Our first glimpse of the Annapurnas.
Looking back towards Ghyaru with Annapurna II in the distance.
Yes the elevation change is correct in the title. Today we had to drop in elevation to only go up again tomorrow...all that hard work! After another fitful night's sleep due to the high altitude, things started to look a little brighter as the clouds started parting and we got our first glimpse of the mountains - Annapurna 2 (slightly less than 8,000m) to be exact. There are four Annapurna mountains named 1-4 in order of descending altitude with 1 being the tallest at just over 8,000m. Steve felt slightly better after starting a course of cipro and he kept a pretty good pace given his condition. We made it to our destination in Manang in about 7 hrs, slower than the 5hrs recommended, but we enjoyed a leisurely tea break and lunch with some friends, Nick and Alex, that we met at last night's lodge. Today's hike had us traversing a ridge giving us superb views of the mountains above, the river below, and a number of stone villages and gompas (temples). The terrain shifted to dry scrub brush which reminded me a lot of eastern Nevada. We got our first shower (albeit a cold one) in a few days when we finally reached Manang, the first major milestone as we are now clearly in high altitude territory and this is the last stop for any major services or comforts as we prepare to ascend another 2,000m or 6,600 ft through the Thorung La pass (5,416m or 17,872ft).
Our first glimpse of the Annapurnas.
Looking back towards Ghyaru with Annapurna II in the distance.
No comments:
Post a Comment