Annapurna Area Escapades Day 3, Part 2: "Struggle is Real"

Continued..

The instructions weren't very clear but we were in a great hurry to go somewhere, do something, climb a mountain!

For about an hour, all we did was walk either downhill or straight with zero difficulty and remember, we were travelling light. At the end of the first hour, we reached a place which was like the base of the mountain that we were going to have to climb. We had only just reached there that it kinda started snowing. At first, we weren't sure what was happening. We had seen cloud forming at the tip of the mountain but we were definitely not expecting it to snow this far down. But lives don't work alongside our expectations. Some of us hesitated but the rest wanted to carry on. So majority won and up we went. 

It wasn't the first time for some of us to witness snowfall, but immediately after we started walking, we sighted a danphe - the national bird of Nepal, definitely a first time for all of us. It felt like a good sign.

We were going to climb further up to about 4,300 m if we were to believe the hotel dai. And since we had reached the bottommost part of the trek, there was nowhere to go but up. So, there were eight of us in the group and as the trek progressed, we started to find out who was worth how much (looking at how fast one could go, how fast one tired, how chatty one was, how broody) Two of our friends took off leaving the rest of us behind. They had nothing but a bottle of water and a drone with them.

Two of us tried matching their speed but to no avail. I got left behind soon after so I had no option but to rejoin the friends I had left behind. The trek was very steep at times and I started getting giddy at one point. I began to feel scared that I was being affected by hypoxia.  I suggested we ate so we sat down and started eating some snacks. I had brought some garlic  as well because I had read somewhere that garlic cured altitude sickness. We all really enjoyed wai wai with garlic. I don't know if it was the garlic or if it was simply food, we immediately felt better and with some pep in our steps, we carried on. 

The trail wasn't very difficult, what made it difficult is that it felt like it would never end. We would see a trail end at the top of one hill only to find another waiting to be climbed. And I should definitely mention that the trail was very narrow and we were only going higher and higher up. 

In about three hours, one of our friends complained of a headache and decided he wanted to go no further and went back. Little did he know that he was just minutes away from the top and the view that was waiting for us was just spectacular. It was still cloudy but since it had snowed some earlier, it looked like the mountain had come down to greet us in person. We still couldn't see Annapurna or other major Himalayas yet. A few minutes of walk and we made it to the teahouse where we had tea, warmed ourselves by the cosy fire and ate noodles. 

It was starting to get too comfortable but we had to leave if we wanted to make it to the lake. By then, it had started to snow again and the whole way was eerily white. We were having a hard time finding the flags that were meant to show us the way. We marched on regardless.

We had left the teahouse at 3 pm but after half an hour, four members of our group decided it was foolish to carry on any further. Two of us were confused but the last one encouraged us to not give up when the destination was very close. We bade our friends goodbye and went further half an hour to find this animal shelter and a steep mountain that needed climbing. It was then that I too had to give up, partly because it had started to snow heavily, partly because I had had enough of uphill climb and partly because I knew I would just slow them down. I let them know that I would be alright and stayed behind. They asked me to take shelter in the hut until they came back (which they said wouldn't take more than 30 minutes). 

I went to the hut only to find it locked and so I had no option but to hide under this giant rock and watch the ground gather snow in a scary speed. I had never felt so scared in my entire life before.

To be continued...