Our alarm woke us up at 4:30 am… we had ice crystals floating in our water bottles. Neither one of us slept very well given the cold and high altitude. We had settled our bill last night, packed most our stuff and slept in most of the clothes we would wear… it helped allow us to hit the trail at around 5am with headlamps beaming. It would be a nice clear day as we could see a million stars. The only other visible light was the faint flicker of three other headlamps… one small group must have started about 30 minutes before us.
The down vest, gloves, winter hat and thermal underwear that went unworn at lower altitudes were indispensible now. We plodded along and waited for sunrise.
First light
At this altitude there is no vegetation and no animals other than a few smalls birds that would fly overhead. Minus the snow, it looked like a moonscape.
Triangle ice formations on the mountains above
Jen hiking along a snow-covered trail on the mountainside
After about an hour we reached “High Camp”, where a handful of people were gearing up for the hike towards the pass… we took a short break and had someone take a quick picture of us.
Big icefall in the distance
Stacks of rocks assembled by other trekkers helped mark the way up to the pass.
We did it!! After over 6 hours of tough, cold, out-of-breath hiking, we reached Thorong La Pass, elevation 5416 meters (17,769 feet). With no one around and HUGE winds, it took a few attempts get this shot with the timer on the camera propped up in the snow.
Video of the wind on top of the pass!
Hundreds of prayer flags on Thorong La Pass
Our first look at the downhill side. We would have to go all the way down to the riverbed before today’s trek would be over.
Once reaching the north face of the mountain in the afternoon, there was far less snow and it became hot—all our cold weather gear came off and we were back to t-shirts, light pants and sun hats. At high altitude, the air seems to retain less heat… it’s very cold in the shade and very hot in the sun.
The dining room at our guesthouse in Muktinah… arriving about 12 hours after we started!
At dinner that night, we celebrated with an Everest Beer… our first after 6 days! We also were lucky enough to meet Stewart, from New Zealand. He was in Muktinah, doing training runs for an Everest attempt later this spring… tomorrow would be the 3rd time in a week he would leave Muktinah early in morning and hike up to the pass (1620 m up) and back to build endurance and speed acclimatization. It was really interesting to ask him all kinds of questions about attempting Everest. Although we could have talked another hour, we were dead tired, wished him a safe journey and were in bed by about 7pm!
Religious pilgrims arriving in Mutkinah (more on that tomorrow)
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