Annapurna Base Camp: When The Mountains Are Calling

One minute I was in Munich training for the Munich marathon and the next I was replying to a Life Happens Outdoors Instagram story to say, ‘count me in’!

Of all my mountain holidays and hikes this year, Annapurna Base Camp was not on my radar. It was a mountain tour I knew was happening (through following Life Happens Outdoors on Instagram and Facebook) but life got in the way like life does. But then I went, and I now call it one of the most incredible experiences of my life.

As I said, I’d known about the Annapurna Base Camp tour organized by Life Happens Outdoors for a very long time. I’d first heard about it while trekking pole pole to the summit of Kilimanjaro in June 2017.

Kilimanjaro was a game changer for me. I met some terrific people, it was my first real mountain experience (having only previously taken the occasional hike in the English countryside in my younger years) and well, I was climbing the tallest mountain in Africa, which incidentally happens to be the tallest free-standing mountain in the World! That kind of thing changes people. Believe me. (This article goes someway to describing what I mean by that: 5 reasons to avoid Kilimanjaro).

So why Annapurna Base Camp?

It’s not a summit. (By the way, that is not important or even a valid point)! The trip was taking me to more than 1,500 m lower altitude than Kilimanjaro. (FYI – also not important). But what changed? Why now? Why at all?

Honestly, I don’t have an answer to any of that, but I do clearly recall LHO’s founder Rami Rasamny saying on that fateful Kilimanjaro trip – mountaineers don’t intend to climb every mountain but some mountains call to you more than others.

Never were truer words spoken. That is exactly what happened with this trip. One minute I was in Munich training for the Munich marathon and the next I was replying to a Life Happens Outdoors Instagram story to say, ‘count me in’!

THE MOUNTAINS ARE CALLING
The trip began in Kathmandu where we first met together as a group. Different personalities, cultures, nationalities, ages, and professions; all united by Life Happens Outdoors in our passion for… erm… the outdoors. Next day we took a short local flight to Pokhara and despite valid expectations to the contrary, the flight was on time! Our first Dal Bhat (local dish) of the trip and we were soon trekking along a dirt-road, then following a path upwards towards our first tea house on the route to Annapurna Base Camp.

One word can be used to describe the terrain experienced along the Annapurna Base Camp tour… STAIRS. Think of doing 30 minutes on the stair-master in the gym and then forget the 30 minutes; just do it the whole day instead! Looking back at my Go Pro footage and photos, there were not that many stairs but the memory of going up and down a lot of stairs stands out for me on the Annapurna Base Camp tour!

But back to the Dal Bhat. I mean the Annapurna Base Camp tour…

Wow. The diversity of the landscape is refreshing! Never do you feel that you are only going upwards. The entire tour is a mix of up and down, and up again, and down again. From Pohara to Ghandruk we did encounter a lot of stairs built from the natural mountain rocks in the area. It was also quite busy with mostly tourist jeeps and buses along the dirt road in the beginning before we reached the trek-proper. Continuing Ghandruk to Chomrong, then Chomrong to Dovan on the next day brought us through mountain village life and reminded me a lot of my hikes in the Alps over the summer. Crossing small rivers and waterfalls, and walking through forests but with more villagers, porters, trekkers and mules(!) than the Austrian Alps, and always against the backdrop of some of the most imposing mountains in the world. We had great weather and kept a relaxed pace, even stopping for coffee and chocolate croissant at a German bakery on route!

Dovan to Machapuchare Base Camp saw more dramatic changes in landscape.

You stand among the prayer flags and the memorials, against the powerful and imposing snow-covered mountain tops alight with the warm glow of the morning sun and it is nothing short of spiritual and moving.

What started as a trek through a rainforest with beautiful waterfalls and monkeys in the trees on the previous days now became a more exposed rocky terrain, and it got cooler. The weather turned. As sunshine and light rainfall became snowflakes falling from the sky, the trek became nothing short of mystical.Trekking in Nepal is special. The merge of Buddhist and Hindu cultures is clear from the moment you land in Kathmandu to every step you take into the mountains and back again. Now heavy mist had closed in around us, a pure white blanket of snow fell gently across the path we walked, weathered prayer wheels were spun by hand as we passed and the contrasting bright colours of the prayer flags draped between trees, carrying the prayers in whispers; you feel all that!

WHEN THE MOUNTAINS CALL
Machapuchare Base Camp was our final resting point before our 3:30 am waking call to Annapurna Base Camp. An early start is a must to capture the very moment when the sun starts to rise like a halo behind the famous Annapurna mountain range.

I felt alive.

I also felt very grateful. After the snow and mist of the previous day we now had a clear, bright, crisp view of these amazing mountains. We had come here as eight unique individuals, most of whom had never met one another before, and we had journeyed to this amazing place together as one.

There are no words that can describe that feeling as you look on to these imposing and yet stunning peaks. What makes it even more emotional and touching at Annapurna Base Camp is you know you are among great mountaineers, both past and present. You stand among the prayer flags and the memorials, against the powerful and imposing snow-covered mountain tops alight with the warm glow of the morning sun and it is nothing short of spiritual and moving.

THE MOUNTAINS CALLED US. WE LISTENED
I learned an important lesson on this Annapurna Base Camp tour. Every mountain experience is different. It is just that. It is an experience. It is a journey. You can have no expectations when you go the mountains. Just take it for what it is; an experience. No two mountain experiences will be the same.

I climbed (and summited) Kilimanjaro in June 2017 with Life Happens Outdoors. I had a great trip. I had a fantastic journey. However, the summit-experience itself was not what I expected. I was cold. I was exhausted and while yes, it was somehow beautiful, I failed to appreciate that against the challenges I felt I was facing at the time, and my overwhelming thought was, ‘oh good, we made it. Can I go back down now’? I was kind of disappointed. (Disclaimer: It was still an awesome trip and terrific experience, which is precisely the point I am trying to make here)!

On the Annapurna Base Camp tour (another trip organized by Life Happens Outdoors), I listened to others in the group as they shared their stories from Kilimanjaro and made their inevitable comparisons to the Annapurna Base Camp tour. My Kilimanjaro summit experience was their Annapurna Base Camp. Why?

They too felt frozen cold and exhausted. Exactly what I had said of my Kilimanjaro summit experience.

This is when I realized that there is no way to predict the feelings, emotions and experiences of a trip to the mountains. I was reliably informed that while the top of Kilimanjaro is more than 1km higher in altitude than Annapurna Base Camp, the environment and temperature experienced on each of these days were comparable.

What more can I say?

When the mountain calls, listen. It may be a summit. It may be a circuit. It may be a trek. It may be a climb. You will never know what you might experience when you get there but you should answer that call. Go there and experience it. The mountain has spoken.