Leave Approved

We entered the arid region of Upper Manang on Day 6 - I love this place. It has a wildness about it that is so intriguing, and somewhat romantic. The vegetation had changed from sub tropical to alpine (pine and fir trees) and then further up to stunted scrub only. The villages we stopped at were fascinating - positively medieval settlements with mud and stone houses stacked on top of one another, mountain goats and yaks wandering around, and men riding past on beautiful horses.

My favourite place was the town of Manang, at 3500m. It was in a very barren looking valley, with the towering snowy peaks of Gangapurna and Annapurna II dominating the horizon, and the wind howled in a very lonely way around the mountains. We spent a wonderful “rest day” here to acclimatise to the altitude. It wasn’t really a rest day after all, as we climbed some 300m to a viewpoint, then another 100m or so to visit a gompa (monastery) where we were given a puja (blessing) by the monk so that we would be safe when we crossed the high mountain pass of Thorung La. Manang has very modern facilities within an ancient setting. This was the first place where we actually had a room with an attached bathroom - it was heaven not to have to run outside in the middle of the night to pee! We had wonderful views of the mountains from our room, and it was delicious to lie in our sleeping bags and look out at the scenery. We enjoyed coffee and yummy chocolate cake and apple pies in the local bakeries, and also attended a talk on Acute Mountain Sickness at the Himalayan Rescue Asssociation clinic. We were doing well with the altitude at this point with no problems.

A visit to the Gangapurna Lake and glacier on our “rest day”

In the tiny town of Mungji, just before Manang, there were baby mountain goats romping around in the meadows - it was such a sweet sight!

After Manang we ascended another 900+metres through the villages of Yak Kharka (which means Yaks Grazing - yes there were certainly lots of grazing yaks there) and to Thorung Pedi which was at 4400m. It started snowing at Yak Kharka, lightly, and the air was really starting to thin out. By Thorung Pedi we were definitely feeling the altitude - for me, putting one step in front of the other was all that I could do - I felt like I was 80 years old!

On the trail to Yak Kharka

Thorung Pedi was the last stop before our big climb up to the Thorung Pass. We went for an extra climb in the afternoon to help acclimatise, and I crawled like an ant up the hill panting and puffing as though I was running a marathon. It really helped though - I felt a lot better in the evening and it was much easier to climb the same hill the next day. It was pretty cold that night and I slept in my thermals, fleece, down jacket, woollen beanie, and my down sleeping bag!!

V at Thorung High Camp, 4700m

All bedded down for a cold night at Thorung Pedi!