This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I was awakened around 4:30am by the assistant cooks with morning tea. It was really cold but the sky was crystal clear. The plan for the morning was to leave Machhapuchhare Base Camp (MBC) and to hike up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) before sunrise, take some pictures, then hike back down to camp to pack up and start back down the trail. I dressed as warm as I could as I knew that the trek up to ABC in the early morning, before sunrise, was going to be very cold and it’s easier to strip off layers than to put on more layers that are residing back at camp. We started our hike around 5:30am and the moon was highlighting the mountain peaks.

The beginning of the hike was along a small path that went over a couple of hills and then opened up to a great glacial plain. We only needed to gain about 400m of elevation so the trek was going to be about two and a half to three hours. The glacier area was just a huge field of snow and ice with a small but fast moving stream cutting through it. There were many areas where the stream dropped underneath the ice and popped out somewhere else. Our path stayed close to stream but sometimes it was easier to cross on fresh snow because the ice on the path turned into slush and was slippery.

Seeing ABC in the distance was a good boost to morale as I hiked along attempting to keep steady footing on the slush. The thinner air was getting to me as well as the difficulty in staying at a comfortable temperature with multiple layers on. The final hurdle was a huge set of almost vertical steps that led up to ABC. I took my time and even had to break in the middle as I climbed the steps. I reached ABC proper when I got to the top of the steps and I immediately needed to rest again and so I sat my ass down. I was so out of breath. There were a bunch of other trekkers milling around the three guest houses at ABC and probably giggling at me. Shaun was the only other one from our group around and I had no idea where the rest of the group was.

At some point Tendi came and found us and told us that we had to continue up the path. Yes, that’s right, we weren’t at the destination yet. So I struggled and got back up to my feet, found my breath, and traversed the last leg of this climb. The path up to the Annapurna Sanctuary, 4136m, was relatively short but it was still a climb. It passed through the guest houses that composed the base camp and then out the back side of the buildings. We hiked another 100m or so to the Annapurna Sanctuary and after I took a short breather I starting to take pictures.

The proof I was at that altitude.

On the far side of the sanctuary was a steep drop-off into this barren land.

Here are the members of our group that made it to the top.

Thanks to Thilo for providing this photo. Clockwise from the top left is Me, Clarence, Damion, Thilo, Tendi, Shaun, and Dawa.

We hung out at the sanctuary and took pictures for a while. We watched the sun crest over the mountain range. Dawa came up with hot drinks and snacks which we enjoyed as we took in our surroundings.

Just as we were preparing to leave Sanctuary we heard the starter pistol marking the start of the Annapurna downhill marathon. It was crazy to see people running at this altitude across such crazy terrain including glacial ice. Here are some of the 28 runners. The three in the lead are Nepali and the first one is carrying a Nepali flag.

I was especially amazed at the woman wearing a pink skirt in this chilly weather.

We started back down to MBC leaving behind the Annapurna Sanctuary and ABC. As we crossed the glacier again I noticed that the morning’s sun was already softening up the snow making the trail relatively slushy. The trip back to our campsite was pretty uneventful and I concentrated on my footing. When we reached camp I was really tired and my tent was singing a siren’s song that tempted me back into comfort. I couldn’t resist but I also needed to pack prior to breakfast. In fact I was so slow packing that I was a bit late for breakfast which consisted of eggs and toast.

Very shortly after breakfast we mounted up and started our trek down to Deurali.

The trail down was almost all downhill. Our whole group seemed to be moving at an extremely fast pace except for Shaun and I. We were taking our time and trying to be careful. We crossed the river a few times over those wonderful rickety looking bridges. At one of the short inclines on the trail I stepped into a small hole and felt my ankle twisting. I didn’t hear a pop or have major pain but it was enough that it really pissed me off for not seeing the misstep. Of course this made me even more careful and therefore slowed me down even more.

After a while we arrived at Deurali and this is where we met up with Chris and Karma as well as where we stopped for lunch. The weather changed and the temperature dropped. When the wind picked up we all decided to move to an indoor dining room and that is where we were served lunch. I don’t recall being very hungry but I know I ate. Lunch was spaghetti with red sauce (not really marinara) and cheese, chicken sausage, sweet corn, and rice. As we relaxed after lunch the weather continued to be ugly and it started to spit rain. I had left my rain gear in my duffel so I just put on the fleece. We grabbed the rest of our gear and headed down to the Himalayan Hotel.

The first thing we had to do after we left Deurali was climb back up to Hinku Cave. At least I could look forward to the cave providing a short respite from the spitting rain. Just before we reached the cave the skies opened up and a full downpour started. I started to get soaked. The path that we were on turned a bit muddy and the rocks became a little slick but thankfully it did not turn into a stream of water to deal with. I was fully concentrating on where my next step was going to be placed except for when my water logged pants started to droop too low. These “trekking” pants, even with the assistance of a belt, definitely did not do well for me. They were a constant pain to deal with as I had to keep pulling them up.

After leaving Hinku Cave we headed back down into the river valley. We came upon the snow/ice flow that bridged the stream that we had crossed the day before. When we had crossed it two days prior there was a small hole that let me see the fast moving water beneath the ice. Now that hole had grown to be humongous as it had undermined the ice. I had a lot of trepidation about crossing this again considering its change in size but Tendi tested it out and guided us all across by going a little higher up. We crossed without incident but I was still a little unnerved by the experience. Here you can see why.

The rain started to become a mix of rain and sleet and the latter was sticking to my fleece. We continued to trudge along until we reached camp, ~2870m. The tents were still being set up but luckily the sherpas had already set up the large dining tent and so we all gathered in there and removed our overly soaked outer clothing. The sherpas brought in hot drinks as well as a propane lantern in order to attempt to warm us up. The rain had calmed down but the temperature was still quite cold.

Once the rain had stopped we all piled out of the big tent, grabbed our duffels from where they had been stacked and covered with a tarpaulin, and took our duffels to our tents. I quickly changed into dry clothing including gloves and a head band and went back to the dining tent. My outfit led to many jokes about 80′s workout outfits. It also led Chris to pose me and take the following picture.

Thanks to Chris for this photo.

We all hung around in the big dining tent, trying to stay warm, until dinner was served and frankly I have no idea when we had dinner nor what dinner consisted of. I do know that we spent a lot of time gabbing away before finally retiring for the night.

I do recall waking up in the middle of the night to use the toilet tent and admiring the sky with the billions upon billions of stars that were visible. I just wish I had the wherewithal to get my camera out and photograph its splendor.

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I awoke in Deurali at around 6:30am which was a little bit later than most days on the trek so far. Our day’s hike up to Machhapuchhare Base Camp (MBC) was just a short 500m elevation gain so that is probably why the sherpas didn’t start the day as early. We got our morning tea at 7:30am followed by breakfast around 8:30am. Breakfast was scrambled eggs and pancakes which I had good portions of both. We got on the trail around 9:30am.

The trail up to MBC still followed the Modi Khola river in fact we crossed it a handful of sites. The terrain was extremely rocky and all of the plants seemed dry and brown. The walls of the canyon were occasionally broken with beautiful cascades of water.

The elevation gain made us constantly climb although at different grades. So in other words, we were always going up. Considering that we started at 3200m the air was a bit thinner for climbing but my body seemed to be doing alright albeit I was always breathing heavily.

[A comforting sign]

The river was a constant companion on our trek up to MBC. We had to cross it at least four times using little metal bridges that did not look all that sturdy or stable but they did the job.

[Damion attempting to get a good waterfall photo]

[A set of cairns by the river]

I took a picture of Monika taking a picture of some flowers.

[Snow and ice below a waterfall]

The day was pretty comfortable as it was overcast and a slight breeze. There was one spot where we stopped for a break and the sun broke through the clouds and started to heat us up. It actually became a bit uncomfortable because there was no shade and I was wearing warmer clothing. The sun was still out as we started back up to MBC but then we turned a corner on a stone outcropping and a cloud blocked the sun and the wind, and I mean wind here not just breeze, picked up. The temperature dropped 30 degrees in seconds. Without a doubt I was cold but I also didn’t want to stop to put on another layer of clothing just to have the weather change immediately afterward. After a couple of minutes I relented and stopped and put on a jacket. I instantly felt warmer and I continued up the path. Of course, just as I had guessed, the weather improved within a couple of minutes as the wind dropped almost completely away. Between my exertion and the jacket I started to get a little too warm. Now I’m in the same pickle, do I remove my jacket just to have the weather change again. I took a gamble and removed my coat and I immediately started to get back to a normal temperature. Luckily, the weather cooperated and didn’t make me feel like a jackass. Well, at least not more of a jackass that I already am.

I had been at the back of the group with Chris and Karma like usual. We had all stopped in order to remove clothing and take a short water break. We started up again and about 10 minutes later Chris twisted his ankle. This is the second time on the trek that Chris had sprained this particular ankle. The three of us stopped as Chris and Karma discussed what should happen. Well actually first Chris brought out his little handheld video camera and documented the emotions that he was feeling at that moment. And I documented (photographed) him.

The decision was made that Chris would not continue up trail and instead would turn around and head back down to Deurali or Bamboo and meet up with the group the following day as we headed back down. This meant that Chris would immediately stay where he was while Karma ran (yes actual running) up the path and tell the rest of the group and in particular Tendi what had happened. Then Karma would return to Chris and assist him down the path. This left me without a sherpa. Now typically I am pretty diehard about doing stuff on my own but I had some trepidation as I wasn’t familiar with the terrain and I too have a propensity to sprain my ankles and this situation would leave me without a sherpa. Basically I was told to walk slowly and very carefully up to the group which we had no idea how far up the trail they were. I continued on up and luckily the group was relatively close as I think I only walked for about 10-20 minutes before meeting up with them.

After meeting up with the group I helped describe what happened to Chris to the other trekkers. After a short break we continued on.

[A look back the way we came]

[Waterfalls and snow in the cracks and crevices of a hill]

[I think this was a weather station]

We had hiked for about another 45 minutes since our last break before MBC was in sight but what a wonderful sight it was.

Here Shaun and I took a picture of the vista that we came from.

I’m not certain what this shed was for but it was kind of neat so I snapped a picture of it.

Right when we arrived at the campsite at MBC, 3700m, we had little time to drop our gear before we were called to lunch. Lunch served around 12:30pm consisted of noodle soup, french toast, french fries, salami, and garlic sweet corn. After lunch I headed to my tent to take a short nap. I guess my body decided a short nap was not in the cards and I slept off and on for 3 hours.

I was roused around 4:30 to 5pm when pre-dinner tea was served. Between tea and dinner I decided to explore around MBC and in particular find the western toilet that was touted on a sign near the entrance to the guest houses. I did not find this mythical creature so I headed back to the campsite. Dinner was served around 6pm and was composed of mixed vegetable and bean soup (mostly beans) followed by dal bhat, mixed vegetables with meat, curried vegetables and we finished up with mixed fruit for desert. I can’t imagine that I was super hungry as all I had done since lunch was slept. And what did I do after dinner? I went directly back to my tent and slept. I knew we were going to have an early morning the next day and apparently I was still pretty tired.

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I awoke the next morning around 5 to 5:30am due to a strong urge to evacuate my bladder. I got clothed enough to brave the morning’s cool air. We camped in a valley gorge so we the sun was still hidden this morning and I had to use my headlamp to navigate to the toilet tent. Thus far at every stop we had the use of the facilities attached to the guest house that was adjacent to our campsite but this campsite in Bamboo was different. I guess the sherpas hadn’t made the agreement with the property owners to let us use those facilities or the sherpas thought that the walk to the restrooms were too far. Anyway, they erected a toilet tent. Basically they dug a hole in the ground and then erected a slender but tall privacy tent over the hole. It was an interesting experience.

I returned to my tent and started to pack my gear and get ready for the day. The sun came up quickly and the tent had plenty of light. I was stuffing my sleeping bag into its stuff sack when I caught the sight of something in the corner of my eye. I gave it my attention and I noticed that it was moving like an inchworm across the top of one of the duffels. Except that it wasn’t an inchworm it was a leech. I was awestruck as I don’t recall ever seeing a leech in the wild and especially seeing it move over dry goods. It was move very quickly straight for me. I used my little notebook to pick up the creature and flung it outside of my tent. Not a second later I thought to myself “Why didn’t I take a photo?”

We were served morning tea around 6:30am and I was being very laxidasical and taking my time while I packed. I guess I spent too much time writing in my notebook or listening to music. I finished packing just after the call to breakfast. I actually didn’t hear anyone tell me that breakfast was on the table. It was between 7 and 7:30am and I ate toast and a fried egg. I guess I wasn’t super hungry that morning.

After breakfast we mulled around campsite as the sherpas and porters broke down the camp and got organized.

We struck out on our hike for the day between 8 and 8:30am. Today’s theme was waterfalls. The entire day was in a mountain valley with the Modi Khola river below us on the right. The terrain started out as very rainforest like up until about lunch time.

Everything was really green from the abundance of water. Some points of the trail had a lot of hanging moss on old trees and I felt like I was Indiana Jones in search of a small golden statue. The terrain wasn’t that difficult to navigate nor was it easy but at least the vertical climbing wasn’t too bad in the beginning. I was expecting a lot more climbing but I guess that would come later.

As I stated before there were tons of waterfalls and streams crossing the path. At one point we were crossing streams about every 10 meters or so. All of these small streams fed the waterfalls that fell to the river below. Now and then the path would descend a little bit so that we could cross a much more substantial stream across a rickety bridge like the one pictured above.

As there was only one trail to and from the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) there was a lot of traffic heading in both directions. This caused quite a bit of frustration as the path was not suited for bidirectional traversal. This meant that groups going in either direction had to stop a lot and in particular those going towards ABC had to stop more often. Sometimes it was a nice respite but many times it was just annoying.

Even with this stopping and starting we were making great time to our lunch destination. We arrived at the Himalayan Hotel, 2900m, around 11 to 11:30am. Our sherpas had attempted to get us a table that was in a shaded area but there were many other trekkers and trekking groups and the choice spots for lunch were taken. We were sat at a table directly in the sun and the sun was high in the sky and unrelenting. As you can see from the previous picture the vegetation was a little more sparse and starting to brown out a little and therefore the sun had already been cooking us for a while. Lunch was served and we ate beans, bow-tie pasta, julienned vegetables, rice (which I did not eat), and Spam®.

After completing the meal I decided to explore the “hotel”. The Himalayan Hotel was just an oversized guest house with many rooms. The sky became overcast and I decided to attempt to take a short nap on a small patch of grass. I wasn’t really able to get any sleep but I rested my eyes and listened to the cacophony of chatter between all of the other trekkers that were giving the “hotel” their patronage mixed with the Nepali workers chatting and washing dishes. I wasn’t resting for 5 minutes when I felt a droplet hit my arm. After the second one hit me I got up and hurried to my gear to take it under cover and also get out my rain jacket.

As the rain picked up, although it did not turn into a full out downpour,  I became acutely aware of the international representation of all of the trekkers as they all donned their rain gear and huddled under whatever cover could be found. There was one huge group of either Japanese or Koreans. There were also many small groups of Europeans and Americans.

The rain stopped almost as quickly as it started. That was our cue to start hiking again. We all still wore our rain gear as the weather seemed to be rather unpredictable. One problem with rain gear is that it is typically good at keeping in heat. So as we hiked I started to get a little bit overheated. I think the rest of my fellow trekkers came to the same realization and we started to shed our outerwear.

The terrain above the Himalayan Hotel was much rockier but there was also a lot less traffic coming down the the path. My assumption is that the trekkers coming down from ABC or Machhapuchhare Base Camp (MBC)  had already traversed this section earlier in the day. The ups and downs were a lot more numerous and there was very little “level” walking in between them. In fact it was mostly ups. I was trailing in the back of the group with Chris and Karma again. The altitude and climbing were definitely not being friendly to me but I was better suited to this kind of activity than I was just a few days earlier.

As you can tell from the above photos it was overcast and a bit foggy. Also the trees were barely surviving. I guess during monsoon season this area will green up a bit. Here’s one with Chris talking about the area while Karma took the video.

At one point Karma pointed out some buildings off in the distance and stated that they were our destination for the day. This gave me a little boost until I saw what laid between our position and the destination. There was a huge climb up to a landmark named Hinku Cave followed by a descent and another big climb before reaching our destination at Deurali. Regardless I had a couple of goals set in my mind and I took one step at a time to conquer those goals.

The climb up to Hinku Cave was a little more treacherous than I expected. The path consisted of quite a bit of loose gravel as well as oddly shaped rocks that didn’t provide nice stable or flat footfalls. I was constantly thinking of where I was stepping because one wrong step and I would have twisted the hell out of my ankle.

I eventually got to the top of the climb that ended at Hinku Cave. My breathing was labored and while I rested my body decided to take the opportunity to have a coughing fit. Hinku Cave wasn’t really a cave as much as it was a large rock outcropping. It looked and smelled like it had been used for many years as a rest stop for pony trains.

We waited until we saw Chris and Karma coming up to the cave. After a short break we headed down to a snow pack that we had to cross. It was above a fast moving stream and about halfway across there was about a foot wide hole that showed the rocks and flowing water below my feet. Let’s just say that I had a little bit of trepidation walking on this crossing.

There was another stream with falls, sans snow pack, that we crossed before our climb up to Deurali, 3200m. We arrived a little bit earlier than we had estimated but I know I was very happy to arrive regardless of making good time by arriving around 3:20pm. That was just the icing on the cake.

Tea was set up for us rather quickly after arriving. The temperature up here was a bit chillier but bearable. After tea Monika gave us a demonstration on how to develop film at altitude. I had never seen anyone develop film except the scenes of a dark room in movies. So this was pretty interesting and it seemed to be relatively simple and straightforward. I don’t think I’ll get into analog photography or at least anytime soon but if I do I think I will probably develop my own pictures.

After the demonstration I retired to my tent for a nap. It was a rather short nap and when I got up I decided to take a stroll around Deurali. There wasn’t much different in this village than the others that we had come across. I just had time to kill before dinner which was served around 6:40pm.

Dinner consisted of mushroom soup (I think this was the second or third time on the trek) followed by the main course of chow mien with egg, mixed tuna spring roll, chicken sausage (which I skipped), and mixed vegetables. I had seconds of the vegetables. The cooks and sherpas love to give out seconds. In fact while I was distracted Karma decided to give me a third helping. He really is a funny guy. Desert was pears and mango pieces.

After dinner I didn’t stick around long. I excused myself and went to my tent and crashed.

People: Clarence Chiang

[Clarence and his buddy, DogFella]

Clarence Chiang was our lone Chinese trekker on this adventure as he hails from Hong Kong. His photography is absolutely awesome as you can tell from his site. He aspires to becoming a professional photographer and in my opinion he is there. He had a great sense of humor with a quick smile. An avid runner and scuba diver he was in the best shape of anyone on the trail excluding the Nepalis that is. I really hope to keep in touch with Clarence even if he does shoot with a Nikon. You can also follow Clarence on twitter or check out his great photos, especially his HDR pictures, on his flickr account. Here are some photos of Clarence although I didn’t seem to have many with his face. I actually had quite a few with the back of his head but that’s because he was always in the front of the group.

Clarence and Tendi must have become good buddies because Clarence was ALWAYS in the front of the group. I think he actually pushed Tendi to go faster.

[At the top of ABC]

[Before breakfast]

Even the Super Athlete Clarence needs to rest some times.

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I began to rise around 5:30am as the sun was just starting to brighten the new day. I removed myself from my tent in order to stretch and use the facilities.

Afterwards I was amazed at how nice the day and how superb the lighting was so I decided to take a few shots around camp. The assistant cooks arrived outside my tent around 6:30 with tea and washing water so I knew it was time to stop procrastinating and pack my gear before breakfast.

Fast was broken around 7:30 on the the dining table outside of the dining tent which had already been taken down. We had porridge (of some sort) with pancakes. I ate more pancakes than porridge but all of the food was welcome and delicious.

Camp was broken down for the most part around 8:30 and so we left and began our hiking for the day. Chommrong is situated at the top (or near the top) of the hill and so the first order of business of the day was a long downhill path to the river valley. We passed through quite a few smaller guest houses and villages. It took us just about an hour to get to the bottom of the gorge where the river cut through the area.

There was a really neat cable bridge crossing the river.

We took a break at the bridge as we would be climbing on the other side. There were a ton of stone steps as we had to regain the altitude that we lost on the way to the bottom of the gorge as well as a little more. We passed through some small villages and one had this cute sight that I had to capture.

At one point during our uphill journey we were almost run over by men carrying bundles of bamboo downhill. They were running at almost full speed with twenty foot long bundles over a shoulder. It was a bit scary as they rushed downhill. It seemed as if they weren’t in complete control.

We were also passed by pony trains moving in either direction. I think I have described these pony trains before in a previous entry but I’ll do a quick summary. Basically because the locals can’t drive motorized vehicles up or down to the various villages this is the only method of getting supplies up the mountains and trash back down. There is typically a single man driving the train from the rear. He uses shouts and whistles and small rocks to direct the ponies although they seem to know where they are going. Here’s a video of one such pony train.

Here’s a neat shot of some peppers being dried.

Rather shortly after that photo we hit the outskirts of Sinuwa. We passed through a few more guest houses before we got to Sinuwa proper, about 2320m in altitude, and then we stopped for lunch. Lunch was a cheese and carrot sandwich with beans, mac & cheese, and some corn. Just after we finished eating while we were relaxing, the weather took a turn for the worse and it started to drizzle. The rain stopped fairly quickly but then the temperature dropped and I started to get chilled.

We all noticed that there was a phone in this particular guesthouse because it kept ringing. There was a rather cute Nepali woman working the counter who would answer the phone and chat with the caller. We all guessed that the reason the phone was so busy was because she was on the receiving end. She must have been one of the most popular girls on the trail. We all had a good chuckle each time the phone rang.

We all were getting tired of chilling around Sinuwa but our sherpas were hidden from sight. After a quick reconnoiter I found Tendi watching so Nepali soap opera on a tv in another dinning area of the guest house. It was pretty funny. We got his attention and then proceeded to don our gear and strike out on the trail again.

We immediately hit another grueling uphill. There were quite a few trekkers heading in the downhill direction. Apparently after you get to the end you can basically run downhill. I, on the other hand, was sucking wind as I climbed and had to take a very slow and steady pace.

We crested a set of stairs and then we were on relatively flat land for a while. I took the opportunity of actually being able to breathe normally to also take some pictures.

We had a long downhill trek over lots of wet and muddy rocks as the little bit of rain we had was still dribbling through the cracks and crevasses of the mountains. This made the trail a little bit more treacherous but I didn’t have any major stumbles or twisted ankles. Then came a section where a bunch of Nepali men were actually improving the trail by building a long set of stone stairs. They only had a small portion completed but the stairs were wide and well done. Some of the trekkers gave donations to the workers. I didn’t have any cash available but I figured the others gave plenty :-).

After we got out of the construction we had another short uphill and downhill and then we hit the outskirts of the village of Bamboo, around 2300m in altitude, which was our destination. As we went through one of the guesthouses there was this cute baby goat standing on a chair near a table eating pea husks as his owner was removing the peas from the pods. I took a few pictures but this is the best one.

Chris and I were trailing the pack when we came across this cute goat. Anyway, we continued on to the camp and arrived just before 4pm. Around 4:30 we had tea in the dining tent. During tea Chris explained the ins and outs of tilt-shift lenses and let us play around with the one attached to his camera. Around 5pm Chris held a workshop on how to use Lightroom. I really got a lot out of this workshop but I should have taken notes as I know that I have forgotten about half of what he went through. I’m kicking myself.

I think dinner was set around 7pm but maybe it was 6:30. We had Dal Bhat with curried vegetables, green beans, mushrooms, stewed tomatoes and cabbage salad with carrots. The food was good and filling. As dinner was wrapping up we were informed that the following day we would be gaining about 900 meters in altitude in 6 to 7 hours. My legs were sore but I had no doubt that I would survive the next day. Although I also had no doubt that I would probably be hating life while climbing that altitude.

People: Ben Murray

[I'm "borrowing" this image from Ben's own blog as I don't have a good one. Thanks Ben!]

Ben comes from down under. Our only Australian on the trip was an infrastructure technician by trade and enjoys mixed martial arts when not behind a camera. I enjoyed the limited amount of time that I was able to spend with him and I felt horrible for the all of the stuff that happened to him at the beginning of this trek. I’ve explained most of what happened to him on the trip but here is a spoiler. He didn’t stick around Kathmandu therefore we didn’t get to meet up again. Instead he attempted to get an earlier flight back to Australia after hanging out in Kathmandu for a while. His trip back made a stop in Thailand at which point he was stranded for a few days. This guy just can’t get any breaks. Anyway, he did make it back home and his health is back to normal.

Ben has some absolutely gorgeous photos on his site and flickr account. Ben even blogged his Nepal experience. You can also follow him on twitter.

Gear: Pants

I bought and brought a whole bunch of different pairs of pants for the trip. I knew that I would be wearing them for multiple days and possibly getting rained or snowed on. I also knew that they would need to be comfortable for long sessions of hiking. So here is my roundup of the pants that I had.

Patagonia Duck Pants

This pants are comfortable. I actually saved these for the last day in Kathmandu and the flight home. I wanted to be comfortable as long as possible. The pants are orangish brown and I need to wear them more often but I definitely recommend them. I’m not certain how well they would deal with regular hiking wear and tear.

Gander Mountain Expedition cargo pants

Hated these. I wore these one day! Basically, they didn’t fit right, constantly fell down, and rubbed in the wrong places. Maybe I got the wrong size but I don’t recommend these. I guess you get what you pay for and these were relatively cheap.

Columbia olive convertible trekking pants

I’m not certain what the name or model of these pants but I really liked them. They are nylon and light. I wore these for multiple days and was completely comfortable in them. I did have to use a belt with them as they did not include an internal belt or any other waist cinching mechanism. My only complaint was that I bought ones that were slightly too long and the bottoms of the pant legs would sometimes get caught below my heel. I did take advantage of removing the pants legs on the second day of trekking as my legs were getting quite warm from the constant exercise. There are buttons on the belt loops that I couldn’t figure out where their purpose is. If anyone knows please let me know.

Mountain Hardware Runout pants

These slate grey pants are cotton and very hardy. I was told that I should have had only synthetic as they are lighter and dry faster if they got wet but these pants were great. I wore them for multiple days and didn’t have any major issues. They fit well although there are lots of seams and those seams could be felt when walking or bending. I wore these on my trip to Kathmandu and for a couple of days afterward. Regardless I totally recommend these.

The North Face trekking pants

I have two pairs of these pants. One is khaki while the other is dark grey/black. I wore both of these pants for multiple days each and they were very comfortable during the hiking. As with the Columbia pants above there was no internal belt but there is a little bit of elastic. The elastic would be fine if I was wearing these casually but as I was hiking and in particular going up and down mountainsides therefore I used the belt to keep them from slipping down. Again like the Columbia pants I purchased pants that were just a tad too long and had the same issue with the pant legs catching on my heels every once in a while. I would recommend these highly.

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I awoke around 5:30am and the sun was already starting to rise to the point that it was already light outside. I decided that this would be a great opportunity to switch the clothes that I had been wearing for the last few days. Yes, that is correct that I had been wearing the same clothes for multiple days. That is just the way it is done when trekking or backpacking. You just don’t have space to carry a new outfit for every day.

I changed and it felt so nice to be in fresh clothes. The accumulation of sweat and dust on my previous clothes wasn’t horrible but it was definitely nice to change. They didn’t smell that bad either. Or maybe I just reeked so much that I couldn’t tell the difference. Either way no one had mentioned anything.

The assistant cooks came around to the tents at around 6:30 with morning tea and washing water. Somehow I messed up my drink request and I ended up with hot milk tea. But I drank it with the minimal of fuss. I then proceeded to pack my gear albeit slowly. I’m not certain why I was being lazy but I just didn’t rush into things this morning. While packing I found a little critter crawling around the tent.

I wasn’t sure what kind of spider or if it was poisonous so I just collected it on something or other and flung it outside of the tent.

Breakfast was around 7:30am. The sherpas had broken down the dining tent but set up the table for breakfast out on the lawn with a scenic view. Of course the sun was coming up from that direction so I decided to sit facing away from the view so as to not blind myself. The food served was pretty typical for the trek. We ate Spam® and potatoes with toast and curried vegetables. I ate a very decent amount. I guess all of the hiking from the previous day had increased my appetite. I had mustard on my spam and snack dressing (thin ketchup) on my potatoes.

After breakfast we milled around and chatted for a bit.

[Ben, Jon, Clarence, Karma, and Chris]

[Chris showing Jon his analog camera]

[Analog camera up close. You can see Jon's face in the right top lens]

Chris then gathered us for the group photos since Jon and Ben had rejoined the party and we had everyone there. We took a few of all of the trekkers, the organizers and participants. Then we took a few with all of the trekkers and all of the staff; sherpas, porters, cooks, etc. Chris had us do different poses or facial expressions.

Afterward we broke apart and Ben, Jon, and Sonam said good bye as they were going to be heading back to Naya Pool in order to head back to Kathmandu. Ben’s health had deteriorated to the point where it did not make sense for him to go further. Their plan was to hang out in and around Kathmandu until we returned from the trek.

We left camp around 9:15am for what was determined to be an “easy” day.

The first couple of hours were all downhill and I have a distinct feeling that the mountain was telling us something.

The weather was nice and cool and a bit overcast. This made it really nice for hiking. Well for a little while at least. We had crossed over to the more arid side of the mountains and so we were not in the rainforest type of ecology. In fact it was mostly terraced with small villages and farms. For some reason Karma and Tendi had us break quite a bit as we were going downhill. One long break, seemed like fifteen minutes, was followed rather quickly by another long break with only about 10 minutes of walking in between. We don’t usually question the sherpas as they are the experts but this seemed excessive. I took some pictures while we were on break. There were a couple of teenagers hitting a volleyball back and forth on the lawn in front of the guesthouse that we were taking the break at. I guess you have to do something to break up the monotony during the days when there aren’t any people residing the rooms.

[You can see the path way down below as well as the rockslide on the other side]

[This is a bee hive in a hollow log]

[eagle and raven]

[Buddhist stupa near our path]

The cloud cover started to become more sparse and the heat started to increase while we were on one of these breaks. And there was no real shade. We all urged the sherpas to continue and so down into the valley we went. It was really dusty as the trail going down was mostly a dirt path, in other words no stone stairs, and it was really dry. The descent into the valley didn’t take that long but the path was different than we were used to and it was the longest continuous downhill that we had happened upon. At the end my I was starting to get a slight twinge in my knee that I know from experience meant that I was not hiking downhill correctly.

We stopped for a break within sight of the bridge that would take us across the river at the bottom of the valley. There were stone stairs on the opposite side that meant we were going to be climbing a lot.

We got going again and we saw some porters with another group traveling in the opposite direction with colorful balloons attached to their backpacks. It took me a while to figure out what the significance of this was. Apparently it was Easter Sunday and someone had decided to decorate the porters. I’m not certain they were happy about it.

Here’s the bridge that we had to cross.

After the bridge we started climbing the stairs. We passed through a few clusters of homes without the obligatory guesthouses. There were women out beating some sort of grain from whatever they harvested out on the stone areas outside of their homes. This was in the path that we were walking on so we didn’t have much room between the grains and falling off the ledge going down the hill. I’m not certain what kind of grain it was as I’m not versed in what different grains grow in different regions of the world. It looked similar to wheat but was the seeds were black while the stalks were gold.

After seeing these women at work we came upon a really shocking surprise. A volleyball court! Granted it was just a flat dirt area but it had a large bamboo cage around the field used to keep the ball from rolling down the mountain side.

This one threw me for a loop. I just never expected volleyball to be a popular sport in the mountains. I guess this explains the kids hitting the ball around earlier. They were practicing. As the trek continued up to higher altitudes we came across other volleyball courts with lot’s of off-duty Nepali playing. By the way, the trail went right through the volleyball court. I guess it’s similar to playing street hockey or stick ball in a street. It’s more about the convenience of the location than the intermittent interruption by car or in our case trekking group.

We stopped for lunch a short while after passing through the volleyball court. Lunch consisted of bow-tie pasta, rice, beans, and this canned fish in a red sauce. I ate everything but the fish. They just did not look good in the least. I’m usually a pretty adventurous foodie but I just didn’t feeling like pressing my luck while on this trek. We took a rather long break after lunch.

We struck out again on the way to Chommrong. Most of the next hour was uphill until we hit the outskirts of Chommrong. We took a nice break to allow Chris and Karma to catch up with the group before continuing on.

After the break as we were going along the path we came across a couple of water buffalos. I have no knowledge of the demeanor or temperament of these animals especially when encroaching on their personal space so I attempted to give them as wide a berth as possible. But I also decided that I needed so up close and personal photos.

This buffalo decided to stand up and look agitated. Probably because he was resting on the path that we walking on.

This buffalo didn’t mind us walking by as much.

After another 30-45 minutes we were in Chommrong which is a huge collection of guest houses and supporting businesses. There were restaurants and bakeries as well as a clinic and some other government installations. This was by far the biggest village we had hit since we walked through Bharenthanti on the first day. We made our way through the myriad guest houses and to our campsite. The campsite was on a cliff ledge that overlooked a volleyball court and had Fishtail and two of the Annapurna peaks in the distance.

I was in such a need to drink something other than tea or water that I purchased a cold Sprite. It was so good. I didn’t care that there was a little bit of an off taste due to the Diamox. My only problem was that it was too little.

We relaxed around camp until dinner. It started to threaten to rain and even sprinkled a little. It cleared up before dinner which was pizza with cauliflower, beans, and chow mien with mozzarella. We finished up with peaches. We chilled in the dining tent while the weather outside turned to light showers again.

People: Shaun Chemplavil

It’s a small world after all. I wonder if Disney will come and attempt to sue me for saying that. Anyway there is a reason I bring that saying up and that reason is named Shaun Chemplavil. A Las Vegas native he moved to Florida and in particular to Orlando. That’s right he lives within minutes from where I reside. I don’t know exactly how many minutes as I don’t know exactly where in Orlando he lives but having someone from the same metropolis on the trip was a big coincidence. But wait there’s more…[I think I can get sued for that too]. He is a member of a photography meetup group that I am a member of and we had actually met at one event. I know, crazy, right? He’s a great guy with a great sense of humor. And he definitely looked out for me along the trek.

Check out his flickr account to see his great photos.

Here’s Shaun prepping for a shot.

Here’s Shaun at the only sign signifying the Annapurna Base Camp. He wanted proof that he was there.

On our return trek Shaun was nearby with his blue trekking poles.

Some days just take the smile away.

But then it returns.

[I had to make blurry subjects in my pictures as part of an assignment]

Gear: Various Head Coverings

I brought a wide variety of head coverings for everything from sun protection to keeping my noggin warm. I also brought items that I was going to try in order to keep the dry dusty air from bothering me too much. I’ll go through all of the items.

Baseball Cap

I had a standard baseball cap that I had bought at a UCF football game because I had forgotten to where one and the sun was killing me. This cap had served me well for a couple of years and so it deserved to be brought to the ends of the world as well. Overall it worked well protecting from the sun and helping to keep the sweat from my face. After a while the cap became saturated with sweat and stopped it’s function of keeping sweat out of my eyes. It also became hot and uncomfortable after extended use. One other negative is that the brim gets in the way when taking pictures so the hat must be turned, lifted or removed which can be annoying.

OC Goretex brimmed hat

I have had this hat for quite a few years but rarely wear it in Florida because it gets hot really quickly. It provides the most sun protection of everything I brought and folds up nicely. The lining would tend to get saturated with sweat and always stayed quite warm. I think I only wore this one day and it worked well but then I ended up shoving it into my backpack.

Buff®

This is one of those things from Survivor® that the contestants have. It’s basically a tube of cloth that can be used for many different types of clothing but mostly on the head. I initially purchased this to be one of the things that I tried for a dust guard to cover my mouth and nose while in Tibet. I ended up using it as a headband or just some sort of head covering. It did an awesome job of sopping up sweat and when one end of the tube would be saturated I could reverse it and use the other end of the tube. Now that I have written that out I have realized that it probably doesn’t make much sense. Oh well. I really like this item and when using other head covers I would sometimes switch them out for this. I usually kept it tied to my backpack in an easy to reach location so that it could dry out but be handy. One negative is that it didn’t provide any sun protection for my face.

Bandanas

I brought along two bandanas and I used them just about as much as I used the buff. I had brought these along as general purpose gear as well as having the special purpose of dust guard as I described for the buff. I never did use them for that purpose. They weren’t as versatile as the buff nor did they sop up as much sweat but they did well for a while and then were swapped out. Just like the buff these did not protect my face from the sun.

Skullcap beanie

By far my favorite cold weather headgear. This maroon beanie I always keep with my winter clothes for when I’m traveling outside of Florida. I don’t think I have had much use for it in Florida. It’s soft and comfortable and keeps my head warm. It does tend to soak up the sweat over time and definitely had that issue on this trip. I wore this anytime it was chilly enough or my ears were too cold.

Fleece headband

I brought a fleece headband that I had bought when skiing, because I had forgotten my aforementioned beanie. I wore this one time when we were on our way back from ABC and my beanie was too wet from sweat and rain. Everyone seemed to think it was funny. But it kept my ears warm and that made me happy.

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I split this day into two posts and here is the first one that dealt with the hike up to the top of Poon Hill and the return to my tent to pack my gear before breakfast.

I finished packing rather quickly because I had time before the hike to get a lot of my stuff in order. I broke out of the tent and started to take pictures around camp.

I believe we ate around 8 but I don’t completely remember. I don’t even remember what we had that morning but I’m pretty sure I ate well as my body was quickly getting back into a normal state.

I’m pretty sure that we struck out on the day’s hike before 9am as we had quite a few hours of hiking ahead of us. We had already done 2-3 hours in the morning to get to Poon Hill but I was still invigorated. The first few hours were all climbing. We were on a connector trail and so there weren’t stairs or any other signs of improvement other than the footpath. Well that’s not completely correct. There were some stone rest areas along the path. We quickly gained altitude even to the point of being above the tour planes.

At one break I took the following picture of a stone path that seems to just go off to nowhere. It does point towards the cellular tower that we had passed on the way to Poon Hill.

There were also some nice prayer flags in the trees at this rest area.

As we hiked along this trail I couldn’t help but notice that it was as if spring had sprung. Everything was flowering or new buds were popping out.

We kept hiking and we took a break at a store resting area which is basically a large square store table just high enough to sit on and rest your gear (look at the picture with DogFella below). On the way up to this hill’s summit we had to walk in one of these deep grooves that have eroded the top of the hill. The blue topped buildings in the distance is Ghorepani where we stayed the night before.

In this photo you can see Ghorepani as well as the cell tower and the tower on top of Poon Hill. You can also see that within a couple of hours all of the snow has disappeared from the top of Poon Hill.

This stone resting area was at almost the same height as Poon Hill. I believe it was around 3100m.

This is also were we met a new member of our group, DogFella.

The story of DogFella

Just as we were just getting back onto the trail to continue our hike after resting and we were passing another stone resting area, probably 10m from the one we stopped at, when a dog from out of nowhere hopped on top as if he was the king of the mountain. We had seen many dogs like this one along the way but this one immediately took an interest in our group and in particular it liked Clarence.

As we continued to hike this dog decided to join us. He would trot along with us and sometimes go to the front of the group or trail behind. Every now and then he would run off into the woods and then return a few minutes later. Chris mentioned that this reminded him of a character from an iPhone game named Sword & Sworcery. That character’s name was DogFella and thus this dog that joined our group was named. For the better part of the day DogFella was with us. When we started to entry Deurali where we were going to have our lunch DogFella took off up the hill above the village. I was certain that was going to be the last time we saw him but he surprised us all as we were finishing lunch when he came in from the opposite side of town and laid down by our table and took a nap. I guess he had a bad experience when going through this village and therefore takes an alternate route.

Apparently DogFella is good at taking naps.

Sometimes he’s not the only one (That’s Tendi and Karma our sherpas).

But most of the time he was hanging around us. This is him scouting the way for Monika.

He provided all of us with some entertainment as well as amazement throughout the hike. As our hiking for the day was about to wrap up I believe that DogFella sensed that we were almost done and he sought out a new group to follow. He found three very attractive female trekkers that were resting near a stream and we never saw him again. Although he wasn’t with us physically, he stayed with us in spirit for the rest of the trek as we compared the other dogs or puppies to him. Here’s to you DogFella.

Here are some interesting photos from the day. This first one I decided to go a little artsy with.

I couldn’t pass up taking a picture of this schnoz.

Here are some photos from the village of Deurali where we had lunch.

Here are the porters looking at a local map. I figured they should know this by heart. The top left with the yellow/gold cartoon bubble is the “You are here” marker.

This tree was growing in the center of the village and was covered with dirty/dingy prayer flags.

And one just for fun.

The rest of the hike we were next to a small stream and sometimes there were critters near the water like this bird.

And this rodent. It’s actually pretty small about the size of a chipmunk.

I could be mixing up the days here but I believe this was when we climbed up to this amazing overlook. There was a small level area that basically had a sheer cliff down into a valley. It was a bit nerve racking if you went up to the edge and looked down. Someone with vertigo would definitely have issues from this place. I took a couple of pictures but they just don’t do justice to the scene or the feeling. Oh and there was a shop (a.k.a. a guest house without rooms) adjacent to this scenic outlook area.

This second photo I was trying to get part of the bottom of the valley in to attempt to convey the scale or height of this perch.

The rest of the hike was “Nepali flat” which means that we stayed at the same basic average altitude but continually descended or climbed along the path. Here’s the proof.

[That's Shaun and Thilo if you were wondering.]

About 10 minutes from where we stopped were going to stop at Tadapani who should we meet on the trail but Sonam coming from the camp in flip flops. It was a happy site as it meant that we would see Ben and Jon again. We had a hint earlier in the day that we would possibly see them if all went well so this was a great sign. He met us at a fork in the trail with one fork going down and the other going up. Guess which one we had to follow? That’s right the one going up. Anyway, it was only about 10 more minutes and we arrived at camp.

Jon greeted us as we arrived and Ben came down a little later. They were both staying in the guest house adjacent to our campsite because they had arrived the previous day. It was great to see that Ben had been feeling well enough to make it as far as this. They had hiked two pretty grueling days to catch us here. Well it was grueling for them but it was probably similar to what we had been doing. Ben had gotten better but then his health was going down again. Therefore they decided to not to continue the journey with us and instead head back to Kathmandu. But we were able to break bread with them for dinner and breakfast and then they were going to head back to Naya Pool and take a taxi back to Pokhara.

As we had arrived at camp I noticed a group of kids around a game board. It looked to be about the size of a ping pong table and they were playing a game that seemed to be a mix of billiards and shuffleboard. Chris told me that it was carroms. Apparently Chris was quite adept at the game and as soon as he was able to relieve himself of his trekking gear he was at the table playing with the kids and porters.

I pretty much just wandered around the camp trying to relax a little. I was super tired after the very long day of hiking. There was a lot of noise and laughter coming from the patio outside the guest house where a group of British trekkers were imbibing quite heavily. That’s not advised when hiking at altitude but they were pounding them back like water. The women in particular were quite rowdy and loud. Oh well, I guess they were enjoying themselves even if they paid for it the next day.

The night was chilly but we had a nice dinner in the dining tent. I don’t recall the meal but I do recall turning in rather quickly after dinner. Like I said before I was really tired from the long day. Sleep came quickly.

I was going to do a people or gear highlight but I have already gone more than a week without a post and at this rate I won’t finish for 5 months. So stay tuned for the next installment (hopefully this weekend).

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I have decided to split this post into two entries worth because there will be a ton of photos (and they will be larger than standard).

I awoke around 2am and I have no idea why. I guess going to sleep around 7-8pm after such a short hike just made my body want to be up. I listened to some music and attempted to go back to sleep but it wasn’t happening. At around 4am, we were “awakened” by the sherpas with tea. I quickly got a couple of layers on while enjoying a hot tea and grabbed my camera and trekking poles. We gathered and then set off behind some buildings on a path that the Tendi led us up the hill.

As we passed by guest houses everything was rather dark but there was a lot of activity as peopled emerged with headlamps and flashlights and joined the climb to the top of Poon Hill. I was amazed at the number of people that were on the trail. We must have passed by or walked with a half dozen small groups of four to eight people each. It was still very dark but my eyes had adjusted to the point where I really didn’t need to use my headlamp. The temperature was rather chilly but the air was crisp and I warmed up very quickly during the climb. I also got out of breathe really quickly. The campsite that we stayed at was around 2800-2900m but we had to climb to 3200m which was the top of Poon Hill. And we had to do it rather quickly in order to reach the summit before the sun broke the horizon.

The trail was really beautiful. Once we got beyond the guest houses we were on a trail that cut through rhododendrons that were beginning to bloom with frost on the ground. It was too dark to take pictures of the trail. About halfway to the top we stopped for a breather at the communications tower with the prayer flags that I mentioned in the last post. It was already starting to get lighter out but the sun had not peeked out from behind the mountains.

[yes I made it that strange tint on purpose. I'm not certain I like it but why not put my blunders up here too]

Our journey continued up hill and the frost that was just here and there started to turn into snow covered grasses. The trees also had clumps of snow on them that would fall now and then or would drip. There were even some icicles. After being in the 80′s with high humidity for the past few days this was an interesting change.

Even with all of these signs of cold weather, I was burning up in my coats. I unzipped everything but I was still sweating a lot. Climbing stairs is definitely a workout especially when you are completely out of breathe. Finally, I saw the destination in sight. The path opened up and there were very few trees. I took one more photo behind me as I rested prior to the final push (it had been a tough jaunt).

[Yes that guy is in shorts. Not everyone on the trails were sane.]

Then I climbed the last few steps to the top of Poon Hill…

I was really surprised at how many people had climbed those same stairs that morning to see the sunrise. There were probably 50-100 people when I got to the top. A lot of them were in the tower or in line at the coffee bar. That’s right, some enterprising Nepali built and supplied a coffee/tea/hot chocolate shed at the top of Poon Hill.

More people streaming in like ants.

As the sun was creeping up I was taking pictures. Here is Fishtail Mountain.

I went up into the tower which was pretty treacherous as the metal steps were coated in melting ice. I then took some photos of other mountains in the range. I believe this one is Dhaulagiri.

Here’s another of Fishtail with the sun beams shooting through.

Annapurna South and Annapurna I are shown here. Annapurna South is the one to the right but it is actually about 800m shorter than Annapurna South. Perspective is deceiving.

The sun finally getting above the mountains.

I decided that I had enough fun up in the tower elbowing people out of the way in order to take pictures so I went down to ground level with the masses. Here’s the Dhaulagiri range and about a quarter of the people on Poon Hill.

I like the star effect on the sun in this next photo. Thanks goes to Chris for reminding me of this effect. Annapurna South is the peak to the left with Fishtail close to the sun. The guy in the ball cap at the bottom is Karma.

I really liked this picture, I think mostly because of the unknowing model that is looking toward the distance.

This next one is one of my favorites. I had to wait quite a bit in order to wait for people to get out of the shot. I also had to help a gaggle of French trekkers by taking a few photos for them.

Here I was trying to be artistic with my framing.

Right around this time Dawa came trotting up to our group as we were gathered and he had a backpack full of all types of hot beverages ready to be made and consumed. I had a wonderful cup of hot chocolate and a kit kat bar. It was awesome that he hiked all of the way up to Poon Hill just to provide us with hot drinks. After we were done we all decided that we had enough of taking pictures from this hilltop.

And finally proof that I was there (other than the photos I took).

After that shot we started our way down the steps back to camp. On the way down I took a few more shots and here is one of them. That’s Dhaulagiri and the spiky peak to the right of center is Tukche.

The hike down was relatively quick. We probably returned to camp around 7:30am. We were told to pack our stuff and that breakfast would be served shortly. So I went to my tent and packed. And with that I was end this post and continue this day’s story in the next post.

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I was awakened by the assistant cooks knocking at the door of our room with tea around 7:30am. They also brought wash water to the room was was a nice touch. I was feeling better than the day before because I wasn’t completed stopped up. Anyway, I washed my torso and brushed my teeth and then started to re-organize and pack my gear. We were told the previous evening that today was going to be a rather short 2-3 hours of hiking and would basically be a rest day. Basically we would be heading to and stopping at the destination that we should have hit the evening before.

We had a relaxing breakfast around 8-8:30am although I know I ate well I don’t recall what we had. As we ate a local merchant displayed his jewelry and knick knacks for our shopping pleasure.

Apparently anything you buy will bring good luck.

Right around 9am we got ready and hit the trail. We were still in the temperate jungle area but it was a rather cool morning. I’m not certain exactly what altitude we were at but my guess is that it was around 2500-2600m.

Something that I have been asked a couple of times is what are the colorful banners that seem to appear strung all over the place. These are Buddhist prayer flags. My understanding is that the idea is that there are prayers and blessings written on the cloth flags. The flags are hung across breezy areas and as the flags flutter in the wind their messages float along in the air and spread the prosperity. The flags stay strung up until the cloth deteriorates on its own.

This area of Nepal isn’t very Buddhist. Most of the people in this area are Hindu but many of the people that come to this area are Buddhist and bring along and hang the flags. Typically I saw them around the bridges and in the villages.There were some locations where the flags were so numerous that they couldn’t flap in the breeze. I’m not certain what that means but I guess the intentions were valid.

While we were at the lower altitudes in this jungle like ecosystem we would see these weird snake looking plants. They almost looked alien as they just popped out of the ground without any leaves other than the main stalk. Here is a picture of a couple of them.

Sometimes there would be a cluster of them and sometimes there would be a solitary plant. At first we thought they might be a pitcher plant but it doesn’t seem to have the same look as the family of pitcher plants that I found while searching. I have no idea what it is but it was neat and eery at the same time.

As we continued our hike I kept noticing that many of the trees and plants were blooming and new growth was budding on some of the plants. I wasn’t the only one to notice the pretty rhododendron flowers.

As we walked we came across this interesting creation.

It’s some sort of Hindu shrine as I assume based on the trident on one of the wooden posts. The trident is a symbol for Shiva. I took this picture because I found it interesting that a religious shrine would have an empty Coke® bottle hiding behind the tablet. It just struck me funny. Here’s a photo without the bottle.

As we approached Lower Ghorepani I just happened to look up at one of the hilltops nearby and to my surprise there was a huge communications tower.

You’ll also notice that there are a ton of prayer flags up there as well. I guess maybe they believe that the prayers will catch a ride on the microwave signals and travel even further. Just a little aside, I pass within feet of this tower the next morning.

We reach Lower Ghorepani and take a rest on the outside of one of the guest houses. Thilo decides to pull out of the super bounce balls that he had brought and play catch with a young Nepali boy. They would bounce the ball back and forth but most of the time the boy wouldn’t catch it and then he would have to chase it all over the stone walkways and sometimes down the hillside if it bounced wrong. The boy was probably four years old and his little sister was probably a year or two his junior. The sister was just happy to watch. Here they are.

These two were both cute. Everyone was taking pictures of the action including Karma who had Jon’s video camera.

At one point the siblings’ older brother, probably 8 or 10 years old, came by and seemed a little bit jealous that he couldn’t play. He was in the middle of doing chores.

I took the rest period time to look around for interesting and creative shots. This is what I found.

After our short break Tendi and Karma both said that we just a little while longer in order to get to our stopping point. About 30 minutes of hiking (climbing stairs mostly) and we made it to Upper Ghorepani (Ghorepani proper) and our camp. It wasn’t even 11:30am.

Here’s one of the dogs around our campsite when we arrived.

Shortly after we arrived at camp the weather started to turn for the worse. The breeze picked up and the temperature dropped. Then it started to mist. It had been overcast for almost the whole day but now it seemed as if the clouds were dropping to our elevation. It started to drizzle and we quickly stowed our gear as well as grabbed some coats and ducked into a meeting/dining room. The assistant cooks provided us with tea to warm us up as the room that we were using was not well insulated at all. It did keep us dry and kept most of the wind out but it still got rather cold. The sherpas brought in a propane lantern to attempt to provide some heat to the room but I don’t think it was all that affective. It started to rain pretty hard and then it turned into sleet. Finally it decided to snow. It wasn’t the flaky kind of snow because it was still raining. Also the snow didn’t stick on the ground but it was there.

Around 12:30pm we had a very surprising lunch. It was pizza. The cooks have figured out a way to cook pizza at altitude and it was pretty good.

We also had chicken and rice but the main item on everyone’s mind and fork was the pizza.

The rain and cold weather continued throughout lunch so Chris decided that we should have a workshop session on exposure. We talked about the basic concepts of exposure and then we got into the details of the zone system and how it can be used with our digital cameras. The rain stopped for a bit and it got a little bit lighter out. We decided to do a practical lesson based on the exposure session.

It was still very chilly out but after a short while it started to drizzle again. We all took shelter back in the meeting room again except for a few that decided that it would be a good time to take a nap in their tents. The rest of the afternoon was spent conversing over various interesting topics ranging from music, television, computers, and whatever else we could geek out about. We were able to watch Himalayan TV, a.k.a. looking out the big windows on one wall of the meeting room. That’s where we saw hit show’s like the “Chicken Confuser” and the “Chicken Confuser Confuser”. We also discussed the “Big Fart” which was an extremely serious topic for the Himalayan Plateau. I can’t really go into details about the plots of these shows or else they would just become banal. Although if you ask nicely then I’ll describe each. We became masters of trivial discussion and we killed time quite easily.

At one of the lulls in the precipitation, Damion and I ventured out into the village of Ghorepani. This village was much larger than the previous ones that we had visited. There were quite a few foreigners huddled under overhangs or inside dining areas of the guest houses. We went to one shop and I bought a postcard for my mom and a Fanta®. Apparently Fanta and Coke or the only soft drinks that make their way up the mountain paths. It tasted very weird but that is one of the effects of Diamox® apparently.

Since I mentioned ®, the brand name for Acetazolamide, I’ll tell you about this drug that I was taking in order to help reduce the possibility or effects of altitude sickness. Basically any time that you increase your altitude rather quickly you become susceptible to altitude (or mountain) sickness. Your body over time will get adjusted to the altitude and change the way that your blood handles the decrease in oxygen but if you ascend quickly you can get really sick. This drug helps your body adjust faster and therefore reducing the risk of getting sick. But of course there are side effects. One is that for some reason it changes the taste of carbonated beverages such as Coke. This is an annoyance but nothing indicative of something gone wrong. Another side effect is that you get “Diamox Tingles”. I would describe this as something like a mild case of “pins and needles” that a limb gets if it has fallen asleep and it is being moved again. These tingles aren’t just in the limbs. They can be anywhere on the body. For me they tended to hit right after we stopped hiking for 10 minutes or so and usually in my fingertips and heels. It’s a really odd sensation but again it’s nothing bad just annoying.

After wasting the day away we finally had tea followed shortly by dinner. The supper consisted of chow mien with some sort of red sauce. We also had veggies and probably chicken sausage but that last one is just a guess. The food was ok but we were all still full from lunch as we all overloaded on pizza.

After dinner we were informed by Karma that we would be getting up at 4am in order to hike up to Poon Hill for the sunrise. He told us that it would be chilly and that all we would need is our camera. Karma also told us that if the weather was bad in the morning that we would be allowed to sleep in. We hung around the table for a bit but then all turned in early due to the early morning. It was quite a bit chilly so I actually made some use of my sleeping bag instead of just using it as a blanket. I spent some time listening to an audio book until I passed out.

People: Damion Wilson

Damion hails from Maryland and this is his second trip to the Himalayas. He was my roommate/tent-mate for the majority of the trip and I thank him for dealing with my B.S. and snoring. His recently acquired addiction to Angry Birds was only fueled by my assistance when he asked for it (and sometimes when he didn’t). He was very popular as we trekked because he had a bunch of interesting technology within plain view of anyone passing by on the trail.

Here you can see his GoPro camera strapped to his forehead that took a picture every 30 seconds and that is connected to a battery pack and a solar panel that you see just behind his right shoulder. Everyone wondered what the device attached to his head was and would accost him and make him explain. To us he seemed like RoboCop or some other cyborg with all of this equipment. Damion also had a desire to get a really good water/waterfall shot.

He’s a very good guy and I hope to keep in touch with him as we both made it to the top of Annapurna Base Camp.

He typically posts his awesome photos on his flickr account.

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I was awakened by the sherpas around 6am. They were providing morning tea. Tea as I described before could be any number of hot drinks and I think I had hot chocolate on this particular morning. We also got hot wash water in a bowl which I used to brush my teeth.

The order of things in the morning is wake up with tea and wash water. Followed by about an hour to get ready for the day and pack your gear. Then breakfast while camp is broken down. Then after everything is ready to go we don our trekking gear and head off for the day.

This morning it didn’t take me too much time to get my gear packed. I guess I was just ready to get going with the knowledge that it was going to be a long and difficult day. After I packed I had some time to take some pictures. This picture shows the camp being broken down before we sat down for breakfast.

Also, a local Nepali brought out a bunch of jewelry and accessories for purchase.

I purchased a yak wool belt (the very bottom right) because I needed a belt as my pants liked to ride downward as I walked. It’s really neat in that it can be tied in many different sizes although untying can be a pain in you are urgent to use the restroom.

We broke fast at around 7am. I wasn’t hungry at all but I knew I had to eat something. I consumed a fried egg, some chopped potatoes, and half a piece of toast slathered in Nutella. I didn’t really finish anything but I had my fill. I was still full from the previous night’s dinner.

We started hiking around 8am and it started out pretty easy. We walked through a couple of small villages/guest house clusters. I guess I should explain this a little bit better as this is something that comes up often along the trip. The villages weren’t typically a cluster of houses together. They were more of a generalized area that didn’t have any type of defined borders. There were houses all around the hills in these areas and along the trekking path there were small clusters of guest houses. These were typically two story structures with about 6 rooms for rent, an associated dinning area/restaurant, a little store with drinks (soft and hard) and other sundry items. The guest houses were typically white and blue with blue roofs and they had a central water faucet that seemed to be fed from some mountain spring uphill from the village. Most of the time the path going to/through the guest house cluster was paved with nice flat stones and stairs. Here is an example that I saw shortly after leaving our campsite.

After passing through this guest house cluster we started to climb lot’s of stairs. I always seemed to be out of breathe. At our first break I gave my spare water bottle to Tendi, the sherpa at the front of our group, in order to help lighten my load. We continued our trek. I rather quickly dropped to the rear of the group with Chris and Karma as we were taking our time. Taking our time was the only way to keep moving without being out of breathe every 2 minutes. I felt so slow but it worked.

Well, there was one good thing about being slow. Sometimes you see stuff that the rest of the group missed out on. For instance can you tell what I took a picture of here?

Give up? Here’s a little bit of a better picture.

And then he launched…

And he was gone.

I asked Karma, the sherpa at the back of the group, what they call that type of monkey and he said “dil-do”. I did a double take as I thought I misheard him. I asked again and he repeated the name. You have to understand that Nepali people when speaking English tend to speak the syllables rather quickly so I thought I might have still misheard him. So I asked Chris if I heard right and he said that Karma said “dil-der-do” and not “dil-do”. And so that is how I referred to this monkey for many days on the trek.

We continued to climb stairs for the next couple of hours. In this picture you can see the terraced farms as well as some paths. We hiked on the lower path earlier in the day. I hope that gives some idea of how much altitude we had gained.

The blue building to the bottom left was a school and we heard the children doing some sort of drills out in the courtyard as we were going along. The sound just travelled throughout the mountains.

I started to see stairs as being evil. Every time we hit a new set of stairs I was thinking to myself that these were stairs to hell except that they went up. Chris was also having a tough time but he still had concern for my health and would check up on me quite often. He also provided some trekking hints which I graciously accepted. Well as graciously as I could concerning the state of mind I was in. He also kept telling me to take my time which did help out.

One of my thighs decided that it had enough climbing stairs and started to cramp on me. It wasn’t serious but it was annoying. During our next break I mentioned my condition to Karma and Chris and Chris provided me with a packet of salts and minerals (electrolytes)  to mix with some water to drink. I drink about half a cup of warm water with the “strawberry” flavored mix. It went down but not easily. After resting for a couple of minutes we decided to continue our stair climbing activity. I took about 4 steps and then my stomach told me that it had had enough. I proceeded to spew for everything from my stomach. Luckily I had the presence of mind to move my camera to the side or else it would have been covered in vomit. I coughed up everything that I had eaten that morning and I think most of what I ate the night before. That ruined my taste for Nutella for the rest of the trip. In the process of bracing myself for a set of heaves I stuck my hand into a thistle weed. So I was hot, out of breath, constipated, vomiting, cramping and now I had sharp pains in my left hand. This just wasn’t my day.

After I stopped heaving I was actually feeling somewhat better. After a little bit more of a break I told Karma and Chris that I was ready to continue on. We ascended another 50m or so and everyone was waiting in a shaded patio at a guest house. Shaun bought me a warm mango juice which I gratefully drank although I can now say that I am not a fan of warm mango juice.

We continued on up the path for a very short while, maybe 20-30 minutes, and then we stopped at the next guest house and had lunch. I drank plenty of the “juice” that was provided but I barely touched the food. Although my stomach was feeling a bit better, I had zero appetite and when I attempted to eat something I just felt like I was forcing myself. I don’t even recall what we had but I do know that mine was relatively untouched.

As we relaxed and had tea after lunch the sky began to darken and it started to rain. Lightly at first and steadily increasing in intensity all of the way to having small hail stones falling from the sky. The porters and sherpas scrambled to get tarps to cover the bags and gear. Our group just stayed dry in the dining area. I decided to take some pictures.

Almost every guest house cluster had some sort of variation on the following map. Most were hand-painted and didn’t look anywhere close to as nice as this one.

Karma and Tendi came to us after the rain had basically stopped and informed us that because of the weather that we had to change our plans. I think it was mostly because we had slow people (me) in the group and we wouldn’t make it to our original destination before nightfall. So we continued on our way after donning our backpacks.

As we started hiking again I was feeling a bit better but my legs were still sore especially the one that had been cramping. I stayed at the back of the group with Chris and Karma but we were able to keep a decent pace. Frankly I don’t remember the terrain between lunch and our stop for the night but I do know that I was extremely happy to reach our destination.

We stopped for the night at a guest house and we were informed that we would be staying in a room and not in a tent. Before we grabbed rooms we relaxed in the dining area. Karma and Dawa were working out the details with the guest house owner so we just relaxed and had tea. Eventually we were told to determine which room we wanted and our bags were brought up. We had a short rest period where we were able to get settled into our rooms before we were called to dinner.

Dinner was dal bhat, also known as “Sherpa Fuel”, with curried vegetables and chicken. I don’t think I ate much as I was still constipated.

After dinner I think everyone was pretty wiped out from the day’s activity and we all retired to our rooms. The night was still pretty warm so I used my sleeping bag as a blanket. As the night continued the temperature dropped so I used more of my “blanket” to cover myself. I also woke up in the middle of the night and used the toilet for my first semi-success. After that I went back to bed and slept through the night.

People: The Sherpas

The word sherpa is a lot of things. It is a job description, a last name, a tribe, and a caste. On this particular trip we had a handful of sherpas helping us out from the Mountain Tribes trekking company.

The big man at Mountain Tribes, at least that I met, was Babu Sherpa. He organized the trip with Jon and provided the pre-trip logistics. He worked magic when the Chinese closed the Tibetan border and created the Annapurna trip within hours of the other trip being canceled. Babu was great and I wish I had spent more time to get to know him. I highly recommend his company to anyone wanting to trek or just explore Nepal and the surrounding areas. Babu is on twitter.

Babu’s assistant in Kathmandu was Depan. Depan helped with things like attempting to get our Chinese visas and making sure that we got to where we needed to go. He was also the last sherpa to communicate with me has he handed me off to a taxi driver for my trip back to the airport (and back home).

The first trekking sherpa that I met was Sonam. He met us in Kathmandu and flew with us over to Pokhara and stayed at our hotel. I believe he assisted Babu in planning the Annapurna trek. Sonam stayed with Jon and Ben when they had to leave the group on the first day of trekking. He also helped Jon and Ben to catch up to us a few days into the trip and then helped them back to the start of the trek when Ben’s illness relapsed. Sonam was always quiet when he was around the group so I didn’t have much interaction with him.

The next two trekking sherpas were Tendi and Karma. I’m writing about them together because they were always with us with Tendi leading the group and Karma tailing the group. I spent a bit more time with Karma as I was typically at the back of the pack but I had plenty of time to speak with both of them. They were both happy and had great sense of humor. Anyway, I got a few good pictures of these two.

Karma on the left. Tendi on the right.

The final sherpa that I met on the trek was Dawa. He was the head chef and also made arrangements for our campsites. He was also in front of our group and typically is was way in the distant front. He always had a great big smile on his face and he surprised us a few times on the trek which I’ll explain later.

He’s the one in the grey ball cap. I guess he wasn’t smiling as he was dealing with the porters this morning.

This is part of a series that document my trip to Nepal. You can find all of the blog posts here.

I awoke around 5am. Although I woke up easily I did not feel rested and I couldn’t go back to sleep. I took the opportunity as the sun was coming up to snap some pictures around the hotel. I think this first one is Annapurna South, which is one of the smaller of the Annapurna peaks.

This next two I believe are Machapucchre (Fishtail)

Around 7am we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant which I think consisted of eggs and toast and maybe some sausage. I don’t recall but I also don’t believe I was all that hungry. Sometime while we were in the restaurant Ben joined us and we found out that he had a crazy night. Basically his illness got to the point where Jon and Sonam took him to the hospital and the doctor their immediately put him on an IV drip. He also got a stack of prescriptions (wrapped in folded newspaper). He seemed in a little bit better spirits than the last time I saw him the day before but he definitely wasn’t 100%.

After breakfast I packed whatever I hadn’t packed earlier in the morning and brought my bags down to the lobby and waited as everyone else filtered in.

Just after 8am our bus arrived and we started to migrate towards it. I saw something really neat in the garden right before hopping onto the bus so I took a quick snap. Can you see what I saw?

It’s not the flowers, or the buildings, or even the wrought iron fence. Let’s zoom in a little.

I have no idea how I saw this guy but he is pretty awesome. It seems to be an Oriental Garden Lizard but as I didn’t get a profile picture I can’t be sure. Anyway, I hopped on the bus and away we went.

The ride was pretty much what we had come to expect of driving in Nepal. It was rather early when we left so there wasn’t much auto or pedestrian traffic but that didn’t mean the driver hesitated to use his horn whenever he did come across another vehicle or person near our path. As we got outside of Pokhara the streets became bumpier and narrower which means that passing vehicles that are traveling in the opposite direction becomes even more perilous.

At some point early during the trip, Jon made his way to the back of the bus, re-arranged the duffels into a make-shift bed and immediately passed out. I guess he had had a long night hanging out with Ben at the hospital.

I lost track of time as we traveled to the trailhead at Naya Pool. I snapped a dozen or so pictures along the way attempting to capture something interesting but most came as a blurry mess. Here are some that survived the cut.

The bus finally made it to what seemed to be a very popular area for trekking. There were lots of foreigners either getting into or out of vehicles. But our bus ride was not over yet. We continued down a rather narrow road crowded with people, parked vehicles, and loose animals. We made it down to a turn and the assistant driver (a.k.a. the guy banging the side of the bus) stepped out and attempted to help navigate the bus through the tight space. At some point a dog decided to duck under the bus and everything was halted until the dog ran out. We continued down a bit further and then we stopped to greet our sherpas, Tendi and Karma, and our pack of porters. We got off the bus and quickly all of our gear was unloaded and assigned out. By assigning out I mean to say that the porters discussed, argued (with smiles), and finally to what looks like compromises.

We trekkers donned our packs and situated ourselves for the hiking for the day.

A playful dog decided to interrupt our preparations and get some attention from Jon.

Jon had a little fun playing back with the dog.

Shortly after this we began our walk. Here is a parting shot of what we left behind including the playful dog.

At the beginning of the hike our elevation was approximately 1030 meters. I’ll be pretty much doing everything in metric as that is how everything there was written. This one time I’ll say that the conversion rate between meters and feet is 1m = 3.3ft. Therefore my starting elevation of 1030m was approximately 3400ft.

As we hiked a little bit I noticed one of our first views of the peaks from the ground. This is Macchapuchhare (I know I spelled it differently, welcome to the wonderful world of Nepali/English transitions) again.

I just liked how the picture had the Fish Tail peak along with the Fish Tail restaurant.

We quickly made it to Birenthanti and crossed the river on our first bridge of the trip. Here is one of the only times I was in the front of our trekking group.

Of course I was still behind the porters (notice the one on the right has a purple duffle, mine, as well as other bags). The porters who were all relatively small but all carried about their body weight. I have much respect for them.

As we hiked on the first day we were typically near a river. Here are some waterfalls.

The day was hot and we didn’t have much cover.

Our first stop was at a guest house right around noon. It’s the place with the orange tarp in the distance. This was such a welcome sight as all of us wanted to get out of the oppressive heat. Even though most of the hike so far had been on relatively flat land, it was extremely welcome to have a goal in sight.

And even better was the fact that we were going to be fed. This was our first meal on the trek.

That’s right, Mac & Cheese. Accompanying the Mac & Cheese were chicken sausages (hot dogs), potatoes, and broccoli in some sort of dressing (I think it was mayo). The process that was typical for lunch was that we would arrive at our lunch destination and we would immediately get “juice” which was a warm to hot concoction of some sort of sugary drink mix such as lemonade, tang, mango or grape. Within a short amount of time prepared plates of food would be passed out to each of the trekkers. After finishing the meal the plates would be cleared and then various teas and other hot drinks would be available.

Now to the bad news. Ben had a difficult time with the short hike that we had so far on that day. His illness was still affecting him too much and the heat and dehydration were taking its toll. After some discussion between the trip leaders it was decided that Ben would go no further today. Ben, Jon and Sonam would stay at the guest house that we were having lunch at and determine what to do the following day. This really sucks that Ben was being told to drop out but he was not doing well and we all felt for him.

As we got ready to continue our trip we said our goodbyes to Ben and Jon and we were hoping to see them all again at some point later in the trip or in Kathmandu. We had hiked for about an hour and half before stopping for lunch and now we had about two to three hours to finish for the day. So we started hiking again.

The rest of the trip that day was grueling. At least the temperature dropped a little and it became overcast. We started to climb and mostly on stairs…

And more stairs…

I was so happy when I saw the following sight…

The porters and Dawa’s team (Dawa is the sherpa in charge of cooking and camp logistics) had arrived and set up our tents and the dining tent. I was so glad that the end of the hiking for the day was over. We stopped at Tikhedhunga which was at approximately 1480m altitude. This means that we climbed about 450m in the four to five hours of hiking.

Now for camp procedure. Typically when we arrive at camp the tents are erected and we are served tea within 30 minutes of arriving. Tea consists of a choice of hot beverages including black tea, mint tea, hot chocolate, bourn vita++, or instant coffee. Dawa provides both hot water and hot milk to create the beverages. Bourn Vita++, two flavors original and “5 Star Magic”, is a Cadbury product that is a nutrient rich drink for children.

I don’t recall what I had for tea on this day but I do recall not feeling to great because I was constipated and I went to lay down in my tent. I ended up taking a nap for about an hour with my feet hanging out of the tent door. I awoke and rejoined the group in the dining tent.

Chris decided that we would review our Patan assignments and critique each other’s photos before dinner. Just to refresh your memory the assignments were to get a picture of something with a clear subject that was not a human and to take a picture of a stranger after asking permission in some fashion. I had failed latter assignment as I never asked permission. I still provided two pictures for review and had them critiqued. The two that I choose were…

I’ve done some post processing to these now but at the time I had not. I love the story told by the player-less chess game as well as its colors. The sleeping boy with the pink cast was interesting too although I couldn’t adjust the white balance better than what is seen here. I guess it’s ok.

Our review session continued almost up until dinner time. Just to kill some time and to explore a little of my surroundings I grabbed my camera and tried to find subjects to shoot. I guess I was too tired to explore too much.

Dinner consisted of chicken and a whole lot of mashed potatoes and gravy. There were also vegetables. Even though I wasn’t hungry I knew I had to eat because I knew we would be hiking quite a bit the next day. I ate what I could. As the meal wound down I did as well. I was having a really difficult time staying awake which was probably caused by my lack of sleep the night before. Anyway, I got up from the table, went to my tent, and promptly passed out.

In the middle of the night I got up to use the restroom and I was amazed at how bright the moon and the stars were. If it weren’t for the moon I probably would have attempted to get some night shots. Ok that was a fib, I was just too lazy and tired to get my camera out and fiddle with the settings. Back to bed I went.

People: Monika Andrae

[I didn't have a good picture of her so I'm linking to this one.]

Monika rounds out the set of trip leaders. She brought a lot of knowledge in the creativity and composition areas of photography. She also demonstrated how to develop film at altitude. Her quick wit and humor were always welcome additions to the group’s conversations. Monika has a blog and podcast that are both in German. I confess that I have only looked at the pretty pictures on her blog without bothering to translate to English.

Monika’s twitter and flickr accounts. She mainly tweets in German.