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3/19 – To Thorung Phedi and Beyond
Unfortunately, I slept poorly again. I also developed a little bit of a headache. I wanted to justify it away as dehydration, but given that is a common mistake I paid careful attention to my body. I was definitely glad we decided to take an extra day to get to Thorung Phedi before going over the pass.
Once again we changed our plans and decided instead of heading to Thorung Phedi, the standard stop before the pass, we’d push another 400m /1,300’ higher and sleep at the high camp. One could view this as increasing our risk of altitude sickness. However, my thought was that if I slept too high and felt bad in the morning, I would know and come down. If on the other hand I slept lower, headed to cross the Thorung Phedi Pass, and got in trouble, then I would have a huge problem on my hands. I viewed my “risk” as the conservative approach.
We got an even later start than usual, 9:00 am, but it was a beautiful day and we made good progress through the early part of the trail. Along the way I got behind a few guys who were really struggling with the terrain. They had no walking sticks. Aside from being inconvenient, it was a danger to themselves and me. Avalanches were a fairly prevalent occurrence and getting caught on a ledge can be quite dangerous.
We got to Thorung Phedi in good time and took a much needed break. The fort-like guest house was filled with a pack of Germans I had heard were ahead of us. It made getting lunch very slow as there were 15 people in the group, plus porters and guides.
After lunch we headed up a steep incline to the high camp and the entry point of the pass. It was a 400m / 1,300’ climb and literally straight up. By doing it in advance, aside from the acclimatization benefits, it also saved us a grueling hour on the hardest day of the trek. Instead of walking up in the ice cold morning, we exchanged one extreme for another with the sun radiating from the snow in all directions. The walk up was like being in a kiln, sapping all the liquid from our bodies. We progressed slowly and tried to steadily climb to the top. Padam, Seba and I walked the closest together so far. The problem was on the way up it was so slick I felt like George Jetson on the treadmill going nowhere in the slush.
Finally, we turned a corner and saw the high camp just 100 meters ahead as we went by a nearly passed out Israeli sprawled across the trail. Concerned, we checked on his well being, and he was more frustrated and tired than in difficulty, so we continued up toward our destination.
The guest house was quite different than the previous ones. The rooms had dirt walls, or as the eco-friendly would say, earthen walls. Padam thought this was great, as they would provide better insulation. Hell, if it kept us warm, I’d love it, too. Oddly, the rooms did have electricity, quite an unusual combination.
