Day 9 - Manaslu trek

Today was going to be a very short day as we were just heading to Dharmasala, which was the final settlement before we went through Larkya La pass and the highest peak of the trek. We began early, setting out by 7 am. However, sitting at 4,500m, 500m higher than where we started, the whole route was uphill and with the altitude, the air was becoming very thin and hard to breathe in. So it took us nearly 4 hours to go 6 km.

It turned out Dharmasala was more of a camp than any kind of settlement. There were two or three rows of prefabricated shelters with many rows of tents beside them. It was like being holed up in some kind of temporary shelter. The three of us were sharing a room, which was just a row of mattresses next to each other covering the entire space, and in front of us was the "dining hall," which was another prefabricated room that had a window missing. The whole thing was incredibly basic and at this altitude, incredibly cold (prob like -10). We arrived at 12ish, and after eating our lunch, we then had NOTHING to do until bedtime. There was a hill nearby that lots of people, including James, decided to climb, but otherwise, there was nothing to do and no comfortable place to be. Everyone there was there because they were going to climb the pass tomorrow, so looking around this desolate outcrop, you just saw bored, antsy hikers milling around trying to stay warm and look for something to do. Because of the altitude, you're also not supposed to nap as it can make the acclimatisation worse.

By 3 pm, Cecilia, James and I were going crazy. We ended up speaking to a young man named Josh from Canada who was doing the trek with just himself and his guide. When Mitra found us, he managed to find us a deck of cards and taught us a Nepalese card game which managed to keep us entertained for at least 2 hours before our food arrived.

Thankfully, our food managed to warm us up and then we all retired to our room to try and sleep before our 3 am wake-up the next day to begin our hike through the peak of our journey, Larkia Pass.Read more