A beginner in the Annapurna Circuit Trek: What I wish I knew.
I would like to share with you my personal experience & itinerary of the Annapurna Circuit Trek (Nepal), together with tips and advice if you are considering going on this hike.
This is the route I have taken:
Day one: Chame (acclimatation day - by jeep)
Day two: Manang (acclimation day - by jeep)
Day three: Khangsar (Hike for 2 hours)
Day four: Tilicho Base camp (5 hours)
Day Five: Hike to Tilicho lake, back to the Base camp, afternoon hike to Shree Kharka where I spend the night (In total 9 hours)
Day six: Yak Kharka (3-4 hours)
Day seven: Thorong Phedi (3-4 hours)
Day Eight: Hike to Thorong la Pass (highest walkable pass in the world) , passing through Mukthinar, taking a bus to Tatopani where I spend the night (total nine hours without counting 3 hours bus)
Day nine: Bus Back to Pokhara.
But before I get into the do and don'ts, let me give you a little context of why and how I got myself in this adventure.
I was in Nepal only to renew my Indian visa, when my two girlfriends and I decided to go on this hike since we were not vibing with the city. I personally had no idea we were talking about 5000 meters of altitude and 4 to 9 hours daily hike. My friends seem to underestimate it as well, since one even brought her guitar and came on flip flops.
We took a bus and then a jeep on a Sunday. I have never been in such a bouncy car. It was exhausting to sit there and crush our head and shoulders to the car roof and doors for like 5 hours. We had to go already quite high, skipping a big part of the trek, cause I was limited by time and needed to catch a flight the next week.
We had our first night in a small shelter hosted by a family before making it to Manang, the acclimatation point for most hikers. In Manang there are bakeries, beautiful shelters and also an ATM. My friend Lucy got quite sick that day, headache, fever, and even vomiting. It was nothing but altitude sickness, another thing that we were underestimating. Altitude sickness can be quite serious and eventually cause death, therefore I advise you to research it if you are planning to go on a hike.
We soon enough understood that although the 3 of us were dreaming of an easy peasy shared time together, our journey wasn't going to be about that. One of us getting sick and myself needing to rush through the mountain in order to make it to catch a flight was not sounding like we could steak together for long. We embraced that inevitable truth of soon having to face separation.
The day after, noticing Lucy was feeling slightly better, we decided to go on our first walk to the closest refugee. It is called Khangsar. I noticed other people were walking high speed with their guides, wearing proper shoes and walking sticks and I felt we were completely out of tune.
We spent the night in Khangsar and headed to Tilicho base camp the next morning. I wanted us to see the highest lake in the world (Tilicho) The walk to base camp took us seven hours since we were in our shanti, shanti mood (walking very slow)
Was there in Tilicho base camp when I understood that despite everybody's exhaustion, I had no time to take the hike calmly any longer if I wanted to be in Pokhara on time and catch my flight to Delhi. I could not force the others to keep on with me, but I also could not keep on with them anylonger. Until then I was inseparable from my friends and I didn't even want to think about being away from them. However then I understood, that was one of these moments when life was pushing me to be independent.
Tilicho Lake
So I woke up at 4.40, ate an Oreo and left walking in the night towards Tilicho Lake. I am used to moving from impulse and to think every challenge is manageable for me, but that was different. So before I let you know how did I manage to survive those seven days on my own, without proper equipment and no experience, let me share some basic that I was not aware of:
1- The mountain is not to be underestimated. People do get lost and never found. Annapurna has a 30 percent mortality rate. Once you are lost you won't be properly searched with drones or helicopters.
2- Is important to get a guide. Was making friends with a local guide is what really had helped me. Guides are also insured in case you need a helicopter. And as well, the relationship with your guide, the cultural exchange is absolutely delightful.
3- Is good to know which medication to take with you and to know how to identify altitude sickness.
4- Equipment is important; having proper shoes to avoid injury by twisting your ankle, sliding down, slipping. The roads might be wet, slippery, many things can go wrong and you don't want to be on flip flops or vans like me and my friends. Get clothes for both hot and cold. I had a scarf, hat, even gloves from the peak. While being on high altitude I'd sleep with my hat on cause it gets cold at night and is likely to get sick. Have a light hiking jacket. Bring an extra pair of socks and cozy clothes that should remind dry for when you reach a refugee or need to catch a bus.
4- You will need cash up there. Better to take as much as possible in Manag, where there are still ATMS. Things will keep on getting expensive the higher you go and there is no card payment. Eventually you need to pay for a hot shower and even to charge your phone. You also can never know if for an emergency you will need to have extra cash. For instance it can be helpful or needed to take a horse. To go up to Tilicho Lake by horse they charge 10.000 nepalese and to make the cross you can expect to pay 100 Dollars.
5- Wear sunscreen, also at night. My face got peeling off even while I was wearing 50 sunscreen.
6- Pick your season! Although no one would have recommended it at the end of May (like I did) since it is too close to monsoon season and it can be cloudy or unstable weather) for me it was the best choice to do it while there were not so many travelers.
7- Consider having a good amount of time to rest after the experience. You will need long night sleeps and processing emotions, thoughts and sensations that will most likely appear. A sport massage is advisable and well deserved!
This experience had teach me about resiliency, about determination, about strength. I also took the opportunity to investigate what physiological factors were the ones that helped me to keep pushing through exhaustion. And this is what I found out:
1- Supporting myself with others or the idea of others.
Thinking about other people who might be nearby was giving me the strength to go on. Just to imagine a presence as if they would be waiting for me and calling me a couple of meters ahead would make me go. For me this prove the power of faith
2-Spirituality. I keep in mind I was taking a spiritual path. Hiking the Himalayas is almost like taking a dip in the Ganges, an opportunity to observe the world through a non-dual eye.
3- Chanting. I wanted to give deeper meaning to my efforts so I offered it to something bigger than us humans.
4- Compassion. When I was exhausted, I thought about the suffering of other beings. Like horses carrying people though the mountain. I imagined myself taking over its suffering to alleviate it with my effort. This would give me strength to go on.
5- Setting parallel goals. Connect the action of walking in such conditions to the benefit it would bring to my life. For example, knowing that for me, this experience would build more stamina that would help me to dance better and for longer hours once I come back to my routine. I connected the goal of trekking to my passion to dance, but others examples would be to be in general better shape (both mentally and physically).
6- Taking one step at the time, one foot after the other feet. This helped me to stay present in any moment, cause once the mind starts wandering about past and future is no help. I was not thinking about the final destination but about each movement dragging me closer to it. Can be thought of as a walking meditation but with aching feet.
7- Staying present and focused. Don't let my mind drag me anywhere else but here and now. I proved how important this is when I studied the state of my mind on my weakest day; it was rather agitated, thinking about the hike I had ahead the day after, thinking negatively about what was coming, seeing myself incapable to go on. These types of thoughts had made it terribly hard for
8- Using a walking stick. The moment that I was lent a walking stick it was magnificently helpful. The walking stick was to my walk like the breath is to meditation ; a great supporter where to fix my attention and give the weight of my body. If you can, get one!
As last resource: I Imagined I was in bed sleeping and resting. This is tricky because it implies to dissociate yourself from your body and perhaps even ignore the signs of exhaustion. However, as a last resource, it has helped me. It dragged the attention out of my body and by pretending I was already there at the resting point, I alleviated some of the pain of the hiking.
Overall, even when it was one of the mental and physical challenges I went through in my life, it was also one of the strongest and most revealing experiences to live surrounded by the quiet mountains and push through the stress. For me it is now certain that I need to repeat this sort of experience at least once a year.