This is Anjel and I standing at the top of the Thorong La pass in Nepal.
We tried to take several photos of ourselves at the literal high-point of this trek and frankly, they all came out a bit off. Clearly your brain isn’t firing on all cylinders at that altitude.
For example, it didn’t occur to Anjel to take off her pack until we’d snapped several photos and she never removed her bandana. Luckily you can tell it’s her because we were wearing nearly identical trekking pants and different colored versions of the exact same jacket. …Did we mention that we’re married? Or that we’ve been spending nearly every second together for the last 10 months? Yeah, weird things happen when you spend that much time together.
The landscape at almost three-and-a-half miles up is pretty desolate. Not only are you above the tree-line here, but you’re above pretty much everything else. There are no bushes, no shrubs, not even the occasional flower. The sunlight and UV radiation is also significantly more intense. At 18,000 feet you’re above 50% of the world’s atmosphere.
Trekking at that altitude is an amazing and challenging experience. With the significantly thinner air you’d think you’d be wheezing and out of breath the whole time. You’re not, but only because your body can’t work like that. If you tried to walk at a normal pace you’d be stopping to catch your breath in just a minute or so. Instead what your body does is to slow down to a sustainable rate of effort.
You can simulate this pace by very slowly saying “one one-thousand, two one-thousand, one one-thousand, two one-thousand…” and in time with that, walking with a stride no longer than your grandfather shuffling across the bedroom in his slippers.
It is slow.
But we knew it would take a while. The morning we set out for the pass we woke up at 3:45 am to be ready to hit the trail as soon as there was enough light to see where we were going, which was just after 5. We reached the summit by 9:30 taking just under 4.5 hours to cover 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) and 3,200 feet of elevation gain.
Once you’re up there, standing on top of the pass, is a pretty cool feeling. Thorong La is one of the highest places in the world you can reach just by walking – in fact you’re higher than quite a few mountaineering summits. The pass at Thorong La is 2,000 feet higher than Mont Blanc and 3,000 feet above the summit of the Matterhorn. Take that Alps!
The sobering part of the day is that after you’ve climbed to the summit, you still have 6 miles and 5,300 vertical feet to descend before you’re done for the day.
Still, it makes it pretty easy to justify one of these after dinner:
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post. Do you know the story about all the flags around the sign on the top of the mountain?
so did you leave a ‘flag’ to keep you tied to the mountain? were there other hikers around or where you the only crazy americans.
what is is like to eat and drink at that altitude? when i would ski at squaw valley at tahoe ( only 9000 ft) i found i either wasn’t hungry or couldn’t eat much – like my digestion slowed way down – an egg was planty for lunch…
the photos are fascinating! you say no plants – does that mean no critters either? wonder if anyone ever walked their dog over this trail – probably the dog would be too smart to go.
miss you – glad to be traveling with you though.
love
dani
Amazing, guys!
I bet it made the gravy-cake that much better.
@”Luckily you can tell it’s her because we were wearing nearly identical trekking pants and different colored versions of the exact same jacket. …Did we mention that we’re married?”
Seems like a perfect combination of comfort and wind resistance.
Question though, Conn: Do they make that in men’s?