Day 6 Annapurna Circuit

Dhukur Pokhari to Ghuru

Last night was cold, very cold.  After bathing in the ice house neither one of us  got warm again so we retired to bed, fully dressed.  We slept warm enough thanks to the two extra blankets, but our water bottles froze almost solid.

Another OSHA approved deck, railing not included!

We woke up fairly early in the morning, with first light around 6:30am.  Getting water to drink was tough because all the lines, including the local spring, had frozen solid.  We were able, as with most Tea Houses, to get warm (boiled previously) water to refill our water bottles.  The warm water in our water bottles felt really good to hold on to helping to fight of the chill we were fighting.

It was cold and grey this morning.  Such a contrast from sunny warm Kathmandu. 

Even after an hour or more of hiking, in the sun no less, we're still quite bundled up!

With our warm water bottles and the sun behind the mountains for at least another hour, snow on the ground and our still warm sleeping bags, we decided to crawl back into bed and enjoy a lazy morning and relief from the cold.  But, placing our phones on the charger in the storeroom first!  Priorities!

The increadible towering mountains and the deep canyons gives Nepal the distinctin of having the deepest gourges in the world.  They are beautiful, but the sun is a long ways away when you're 5000m below the mountains.  Some of these canyons only get an hour or two of sun a day.

We both knew we would be outside for the next 8 hours in freezing temperatures and walking in the snow.  It would be many hours before we would have a warm place to rest.  We made the right decision!

That is a giant mountain (Pisang Peak) behind those clouds!

Finally we got up at 8:30 and ordered breakfast.  It was the best breakfast yet and we needed a good meal.  We fueled up on hot tea, refilled our bottles with warm water yet again, and worked up the courage for a long day out in the cold.  Packs on, iPhones in hand, dressed in just about everything we owned we headed up the trail.

The town of Ghyaru in evening light.  It just looks cold!  Taking this photo I'm on the main trail thru town.  Some of the side alleys are amazingly funky.

We hiked up to Ghyaru, but slowly.  Very slowly.  Yessi was still not feeling well from the day before.  I think the funky food, extreme cold and the high altitudes were causing us both to wonder if we were going to be able to complete our goal.

Looking down on the town Ghyaru, and up at the magnificent Himalayan mountains.

Last night we were at 3000m (9850 ft).  And there was snow everywhere and it's really cold.  And we had another 40 km of trail and another 2400m (7880 ft) of elevation gain left.  We were essentially half way (only half way!) there. We were tired, cold and having to dig deep within ourselves to find the determination and strength to go on.

Ghyaru, Nepal.  Check out the latters with 

So we trudged up the mountain, slowly, keeping to ourselves for the most part.  In an effort to liven up the day, we decided to Freestyle. There were actually many different trails and we decided to leave the main trail a bit thinking we were going to cross this forested platue and pop out at a temple structure we could see about 1km in front of us.  We ended up getting a bit lost and wandering around through the forest and rocks for longer than we would have liked.

Yak Man, Nepalese carving.

Finally, we gave up on our goal and headed straight down the mountain knowing we could intercept the trail in the least distance.  It's always a good reminder when walking off trail how much easier progress is when your following an established path and not having to step around bushes and over logs and around rocks.

Ghyaru, Nepal

By the time we arrived at Ghyaru, it was mid afternoon and we were tired both mentally and physically. We talked about going on, but really liked the place we had found and decided to stay.  We went upstairs to our room which had lots of southern facing glass and a spectacular view.  It felt very good to have the warmth of the sunlight, to be able to rest, to be warm and to enjoy the view unlike any other I've ever witnessed.

At one of the little shrines, an alter of sorts with lot of little stacked rocks. These rocks are all pieces of old Tibeten carvings which have gotten repeatedly smaller over the years, but not lost.

We enjoyed a good dinner in a cold room and retired around dark to the warmth of our sleeping bags.  I boiled water and filled our water bottles and we snuggled down for the night, exhausted.  I'm sure we were both wondering, are we going to be able to finish this trip.