The AST Part III: Chomrong to the Top (By Justyna)

Waking up in the morning at Chomrong with the first proper view of Annapurna I (8078m) and II (7938m) as well as the Nepali favorite Macchapucchare (a measly 6997m) , T and I almost broke the bed jumping up and down with glee like two little kids. a hearty trekkers breakfast, drew us on our way down the Chomrong Khola (endless staircase occupied by water buffalo performing their morning toilet routine). En route, we met schoolchildren on their way up to the local high school in Chomrong form the surrounding villages. I cannot believe that whole groups of kids as young as 4 every day trek over 2hours one way at times, to get to school, especially on the maddening staircase up to Chomrong (all 2440 steps or so)! glad I am not one of them. From the bottom of the valley, we needed to go up again to Sinuwa. this is where I think I was most annoyed about trekking in the region - the 'fake' villages. According to our maps and guide-books, you pass certain villages along the way and there are approximate timings in between. From Chomrong to Sinuwa, the time was about 2hours. T and I reached Sinuwa after 1h30 which we were so pleased about and continued onto what we thought the next village to be. Another arduous climb and 40 minutes later, we reach Sinuwa. confused? Well, sometimes en route some of the lodges call themselves something in Sinuwa, or Chomrong, or whatever village you are supposed to reach, in order to lull tourists into a false hope of resting / buying food at a designated place / staying the night. We were rather annoyed as this was about the third time it happened to us and you get very worried if what you have reached at the end of the day is the real deal or not. Anyway, our target today was a steep climb from 2330m, down to 2000m (Kuli) up again to Bamboo (2300m) and finally Dovan (2540m) just before we reached Dovan, we met some American chubbies, who put the fear of God into us (see conversation below):

(Male Chubby) - Hey dudes, Whass'up?
(T) - Nothing man, just on our way up to Dovan and then ABC tomorrow . You been?
(Male Chubby) - Hate to tell you this man, but you got a long way ahead to Dovan. At least another hour and a half And it is vertical at times. Really hard!
(Female Chubby) - Yeah, and there are glaciers you need to cross. He (pointing to male chubby) slipped and slid. You guys look like you have real heavy packs. It will be really hard.
(Justyna swallows hard)
(T) - Any avalanches?
(Male Chubby) - No man, but I tell ya, it is tough going. We almost did not make it. You still have a ways. Good luck man!
(Justyna and Triston shakily wave the chubbies goodbye)

10 minutes later as we have a little rest and prepare ourselves for the worse and at least another hour and a bit of climbing to reach our night time destination, we arrive at Dovan (no hard climb in site). Is this the real Dovan? Were we wickedly tricked by the chubbies? Or were they just real chubbies?

It was the real Dovan thankfully and we spent the night, again being the only guests, feasting on Triston's favourite Dal Bhat and my favorite, Yak Cheese chapatis. The two guys who ran the lodge were far more interested in their DVD player than us, but we still had a nice evening, playing poker, doing crosswords, and reading. Next morning, we set off early at 7am up towards Himalayan hotel (2840m). en route we met Diego, a southern Californian who was with us the day before our Trek registering at ACAP. He was however on his way down (for us day 4) putting us to shame (though looking at his incredibly chiseled rock-hard body, he obviously participates in the Sahara Desert marathon on a regular basis) who told us there was nothing to fear ahead, only the most spectacular scenery. He did say there was one wobbly bridge but we would be fine. A mountaineers handshake later, we continue our climb past the most gorgeous valley, full of the most amazing flora and fauna I think I had ever seen. We spent over an hour just taking pictures of flowers, trying to capture the most amazing birds including massive hummingbirds (too fast for us though). Apart from this we did reach the glacier that the chubbies were talking about (the end of an ice trail about 10metres across and if you trod carefully and not on the really steep bits, you were fine). We also reached the wobbly bridge, which I vowed never to cross again, as out of all the bamboo - log bridges en route, that one was really nasty. However, we finally reached Macchapucchare Base Camp 4130m, ran by an ex Gurka called Ram, which had the most disgusting rancid toilet ever. It is very difficult squatting to do your business when your thighs are screaming from the amount of exercise they have been getting at the best of times. Doing that in an environment which promotes projectile vomit, is really tough. So both T and I suppressed any toilet urges that night, and for the first time, really really cold, tried to sleep through a huge storm during the night, in a very cold room. I must say though that even in these conditions, I tried to remain civilized and forced Triston to take a hot water bucket wash with me before we went to bed. Splashing boiling water on our bodies, in a freezing room, and trying to wash our private parts, certainly brings two people even closer together! Today, MBC - tomorrow, the top of the world!



Justyna Crosses the "Glacier"