Annapurna Circuit - Day 12 - THE PASS
Trip Start
Jul 25, 2006
1
126
165
Trip End
Ongoing
Muktinath,
Nepal
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Total kilometres: 121 Today: 16
The Pass. Notice the capital "P". This ain't no lower case pass.
I don't think a day went by without talking about the Pass. Although there is plenty of trekking on either side of the pass, it is the focal point of any conversation about the Annapurna Circuit. .Every steep climb or tough day is followed by "I wonder what this is like compared to the Pass?" In the back of your head was the small but real fear of AMS not letting you cross the pass. What would be worse than being forced to walk all the way back because you couldn't handle the pass?
The day started dark and cold
Day 12 - 01
. The alarm went off at 4 a.m. and hard pellets of snow were falling as I walked to breakfast. The path up to High Camp was lost in the clouds and it was very cold. After breakfast and packing up our gear we started out around 5:30 a.m..Immediately it was clear I was in trouble. While the climb to high camp the day before had helped with the symptoms of AMS, one thing my body had not adapted to was the lack of oxygen at this height. At 5416 metres, the height of the top of the pass, there is about half the oxygen available at sea level. Almost as soon as I started climbing I started gasping for air. My legs and muscles were strong from almost two weeks of trekking but I could not pull enough oxygen into my lungs to make them work. My panting was very loud, and even stopping to take a drink of water was enough to make me feel as though I was suffocating. My lungs felt the size of ping-pong balls and I felt like I was sucking air in through a drinking straw. I constantly feel behind as I simply could not force my body to move faster. Fortunately by the time we reached the top of the pass, this agony subsided and I finally seemed to acclimatize to the height and lack of oxygen.
The views early in the trek were beautiful, but as we got higher clouds moved in blocking the views of the incredible landscape around us
Day 12 - 02
. This was very disappointing. The pass itself was barren and rocky. The path meandered up and down, but mostly up, vaguely following a line of steel poles sticking out of the ground. The lack of oxygen, the cold, the clouds, the lack of any colour or vegetation, the snow; all of these combined to make the pass seem one of the least hospitable environments for humans I have ever been in. In this land of rocky giants we were like tiny mice scuttling across the open expanse, exposed and vulnerable. Eventually, after an eternity of laboured breathes, we reached the top of the pass. After the obligatory photos and a victory dance in which I nearly threw my back out, I feasted on a Twix, some water, some tea, and a swig of whisky from a Sprite bottle - the latter provided by Pete and Anna, a couple we had been meeting off and on throughout the trek.
I've been so worried about my knees on this trek, but until now they have been very good. Most of the trek until today had been uphill. This is much easier on my knees than descending. I had been worried about today because of the huge descent on this side of the pass, and on the way down, I slipped and jammed my left knee. I had a knee brace with me, pulled it on, and angrily and painfully limped the remaining 5-6 kilometres down the mountain and into town. I am dosing it with anti-inflammatories and tomorrow's trek is a shorter one. Based on how it responds over the next two days, I will decide whether to fly back to Pokara from Jomson, or complete the trek out to the main road, almost entirely downhill the whole way.
Despite the altitude weakness, despite the knee injury, I am proud of myself for carrying my pack over the pass and all the way to Muktinath. I did everything wrong - bag far too heavy, improper shoes, but I made it across. Sometimes being stubborn can be good.
Comments
your victory dance
umm funny thing when I watched you dance, you looked like your old mom when she moves alot. Having back and knee issues myself, I can only salute you and say good going my son. You did it and only You can do it for yourself..I am proud of you and hope things soon calm down back and knee wise
Just keep going as I always say If you snooz, you lose...
love Mom