Thursday, November 13, 2008

Day 525 - Thorong Phedi - Throng-La Pass (5416m) - Muktinath (3760m)

What a day!!!

The day for us started at just before 5am when we woke up and went for hot porridge in the dining room - by 5.40am we were ready to go so we set off in the pitch black and freezing cold to start our climb of almost 1,000 vertical metres up to the Throng-La Pass.

We made the climb up to High Camp in under an hour by taking an extremely slow but steady pace - Adam had to work hard at the beginning of this 24 day trek to convince Liv to take it slowly and not to stop for breaks, but we got off to a good start!
Even though the sun had begun to rise, it had not yet hit us directly so the temperature was around minus 20 degrees - in other words incredibly cold! This affected Liv a lot and she was soon shivering with the cold - after persistent bugging from Adam (completely out of love!) she put on more clothes and another pair of socks and after a stop for hot tea at around 5100m felt a million times better.
It was at this tea stop that we ran into Peter and the Canadians, and while the boys ran on ahead of us, we preferred Peter's pace and walked the rest of the way with him.

The path from High Camp to the Pass wasn't actually too bad - not as steep as we thought, but the thin air made us work very hard for every step we took! But by 10am we made it to the top where we got amazing panoramic views of the mighty Himalayas around us. Liv was super thankful for Adam's consistent encouragement as without it she might not have made it!
We hung around for about half an hour taking in the views and feeling proud of ourselves before starting the knee pounding painful descent into Muktinath. Once we were over the pass the scenery changed dramatically as we moved from the Manang region into Mustang. Mustang looks more like Tibet, with barren but beautiful landscapes stretching for miles beyond us - in fact here we are only kilometres from Tibet itself!In Muktinath the boys had already got us a room, but with the strange policy of double rooms only going to 2 people and dorms being reserved for groups Peter and Rita struggled to find a room, other than complete holes. After Adam took charge (physically going and removing Rita and her things from the dump her guide got her) we all ended up in the same nice hotel, where we settled in for an afternoon and evening of well deserved food and drinks!

While Liv and Peter chilled with drinks the rest of the group absorbed the atmosphere of the local monastery and it's 108 water taps - they had the place to themselves as night was falling, which in the process cast dramatic shadows throughout the monastery and its forested grounds.

Adlibing it up, up, up, up, up ........ and over!

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