Crossing to the other side…
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007Day 15. High Camp>Thorung La>Muktinah. 4800 M>5,416 M>3,800 M. Around 6.5 hrs.
Hurray, the day of reckoning was here. We headed out with everyone else (safety in numbers) and made a slow go of it at around 5 am. We ended using a modified-Barbara-breathing system (she would go 100 steps and take a break) and made it to the top. It was kind of nice when we were passed by a guy that turned out to be the guy that ran the teahouse at the top – so we would have a nice cup of tea at the top. I almost cried when I saw that bloody sign – which was better than Laura who promptly threw up. We had made it! And hadn’t died of AMS! Woohoo!
After taking the obligatory pictures in front of the sign and John tied his prayer scarf deal onto the post we decide to head since it was butt-ass cold. And let’s just say it was a heck of a time going down. I think it was harder going down then it had been going up. And a bit anti-climatic…and I’ve always hated the downs. But, as luck would have it we weren’t having to go down the other way!
We finally get down to Muktinah – checked into a hotel after they said they had hot shower; them left and went to Royal Mustang when they didn’t even have a lukewarm shower. John was adamant – he’s like I haven’t had a hot shower since Pisang – so I went across the street to the Royal Mustang and had them turn on the shower to make sure it was hot. Blissful. And the food ended up being good so we decided to rest our weary limbs and stay one extra night. After all, we had plenty of time and no schedule! Kind of a bonus not having the guide and porter…
Day 16. Muktinah. We rested. And went to the temple. Quite an amazing place and for once it was by donation only. So we actually went in together. 108 taps of water…I can see why it’s a pilgrimage site…
Day 17. Muktinah>Jomson. 2,710 M/8,891 ft. 4.5 hrs. It’s so funny how much more developed this side of the pass is then the other. First off, we saw motorized vehicle. We hadn’t seen one of these for days. There was a jeep service from Muktinah down to Jomson so you didn’t actually have to walk. When we were planning this trip I stumbled over some blogs and one of them mentioned that as soon as you cross the pass you see overweight people. I didn’t really understand this until we did this trek. On the other side you didn’t really see any overweight people. On this side – wow, what a difference! Since you could fly into Jomson and then take a horse to Muktinah you could be as unfit as you wanted to be and still be fine. The other side of the pass has an airport but it only operates in high season.
It also probably doesn’t help that the food on this side was much better. Which kind of makes sense since they have an airport and could transport by vehicle instead of porter. We had the most awesome hot chocolate apple crumble in Jomson where we said goodbye to Lars and Barbara and toasted with some really good apple brandy they make locally. Hopefully we’ll see them again when we head to Europe!
JohnCin