Annapurna- Day 11
Today was Xmas morning and we woke up to a white one (obviously we'r in the Himalayas). We had a decent breakfast and left around 9am to go to Thorong Phedi which would be our last stop before we we oils cross the pass. Some people opted for the High camp and hour further and closer to the pass although this was not recommended as you would be sleeping in extremely high altitude without fully acclimatising. Nonetheless, a lot of people did it to take an hour off their big adventure across the pass!
We walked to Thorong Phedi in a few hours but my gosh were they terrifying hours. Come 10am there was strong winds, strong enough to push me off the trail and onto the ground, I was thankful I wasn't at a cliff edge which a lot of it had been before and after. After this we passed through a known landslide area and had to take huge gaps between us when walking on the narrow cliff edge. I'm was almost tempted to hold the rocks for support but then last minute reflex told me .. hell no! After a lot of struggles and challenges with the wind, we finally got to Thorong Pedi, where Rick and myself took the opportunity to kick off the hiking boots, get into our beds and sleep for a few hours before waking up for 90 mins approx for a Dal Bhat dinner. Everyone was anxious for the next day considering it would be an extremely long day trekking (10-12hrs depending on speed and weather). We knew that the weather was on our side with it being clear for the next few days but yet we were told to be up and off the pass by 11/12 because strong winds cause big problems for Trekkers. This is what happened in October when the disaster happened, a cyclone came and the Trekkers were up there too late around 3pm which is not recommended. We would have a 4/5 hour steep decent from the pass 5416m to the town of Muktinath on the other side at 3700m and you would want to get there when it was bright. We had our dinner, ordered our breakfast for the next day and I even made a very expensive satellite phone call to my mam before I left for bed once again.
Tmro was the big day and even though it was Boxing Day and we had wanted to do the pass on Xmas Day, we figured it was still Xmas somewhere in the world.
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