To Goose The Thorung-La Pass Nepal Episode 9

Episode 9

Walking Day 7. Heading North

Our goal. To Shotgun a beercan in Nepal at the highest possible altitude reachable by walking, with no camping and to film and upload it to Goosing the Globe whilst blazing hard the whole way there. This place in Nepal is the Thorung-La Pass the peak point of the famous and wildly popular Annapurna Sanctuary Trek. The Master Shotgunners that undertook this adventure as part of a two month stay in the suburbs of Kathmandu were Captain (my best friend and brother), Sheeva (my girlfriend and love) and your author Jacky-Buddo (Jack Old Man in Nepali). This guide is transcribed from my hand written notes taken every half an hour or so and is only meant to assert strategies for exceptional methods of thinking and action to experience the trail and greater Nepal in a powerful and unique way. Why live in your Lonely Planet, when you can Goose the Globe.

Up at 06:00 for the call of nature, Tibetan bread at 7:30, bill sorted, equipment check, out of the Manang 08:15 with the expectation of reaching Ghusang in 1.25hrs. 2200NPR expenditure for two amazing nights in the Manang.

From this point the track leads north again following the Thorung Khola to Ledar and then the Kone Khola through to Thorung Phedi. If you didn’t notice it massively the days before you will now. You are walking at massive altitude. Sheeva and I were no sort of fit but believe we’re no scrubs either and still frequent and lengthy rest stops were necessary.

Because the track is heading north it gets a lot more sun than the trails we’d be walking on before and this was madly appreciated. Mars was thoroughly enjoying the track at one point charging headlong down a steep valley wall to mess with a family of musk deer. Watching him charge down the slopes and seeing the deer utilizing millions of years of evolutionary sophistication to evade the old mountain dog with ease really made me feel like I was watching a national geographic documentary. What endurance our Mars had, he was back on the trail within ten minutes after his fruitless endeavor that would have added another two hours to our walk.

We were through Yak Kharka by 11:47 after negotiating passage with a huge herd of giant Yaks that Mars was enraging and after passing the valley hosting the Ghyanchan Khola and some spectacular views of the south face of Chulu 6584m. At 12:40 we hit the Ledar suspension bridge and were settled fed and watered at Ledar by 14:24 that was only another hours walk from Yak Kharka.

This walk was extremely beautiful. The western side of the Thorung Khola valley is so sheer and barren and all of it’s peaks are over 5000m. Not even worth a name on the map so tiny they are! At 15:41 I did something that I would highly recommend one does before they embark on the walk, educating oneself in altitude sickness. I read out loud to my party the dangers and symptoms of altitude sickness from some information a young English gap year boy had brought with him and it made me paranoid, so much so that I quit blowing smoke signals for a minute and switched to oxygen.

We were showing no signs and were all feeling good except for the moment that I finished reading I did start to feel a sort of “prescence” in my head, not a headache, there was no pain but I did start to feel something but I took my focus away from it and started dumping the Diamox on a schedule of 250mg every 12 hours and I would highly recommend this to anyone hitting the Thorung-La except I would begin the dumping schedule in Manang. Diamox assists your body in it’s acclimatization process as you go higher and higher.

We enjoyed the rest of the sunlight in the sun room and carried out all necessary homework to prepare for the rest of the trek. Ledar is a really brutal and beautiful place. You might be staying in a giant stone fortress that would seem so well insulated however there might be an inch gap between the door of your room and the stone so you are effectively always outside. Any water that is not running constantly will be frozen stiff. Everything is made more difficult by the altitude as well. If you’re squirming in your sleeping bag you may well wake up and find your self completely out of breath. However I did not suffer from this after Manang for some reason. Mars had to sleep outside the room that night because he really couldn’t make up his mind to come into our room and I couldn’t hold the door open for him another minute.

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