee behind the tea house and a few dates and dried apricots later, we were on the final section before the long-awaited pass.

The weather was starting to worsen. It was drizzling and a sudden fog made it impossible to see anything beyond 5m ahead of us. Slowly, slowly – we kept reminding ourselves and honestly, that’s truly the key to getting to the pass. If you rush yourself, you might as well turn around and not even bother (unless of course, you’ve done hikes like this before and you know how your body reacts to the altitude). If it’s your first time though, slowly slowly 🙂 My shoulders and back were starting to hurt but the thought of going over the pass soon was putting a weird smile on my face every time I reminded myself of it.

Suddenly we heard a massive thunder. What the hell was that? We couldn’t quite place it at first. It was drizzling but it didn’t feel like a thunderstorm was coming. Then we heard rocks rolling down and it hit us. That was a landslide. Part of a mountain near enough to us had just collapsed and pieces of it were rolling down to its bottom. It was terrifying. It was so foggy that we couldn’t see anything. We didn’t know how close the landslide was or how much had actually collapsed. All we could do is hear the horrifying thunder and subsequent noises and hope this was all happening somewhere far far from where we were standing. We rushed ahead, now even more eager to get to the pass and start going down 😀 It didn’t take long to get us all jittery and wishing to feel safe already.

At 10:25 am exhausted, dehydrated, slightly frustrated by the horrid amount of times we had to pause to pull ourselves up but ultimately proud and exhilarated, we saw the flags. We were there! “WE MADE IIIIT” – I screamed as loudly as I could in that moment. And repeated a few more times – We made it, we actually made it!

We were standing in front of the hundreds of flags and the sign confirming we were finally at 5416m above sea level. It honestly was one of the most epic moments of my life. I had never felt so accomplished, grateful and enough as I did in those few moments and feeling everything that I felt then made all the effort, fear, frustration, anticipation and unbelievable exhaustion 100% worth it. And then I truly realised how little I do actually need to full sincerely and wholeheartedly happy. Nothing material or no one else was making me happy in that moment – just me and the path I’ve walked for hours and hours to get to here. It was that simple!! It was the second time since the start of the trek that I nearly teared up. This time, however, out of content, relief and … pride (the healthy kind 😀 )!

At Thorong La Pass

The weather at the top was amazing! Until we reached the pass we genuinely had no idea what the weather would be like. We had gone through clear sky and sunshine, wind, dense fogs that weren’t letting us see anything past a few meters in front of us and occasional light rain.

Thankfully when we got to the pass, it was glorious. The sun was shining and even though the temperature was starting to go down, it was still so nice and warm that I even took off a few layers. Because of the high altitude, it’s not recommended to stay at the pass for longer than 15-20 min so we had to time it to avoid getting too carried away by the excitement. To avoid getting a headache for the way down, we quickly took a few photos, had my celebratory dried apricots specially brought from Bulgaria for this very moment haha and had a few laughs and hugs with the Nepali guys who had somehow beaten us to it and were already at the pass when we got there (still drunk and stoned 😀 ).

At the pass, there is a tiny teahouse where Dyana and Andrew were not only having a cup of warming up coffee but were also adding to the celebration by sharing a joint with our Nepali friends. That was Dyana’s birthday gift, “delicious” hash at 5416m above sea level … what more could a birthday girl wish for 😀

At 10:45 am it was time to pad ourselves at the back one last time and start heading down.

From the pass to Muktinath

Before starting the Annapurna circuit, if someone advises you to take a trekking pole, DO IT! Initially, I didn’t think I’d need one so I wasn’t planning on carrying one all 260km of the circuit just to use it for the odd kilometre, but as soon as we started the descent to Muktinath, I was so grateful that I had decided to take one after all.

The distance from the pass to Muktinath is 10km and in all fairness it’s easy but it’s soooo damn long. There’s literally no going up which might sound like music for your ears but after the second or third hour of constantly going down, our knees and thighs were getting so f*cked up that it was starting to feel genuinely neverending.

The weather had gone pretty misty and cold and it was drizzling more often than we’d hope for making us pretty impatient to get to Muktinath and just take a nice hot shower and put our feet up.

It was a long day and the uneventful going down was making it feel even more so. At around 1 pm we stopped for lunch at the first place we saw which was about 3 km away from Muktinath. I was pretty strategic in the morning and had ordered some momos from the night before to take away and I could dive right into them but Dyana and Andrew had run out of food so we had to make a proper sit-down lunch stop. The energy was running so low at that point that as soon as we sat down, we pretty much switched off whilst waiting for the guys’ momos to get ready.

It was drizzling and had gone pretty cold so we hopped inside the restaurant which I must admit shook us up a bit 😀 It was the dirtiest and most rough place we had been at, in full swing under the invasion of the local flies. We devoured our momos in 5 min and even though the energy was back up, we were ready to call it a day.

At around 3 pm we were finally done! The toughest day was officially over and we were delighted. We had reached Muktinath! It’s important to clarify though that Muktinath is the temple site whereas the actual village it’s located at is called Ranipauwa. The village was a strange place for me though.

Muktinath is a sacred site for both Hindus and Buddhists and we could feel that as soon as we stepped foot inside of it. It’s believed that Muktinath is one of the few places where all five elements can be found: water, air, fire, sky and earth, and for thousands of years, including nowadays, people travel the dusty, long way to get to Muktinath to find salvation. Naturally, the village was busy. Both the Hindu and Buddhist temples were welcoming believers from various parts of Asia along with the occasional curious trekkers like us.

What I found extremely fascinating and I must admit rather strange though, was that quite a few times we saw young men carrying older people on stretchers (yes, stretchers!) across the village to the temples and back. I got stunned when I first saw this because I genuinely thought they were carrying a corpse. I got petrified by the sight of it. The next morning, however, we found out that this was just a “transportation service” for people who are too sick to get to the temple on their own. My shock was thankfully over!

Finding a place to stay in the village wasn’t that difficult but after the day I had just had, I needed a hot shower and that was the one thing I wasn’t compromising on. After a bit of scouting around, Dyana, Andrew and I stayed at the Town Hotel where we got free rooms and a hot gas shower for just RS 100. I was immediately sold!

Let’s not talk about the fact that the gas shower was on the balcony of the hotel on the top floor where local guys were finishing off the work on the place (clearly still under construction) and I could literally see the fire burning inside the boiler, nearly tripping over a whole bunch of wires sticking out from all my sides 😀 I thought that if the trek that day didn’t kill me, that bloody shower might as well end me. Luckily, I came out of it alive 😀

The rest of the night saw me eating the worst fried rice for dinner and reading my book until 9 pm when I was wholly and completely out.