Because it is there

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The horns have sounded, the hounds have been set loose, the hunt for yeti has begun. To be a good sport though, let's give the infamous snowman a decent head start by taking a pause to fill you in why do we find ourselves at roof of the world. As our idea of a perfect honeymoon was to be a mountain range apart from the comfort zone, Himalayas and its Annapurna massif provided an ideal choice. Especially given that Annapurna is Hindu goddess of abundance, fertility and harvest, hence a fitting place to undertake our first pilgrimage as a married couple. The trek we've chosen is called Annapurna Sanctuary and will have us following a milky glacial river, Modi Khola, for 12 days and about 100 kilometers, to Annapurna base camp, starting point for mountaineering expetions, and back. The elevation is 3000 meters and trek is classified as medium to strenuous, a word which true meaning we will learn the hard way.

Some geographical imagination helps to convey the layout of the Himalayas, instead of thinking of them as a single colossal mountain range, it is more accurate to picture them as a collection of several connected mountain ranges. Our destination Annapurna Himalaya is one of them. It is a host for one of the world's fourteen eight-thousanders, Annapurna I (8091m) as well as 13 additional peaks over 7000 meters and 16 peaks over 6000 meters. Roof of the world indeed. To assist us with our epic expedition, we contact 3 Sisters trekking agency, a trekking outfit set up by three sisters some twenty years ago. What really appealed to us with them is that they help Nepalese women coming from impoverished background to learn a profession, by which the women can earn a decent living and thus being able to take care of their families. The agency does this by training young women first to become porters and subsequently fully qualified trekking guides. After talking with the agency, we decide to have a female guide and a male porter to accompany us. Unlike the other trekking companies, 3 sisters allow their porters only to carry 12 kilos, which means we've got to be extremely selective what we want to take with us for our trek, given that sleeping bags and down jackets together with a backpack make already more than half of the allowance. Obviosly, we will carry our own day packs including our personal paraphernalia and water etc. My idea of hiring a second porter, wearing a suit and white silk gloves, who would only carry a tray of gin and tonics, gets turned down by my wife, even though in my opinion, I make a convincing case for it on medical grounds. Apparently, there are no mosquitos in Himalayas.

Starting immediately from our trailhead, a small hillside village of Nayapul, we get introduced to endless stone staircases and vertiginous switchbacks. Imagine skipping the lift to the top of Eiffel Tower and using the stairs instead, only to realize once reaching the top that you've got to take the same way back. Now stretch your imagination a wee bit further, and envision repeating this exercise five six times a day, for a few days in a row and you are getting a quite a good picture of how we spent our first week as a married couple. After climbing up yet another hill, nothing but another descent. However, we gradually become oblivious to the physical effort, as the trek takes us through an amazing variety of differing landscapes, from vertical rice terraces, subtropical jungles, bamboo forests, small mountain hamlets to rocky alpine terrain and to eventual snow and ice. At some point on the trail, I realize that the western obsession of vivisecting time into hours, minutes and seconds has become utterly meaningless. There is only a sunrise and a sunset and in between the trail to follow. Our daily progress has become synchronized with the sun and is only punctuated by breaks for masala chai and dal baht. Masala chai is a mix of tea and spices brewed with milk and served with a truly abundant amounf of sugar. A real bliss after few hours of hiking. Dal Baht is Nepalese trail ration of choice, staple diet of rice, watery lentil soup, vegetable curry and some spicy pickles. This is the food that keeps the entire nation going and us for 12 days! Dal baht - 24 hour power as local saying goes.

On our first day on the trail, we meet a bunch of virile Finnish geriatrics, with whom we share the same high altitude destination. One of them, Ville 75 years, tells me he's got to take it a bit easier because he's had an angioplasty a few years back. We stand corrected, age is truly nothing but a number and we've got nothing but admiration and respect for the elder generations. Unfortunately, generations like that are not built anymore, as instant gratification has replaced the pleasures derived from hard effort. Our paths cross again with the venerable lot in a week's time, and we humbly learn they have outpaced us by a day, as they are already on their way down while we are still ascending. The encounter with the mad Finns makes me think of George Mallory, the legend among mountaineers and a grand English specimen of stiff upper lip. Before leaving for Mt Everest in 1924, he was asked why he wanted to climb there and thus risk his life and endure months of hardship. His reply had nothing to do with personal fame nor with the greater glory of his nation, it was simply: because it's there. The most eloquent answer ever, that has become a mantra for mountaineers. As most great stories this one has a tragic end with Mallory perishing during his expedition and it was only 75 years later that his frozen body was found within a stone cast from the summit. Arguably, he might have reached the top 27 years before Kiwi climber Edmund Hillary did. Nobody knows and the mountains keep their secrets.

After 9 days of gruelling struggle, endless stone stair cases and a daily discovery of new gluteal muscles, we finally take the last steps to reach the Annapurna basecamp. The sense of achievement and exceeding oneself is exhilarating and leaves us elated. This feeling is definitely worth of all the sustained effort of the past nine days! While savouring the feeling, we are told that since there's a very limited accommodation capacity at the basecamp, we have to sleep together with a third person. Once I learn that this person will be a young Swiss woman, I have nothing against this arrangement and I start to entertain some cosy ideas of having two women to keep me warm through the cold night. My daydreaming gets a brutal end, when the inn's manager comes back and asks if I could swap a place with a woman in the dormitory, so that she wouldn't have to share a bedroom with four men. Being a gentleman, I am obliged to say - yes of course. The vicissitudes of life be damned. Little did I know when I got married, that in ten days time I would be sharing my bedroom with four men, two of which are snoring and a third one equipped with a weak bladder, waking us all up every single hour when going to relief himself. I've had better nights. The miseries of the night are soon forgotten, as my watch awakes me at 6 am from hibernation and I get off the cabin joining my wife to marvel the sunrise at Annapurna. The morning sun colours the western mountain slopes golden and we both relish the rare opportunity of being able to witness this moment of breathtaking beauty at 4200 meters.

The simple everyday pleasures of life we take for granted, such as running water, let alone a hot shower, become a luxury when you don't have them anymore. On day 10, we have finally a chance to take a hot shower, the first one in a way too many days. A divine experience. The next day we stop for a lunch in a guesthouse serving wood oven baked pizza. After ten days of living on dal baht, the pizza is nothing short of a religious experience. The indulgence continues in the evening in the hot springs in Jhina village, where our weary bones get thoroughly soaked.

In case, you are wondering how the hunt went, despite our best efforts, the elusive yeti managed to avoid our hunting troupe and is living for another tale. However our hunt continues in subtropical jungle of Chitwan where tigers and rhinos roam.

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Comments

[Andy]

Ah, Mallory. Like Robert Scott, a true defender of the great British tradition of failing spectacularly :)

[Anastasiya and Kalle]

Epic Fail
Everyone can win but it takes a Brit to fail spectacularly.