Annapurna Base Camp here we come!
(honestly, I really didn't know what to expect of ABC...)
7:30am. We had an early breakfast at and 8:28am we were off. The temperature registered just below freezing point as we trekked up north.
From Deurali at 3200m to arrive at ABC 4130m, we were looking at an ascent of about 930m in a day. No small feat it was for a small group of tropical dwellers.
The first thing we did was to put on our shoes spikes as instructed by Babu because from this point onwards it was snow and frozen ice ground all the way.
THE VIDEO
BOOOM!!!! Fann slipped on the slippery ice on her spike-less shoes and landed butt first on the frozen ice.
Click on image below for my Strava record of today's trek
Click on image below for my Relive Video of today's trek
Relive 'ABC 2018 Day 8: Deurali to Annapurna Base Camp'
The vegetation has changed considerably, now consisting mainly of thorny short shrubs and the side of the trails and the mountains were covered with fresh snow, a very different sight from the last few days below 3000m. In fact, I much preferred this type of terrain. But whatever terrain it was, I was tickled by the great spirit these two young ones were in.
It was cold, there was no question about it, but as we ascended the peaks cane into sight one by one- Machhapuchchre, Annapurna III, Gangapudna... And further ahead Annapurna south with the Annapurna fangs on its right side now because we are looking at the peaks from the other direction.
True enough, there were quite a few of these small short metal bridges to cross. Every time I crossed one, the thought that went through my mine was: "How safe were these metal bridges? Many were already rusted and they had been exposed to the elements for so long and I realy doubted if any one actually bothered to maintain them."
So what did I do? I just tried my best to quickly walk through hoping that nothing would happen.
We were nearing Machhapuchchre Base Camp. We could sense it. The trek was gentle but it was uphill and the feeling of being at late 3000m was apparent. With all the snow and frozen ice around, we couldn't be far.
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| Photo: Shu Ning |
As we ascended, we found ourselves again in the sun. That was a wonderful feeling as it warmed our bodies.
The routes along the edge of the slopes were fairly ineresting and at some points we had just a thin narrow ledge to walk upon and the guides were very good in hand holding us.
When the rays fell on us full force, some of us decided to strip down. And yes, after trekking in the coldness of the shades for quite some long time, the warm sunlight was a much adored welcome.
Walked and walked we did. And then Ah Sing discovered the signboard pointing towards Machhapuchchre Base Camp and Annapurna Base Camp. She was so thrilled. Two base camps for the price of one! Hahaha!
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| Approaching MBC. Photo: Shu Ning |
"We will go to Machhapuchchre Base Camp for a short rest first, before we continue to Annapurna Base Camp," insructed Babu.
The trek from Deurali up the snowy path to Machhapuchchre Base Camp took us about four hours. At last, we arrived at MBC. But it was quite a let down. MBC was nothing more than a simple guesthouse and some open spaces. Nothing spectacular about it.
And we had a quick lunch at MBC.
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| We just stood there watching MBC. |
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| Really frozen ice all the way - man, what would we do without our shoe spikes?! |
“Are you all fit enough to push on to ABC? If so I will push our advance posters to carry all your luggage to ABC,” I appreciated Babu’s straight forward approach- let the customers decide. Of course our answers were unanimous. The final two hours trek to ABC would not stop us. We set off from MBC at 1:45pm.
Chasing the receding sun
The view got progressively more beautiful as the peaks started coming up and presented themselves intimately around us once we stepped into the basin where ABC was located.
But the sun was setting below the high peaks very quickly even though it was only about close to 4pm but the sun was setting with an urgency and the surrounding’s mercury dipped. We had to stop halfway and put in many of our layers. I stole a quick look at Kong Wan’s Garmin and it registered a negative 5.4 degrees, about one hour away from ABC.
As we trekked we kept looking around and trying to identify the peaks around the ABC basin.
Here is a list of the peaks for our own reference.
Babu was in no hurry because he knew the end was bear. In my heart I was hoping to chase the setting sun but it just wasn’t possible as it was dropping too quickly. We were dumped in the frigid shades of the ABC basin.
Snow was every where, these must be the snow during the major snow fall over the past two days. We were lucky today weather was kind to us with no snow fall but merely a cold temperature.
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| Ah Li and Fann just couldn't help it but lie down in the snow. |
Arriving in ABC
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| The courageous Ryan was already near hypothermic by the time we almost arrived at ABC. |
Finally from afar we could see some buildings in a small village with white and red roof tops that Sharan pointed out that that was where we were ending our trek.
So that was ABC.
“30 minutes we will be there,” announced Sharan. But Serene didn’t believe it. “It always looked so get but yet so far,” complained the Mama.
Sharan smiles and true enough, by 3:50pm we finally set foot on a really cold ABC. The feeling was ecstatic.
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| Grouup photo arrving at ABC. Photo: Kong Wan |
And walking through the welome frame as we made out way to the guesthouse...
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| The man and his objective conquered. Photo: Jacalyn |
Some after-effects of the push to ABC...
Ryan was a little hypothermic and needed some hot drinks and warm blankets. Nicole has some right hip flexor pain. Ah Li, though better but still experienced regular stomach cramp, so did Ah Sing. Shu Ning lost her voice from the throat infection and the cold air.
But thankfully these were easy problems to solved. I had to keep a close lookout for those who were showing signs of ANS. However the guys and girls were good. They had no signs of AMS and were holding on well, despite the tough terrain and freezing temperature from Himalaya onwards. As we crossed 3000m and approached 4130m the temperature change was even more drastic.
“When Ai Lin and I first car to ABC 19 years ago we didn’t know of shoes spikes that was why she and the guide slipped on frozen ice slopes for 20m.” remembered Kong Wan. “We were supposed to set up tents outside to sleep thy night but we decided that it was too cold so we rented a room to stay.”
This night was no difference. For sunset the temperature plunged. I had to keep my promise to Fann to accompany her to attempt a star trail shot at ABC. Braving the cold and finding the Polaris right above a bright Guesthouse building we still decided to whack it and went ahead. We started her canera’s built in intervelometer at 6:25pm and were astonished that it lasted almost two hours in the deep cold to only drained completely at 8:16pm.
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| I had to keep promise my promise to Fann. |
“I think this one will turn out nicer than your star trail that you shot in Kalut desert in Iran.” I sincerely meant it.
So at dinner time, Babu explained the instructions for the next day. We would gather at around 6:30-6:35am and he will take us to see sunrise in the basin surrounded by the peaks and we will take a short fiver minutes walk to the near by glacier to visit and to shoot. Then we will come back and have breakfast at 7:30am and try to move out by 8:30am. Tomorrow was going to be a long long trek however Babu was determined to push us all the way down back to Bamboo. It may take ‘about 7-8 hours'.
But we really had to push and rush because the day after that we would be targeting the Au-natural hot springs in Jhinu.
Due to room limitation in Deurali, that night Serene and I slept with the Wong family in a big room with 8 beds. It was a freezing night at ABC as the temperature dropped to negative 13 degrees...
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