Annapurna Circuit XV, Phedi High Camp to Ranipaùwa (Muktinath) скачать в хорошем качестве

Annapurna Circuit XV, Phedi High Camp to Ranipaùwa (Muktinath)

Friday, 2 May 2025 Patsy woke us up at 4:45. None of us really well. I tossed and turned seemingly forever, but my watch said I got 5h 14m sleep. While I was awake, I took some deep breaths, but I never woke up panting, which is what I heard happens if you're not well acclimated. My watch said I was acclimated to 11,000' and my SpO2 was 85%. We packed up, then Patsy and I ate breakfast consisting of coffee and a shared, rather stodgy apple pancake. Ken just had coffee. It was surprisingly warm, a lot warmer than last night. We'd decided to bring only running shoes, but we were all carrying thin neoprene socks and balaclavas, both of which turned out to be unnecessary. For some time, I was hiking towards the Pass in a long sleeve shirt and shorts (for their pockets) over my long fleece pants. In contrast, last night, even in the dining hut, I wore everything I had, including the neoprene socks because my toes were cold. Ken had all his clothes on and was still shivering. His cold didn’t help, and he only had one down jacket, whereas Patsy and I had two down jackets each, plus down pants that we also wore. Yesterday, we were the first trekkers to arrive. Today, we were the last trekkers to leave, just before 6 am. Patsy was struggling, Ken was still coughing, and I was huffing and puffing. Ken said, "This is the first time I've heard you being out of breath". "Oh, I've been out of breath many times", I said. There was a tea shop about a third of the way up to the pass. We caught up with and passed a bunch of the other trekkers there. Even though we were carrying backpacks, we started overtaking groups of trekkers who were only carrying day packs and were younger than us. Just before the pass, Joy and Kim, the young couple from French Polynesia we'd met on our day hike to Milarepa Cave out of Manang, caught up with us. Like us, they were self-supported, but they were stronger than us. They'd started at 3 am from Phedi. They were on a limited time schedule. We five rested together, then set off, but the Pass was just around the corner! 5,416m, 17,769', an altitude record for all three of us. My SpO2 was 77%. There were a lot of people at the Pass, including the group of young Israelis who had porters. At one point, one of the Israelis was blaring music from his portable JBL speaker. Sitting on a wall, I said out loud to no one in particular, "What kind of crappy music is that?" Later, Ken said, "Did you know you were sitting next to a couple of the Israelis when you commented on their music?" "Of course I did". I never heard any more music after that song finished. Starting down, we wore microspikes over our running shoes. We caught up with Kim and Joy. Joy was sitting on a rock, crying. She'd tripped on her microspikes and face-planted because her microspikes were too loose and had rolled off the front of her left foot. They'd been told the microspikes were "one size fits all", but I'd noticed that there were at least two sizes. The descent was a lot worse than the climb. 5,000' of steep descent into a terminal glacial moraine that resembled an alluvial fan plain. Ken found it really hard going. Patsy and I stopped at a tea house about two miles short of our destination to drink hot soup and wait for Ken. When we arrived at Ranipaùwa (Muktinath), we entered a different world. A long series of divided steps led to a temple complex. There were people set up alongside the steps selling religious trinkets, and elderly women were being carried. Many of the women were dressed in ornate saris, whereas I was wearing shorts. It turned out that this temple in Muktinath is the holy of holies for Hindus. It's the Hindu equivalent of Mecca. It's the last of the 106 Hindu temples in India and Nepal that devout Hindus must visit to achieve liberation before they die. The Muktinath temple is unique in that it is dedicated to two of the three Hindu lords, or gods, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. It's also in the same complex as an important Buddhist Gompa. Also, unlike all other Hindu temples, non-adherents are welcome to visit this one. We had to visit, tomorrow! We settled into our rooms in the Face Resort (~US $40/room), showered, then Patsy and I went out to explore. There isn't much to Ranipauwa aside from the temple complex and innumerable hotels. The main street is dirt, and it's being dug up, so the town is a mess. We managed to get another 20,000 rupees out of the town's one ATM. Walking along the main dirt street, we kept running into other trekkers who invariably wanted selfies with us. We were celebrities because of our ages. We tried to contact Ken, but he didn't respond to WhatsApp or telephone calls, not even to our knocking on the door. Patsy suggested the door might be unlocked. I pushed it open, and there he was, burrowed under the comforter. We managed to wake him up and an hour later went for a celebratory dinner at an Indian restaurant before retiring for a well-earned sleep.