ABC Trek: Day 6 - to ABC and back to Doban

None of us could sleep well due to variety of reasons - cold, snoring and altitude sickness. So finally we all ditched attempts at it and got up by 3:30 am. PC, by now, was feeling a bit better and wanted to join IL & I to ABC. But CD had absolutely no energy due to the stomach upset that accompanies attitude sickness and she decided that she would rest for a while and start descending.

I would say that this is a very courageous decision. I saw KP take it at Gorakshep just 2 hours from EBC and CD did the same again just 2 hours from ABC. I remember being in tears on way to Gorakshep when someone told me that I will not to be allowed go to EBC unless my headache subsides. It takes real courage to walk away from something when it's almost within reach! 

At 4:30 am, we went into the dining hall where all the staff & crew were sleeping and woke Pushkar up. By 4:40 am 3 of us were on way to ABC - in multiple layers of clothing, gloves, two socks on each foot  and still cold to the core! The moon light was good but not enough so all of us (except Pushkar) had our headlamps on. Soon my headlamp started to show signs of dying, so we stopped to change the batteries and soon I found myself slipping on snow that had turned to ice due to us standing on it for long. I didn't realize that I will pay the price for this fall in days to come.

Pushkar checked me for signs of any fracture and once reassured that no serious damage had happened we resumed our hike to ABC. It was a slow progress due to snow, lack of light and bitter cold. By about 5:50 am, the sky started to show promise of a sunny morning and by 6 am we all switched off our lamps. Even though the weather had not really warmed up, just the visual impact of rising sun made us feel warmer!

Till the sunrise, Pushkar and I ensured that IL & PC were in our line of sight, but after that the path was straight and there was no chance of IL or PC getting lost, so we decided to walk at our own pace and reached the lodges at ABC by 6:45 am. I ordered a pot of masala tea and waited for the girls. By 7:10 am they also reached. After a few more minutes of rest, IL & I went to the flag point with Pushkar. PC was exhausted and she decided against joining us and continued to rest in the lodge.

It was a bright sunny morning and views of the range just took our breath away! IL & I tied the prayer flags and posed for a few pics and threw the "ceremonial" snow balls at each other :) We then picked PC up and started back at around 8 am. We stopped at the "Welcome to ABC" sign where all three of us tied the prayer flags and took more pictures. As we walked back we realized how much did we climb up on the way to ABC. About 430 m or 1400 feet - it was lot to climb in 2 hours at that altitude!

We all reached MBC around 9 am. CD had already left MBC with the other porter for Deurali - which was to be our lunch halt again. We all partook some breakfast and I left with Pushkar for Deurali at 10 am. IL had decided to keep PC company and they probably started 10-15 min later.

The trail between MBC & Deurali was crowded with folks on their way to ABC from Deurali. And the snow of previous day had started to melt creating more slippery portions. Given my fall in the morning I was more careful and I descended slowly. I reached Deurali at about noon where I found a tired and unwell CD. 

IL & PC turned up around 1 pm, we had lunch and by 2 pm started again as we had two more stops to go for the day. Pushkar went ahead with our bags and Shambhu continued to accompany CD who was still very unwell. 

As luck would have it, the clouds gathered and it started to drizzle. Pushkar and I reached Himalayan at about 2:45 pm where we had some tea but continued our hike towards Doban even though the drizzle was now a downpour. Downpour turned into sleet and sleet turned into hail...which pounded at us incessantly till we reached Doban around 4 pm. What a day - we experienced all forms of water - snow, rain, sleet and hail!

I immediately put my jacket, raincover and hiking pants to dry, took a hot shower and crashed - I was so tired I couldn't even drag myself to dining hall for some tea. By 6 pm everyone had arrived and it was good to see everyone safe and sound after the gruelling day.

It continued to rain well into the night but guess no one cared any more. We all were very tired, and post our dinner we all went to sleep in almost no time.

Sunrise over the range

 

Panoramic View of the range from ABC

Lodges at ABC

Walking back to MBC

Clouds gathering on the mountains

Hailstorm that pounded us for hours

 

 

ABC Trek: Day 5 - to MBC

Since we had stopped one stop short the previous day, today was expected to a be a long day for us. I, as usual, was up by 5:15 am and then after bothering the kitchen staff for some morning tea, I packed my bags, had my breakfast with R and waited for others to get ready.

While R left a few minutes ahead of our group, I soon caught up with him as he had slowed down to get rid of layers of warm clothing that the morning cold had demanded. A few more minutes into the hike, I was stripping down to my T-shirt as the trail was a little tough and weather had started to warm up a bit. We walked behind each other, mostly in silence, but pointing to each other the beautiful sceneries. This was a beautiful hike through forest - rhododendrons scattered at multiple places all over the trail...felt like I was in a fairytale movie set :)

We arrived at our first stop, Himalyan, in just over an hour and waited for rest of my group to catch up while sipping some hot tea. By 9 am, I saw IL & PC walk in but CD was still a little behind. IL & PC decided to wait for CD and I proceeded towards next stop and our lunch halt - Deurali. Trail again was not that tough (as compared to the previous days) but still had enough steep portions that left us breathless.

We also encountered a stretch of snow on the way to Deurali and I finally had to get my trekking poles out! I realized later how useful they are in snow and other kind of slippery conditions. R & I reached Deurali by 10:30 am...a bit too early for him as he was stopping here for the day. As I waited for the others to catch up, the weather started showing signs of rain.

IL & PC again arrived well before CD, and by the time we all finished lunch, the drizzle had become a downpour and temperatures plummeted so much that we all extracted an additional layer of warm clothing from our duffels before we resumed the hike. On top I wore a base layer, T-shirt and my wind/water proof 3-in-1 jacket. The fleece of 3-in-1 was kept in my backpack for later in case the need arose. At bottom, I didn't wear base layer but wore rain pants on top of my hiking pants that also helped provide additional warmth to my legs.

We secured rain covers on our backpacks and started the hike as the downpour reduced to drizzle. We crossed a river and after that the trail got extremely muddy. The porters had gone way ahead and I soon lost sight of them. Till the river crossing I could see IL behind me but a little while later I lost sign of IL also...PC & CD were not in my sight almost from the very beginning.

Our final destination for the day was Macchpuchhre Base Camp (MBC) and it was atleast 2 hours from Deurali. We had started at 2 pm, so I knew I wouldn't need to worry until 4 pm and if even then I didn't find any other human in sight, my plan was to just retrace my steps. Soon the mucky part was over and was replaced by clean sheets of snow. Now the drizzle had turned into snowfall and I soon forgot everyone and everything else. There was no one else in sight - just the mountains, the gentle breeze blowing snow in my face and silence. I stood transfixed for sometime and realized I should keep moving as my hands were almost frozen without gloves :) (I had taken them off as it didn't feel very cold while walking plus they get in the way of clicking pictures with phone)

Around 3:30 pm I met some folks going the other way and they told me I was still 60 min away from my destination. I wasn't worried about myself but knowing that the others were way behind, I wasn't sure how long will they take to reach MBC. At 3:50 pm I reached a lodge to find that its not the one I was looking for, I had to climb back down and walk another 20 minutes to get to the lodge our porters were at already. About 20 meters from the lodge I saw them walking towards me - they were now going to fetch PC & CD ( a practice that had started at lunch time today when CD hadn't turned up till 12:30 pm)

I took the keys from the lodge owner, changed into comfortable clothes, washed my dirty rain pants and put everything to dry -  raincover, jacket and rain pants. The snowfall had stopped and now weather had turned really cold.

IL & PC arrived together along with one porter, with PC in bad shape. She had all typical symptoms of altitude sickness - headache, nausea, fatigue...we gave her Diamox (she had had one after lunch also) but what was bothering her most was cold - she was shivering in 3-4 layers of clothing and 2 blankets. IL & I  were in the cold dining hall and the other porter was still out - to bring CD.

I went back to room to warm myself up in my sleeping bag and found a guide from another group waiting to have a "word" with us. I requested that since PC wasn't well, it would be great if we could do it later but his guest (K) apparently couldn't wait and started screaming at IL (who was standing at the door of our room) that we shouldn't have left CD alone and that he has had to risk lives of 3 of his team members to fetch CD. I was surprised, for two reasons - one, our porter was already bringing her back and two, I didn't encounter any life threatening conditions on the trail - so what risks was he talking about?

It was only the next day did we find out why was K so livid. Well the story goes like this - CD was walking slow and our porter hadn't yet reached her. K must have seen her walking alone and decided to wait for her to catch up with him. They both chatted for a while (C for Chatty) and maybe K felt that CD was a damsel in distress (D for Damsel) who needed rescuing - hence the rescue team. Though a bit sad that he didn't choose to rescue her himself :)

Soon after this firing, around 6 pm, we saw CD arrive. She wasn't in great shape either - she also had altitude sickness but she went to dining hall instead of coming to the room as the hall now had a kerosene heater.

Unlike EBC trail, lodges on ABC trail don't have dung powered heaters in dining room. And the only option is kerosene stove that is kept under the dining table with blankets hanging from the table. The people sitting in that area are expected to pay for  the heating. Thankfully, the owner here was kind enough and he lit one stove without asking anyone to pay. Soon PC was also brought to dining hall and made to sit next to stove.

While IL & I had good dinner, PC & CD were struggling to even finish a bowl of soup. After dinner, next item on agenda was the start time for ABC - we decided on a 4:30 am start based on recommendation from our porter, Pushkar (who was to be our guide to ABC) and the lodge owner.

Given 4:30 am start the next day, I was back in room by 7:00 pm and soon the others followed suit. PC was still very cold and sick, so IL gave PC an additional blanket and decided to sleep in just her sleeping bag - she had done the same at Doban the previous night as we were short one blanket there. I was shivering inside my sleeping bag while wearing base layer, gloves, cap and with blanket on top of my bag - and here was IL just in her sleeping bag. I had no confidence that IL would get any sleep in just her bag in this sub-freezing temperatures.

Views on way to Himlayan - check out the rainbow

Pink ones this part of the hike

Flower strewn paths for our walking

Views on way to Deurali

Views on way to MBC

MBC

 

ABC Trek: Day 4 - to Doban

2 days into the hike we had struck to the original itinerary and we intended to stay the course. We woke up, once again, to amazing views of the Annapurna range, had our breakfast and  started our steep descent towards the river, which was to be followed by similar steep ascent to Sinuwa

While it was cold the previous night and early AM, the day started to get hot pretty soon. We started around 7:30 am and by 8:40 am I had reached the lower Sinuwa where I was met by porters and IL by 9 am and we decided to partake some tea. CD & PC were experiencing severe muscle soreness because of long and tiring hike of the previous day (our hiking time alone was 6-8 hours - it varied by the individual) and hence when they didn't reach the tea stop by 9:20 am, we proceeded towards main Sinuwa. This was a tough 30 min hike but after that the route was a bit easier - lot of steep ascents still but some relief in form of intermittent flat trails. Porters, I and IL reached Bamboo (our lunch halt) by 11:30 am and we all waited for CD & PC at lunch.

In the meanwhile we learnt that getting rooms at Himalayan - our original stop would be next to impossible at this late an hour as we hadn't booked it ahead of our arrival. So we debated if we should stop at Doban instead of proceeding towards Himalayan. It was almost 1 pm and there was no sign of other two. Keeping in mind their pace, I requested our porters to call and book a room for us at Doban. A practice that we followed rest of the trek - call ahead and book rooms so that we don't have to sleep in dining hall.

CD & PC arrived at 1:20 pm and PC was quite tired plus it was getting late for us to try finding rooms at Himayalan after reaching there. So we decided to end the day early - we started for Doban at 2 pm and were there by 3 pm.

Now we all had to share one room - twin occupancy rooms were all sold out. The room was decent in size and its proximity to common wash basins and toilets was a plus in the cold weather that dominates evenings, nights and mornings at this altitude. 

I had spent some time chatting with a Dutch hiker (R) while waiting for others to join me at Bamboo. Incidentally he was also staying at same lodge (Annapurna Approach) and we met again in the dining hall. I usually spend my free time in dining hall chatting with other hikers and listening to their experiences and backgrounds. R and I spent some time walking around the lodge, enjoying the view of the waterfall and exchanging stories about our current and previous hikes. IL bundled herself up and found some nook outside to read her kindle, CD decided to take a hot shower and PC was...well I have forgotten what she was doing :)  

We all had dinner by 7 pm and since next day was to be long one in order to make up for stopping earlier today, we retired pretty early - by 8 pm.  

Lots of chickens all along the route :)

 

Langoor (in the centre of this picture)

Views tempting us to continue walking

 

Almost full moon night - At Doban

ABC Trek: Day 3 - to Chomorong

We woke up to find a bright sunny morning greeting us. After a cold and wet day of hiking and an equally cold and wet night, the sun cheered us all. We had a sumptuous breakfast, took some photos of the mountains and started walking towards Jhinu Danda at 7:30 am.

It was a tough climb - made tougher by the unrelenting sun and the resulting sweating & dehydration. Soon all of us were looking for shops to buy water - luckily we found one before any of us fainted due to heat. We  stopped for a tea break at about 9 am. 90 minutes of steep climb in hot and sunny weather had taken its toll on the porters as well. In addition we had a dog following us from Ghandruk and CD & IL were very concerned about him. So while the humans had tea, Shaggy was given butter biscuits as reward for his climbing efforts.

At 9:30 am we started the descent towards the river from where we had another steep climb waiting for us to Jhinu Danda. The weather stayed hot and now folks were worried about finding a water source for Shaggy. We  reached the river around 11:30 am where Shaggy had his fill of water and rest of us poured the cold refreshing water over our hot and bothered faces. 

Now it was back to another climb - short this time though. We stopped at Jhinu Danda for our usual chapati, dal and veg lunch. Shaggy was fed more biscuits and a chapati. After lunch we started for hot springs at about 1:30 pm (It costs NR 50 per head). It is about 20 min of descent towards the hot springs. There are basic shacks for you change into bathing suits, as clean as they can be near a natural water source. The small bathing pool had clean water and it felt very soothing to our tired muscles. Due to lack of time, we left the springs at 2:30 pm, climbed back 25 min to Jhinu Danda and stopped again for some tea this time.

Our porters had proceeded to Chomorong after lunch itself as it didnt make sense for them to come down to springs. Another group of backpackers told us that it would take 2-3 hours of steep climbing for us to reach our destination for the day. So with a heavy heart, tired muscles and sweating foreheads, we embarked on the last climb for the day. We started at 3:35 pm and surprisingly I was at Chomorong by 4:40 pm, IL reached by 5:10 pm and CD & PC also made it by 5:50 pm while climbing at an easy comfortable pace. 

It had been a long day but since our porters had managed to find us a lodge (Excellent View Top) with attached bathrooms, we could relax our weary muscles with long hot showers. While the lodge had clean linen and nice blankets, the food was a real let down. It was expensive and tasted "not so good". On return we stayed at the same lodge again but had our dinner at the German Bakery & Cafe near by and it was really good. 

Sunrise at Ghandruk

River crossing on way to Jhinu Danda

ABC Trek: Day 2 - to Ghandruk

We were met by our porters at Hotel Dream Pokhara at about 7:00 am and by 7:30 am we were on our way to Nayapul in a vehicle. We reached Nayapul around 9:00 am and by 9:30 am we had started our hike towards Ghandruk. After about 15 minutes we reached the check posts and after completing formalities we resumed our trek. It was a nice easy walk for first one hour or so, then we stopped for lunch at 11:30 am after a short but steep climb. For the Chennai girls it was their first taste of what lay ahead. My Bangalore friend, had done practice hikes with me to Nandi hills and has been praticising some really tough power yoga for about 3 months, so she was fine. Infact over the course of the hike, she came to be known as the Iron Lady (IL) since she had no pains or aches or any other health issues during this short but tough 7 day trek.

One of the Chennai girls earned herself the name of Chatty Damsel in Distress (CD for the purpose of this  blog - explanation on the name will come later) and other one was Perennially Cold and hence we will call her PC (not to be confused with Priyanka Chopra though)

After lunch the rain gods started playing hide and seek with us and finally the downpour began. The destination for the day seemed really far and honestly both IL and I found it really tough towards the end to keep going. By about 4 pm we reached the Annapurna Lodge - our home for the night. The views of the range from this place were beautiful. Now that the rain had stopped, we changed into comfortable clothes and stepped around and about to enjoy the views. We were all starving thanks to the tough hike and hence decided on an early dinner (6:45 pm).

Between dinner and retiring to our rooms, we had conversation with our porters about next day's hike. Couple of us wanted to go by the longer route to enjoy the hot springs at Jhinu Danda (per original itinerary) and the others wanted the easier route to Chommorong. Finally IL convinced everyone including porters to go through Jhinu Danda and we retired for the night by 8 pm. 



Views on way to Nayapul

First hour of the hike - mostly flat



The real hike - almost 4 hours of this first day itself!

ABC Trek: Day 1 - to Pokhara

Based on my last experience during EBC, we had booked ourselves on a 6 am flight out of Bangalore that landed in Delhi Terminal 1 at 8:45 am and our flight to Kathmandu was at 11 am from Terminal 3. Since the flight to KTM is an international flight, one has to collect bags and check them in again. We had ample time to do everything - collect bags, change terminals and check them in again.

However, the Chennai-Delhi flight didn't allow for enough time for the Chennai girls to do the same, so one of them landed in Delhi previous evening and other one flew Jet Airways so that she could land in T3 directly - smart move I must say! 

We all finally met at the gate for our flight to KTM. We were all excited - the trip was in planning stage for months and now it was finally coming true. We all had made it in time for our flight and we had (or so we thought) enough time to catch our Pokhara flight - which again meant collecting bags, changing terminals and checking them in again. 

The crazy that we could avoid at Delhi caught up with us at Kathmandu. First there was delay in landing due to too much air traffic, then long immigration queues and finally my bag arrived only at 14:10. On top of that our connecting flight to Pokhara had been changed to 14:30 (due to cancellation of the 15:30 flight) 

It was only because of the agency representative that we could somehow make it to our next flight - imagine 20 min to change terminals, checking in of bags and to go through security check!!! I honestly don't have much recollection of how we did it - but we did!!!

We landed at Pokhara around 3:15 pm and were picked up by the hotel car and taken to Hotel Dream Pokhara - nice hotel at inexpensive rates. Beautiful view of mountains on one side and a short walk to the lake on another. 

We spent the evening walking around the lake, eating Nepali jhaal moori, having a drink and getting a bit lost on the way back. Since 3 of us had woken up very early to catch our flights to Delhi and given we had an early start the next day too, we retired by 9 pm after a nice dinner at the hotel itself. 

ABC Trek: Journey to the feet of harvest goddess

After trekking to Everest Base Camp, I realised that I love being closer to mountains and away from modern civilisation - especially cellphone and Internet :) So it was no surprise that as soon as I came back to Bangalore after the hike, I was already making plans for a trek to Annapurna Base Camp. 

Given certain events that had transpired during EBC trek, I decided that this time I will ensure that all expectations are shared upfront with the potential hiking partners - just to avoid that unnecessary friction that arises out of difference in personalities and priorities. Of course I asked my funny buddy from EBC and another friend who backpacks a lot and is the least fussy amongst all the folks that I have known. While I wanted my friend with who I had planned and done EBC to join this hike, her work schedule just didn't allow this to fit in.

Anyways, soon my backpacker friend's travel partner also signed up and then in turn her running partner also joined the group. My funny buddy from EBC eventually had to drop out as her foot that was injured on way to EBC hadn't healed fully and a trek to ABC would have delayed the healing further. This is how 4 girls - two from Bangalore (my friend and I) and two from Chennai (my friend's travelling partner and her running partner) finally booked their tickets, packed  their bags and boarded the flights to Delhi! 

The itinerary that we decided on was as follows:

Day 1 - Arrive KTM by 13:00 (Indigo flight out of Delhi) & fly to Pokhara (840 m) same day at 4 pm
Day 2 - Drive to Nayapul and trek to Ghandruk
Day 3 - Trek to Chommorong (2050 m)
Day 4 - Trek to Himalayan Hotel (2840 m)
Day 5 - Trek to Macchapuchhre Base Camp (3700 m)
Day 6 - Excursion to ABC (4130 m) & Trek to Doban
Day 7 - Trek to Chommorong (2050 m)
Day 8 - Trek to Deurali via Landrung (1640 m)
Day 9 - Trek to Phedi and Drive to Pokhara and fly to KTM
Day 10 - Depart KTM by 14:00 Indigo flight to Delhi

As you can see the maximum altitude for this hike is much lesser than EBC but the trek difficulty or quality of experience cannot be determined basis just the altitude. Here is the link to a nicely written article I found that provides a good comparison of ABC and EBC treks - http://mountainquests.com/annapurna-base-camp-vs-everest-base-camp/

However, I would add my own personal comparison of the two hikes as I go through the journey myself.