Annapurna Base Camp - My thoughts

Annapurna Base Camp - My thoughts

Annapurna base camp has been like 8 days of meditation for me with abundance of mountain fresh air, simple organic food, plenty of silence & music, lots of natural exercise & pranayama, jokes, stories & laughter, simply magical. There was abundance of Greenery & sunshine, clouds & fog, tons of waterfalls & bridges, abnormal amount of snow & glacier & finally hail storm & torrential rain. 

White magic Adventures, our trip organisers were brilliant and our group of 16 trekkers with age group of 14-63, became FAMILY from starting off as complete strangers.

Day 1 We flew from Kathmandu to Pokhara, & post lunch we drove to Kimchee amongst chaos and road block, & then finally trekked 2 hours in the dark with our head torches to reach our first stop Ghandruk & our first Tea house experience. We were told that the comfort level of these tea houses kept altering as we climbed higher. Everyone was tired after full day of travel & just crashed post dinner. In the Morning we were excited to get a glimpse of Annapurna south side & also the fishtail peak. These mountains were very far away in distance and it seemed like quite a task to reach their base.

Day 2 We started early by 8am as it was a long walk to Chomrong our destination for this day, by crossing many mountains & streams, with plenty of stone steps up and down, past few villages where we stopped for our first Dal Bhaat lunch. The steep walk was already killing on the knees & we had barely started our trek. There was some initial bonding with the group mates over dinner with karaoke singing & some impersonal formal conversations.

Day 3 We trekked from Chomrong, going past the villages called lower & upper Sinuwa, and then a beautiful smooth walk from Bamboo to Dovan. Again there was a Lot of steps & plenty of ascent & descent to cross many hills & streams but all really beautiful. Annapurna trek is considered to be one of the more beautiful picturesque treks of the Himalayas and I wouldn’t agree less. The mountain range was getting closer, the altitude was getting higher, & the weather was getting colder.

Day 4 was trek from Dovan to MBC (macchapuchre base camp) where we walked past the villages called Himalaya & Deurali ( here we stopped for more Dal Bhaat) & then started our uphill task of trekking on unexpectedly heavy snow & glaciers to reach MBC. The sign boards from Deurali read the distance to MBC as 2 hours, but due to the afternoon sun melting the snow and glacier, our walk was extremely slippery and slow & took double the time. During the walk The distant fog came closer & engulfed all of us with visibility dropping to just about 5 meters. It was all very surreal. We reached MBC exhausted after a long day, temperature at sub zero and a bit disoriented with the abundant snow all around as deep as 3-6 feet at places.

Day 5 was the most exhilarating experience when we woke up at 3am to start our trek to Annapurna base camp to reach there by sunrise. 2 hours of non stop uphill snow walking with our head torches, in our sleepy state finally got us to our ultimate destination. The walk in the morning was by NO standard easy but the excitement of reaching our GOAL & our strong will power kept us going. Our group energy was very positive and supportive. The beauty of the Annapurna range was overwhelming.. I couldn’t stop the tears of Joy that the magnanimous mountain bought to me. After the mandatory pictures & group photos (with Indian flag & the ABC board) we thoroughly enjoyed our walk back to MBC on the crunchy morning snow, almost wishing we had sledges or ski  with us.

Back at MBC we were All overjoyed at our accomplishment and after a brief rest, breakfast and pack up, we started the Herculean task of walking back those snow filled mountain & ridge walk, to reach Deurali our lunch point. With the sun shining bright, and the snow melting steadily, the walk once again was slippery and slow and we all had a good laugh later at ALL the Falls & Slips we had on the way. Day 5 didn’t end yet, we still walked from here to the village Himalaya & then finally to our night stay at Dovan totally exhausted at 6pm( 14 hour day) with every muscle & bone aching.

On Day 6 our White Magic group leader Pawan announced that its yet another long day & we had to depart at 7.30am - we all started off with great apprehension from Dovan to Bamboo, Spirits high but all our bodies super tired, Also a bit sad to now start our downward journey leaving the Massive mountain range behind. We trekked past upper & lower sinuwa, & then all the way down to the stream to cross the long bridge & finally All the way up to ‘knee buster’ Chomrong. This climb up almost 800 Mts of steps was a total killer. Hold on we still Had to trek to jhinudanda for our night stay.

Day 7 From Jhinu to Landruk the walk was considerably much lighter & shorter which we well deserved - We all bought some souvenirs at Jhinu before walking towards one of the longest bridge in Nepal & then onwards to Nayapul for a comfortable walk to Landruk (enroute we stopped at the rocky shore of the river flowing by for some fun & relaxation)

Day 8 was again a long walk of almost 14km (almost 8-9 hours) but mostly forest walk with smooth ascent/descent & a patch of heavy incline. Lunch was at a village called Potana where in the shelter of the tea house we experienced heavy hail storm. Finally we reached our last stay on the mountains to Dhampus to be greeted by torrential rain - our celebration !

We were truly blessed with excellent weather throughout these 8 days.. the right amount of sun & clouds, and enough Snow to feel the exhilaration. Rain came in the last 2 days but during our moments of rest. Our body though tired every evening, was still ready for singing/ dancing, laughing & joking. Our family of 16 always smiling & supporting each other. Food was simple yet we happily relished our Dal Bhaat lunches (bit bored by the end though) and our luxurious dinner spread of Italian, Chinese, Nepalese, Tibetan and Indian cuisine.

Our trek leader Pawan was ever smiling and guiding us strong, Our main guide Raj Kumar knew his way well and kept his eyes on All of us, Our Sherpas Nima and Sushil (Fondly called Tiger) always lending their hand in the tough moments and constantly giving their support, Our 8 porters lugging our heavy burden, always looked happy & kept our spirits high. They were Always at our service morning, afternoon and evening.

The few falls & misses were part of the trek, but we ALL came back super happy & fulfilled with a great sense of achievement & success, feeling stronger and already planning our next TREK. My heartfelt gratitude to my family for supporting me to pursue my growing trekking passion.

- Vibha Kejriwal

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