Pisang to Thorung Phedi

Often there is a choice between a "upper" and "lower" route, getting from Pisang to Manang (3540m) was no different, and as these low / high choice go, it boils down to how much climbing you are willing to do and if there are landslides. So already mentioned in a previous post the decisions are generally based on where the donkey trains go. This time however it really did not matter, it was just a question of if you wanted to climb to Ghyaru (3670m) or not and since it was potentially going to be a long day, it was decided to rather do the "lower" route & wake up early the next morning to run up to Upper Pisang to watch the sunset... that was at least the initial plan. Next morning at 05:30am, my sleeping bag won & unlike some very energetic folk, I skipped out on the pre-breakfast walk. Thus us sane folk, who decided to get and hour more sleep starting out on the route just as the others were stumbling back into the tea house.

So the lower route ... first town we came to was the town of Ongre, otherwise also known as Humde (3330m). Nothing much special about this town, expect it has a airport (very small, and I did not see or hear a single plane). Though it is worth to mention that we walked through our first snow, as we were leaving the Pisang Valley and entering the Ongre Valley. It was kind-a like something out of those cheesy Christmas holiday movies, where the snow is starting to melt of the pine trees. Cheesy movie or not, it was stunning and I was in my element. By the time we got to Ongre, we started wondering why the rest had not caught us, after all, we were walking DAMN slow & taking lots of photos. Turns out that the pre-breakfast walk was such a success that the participants decided that the Upper route seemed like a good a idea, oh well, we would all meet in Manang anyway.

Just before reaching Manang, we stopped in the town of Braga (3450m) and had the best Tomatoe Noodle Soup of the time, the chocolate brownies were not bad either :) Reaching Manang we stayed at a place called Gangapurna, which was not bad, after all we planned to stay here two days to acclimatise. Just as well we did, because that night the Veg Momo's & Garlic Soup I had for supper made themselves very known to me and I was not a happy camper the next day. Everyone decided to go up as a side / acclimatization (climb high, sleep low) to the nearby Ice Lake (4600m). I think I managed to walk 2 km down to the start of the trail, then turned back (almost took me and hour to get back uphill to the damn tea house ... I was not in a good way). On the flip side, everyone who went to the lake really looked a bit worse for wear when they returned, after all it's just over a 1000m climb at altitude. Next day, I was thankfully a lot better, though I did skip out on the pre-breakfast Glacier walk. Did however opt to walk back to Braga to see the Braga Gompa, which is believed to be about 500 years old.

We decided that in order to enjoy actually going over Thorung La pass (5416m), we would take a few days to get up to Thorung Phedi (last stop before the pass). So we stopped 3 nights, 1st night at Gunsang (3900m), were we staying in the cleanest tea house I saw on the whole trek (we actually saw them washing the floors), namely a place called "Marsyangdi Hotel". Not many people stop to overnight in Gunsang (hence there being only 2 tea houses), but it is definately worth it.

On from Gunsang, we stopped at Letdar (4200m), though a lot of folk (especially those who skip Gunsang), stop at the previous town of Yak Kharka (4018m). Not much to say about Letdar, except that the place we staying in (The Snowland), was pretty crap (the rest of the town was packed) and I was very thankful that the wind did not blow during the night, otherwise the room would have been freezing... also you had to get your water via the kitchen, it was pretty scary to see what was going on in there.

The last night before going over the pass, we staying in Thorung Phedi (4450m) at a very pleasant place (can't remember the name). Pretty much spent the afternoon reading, playing cards, attempting some Yoga and watched as quite a few trekkers decided to give staying at Thorung Phedi a skip and do the first 400m uphill slog to stay at "High Camp" (4800m) ... from chatting to folk afterwards and while crossing the pass, unless you are well acclimatized, it's not worth it (not to mention the apparent lack of hygiene... but I can't comment, as we did not stay there).

Dharapani to Pisang

With bearing the previous day's rain, we were rewarded the next day, with our first "clear" view of snow capped peaks... stunning.

Leaving Dharapani, we set out before breakfast to reach the town of Chame (2670m). Not because of the distance, the decision to leave before breakfast was simply because of the service from the tea house we stayed in the previous night, was terrible (probably the worst on the trek). Instead we decided to stop for breakfast at the next town of Bagarchap (2160m), which according to the guide book use to be the popular over night stop, that is until a landslide devastated the town, wiping out several tea houses & people (including some trekkers). There is apparently a memorial, but we did not pass it.

Next we did a quick climbed up to Danagyu (2300m), were the route splits into a "lower" & "upper" route, the "lower" route being easier, but is apparently plagued by landslides, while the "upper" just translates to more climbing. Anyways, when in doubt, follow the donkey trains, so upper route it was.

Apart from the stunning scenery and just the exhilaration of trekking, the day was reasonably uneventful (well, in my opinion). So we reached Chame, sometime in the late afternoon and just making it before the rain set in. Chame, is a pretty big place (apparently it is the district headquarters of Manang), it even has a bank! I managed to find an Internet connection, but at about R20 for the 1st 10min and about R1 a minute afterwards (on a slow connection), I thought better of it.

The next day we left Chame with the goal of making Ghyaru (3670). On this section of the trail the path curves into the "Manang valley" and the views are definitely worth the walk. It really always amazed me how the scenery on the trek changes constantly, depending on the valley our in, similarly so do the people. When we reached Lower Pisang (3200m) the weather had begun to set in, so we decided to bed down for the night. With remaining day light hours, we some of the more energetic of us decided to run up to monastery on top of Upper Pisang (3300m), which turned into climbing another 100m, up the rest of the hill. The views of Pisang and the valley below definitely made the slog worth it (and it was a lot easier without backpacks).

I feel that at this point I should mention something about altitude, as I've been diligently including each towns altitude. First, just for interest, 3200m is enough to set off the first signs of Altitude sickness (i.e. head aches, loss of sleep / appetite) for some. The point however that I want to stress is that because town A is at Y meters and town B at X meters, it does not mean you are going to climb up Z meters, due to the formula X - Y = Z (i.e 3500m - 3000m = 500m), that would just be too easy. From my estimates, I figured that for each 5 meters we went up, we had probably dropped 1.5 meters. Hence to work out the average total "ascent", the formula looks something like this ... 1.5((X - Y) / 5) + (X -Y) = Z (i.e 1.5((3500m - 3000m) / 5) + (3500m -3000m) = 650m). Some days more, some days less, hence I recon this is average (though I've probably under estimated the initial ratio, will have to revisit this in a later post).