Thursday, October 27, 2011

Chame to Manang

The first part of this leg of the trip took us from Chame to Upper Pisang.  Chame was one of the larger towns we stayed in.  It had a decent number of shops.  The trek from Chame to Upper Pisang was amazing.  The weather was perfect.  We spent a lot of time down in a very peaceful valley, before starting to climb towards Upper Pisang.  It was hard not to just stare an Annapurna II for hours.  I couldn't stop taking pictures.  While we were sitting drinking tea, we saw an avalanche on Annapurna II.  It looked small compared to the sheer size of the mountain, but it reality it was probably a half mile wide.  Just before dinner we hiked up to the monestary where we got to see the monks chanting.

Ryan and Tom at Upper Pisang Monestary with Annapuran II in the background.
The next day we hiked from Upper Pisang to Ngawal.  This is the high pass over to Manang.  Most people take the low pass because it's a lot easier and you don't have to climb the extra elevation.  But in my opinion, to do this would mean missing out on one of the highlights of the trek.  The path from Upper Pisang to Nagwal is just fantastic.  We also had another beautiful day.  In Ngwal, there were only 3 people at the guest house.  So the family envited us to spend the evening and eat in the kitchen with them.  It felt like a very special experience that most trekkers don't get to enjoy.  The kitchen was a small room with a central wood burning stove.  We got to watch them make our food and enjoy the warmth of the fire.


Looking back on Upper Pisang on our way to Ngawal.

Tonight we are staying in Manang.  We arrived here fairly early, so we will get to do some side trips after lunch.

The food here has been very good.  I pretty much eat the same thing every day:  2 pieces of chapati bread, 2 boiled eggs and milk coffee for breakfast,  egg noodle soup and vegetable momos (steam dumplings) for lunch, and as much dal bhat as I can possibly eat for dinner.  Dal bhat is the national dish of Nepal.  It's boiled rice, lentil soup, and curried vegetables.   The locals eat it twice a day every day and it's actually very good.  It's also great to get on the trail, because it's the only item that's basically all you can eat because the teahouse owners will bring you as much as you want.  I've also taken a liking to honey tea and ginger tea.  Tom has really enjoyed the tibetan bread, which is a slightly raised flat bread which is also a little sweet.

Dal Bhat.  The  national dish of Nepal.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Kathmandu to Chame

Tom on the Annapurna Circuit.
Arrived at Kathmandu after ~34 hours of travel. Getting through immigration/customs is a very different experience than that of the US.  After a quick tour of Thamel in Kathmandu, we headed out for the trek.  The scenery is absolutely beautiful.  The mountains are just stunning in their size.  We're starting to get higher up now, so the nights are getting colder.  Tonight we are staying in Chame, which is one of the larger town we've passed through.  Met a lot of interesting people from all over the world.  Surprisingly, we don't pass too many trekkers on the trail, it's mostly locals.  It's really interesting to see the daily lives of the Nepal people.  Everything is manual labor, and it's amazing to see women who must be in their 70's carry heavy packs up the mountain.

Pisang Himal behind Tal.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Leaving for Kathmandu

We're now packed and ready to leave for Kathmandu.  We fly Denver -> Los Angeles -> Seoul -> Kathmandu, on Korean Air arriving in Kathmandu around 12PM on Saturday.

My house prior to packing.

Since I live in Colorado, we were able to do a few training hikes up to 13,000 feet (~4000m) .  It would have been nice to do some 14ers, unfortunately snow has already started to fall in the mountains.  We carried the backpacks and gear that we plan on carrying in Nepal.  Each of us will carry about 20lbs (~10kg), leaving about 40lbs (~20kg) for the porter.   Yes, I'm trying to learn to think in terms of meters and kilograms since that is the standard unit of measurement in Nepal.  And yes, we will have a porter and a guide.  I like to think of it as having a little entourage while I trek in Nepal.

I'm glad the trip is finally here.  I've been thinking about it every day for about 5 months, so I'm ready to stop planning and start trekking.

Donna, Tom, and Ryan on Twin Sisters

 

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Getting Close

Only two weeks remaining before our departure to Kathmandu.
Still can't believe it‘s almost here! We started planning this trip 10 months ago.
Tomorrow I head out from Leesport PA to Fort Collins CO where I’ll meet up with Ryan. We’ll spend our remaining time making final preparations for the trip. I’ll have to see how much of my stuff I can get Ryan to carry - hope he’s not reading this.

Our current itinerary is to depart from Denver 10/20, connect through Seoul Korea, then on to Kathmandu Nepal. After arriving in Nepal we will only have one day to prepare for our first of two planned treks, the Annapurna Circuit. Our trek will begin in Besisahar and our plan is to travel, by taxi, from Kathmandu. From Besisahar we will take the standard Annapurna trail. It should take us about 4 days to reach Pisang where we will head up the high pass via Upper Pisang through Ngwal to Manang. Spending two days in Manang resting and acclimatizing should prepare us for the next phase of the trek - Tilicho Lake.
Listed as one of the highest lakes in the world at 16,000ft. This may be one of the most difficult parts of the entire trek! From Tilicho lake we will head back and meet up with the standard Annapurna route. The trail will take us up over ThorungLa Pass which is at an elevation of 17,768 ft.. Once over the pass we will head down to Jomson where we will catch a flight to Pokhara. Total length of the trek is 13 days. Spending a rest day in Pokhara we will make our way back to Kathmandu via air.

Not much time to catch our breath as the following day we are off to begin our second trek, Everest Base Camp “Modified”. It begins by catching a flight to Lukla which is listed as the most dangerous airports to land and depart from in the world. Should be an interesting flight! Once we touch down we will make our way from Lukla to Namche Bazaar. We will spend one day here acclimatizing and taking a few side trips. Then it’s off to Dingboche for another rest day. From there we will traverse over KongmaLa Pass, elevation of 18,159ft, on our way to Gorak Shep. From Gorak Shep we will climb to Everest Base camp, 17,400ft. and Kala Patter, 18,192ft.
Then it’s on to Gokyo via ChoLa Pass ,17,611ft.. We will spend 3 days in Gokyo making day trips seeing all 5 lakes along the Ngozumpa glacier. Our final leg home will be via RenjoLa Pass,17,585ft., through Thame back to Lukla. Total length of the trek is 17 days.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

19 days from Nepal departure

We're now 19 days from our October 20th departure for Nepal.  My Dad and I will be doing both the Annapurna Circuit and Everest Base Camp treks from Oct 20 - Nov 26.  We've both spent a lot of time preparing.  Partly in that we're both engineers, so we tend to over-analyze decisions (or at least I do).  But mainly because we have to carry everything we bring.  This means that every item that comes with us has to be useful, and weight matters.  In addition, we've decided to create a documentary of the trip.   This forced us to do a lot of research into cameras, lenses, videography techniques, and video editing software.  It also means that about 30% of the weight I'll be carrying will be camera equipment.  So I might have to sacrifice some clothing to bring an extra lens.

I'm both excited and nervous for the trip.  I've never done a big international trip, or a backpacking trip for this long.  But as the trip gets closer, I find myself getting more excited and less nervous.  When my Dad would visit me in Colorado, we would often watch documentaries of Nepal/Tibet/Everest, so it seems almost sureal that we are actually going there.  It always seemed like a place that captured my imagination, but so distant that I would never actually go there.