Annapurna, Nepal

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”

Sir Edmund Hillary

I wake with a terrible migraine that has me feeling like I am about to vomit. I stumble out of bed and make my way to the bathroom where my head continues to pound. Having just been briefed a couple nights prior about the dangers of altitude sickness and HACE, I’m breaking out in a sweat asking myself, “Is this what is happening to me? I do not want to die on this mountain!” There is no WIFI, no phone signal, and the medication I had taken a couple hours earlier is not doing anything for me.

***

But let’s rewind the clock a bit to how I came to find myself in these circumstances. I decided to explore the Himalayas in Nepal after seeing some gorgeous photographs of others who trekked the great mountains on social media. Originally I had wanted to go to Everest Base Camp but I figured I was probably not mentally or physically prepared for that challenge. So I planned to take on the Annapurna Circuit, the second most popular trek in the Himalayas, hoping I would find a guide to escort me upon arrival in Kathmandu.

After getting my 30-day visa in Trihubuvan International Airport, I was presented with my first challenge: searching for my luggage. The chaotic baggage claim was crowded with people around the sole conveyor belt, and suitcases scattered the floor. After 20 minutes of waiting, I was about ready to give up on finding my backpack, when lo and behold I found it laying on the floor near the wall. Once I finally gathered all my belongings, I saw the dreaded text message on my phone – no cell coverage in this country. It was my first time in a country with no service, so I felt uneasy thinking about finding a taxi and getting to my hostel.

Luckily near the airport exit, I passed a booth for a pre-paid taxi service that accepted US dollar bills. A man from the taxi stand also hopped into my cab, explaining that he wanted to tell me about his trekking company. Half an hour later, I found myself sitting in his office, not at my hostel as I had wanted, listening to him describe a two-week itinerary for the Annapurna Circuit. I was finding it difficult to escape this situation, so I googled his company and saw to my surprise that he had very high reviews on TripAdvisor, which reassured me a bit. I caved and paid for the tour, which was set to commence in two days time.

Despite the friendliness and great amenities of my hostel, I slept terribly my first night. I felt very worried about starting this trek the following day, so I pushed it back one day to get some more rest. I slept much better in a private room at a hotel, and spent the next day preparing for the trek. This involved buying a sleeping bag, hiking poles, a puffy winter jacket, rain pants, and a LifeStraw bottle to filter water. In the morning, I left my unneeded items in Kathmandu with the trekking company, praying that they would keep my valuables, such as my laptop, safe, and was off on the adventure!

Elevation of Kathmandu: 4,600 ft / 1,600 m

Day 1: Kathmandu to Bhulbhule

My trekking guide, a Nepalese man in his mid thirties named Purana, met me at my hotel and we took a taxi to the bus stop. His English was sub-par and my Nepalese was pretty nonexistent (Namaste!), but we could understand each other at the basic level. The driving in Nepal is terrifying; there are no traffic signals, and people just seem to do whatever they want.

The bus ride to the city of Bessisahar took roughly 7 hours, full of sweaty people pushed up against one another in the hot humid air. We drove on narrow roads with no railing on high cliffs, where cars pass each other without really considering if there is incoming traffic. In my fetal-like position on the bus, my knee had rubbed up against the seat in front of me, resulting in a small wound.

When we finally arrived, I miserably thought to myself I was going to have to find a better way to return to Kathmandu by the end of this. After a jeep ride to our first village at the foot of the mountains, I finally got to settle down and rest.

Purana briefed me for the plan the next day, while we ate a typical Nepalese dinner; dal bhat. This consists of rice with lentil soup, and vegetables in various forms on the side. Full and happy to be on solid ground, I slept well the first night.

Elevation of Bhulbhule: 2,756 ft / 840 m

Day 2: Bhulbhule to Jagat

Roughly 16 km or 10 miles of hiking lay ahead of us the next day. You couldn’t see much of the tops of mountains because of haze, a phenomenon that occurs at lower altitudes in May in the Himalayas.

We took the “scenic” route, passing though several small villages and encountering various friendly animals such as cows, goats, and dogs. Of course, there was non-friendly wildlife as well.

In one village, we noticed a commotion going on in the farm fields. Turns out the residents captured a 2-meter long (6 ft) poisonous snake! I got to see it up close and personal, to my dismay. I never really saw the outcome of what happened to the snake, but I think they let it go a little bit away from the village.

Wading through the jungle wasn’t something I had expected, consisting of a lush humid climate, leading to heavy rain by the end of the day. In our next accommodation in the village of Jagat, I relished the luke-warm shower and opportunity to change into warm clothing.

However, at night tragedy struck; as I went to use the bathroom one last time before bed, I saw several long black legs sticking out of the toilet bowl, followed by part of the body of a large spider.

This absolutely traumatized me as I have a huge fear of spiders, and I could not stop imagining spiders crawling all over my room that night.

Elevation of Jagat: 4,625 ft / 1,410 m

Day 3: Jagat to Dharapani

Having not slept much that night, I confessed my fears to Purana. He assured me that we would not see any more spiders going forward and he would personally check my rooms for creepy crawlers.

Our trekking day was filled with lots of waterfalls from the nighttime rain, which kept my mind off wildlife. I enjoyed being on walking trails and seeing villages, but there was so much up and down, up and down. Every time we walked down a steep path, I dreaded the next part where we would trudge along stairs uphill.

Eventually we made it to our next accommodation (free of spiders!). A raging thunderstorm that night cut off the power occasionally, but us guests cozied up indoors in the warmth watching the splashing on the windows outside.

Elevation of Dharapani: 6,102 ft / 1,860 m

Day 4: Dharapani to Chame

Snake and spider drama aside, things started to truly go downhill for me on day four. I woke with a sore throat and grappling sinuses. With the 10+ miles a day we were trekking to higher and higher elevations, I was not happy about having a malady.

We slowly marched onwards, frequently stopping so I could catch my breath. At every village, I would order a cup of honey-lemon-ginger tea to help temporarily relieve my throat.

During the trek on this day, we mostly hiked uphill thankfully, as I was not in the mood for more rollercoaster paths. I just wanted to get to the next place so I could rest.

At this point, our elevation was high enough to be past the haze. Despite my failing health, I was happy to see snow-capped mountains and clear blue skies. The rivers ran clear and the fresh air invigorated me. I tried to stay positive and will my cold away.

Elevation of Chame: 8,694 ft / 2,650 m

Day 5: Chame to Pisang

I kept reassuring myself that my colds usually only last about five days. So this was day two, and I just had to get through three more days after this one. But man, did it make hiking harder that it had to be!

During lunchtime, we came to an oddly elegant and modern looking coffee shop amidst fields of apple trees. Near the coffee house stood a huge hotel.

Here, I met a Canadian man who was also trekking the Circuit with a Nepalese guide he had met on a previous trip to Everest Base Camp. The two of them were great friends, in particular because of their mutual love for smoking weed in the evenings. As it turns out, marijuana plants grow in the wild in the Himalayas!

The workers at the coffee shop told us that the surrounding apple farms made them a ton of money, explaining the modern hotel. So basically we were looking at the apple mafia of the Himalayas. The apple juice, apple pie, and apple chips were quite refreshing on a long hiking day!

I later learned that the duo I met were doing a side trip of the Annapurna Circuit, to a place called Tilicho Lake; the highest lake in the world. It would take 3-4 extra days to get to the lake, but this sounded appealing to me.

The lake sits at 4,819 m or 16,138 feet, which is quite high. The highest point of the Annapurna Circuit is Thorong La, a steep mountain pass at 5,416 m or 17,769 feet (higher than Everest Base Camp!), the most difficult day of the trek. But this would be a week down the road. I asked my guide about trekking to Tilicho Lake and he said we could do it if I desired, I would just need to pay some more money for the extra days. 

We arrived in the gorgeous village of Pisang that night, where I met two more travelers on a mission to do the side trip to Tilicho Lake.

The three of us spent some time chatting and getting to know each other, before we went out to explore the magnificent monastery near the hotel. It was entirely built by the locals, using donated money. Statues, paintings, and saturated color adorned the inside of the monastery.

Back at the hotel at night, we got to witness one of the locals bottle-feeding a baby yak; not something you see everyday! The little cutie wandered around the dining area in the warmth after his meal.

I probably had the best night so far on the trip, making friends with other trekkers and hearing everyone’s stories. One of the guides there had already summited Everest three times!

Elevation of Pisang: 10,827 ft / 3,300 m

Day 6: Pisang to Manang

As fun as the previous evening had been, the bitter cold kept me up at night. With the cracked thin walls, the howling winds and freezing temperatures kept the room frigid. I couldn’t get comfortable in my sleeping bag and two layers of blankets, and kept waking up.

Halfway through the night, I awoke feeling hot and sweaty in my sleeping bag. It was a hard day for me, being sleeping deprived, day three of my cold, and hiking to even higher elevations.

I tried to enjoy the beautiful scenery but all I could think about was getting to the next hotel as quickly as possible to sleep. We finally arrived to one of the biggest villages of the hike, and the one where the road would end: Manang.

Purana picked a nice hotel, where I slept much better due to insulted walls keeping the frost out. We would spend two days in Manang, acclimatizing to the elevation. I spent much of this time delving deep into my reading on my Kindle, which left me in high spirits at least. 

Elevation of Manang: 11,545 feet / 3,519 m

Day 7: Manang Acclimatization Day

Sleeping in the same place for two nights in a row helped establish at least a little bit of a routine to give me the much needed rest I needed. The way acclimatization works, is you are to go up to a higher elevation so your body gets a sense of what it feels like, then head back down and sleep at the lower elevation. This allows you to better react to the higher altitude once you hike to it again.

We embarked on a four-hour hike near Manang to reach roughly 3,900 m or 12,795 feet. Annapurna is a massif that includes dozens of tall mountains, and the ones in particular we could see from Manang were Annapurna II, III, and IV, at least on a clear day. Annapurna I is the tenth highest mountain in the world, at 8,091 m or 26,545 ft! These mountains are incredibly dangerous to climb and many people die attempting to, similarly to Everest. 

That evening, my friend Laurie (whom I had met in Pisang), and I went to a short class offered in the village on altitude sickness, taught in English by a woman from New Zealand.

Basically, I learned that there are two types of altitude sickness: one that affects your brain and the other affects your lungs. If you are lucky, you can get sick with them concurrently.

In terms of brain injuries, the beginning is getting acute mountain sickness, with symptoms including a headache, loss of appetite, and a general hangover feeling. If this happens, fret not, you can stay at the current altitude for another rest day, or go down if you so desire, to rest up.

It will usually pass in a day, and then you can continue with your hike. Diamox is medication that helps you breathe faster, thus delivering more oxygen to your body, and can help with altitude sickness. If you ignore your symptoms and continue pushing yourself up the mountain, you will get high altitude cerebral edema, or HACE.

Basically with the lack of oxygen going to your brain, it will swell up. Symptoms include a terrible headache, irritable behavior, and basically the characteristics of a belligerent person, ultimately leading to a coma and death. You need to immediately descend and take a helicopter to a hospital at low elevations.

The lung related illness is called high altitude pulmonary edema, or HAPE; your lungs swell up, you cannot catch a breath, fluid and blood go into your lungs, and this can lead to death. You also need to immediately go down, get oxygen, and get a helicopter to low altitude.

I learned that you are more likely to get altitude sickness if you have a concurrent illness (yay me!), and the higher you go, the more difficult it is to sleep (oh joy!). 

The town of Manang is the last one that has a road leading to it, and after that, it is just trekking up to Thorong La, which would take roughly four days, where we would experience 50% less oxygen in the air. 

Day 8: Manang to Shrikharka

I decided to do the side trip to Tilicho Lake. My new friends were going there and I was enjoying my fun social evenings with them and I figured we could all suffer together. We took the turn from Manang and headed up to the first village on the way where we would rest.

The plan was to sleep in this village, and the next day hike four or so hours to Tillicho Base Camp, leave our bags, and then hike up to Tillicho Lake another four hours or so. If we couldn’t get to Base Camp quickly enough, we would just sleep at Base Camp and go to the lake first thing the following morning. 

As I sat on my bed reading my book after an early arrival to Shrikharka, I heard tapping sounds on my window. Looking out, I could see that it was hailing!

This went on for a short period of time, then switched to snow. It had been so long since I had been in an active snowstorm, having traveled the world avoiding winter.

As it got too cold to sit in my room, I joined everyone else in the dining building where we had a wood burning stove. Problem was, the smoke from the stove was not escaping well and we were concerned smoke and general carbon monoxide filling up the building, so we kept having to open the windows and letting the frost in.

Nonetheless, it was a pleasant night of relaxing, playing cards, eating, and laughing in the hut, while we shivered and coughed at the smoke.

Elevation of Shrikharka: 13,284 ft / 4,050 m

Day 9: Shrikharka to Tilicho Base Camp

The snowstorm plummeted the temperature into the freezing realm, and with the thin walls, I shivered much of the night, until the point in time when I became too hot under the blankets yet again. I basically did not sleep and my cold persisted into the morning. Not really feeling up to anything that morning, we still set off towards Tilicho Base Camp as planned.

Purana and I fell behind everyone else, with me constantly needing to catch my breath. I felt so out of it. After the first hour, we came across a herd of yaks though! I didn’t expect to see them on this side trip so that made me giddy. These creatures are huge, and we saw young yaks following their mothers around. Our altitude in this area was roughly 4,300 m or 14,000 feet.

The snow from the previous night left the mountains looking splendid. Sparkling icicles in the bushes, white covered mountain tops, frosty mud paths were our treat for the morning.

Halfway through, we came across a sign indicating that we would be entering an active landslide zone. Indeed, in some areas, we had to look up to see if rocks were falling down and if not, quickly run across the path. A small rock hit my boot rather hard, and it worried me; what if it had been my head?

As we walked, I could feel myself feeling dizzy from the lack of sleep. I decided to take Diamox just in case for altitude sickness. For the last hour of walking, I could feel a headache coming on and getting worse and worse.

When we finally arrived at Tilicho Base Camp, I agonized in pain, and definitely did not want to hike to the lake that afternoon. After forcing myself to eat lunch for which I had no appetite and taking a pain reliever, I went off to my hotel room to take a nap. The room was cozy, so I put on my ear plugs, eye mask, and dozed off.

After successfully sleeping for about an hour, I was jolted awake by my raging migraine. I could barely walk in a straight line to the bathroom; I felt so sick.

I asked Purana if I could perhaps speak with a doctor, or call the hospital in Manang, but he told me there was no WIFI or cell coverage here so I couldn’t do any of that. Remembering my altitude sickness training, I began to panic, knowing we couldn’t call for help and a helicopter could not rescue me in an emergency.

I decided we needed to descend immediately, except at this point, I could barely stand straight without feeling dizzy. Purana went on a mission to find me some form of transportation, and he came back with a teenager who had a horse and would lead me down to the previous night’s accommodation. I took another painkiller, packed my bag up, and climbed onto the horse.

Perhaps I was too hasty with the whole needing-a-horse situation. I had forgotten what a dangerous trek it had been to get there. The young Nepali boy pulled the horse along on the path, on the edge of the cliff and in the landslide zones, and I just kept peering over the edge, feeling anxious about the height. It got to the point where I could not take it anymore.

Sobbing I asked to get off the horse because I was too afraid to ride it. The horse didn’t even always listen to the young boy! And there were these bags full of sand along the path that made the horse nervous, so Purana kept running ahead and shielding the bags with his body so the horse couldn’t see. I had no faith in this horse getting me down safely! I walked behind the horse, and every 10 minutes or so, they would tell me to get back on it, but I refused, not until we were past the landslide zone. 

We finally arrived in the late afternoon to the village of Khangsar (past Shrikharka) at 3,756 m or 12,322 feet. I felt tired from the long day, but much better. My head was no longer pounding as hard, and I felt much less anxious. I immersed myself in my Kindle that night to avoid my thoughts on the day’s failures.

Elevation of Tilicho Lake Base Camp: 13,612 ft / 4,150 m

Day 10: Khangsar to Manang

I finally got some sleep at night. In the morning, I somberly ate my breakfast thinking about how much of a failure I was. I have lived at altitude, basically my entire life in Denver! I’ve hiked mountains that were above 4,300 m (14,000 feet)! Why couldn’t I make it past that elevation on this trek?

I knew why though; you lose acclimatization to the altitude after being at sea level for over three weeks. I had been traveling for five months at this point at sea level. I also had a cold and struggled to sleep at night. The altitude and I were not friends.

I decided that if we kept going on higher, it likely wouldn’t improve. I didn’t think it would get easier to sleep, and I still had a cold. If I was afflicted this much at 4,300 m, I could only imagine how bad it would be at over 5,000 meters (16,000 ft).

This trek, as Marie Kondo would say, stopped sparking me joy. I decided we should turn around and go back down the way we came until we came to a lower village from which we could take a jeep back down to the city. Walking down was much easier than going up, and we quickly made it back down to Manang.

Day 11: Manang to Pisang

I read a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, titled Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I would highly recommend his book; it is the story of a tragedy that occurred on Mount Everest in 1996, from the point of view of the author, a journalist on the expedition team.

This book made me feel silly for my fuss at 4,300 m. In order to hike to Everest, you must first make it to Everest Base Camp at 5,380 m or 17,600 feet. For the next moth, you do acclimatization hikes to Camps 1, 2, 3, and 4, to get your body used to the altitude.

The final hike is done over the course of four days to reach the summit. At the summit of Everest, there is a third of the amount of oxygen in the air! This really made my troubles seem petty. 

That night during dinner, Purana convinced me to taste the local Nepalese liquor called raksi. I had been avoiding caffeine and alcohol during the trek as it makes the symptoms of altitude sickness worse. I figured I was at a low enough altitude by this point that it wouldn’t hurt.

I guess I felt like I deserved a drink after all the difficulties I faced over the past week. I don’t typically struggle with having a drink, but raksi, which is similar to whiskey, was not my cup of tea. It basically burned the entire time going down my throat!

Day 12: Pisang to Chame

Last day of hiking. It went by quickly. We made it back to the village of Chame where I splurged on lunch and dinner, and then slept fairly soundly. 

***

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn to get on a jeep at six in the morning. It took us roughly seven hours to get down to Bessisahar. This involved more driving along roads on the edges of cliffs with no railings, and me looking the other way and focusing my thoughts elsewhere. From Bessisahar, we took another bus to get us to the resort town of Pokhara. This was another cramped, hot, and dangerous bus ride that lasted roughly five hours. Along the way, we were hit by a thunderstorm and hailstorm. You could barely see out the front window due to heavy rain and condensation in the vehicle. The bus driver raged on at high speeds through huge puddles of orange water, passing another bus that had tipped over. It was a high stress situation for me.

I splurged a bit and found a nice hotel in the city hoping I could properly rest there. It was a bit noisy at night though and I kept waking up. The next day, we were hit by another huge thunderstorm, and water seeped through my balcony window and flooded half of my floor. 

I had no shortage of adventures in Nepal. It was quite the humbling experience. Despite so much going wrong and so many times when I felt what seemed like eminent danger, I was happy that I visited this country. The Himalayas truly are spectacular, and I would love to return one day again where I have more time to acclimatize to the altitude so I can successfully complete the Annapurna Circuit. Or visit Everest Base Camp! Although high altitude trekking kicked my ass, it was one of the most profound experiences of my life.

-Anastasia