Day 8: Road To The Thorung

Day 8 was another gap day. After the late night show at the Snow Land and a rather short sleep, the three of us felt quite tired even before starting walking. No pain, no gain! we had to reach Thorung Phedi (4450 m) as soon as possible to get ready for the last section of the climb.

During the walk to Phedi (in Nepali 'foot') I received two moderate warnings about the AMS. In one of the first climbs of the morning I could feel how I needed to inhale and exhale at a much higher rate than normally. Besides, my heart beat inside my chest as though it was going to explode (the lack of butterflies in my stomach ruled out the possibility of being suffering from a sudden crush in one of my trekking mates, lol). The second warning was much more serious. During a break for drinking we saw an Asian-looking trekker being transported down the hill on a mule. The mid-aged man was completely knocked out. He behaved as a zombie when the porter asked to get off the mule. That really was a reminder that things were serious up there!

Once we had overcome the spooky apparition we continued our way to Phedi. We reached our destination by 2 pm. In Phedi we joined some of the trekkers that we had met before plus a bunch of crazy Canadians who were spending their third day in town. They were waiting for a helicopter that was supposed to take one of their friends -not feeling very well- back to Manang. They didn't seem to care much, actually we noticed them smoking some joints while the rest of us had difficulties to even take a d*mp! We went bed even earlier that evening (7 pm) since next morning we were to face the hardest stage of the trek.

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El octavo dia fue otro de esos dias confusos e ininterminalbles. Fue durante esta jornada que recibi los primeros y unicos avisos sobre el mal de montaña. Por una parte, en una de las primeras subidas de la mañana me di cuenta de que tanto a mi como a mis compañeros nos faltaba el aliento para subir cuestas que otros dias nos merendabamos con patatas. Mas tarde, durante un descanso nos vimos confrontados con un hombre asiatico de mediana edad que estaba siendo acarreado montaña abajo sobre una mula. El hombre estaba completamente grogi, era incapaz de andar ni articular palabra. Superada la primera impresion, decidimos continuar nuestra marcha hasta el pie de la cima, Thorung Phedi (4450 m). Alli nos reunimos con el resto de senderistas que habiamos conocidos y algunos nuevos, como unos canadienses que llevaban ya tres dias alli y que se permitian el lujo de fumar porros mientras a otros nos costaba tremendo esfuerzo ¡hasta plantar un pino!

Annapurnas Day 6: Into Thin Air

Our only goal for the sixth day wasn't reaching certain village, far from it on day 6 we had to get our systems acclimatised. Acclimatised to what? some may wonder; to altitude, of course. On day 6 we realized that things were actually more serious that they seemed. Don't get me wrong, the majority of the Annapurna Circuit can be done by almost any sporty person but this doesn't mean that there is no danger involved.

I won't go too deep in details but, in brief, there are two major risks when one gets over 3000 meters. For one, nearly 65% of the people would experience mild symptoms of Acute Mountain Sickness. This means that -due to the low atmosferic pressure and consquent deficit of oxygen in the blood stream- those people are likely to suffer light headaches, difficulties to sleep and dizziness. Up to this point there is nothing to worry about, one must listen to their body and don't go any further; remaining at the same altitude for one or two days would solve the problem. BUT, if someone is stupid enough to continue climbing the Mild AMS can derive into HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema) or HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema). This is serious business, every year one or two people die up there because of them.

Just to chill this post again, I will add a funny sympthom of AMS that all us developed during the trek. The low pressure in the atmosfere facilitates that the gasses in the intestines expand beyond usual levels which will eventually -and unavoidably- yield a very recomforting turbo boost propelling mountaneers up the hill!

Back to Day 6, morning cultural visit to Bhraga; half an hour trek to Manang (3540 m); acclimatization trip to nearby hill with views over the lake and glacier; and to complete the day a movie at the local cinema. Oh! yesh, there is a movie theater in Manang, the most picturesque I've ever been to (don't miss the yak carpet in the pictures). We watched 'Into Thin Air' a movie about an expedition to Mount Everest gone bad that added some 'anti-cool' to the already 'tense' scenario.

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El sexto dia de expedicion tenia un objetivo unico: aclimatar nuestros cuerpos para evitar el mal de altura. No voy a entrar en detalles pero basicamente cuando se superan los 3000 m de altura uno esta expuesto a lo que se conoce como Mal de Altura o Montaña. Las bajas presiones y el deficit de oxigeno en el aire pueden provocar mareos, dolor leve de cabeza y dificultades para conciliar el sueño. Hasta aqui no hay que alarmarse, simplemente hay que escuchar al organismo y no hacer estupideces. Si se detectan estos sintomas se debe permanecer a la altura actual e incluso descender unos metros -si es posible- hasta que el cuerpo se acostumbre (1 o 2 dias). El problema viene cuando uno desoye a su organismo y decide seguir escalando. En ese caso el Mal de Altura puede desembocar en Mal Agudo de Montaña, en dos vertientes: la que conlleva hacia un edema cerebral y la que pudiera ocasionar un edema pulmonar. Esto no es ninguna tonteria, una o dos personas mueren todos los años en el circuito a causa de ellas. En fin, para relajar el ambiente añadire que la mayoria de trekkers, incluido un servidor, sufrimos una curiosa variante del Mal Leve de Montaña que ocasiona que nuestros intestinos se inflen a raiz de las bajas presiones lo cual resulta inevitablemente en un incesante flujo de ventosidades que, junto a mi amado palo, nos habria de propulsar a lo alto de la montaña.

De vuelta al dia 6 dire que basicamente se resume en una visita cultural a Bhraga seguida de un paseo hasta Manang y una excursion a una colina aledaña desde donde disfrutamos de vistas sobre el lago y el glaciar. Por ultimo, matamos el tiempo viendo una peli en el cine local (cosa de otro mundo), mas concretamente vimos 'Into Thin Air', una peli sobre una expedicion al Everest con final dramatico que añadio un poco de emocion al ya de por si enrarecido ambiente.