Day 33: Thorong La

Trip Start Sep 21, 2006

228

Trip End Jun 01, 2007

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Flag of Nepal Muktinath, Nepal
Tuesday, October 24, 2006

My most physically arduous day begins at 4.30am. Weary and sick in the stomach before I start, my legs still weighing down, I have to plod upwards, zigzagging, led by torch light in the freezing cold. There is a small teahouse offering welcome black tea to warm my frostbitten hands before the final assault on the 5416m-high pass, Thorong La. Snow fell again through the night. It's a really tough trek but I make it to the top by 8am. The high point is marked by a plaque and strings of prayer and international flags. I'm relieved and celebrate with another hot tea (yes, there is a teahouse even at this barren point!)
I look forward to downhills and lower altitudes. The descent to Muktinath is just as exhausting however. There is ice, thick snow and vertiginous tracks to contend with. I slip and snap one of my cane. My fingers aare in agony with cold once my gloves land in the snow. Everyone slips on the potentially limb-breaking slide. The porters have it worst as always. Nar ties rope to my boots to give me extra traction.
A Belgian friend, Wim, seems to have no trouble, unprepared, gloveless, in a suit, brogues and without sticks. He merrily slides downhill. After hours carefully balancing, shifting sideways in the thickest fresh snow, we make it down to Mucktinath (3800m) and get one of the last rooms - en suite even!
Mucktinath is beautifully set in an arc of peaks, Bhaulagiri, Nilgiri amd Tukuche. As the end of the popular clockwise, and shorter, Jomsom Trek (Pokhara to Muktinath), it's well prepared for tourists. It's also the first place we encounter - horror of horrors - motorized vehicles (motorbikes). Craft stalls line the streets up towards the large Tibetan nunnery where an eternal flame is lit. Pilgrimages here are meant to bring one closer to nirvana. After 40 or so treks here, Nar must be one step ahead. It's a peaceful retreat with paths around the Boddhi trees, above the main street of (ahem!) Bob Marley and Doors hotels.
Today is the last day of Divali and schoolkids are marching from guesthouse to guesthouse singing and banging drums until guests pay them to go away. Porters are drinking and gambling. It's warm outside till 5pm, a welcome contrast and relief after the last few days of bitter cold. The hardest day is over.