This morning we arose at 5:15 a.m. and were out on the trail by 5:30. Our mission was to hike to the top of nearby Poon Hill to see the sunrise and have an incredible view of many of the mountains of the Annapurnas that surround Ghorapani. The hike is supposed to take one hour, so we had enough time to get there before the sun. Last night I was awoken around 11:30 p.m. to a thunder and lightning storm outside and the end result was apparently some amazing hail! The whole town was covered this morning!
We started up the trail, covered in ice and snow and I was feeling the effects of the day before. Mostly my hips felt like they had aged by about 70 years and I had a hard time moving them. We crept along, straight up the hill. There is a horrible streak of deception in this area because you see a sign that welcomes you to your destination sometimes 45 minutes before you actually get there. We kept crawling up the hill and I thought that I'd never get there, but kept remembering that if I could survive the 9 hours of torture from the day before, I could surely survive one more hour of it. Once we arrived at the top, there was quite the crowd of people who had made the trek. We looked around and noticed that everything was covered with clouds. Not one peak in sight. The sun rose, even though we couldn't see that either. Dorgee brought us some hot chocolate and said that we would wait for a bit for the clouds to clear. They never did, so we went sliding back down the hill.
After breakfast, we set out on the trail again. I was excited because it is all downhill now that we have reached our highest peak! I checked in with Dorgee to make sure of this and he confirmed - "Yes, down." The first 2 hours of the hike were straight uphill. I was cursing Dorgee, I was cursing my friend who told me that this hike was a "walk", I was cursing the snow and ice that made me take baby steps that ended up turning into skate-fests, I was cursing myself for not being a hiker and loving every minute of this. I realized that I was in a really bad place mentally. I realized that the problem was that I did not have realistic expectations. I am the type of person that if I have realistic expectations going into something, I will mentally prepare myself and work through it all. My wise friend Jes who traveled through Africa for a month with me back in July 2009 always said going into experiences "lower your expectations." I honored the moment of frustration of not being able to get clear communication from my guide as to what really I should be expecting and then remembered to lower expectations. I will be going up hill a lot today - yeah, it's not what I thought, nor is it what I want to do, but it is what it is.
I think the hardest part of today was the bitter cold and the ice, snow, and mud. I felt like my feet were constantly unsure. I had to keep readjusting. During especially slick parts when we were going downhill, Dorgee would come and hold my hand and help me down slowly, giggling with a "hee hee hee" every time that I'd slip a little. He is hilarious! Holding my hand is much better than what he did when we were coming down Poon Hill. Back then he would grab the back part of my upper arm and pinch so, so hard and just hold on. Ouch!
Anyway, we slowly crept up and down and up and down the mountain. Our final destination today was Banthanti (elev. 2520 m). It's a teeny little village and our room was about the size of my closet. We were frigidly cold and could hear everything that happened in the whole place since a piece of plywood was used as the wall. I could hear our neighbor breathe, sniff, and anything that he said out loud! The view here is beautiful - we can see many of the mountains in this beautiful mountain range!
We went down to dinner shaking, again so cold, and there is a blanket that goes clear around the whole table with a little pot underneath with charcoal in it. It warms us up nicely. We shared a bathroom with a lot of people tonight and there is no sink, so chewing gum is how we are brushing our teeth. I think Jen and I have become one with our filthiness - we can't shower anymore because it is WAY too cold and usually there isn't even a sink and we are cool with wearing the same clothes day after day after day! It's amazing how Nepal can just change you like that!
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