Annapurna Sanctuary and Annapurna Circuit - Part 1

So after returning to Kathmandu after 32-days of trekking, Kiersten and I took some much needed rest and chilled out for a few of days in Kathmandu. My birthday was during that time so we celebrated by going to Shisha bar with Luke and a bunch of his friends that he introduced us too. After a few drinks Luke, Sasha (a friend that lives in Nepal), and I decided that it would be a good idea to go bungee jumping the following day. It seemed like a very good decision at the time but I was having my doubts when I woke up hungover the next morning. Anyways, we got on bus and made our way to the bungee bridge at a place called the "Last Resort" near the Tibet border. It was very laid back place and we spent two nights there just relaxing (when we weren't jumping of course). You can see a video of me doing the "Canyon Swing" here. The rest of our time in Kathmandu was spent getting an Indian visa for the next portion of our trip. The whole process took one week. As soon as we had our visas we caught a bus to Pokhara, the next biggest city in Kathmandu and closest big city to the Annapurna region.

Pokhara is a nice lakeside town with panoramic mountain views all around. However we only spent one day in Pokhara before we started trekking again. Our original plan was to hike to the Annapurna Sanctuary (basically the base camp for the south side of Annapurna I) but that changed part way through and we ended up doing the entire Annapurna circuit as well. This time, because we weren't doing any technical climbing and there were lots of tea houses around, we didn't use a guide and carried our own gear. It was definitely the right choice for this type of trek. All we needed was warm clothes and a sleeping bag which we rented in Pokhara.

Countryside views on the way to the Sanctuary

It took us four days to make it to the sanctuary because we didn't need to acclimatise. The hike into the sanctuary was through beautiful jungle forests and through small trekking oriented villages. Once you got above 3000m the jungle was filled with black faced langur monkeys.  Because it was low season there were hardly any trekkers and the lodges were very cheap (100 rupees a night average which is ~$1.25 Canadian). On the way we were awarded with multiple different angles of Machhapuchare (6993m), the most aesthetically pleasing mountain in the area which also happens to be unclimbed (climbing the mountain has been banned for many years).

Machhapuchare (aka Fish tail) 6993m

Nearing the sanctuary

Machhapuchare from another angle

Porter on the way to the sanctuary

The annapurna base camp sits at around 4000m and is essentially two lodges in the middle of a large valley surrounded by mountains. There are amazing views of Annapurna I (8091m) and numerous other mountains in the area. We spent two nights at the base camp and spent the second day hiking up a ridge towards Himchuli to try and get some even better views. We lucked out with the weather and there were no crowds because it was the off season. It wasn't even really that cold.

Day hike with Annapurna I in the background

The Sanctuary!

Sunrise over Annapurna I

From the sanctuary we made our way back to the village of Chomrong and decided that we weren't finished trekking yet. We had originally thought that the sanctuary trek was going to take ten days or so but it really would have only taken seven. So we decided that instead of heading back to Pokhara we would tackle the Annapurna circuit. Because of our location it was only really feasible to do the circuit in the clockwise direction which is very rarely done due to acclimatisation issues. It requires that you go from Muktinath at 3700m and cross the Thorung La pass (5540m), accending over 1500m in a day. There was also the issue of the pass potentially being closed due to snow. Normally it closes between mid-December and January. We had no way of telling what the conditions were from Chomrong but we decided to go for it anyway.

Views of Annapurna South, Him Chuli, and Machhapuchare from Tadapani

It was a two day hike from Chomrong to Gheorpani, a village which many people trek to because of its proximity to Pokhara and the views that you can get from the adjacent "Poon Hill." We got up at sunset the following morning to climb Poon Hill and get the views of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri range. Dhaulagiri is another 8000m peak (8167m) and a very difficult climb even among 8000m mountains.

Kiersten on Poon Hill with the Dhaulagiri range in the background

Dhaualagiri range with Dhaualgiri on the right

From Gheorpani it was 1750m decent to Tatopani (which means: tato= hot; pani= water) which is famous for its hot springs. On the way down we passed many mandarin orange trees and subsequently ate many mandarin oranges. They taste amazingly fresh. At Tatopani we took a dip in the hot springs. They consisted of two large pools, one much hotter than the other. It felt amazing and I didn't want to leave. They even sold beer nearby.

Mandarins!

From Tatopani there is a road that winds its way all the way to Muktinath, the last village before the Thorong La. Because we were worried about snow on the pass and this section of the trek just consists of walking on a road, we ended up taking a bus to Jomsom, a town part way up the road. The bus ride saved us two or three days of walking in probably the least interesting area of the circuit. At Jomsom the climate changed drastically; no longer were we in the jungle, we had entered the arid region of the Mustang!

North of Jomsom

The Mustang!

From Jomsom it was a really short walk to Kagbeni, a small medieval town located the furthest north you can go before entering the restricted upper Mustang region. We spent two days there and did a day hike up a nearby hill to take in the views of the Upper Mustang. Kagbeni itself was fun to explore. It had small winding alleyways and everything was made of stone.

Yak Donalds!

Excited statue in Kagbeni

Top of the hill we hiked up on day two. Upper Mustang on the left and the Thorong La pass on the far right.

Looking down at Kagbeni from halfway up our day hike. The Thorung La pass in the distance.

Kagbeni

Streets of Kagbeni

Local booze. There is nearby apple and apricot trees, hence the apple brandy everywhere.

Village between Muktinath and Kagbeni

From Kagbeni we hiked to Muktinath, a holy area for both Hindus and Buddhists. From there we hiked a little further up towards the pass to a collection of tea houses to see if we could spend the night at any of them in order to make the following day shorter. Only one was open and it took a lot of convincing in order to get the girl who worked there to let us stay. She had to go back to Muktinath that night in order to feed her chickens and cows so she had to leave us alone at the tea house. We promised to leave the key in the following morning and gave her far more than we were paying for other lodges to spend the night. We were really grateful and she even made us a simple breakfast to eat the following morning. We basically had our own cabin that night, it was around 4000m or so, so significantly higher than Muktinath.

Night before the Thorung-la pass