Heading for the pass

Magnificent Thorung Peak towers above 5400m-high Thorung La Pass. Pictures by Sari MacKenzie

Gisborne physician Sari MacKenzie shares her adventures while trekking the Annapurna Circuit from Besisahar to Pokhara in Nepal, considered one of the best treks in the world. Here’s the third of a series about her 17-day, 273km expedition which took her over the 5400m-high Thorung La Pass.

We left wifi and electricity behind us at Manang on Day 8. Everything changed the higher we climbed. The scenery went from hot and tropical to Arctic freezing and barren land. The food which remained the same as far as choices go just got more expensive and my card-playing got better.

The climb to get to base camp was like a high intensity training workout — a three-minute climb, a one-minute rest. I could feel my heart rate get into the 130 range with just this little effort.

My guide Niraj brought a pulse oximeter with us to measure our oxygen saturation and heart rate. My resting heart rate was 100 and my oxygen was 84 percent! It didn’t feel that low. Apparently this is not unusual in a healthy person at this altitude and if one acclimatises correctly, one should not get symptoms. I had so far escaped any symptoms of altitude sickness.

This was always my concern when I had put in so much effort to get this far. The only treatment was to descend to a lower altitude which meant I might never make it over the top. I also certainly did not want to be flown out by helicopter.

However, the company does make sure you have purchased insurance for such circumstances.

Sitting in my room at base camp I could see my breath. I was wearing two pairs of long underwear, three pairs of socks, three base layer shirts with a thin and thick down jacket over the top. My typing hand was freezing. I have never remembered being so cold.

I wasn’t allowed to nap because I might wake up with a headache. Dinner was at 5pm and headlamp out at 6pm for a 4am wake-up.

Next day we were due to head off at about 5am to cross Thorung La Pass at 5400 metres. This is the same height as Everest Base Camp. The climb would take us three and a half hours and then another three and a half hours to Muktinath.

It snowed about 12-13 centimetres during the night. There was no way I was going to tramp to the outhouse 100 metres away so I peed outside my door . . . and didn’t care if anyone saw me.

Then I woke up at 2am with an excruciating headache and knew what that meant. The onset of altitude sickness. I took two panadol and wished it away with deep breathing, thinking if I could get more oxygen to my brain maybe that would help.

I took a Diamox tablet and hoped that would kick in soon. It didn’t. I paced back and forth in my room with this terrible headache, wanting to vomit.

‘I’ve never been this high, literally, in my life’At 4am I was at the point where I thought I was going to get worse with more serious symptoms requiring me to descend to lower altitude, and miss my chance to get through the pass. So I went into the main cabin where the cook was lighting the fire. I asked him to wake up Niraj for me. After three attempts (none of the guides who all slept in the same room professed to know a Sari) Niraj came running out with my porter Arjun. They were both suited up and looked ready to evacuate me.

I told them I just wanted to try some garlic soup and toast to see if that worked. Slowly as I gingerly ate, I started to feel better. An hour later, I felt confident that I could do the climb so we set off with headlamps on into the dark, snowy mountains.

The ascent was slow going — harder than the day before. There were track markers about every 100 metres and I made it my goal to get to each one without stopping, then to rest for a minute and continue. As the dawn came, the anticipation of getting to the top grew. The light on the snow was eerie and amazing.

We passed an Asian woman who had initially started the trek on her mountain bike. The previous night as the snow began to fall, she’d found a porter to carry it for her for $US50. We saw people on horses and I occasionally yearned for that option.

Finally, with the sun shining like a blinding light, we made it to the top of the pass. Here everyone was high-fiving and cheering their accomplishments.

As Niraj, Arjun and I all hugged, I had a tear in my eye. I have never been this high, literally, in my life. All my anxieties about whether I would make it dissipated, and now I knew it would be a fairly straightforward trek down to lower land. The views all around us were of massive white snow-covered peaks — nature without disturbance from humans except for we happy people at the top.

There was a cabin serving hot drinks and food. But it was blowing gale winds and it was impossible to stay unsheltered for more than a few minutes without continuing to move to keep warm. So after a few pictures, we began our descent . . . it was all downhill, or so I thought.

To be continued . . .