Going up

Today was the most physically challenging day of my life. I proved to myself that I can endure eight hours of sustained strenuous walking at high altitude.

After a sleepless night, due to an altitude headache, we got up at 4:30 am. But we moved so slowly that we didn't set out until 6:30. This turned out to be OK, since we were the last to go, so didn't have to put up with large groups of people. In fact, we didn't see anybody. The climb up to High Camp, which we did yesterday, seemed twice as hard today. Beyond High Camp there were some stretches of narrow snow-covered ledges, where a bad step would send you down an icy slope into oblivion. I wasn't too crazy about those. Then there was seemingly endless climbing up the snowy trail. Needless to say, the rarified air made the climb even more difficult, and there was much stopping to catch our breath.

We stopped at a remote teashop at 5000 m for Cadburys, and who should be waiting for us, but Mountain Dog! He must have been acclimatizing! Our new companion followed us, and accompanied us all the way up to Thorong La, at 5416 m, about a three hour climb. At the top was a big cairn, covered with prayer flags, and, of course, a tea shop. Its prices matched its elevation, with a cup of hot lemon tea, made from fresh snow, going for $1. Cheap for Starbucks, expensive for Nepal. We couldn't resist the novelty, though. I was still feeling good, so I climbed a little hill to get to 18,000 ft. I was feeling so good I started to jog up, and almost fainted! The views were good, since we were right up in the mountains, but not spectacular.

After an hour, it was time to head down. Going down is worse than climbing, due to the severe strain in puts on the knees. And we had 1600 m to go down. This took forever (about four hours), and was incredibly tiring. There wasn't much to see, either. The only things up there were snow and gravel. Nepal has a huge untapped resource of gravel on top of its mountains. None of this stopped Mountain Dog, who trotted behind us the whole way.

Resting

We finally emerged on one of the most beautiful sights I ever saw. A huge valley, with green terraced fields, villages, hills, and huge mountains on the far side. It looked like an oil painting you could touch. Unfortunately, we still had an hour of steep, slippery gravel trails to descend.

Then came the worst part of all. We thought the town of Muktinath was close, but it was an endless walk (about an hour) over the valley floor. Even though the terrain was relatively flat, there were still many rocks we had to climb over. By the time we got to Muktinath, we were hobbling like two old men with canes.

Mountain Dog followed us into the bizarre Bob Marley guesthouse (which only plays Bob Dillan), then disappeared. I guess he couldn't wait for us. We ate a huge dinner, and went to bed at 7.

Stair Machine We climbed up 996 m. Chicago's Sears Tower is 442 m high, with 108 floors. So we climbed up the equivalent of 2.25 Sears Towers, or 243 floors. To make it more challenging, these Sears Towers were 4420 m up, or built on top of ten Sears Towers! To complete the insanity, we climbed down 3.7 Sear Towers, or 395 floors. Feel the burn!