Annapurna trek

It's been several weeks now since we returned from our Annapurna trek. Unfortunately, I've forgotten many of the trip's details, but I'll offer a few highlights--roughly in chronological order. I may have mis-labeled some of the pictures...at least the mountains. Sorry!

Here we are heading into the Annapurnas. We started in Pokhara on the 26th of June and headed north to Jomosom. It is possible to fly into the Jomosom airport saving 2 days (RT=4 days total), but the landing is notoriously dangerous. So we took the bus (perhaps even MORE dangerous than the plane). More on that later.

There were NINE of us!: Betsy, Sam, Ben, Lucie, Eli, me, my brother Brad, a good friend of mine from Boston (Dave Lazenby) and his son John.

Here are some of the interesting houses on the way to Jomosom. In this picture and several that follow, I'm using my camera's dramatic effect setting to bring out the highlights.

We got to cross a number of bridges, including the one here. Betsy and Lucie in particular liked the bridges. Several sections of the road from Pokhara to Jomosom were washed out so we had to take a jeep or bus from one landslide to the next with different vehicles taking us a bit farther.

I believe this is the spot where the bridge was "out." What that meant in practical terms was that a number of the timbers had popped off of the metal supports. We saw a bus passing in front of us. The bus stopped before reaching the bridge. The driver jumped out and he and several other men placed the timbers back on the bridge. They weren't attached. Amazingly, everything held as the bus crossed the bridge.

This is a picture of my brother Brad at the bottom of a rather massive waterfall. This picture shows a very small part of the waterfall. It was quite a sight!

This is supposed to be the deepest gorge in the world. It's very beautiful but it's definitely not the deepest in the world. I've seen the one that folks claim is the deepest and it's in Peru. The reason Nepalis say this one is the deepest is because they're measuring Daulaghiri (the world's 7th highest mountain) as the top of the gorge when in fact, it's quite a distance from the river.

Just before Jomosom.

One of the first mountains we saw...maybe one of the Nalgiris?

Once we turned the corner from Jomosom, things got VERY dry. In fact, in spite of the fact that we were in the middle of monsoon season, the only rain we got was in Pokhara--the day before we started our trek and again on the day we arrived back.

Toward the end of a hot, dry day, we asked our guide whether tomorrow would be similar to this and he said "no, it will be noticeably drier."

One of my favorite parts of the trip was Kagbeni. We were only in a few towns on this trek. The population is quite sparse in lower Mustang. Every town we stopped in was politically, linguistically and culturally much more closely aligned with Tibet (all restaurants had large pictures of Lhasa) then Nepal.

Stone alley in Kagbeni

My brother Brad at a Stupa in Kagbeni.

A couple of children at a monastery in Kagbeni

If you look closely, you can see the ball on the left side of the frame.

This is where we stayed in Kagbeni. Several of the pictures that follow are from our hotel. I like this picture because there is a lot going on...the relatively modern hotel, the man in the middle of the frame, people without identities carrying heavy loads and a steer looking on. I suspect the animal is a cross between a cow and a yak. They were quite common here.

Another bridge...this one in drier territory

Here we are completing a day of hiking in "lush" terrain

  

Kagbeni

The next 3 pictures are of our porters: Anita, Sarmila and Golpa. I don't have a picture of our guide (Durga). All were wonderful individuals and treated us like family.

Just outside Kagbeni. At this point, we're barely inside lower Mustang (pronounced moo-stong). The small building in the upper right corner of the frame is in upper Mustang--drier, more isolated and an expensive place to trek. I think the visa is about $100 per day.

Below is a picture of Golden Hill. We were going to climb it on the return trip from Thorung La pass, but by that point, we had little energy. Our guide also indicated that the route up the switchbacks was safe (see right side of picture) but the path up to the top of the mountain (see center/top of photo) was quite dangerous and in several places, you have to be on all fours to cross.

And here's the entrance into Muktinath.

Lucie somewhere on the trek...looking eerily like Jackie Kennedy Onassis

Muktinath. Daulaghiri in the background?

 Daulaghiri is the world's 7th highest mountain. I don't remember the altitude but well above 26,000 feet.

Self-portrait in Eli's sunglasses

 This is one of my favorite photos. I believe this is just outside Kagbeni.

Muktinath is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. Both believe the waters here spring from Mt. Kailas hundreds of miles away. I'm not sure what the building in the background is but I decided to get a picture of the cairns and the building was a nice backdrop.

 Near the river at Muktinath.

A Sadhu (wise man) we met in Muktinath. You can see the walled portion of the temple in the background. Given the sacredness of this site, there were many Sadhus here.

One of the 108 fountainheads at Muktinath. These are arranged in a semi-circle and it is possible to run from one fountainhead to the next...though most pilgrims stand under a single head to ritually purify themselves. Betsy and I splashed the cool water on our heads--a little bit from each of the 108 fountains. Given that we were at 12,000 at this point, it's understandable why the water was FREEZING!