Mardi Himal 5 : Low Camp to High Camp – Trek Day 3

Low Camp to High Camp : ~6 KM; ~ 5 Hours

It's 6:45 am. Did we miss the sunrise? As we go up the altitude and more into the winter, the Sun gets lazy too. So, at 6:45 in the morning, the Sun has only just started to wake up. We hurry out of the rooms and go up a few steps in the campsite to get a better view.

Sunrise at Low Camp

A bit later, a sumptuous breakfast of the usual Nepali bread and potato and egg set us off for the day. 

The Usual Breakie
Gurung (Tibetan) bread with potatoes and egg

After an hour and a half of climbing through the forest trail, we get to an opening with a tea shop perched on the slope. And suddenly, a cinematic view opens in front of us!

The joy when this wide view suddenly unfolds after a thick forest trail !

Nange Danda

Starting from the left, Annapurna South followed by Hiunchuli, Annapurna and then the towering Machhapuchhre to the right, a marvellous panorama of royal peaks emerges against the bright blue sky! This is the first viewpoint in the trek where we see all the peaks in one frame. The area is called Nange Danda. (Danda meaning Hill)

Can't get enough of this!

A woman in her mid-40s crosses us in steady steps, carrying a basket full of chickens. It weighs about 30 kilos – she says with a blessed smile. She rests with us for a bit in that tea shop. Our guide offers her a handful of mumfali-s (peanuts).

Big Fat Chicken makes me chuckle :D

From Nange Danda, we can see our next few stops or viewpoints and the tiny houses where we would spend the night at the far end of a mountain top. It’s all pretty much uphill from here.

Our next stop - those blue cluster of houses in the distance at Badal Danda

Badal Danda (3300m)

We, then, cross a few other scattered teahouses of Nange Danda, a volleyball court and march on to the next climb. We follow the path with a series of steps going up.

Approaching Badal Danda
Machhapuchhre makes my heart swell !

A few mules bray and a few chickens cluck as we get to the next viewpoint i.e. Bandal Danda.

So Pretty & Proud ! :D

It’s midday now and the fog has started climbing up the valleys. It's almost a race against the cloud to get to the top of this mountain i.e. Badal Danda to experience the view before it gets all fogged up.

Racing the Cloud !

Well, you can’t really win against Nature. We are just able to catch a little glimpse of the queenly peaks before the soft clouds start brushing against them. Bandal Danda, literally translating to Cloud Hill, holds true to its name!

Cloud Creeping up at Badal Danda

The rest of the afternoon trail is a game of hide-and-seek with the wandering clouds, the enigmatic mountains and the playful valleys.

Just a happy me !

High Camp (3500m)

We reach High Camp in the afternoon. It’s extremely cold here! We are out of network, so can’t really check the temperature. It’s expected to be -17 degrees Celsius at night, but my body is already shaking. The teahouse owner here has a big brown chicken which seems to be shaking as well. Every chance it gets, the chicken gets into a comfortably warm corner inside the toilet! I prefer the dining area though.

On the way to High Camp, near Badal Danda...

We quickly change, do a little walk around the campsite and then glue ourselves to the seats closest to the burning stove inside the dining room. It’s still not enough! My right side of the body is closer to the burner and my left side of the body complains about it!

Cairns on the way...

Its amazing how the hosts always manage to serve steaming hot food in this bitter cold weather. A hot plate of dal-bhat appears at about 7PM in the evening and I hoover it up like a greedy buffoon. Like the Nepali saying goes - Dal bhat power – 24 hour!

At High Camp - cold Me, thick Cloud & lofty Machhapuchhre..!

Our guide, Maniram advises to sip water through the night to reduce the chances of AMS. It obviously has the downside of the evident toilet trips at night. But I do follow the advice.

As The Sun kisses goodnight to The Queen...

And when in the middle of my sleep, I get out of the warm duvet and go out into the chilling cold night, a huge white mass of Annapurna South and Hiunchuli and the sky-scraping Machhapuchhre tower over me against the black night sky. It is serene. It is seductive. It is dangerously beautiful.