March 15, 2024, edited by Francesco Rigodanza
Day 2 - Sjange– Chame. 42 km 2300 d+
“Friends don’t let you do stupid things by yourself”
Alessio in his best pre-Nepal persuasive speech
Back at it. Wake up at seven in the morning, repack the backpack.
“Hey, but why isn’t there anything left in here today?”
Calorie recovery, ginger tea abuse, final glances at the map, and off we go. Destination: the 2,700-meter altitude of Chame, at the entrance to the northern Annapurna Valley, where you can truly imagine seeing these Himalayan mountains.
It’s the first full day. The one where you’ll be outside almost all day. It’s the riskiest day, as a lot of the rest of the trek is decided here. Because enthusiasm and freshness easily lead you to overdo it, to do just a little more, to push yourself too hard, or to go a little faster. But when the journey gets long, when the days pile up one after another, every “too much” takes its toll. Especially if you calculate based on your pace during easy loops around home. It’s much better to do a little less. To take care of yourself.
Being competitive trail runners, Alessio, Camilla, Francesco, Michele, and Roberto are the worst candidates for this frugal management of their strength. Roberto wants to run, Michele has too much energy, Francesco doesn’t understand anything when he sees someone ahead of him, Camilla wants to show that she is up to the group’s level. And Alessio, who feels like the coordinator, has taken on, without the group’s knowledge, the responsibility for the success of the trek, and his friends have never seen him so determined to reach a goal. The others can tell that for Alessio, reaching the destination has an extra meaning. He doesn’t say it, but you can tell. You can clearly sense his anxiety. But his friends, as friends do, notice it and keep pointing it out with good-natured teasing.
The first few kilometers are an enjoyable up-and-down through the villages lining the valley, some larger, with a few more serious houses and shops, others much more minimalist. All colorful, especially in pink, light blue, yellow, and red. They like bright colors in Nepal. And it’s beautiful that way. But slowly the vegetation becomes less abundant and the settlements more sparse. Only the Tibetan bridges are always plentiful.
Almost twenty degrees today. The pace remains cheerful, with a desire to rack up kilometers, running as soon as the road flattens, stopping little, waiting for nothing. There’s a lot of desire, maybe too much, so by the 20th km of the day Alessio calls for a break. They are drinking far too little, and they aren’t eating anything. Very bad.
Tactical stop at a bar. Where bars here are private homes where an extra table is added inside the living room and whatever they have is offered—little choice, lots of hospitality, lots of kindness. The things available are few and always the same, sometimes with a few pleasant surprises: Coca-Cola, Digestive, ginger tea, Oreo. Enough to stock up on calories until evening. Or at least until the next crisis. Because there’s still half the way to go.
They left at eight in the morning and the first four hours went smoothly under a warm winter sun, in t-shirts and shorts. But as the sun gets high, right in the middle of the day, as it shakes the valleys, a cold wind rises from the peaks that drains the desire to stop. And the difficulties increase. Francesco today seems to have magically recovered from the previous day’s athletic depression. Today Michele and Camilla are struggling more. Michele seems to be fighting with his head, not very inclined to spend all those hours on his feet at a pace that gives little adrenaline. Camilla, on the other hand, is trying to hide in every way how much more tired she feels than the others on the uphill.
Camilla is the only woman in the group and despite having been immediately welcomed as a long-time companion, she feels a little inadequate. Camilla came to Nepal because a few years ago she decided that sooner or later she wanted to go to some very beautiful places, and these places would be New Zealand, Patagonia, and Nepal. So she had to tick them off the list. She invited herself in October, didn’t think twice, discovered that Alessio had a trip planned there, called him and asked, “Can I come?” Simple, direct, effective. Michele, Francesco, Roberto, and Alessio had already traveled and vacationed together many times, shared apartments and experiences in a nostalgic atmosphere of returning to teenage moments, and from the outside, from what Camilla could filter through social media content, it even seemed like they were having a really great time. Camilla in Nepal wanted to see beautiful mountains but with the right company, the kind where laughter is spontaneous and takes priority over performance.
However, shortly after inviting herself, Camilla realized that this group of men she was joining was a group of competitive and somewhat athletic people. She is afraid of being a burden, of not being up to the task, forcing them to wait for her or, worse, being left alone in the remote Himalayan valleys.
She really prepared for this. Perhaps she was the only one of the five. Yet, today she is struggling a bit, and she is working twice as hard to pretend she isn’t struggling. But it shows a little. It is still the seventh hour of a stage taken on with the usual excessive enthusiasm. She holds on. Fortunately, a break arrives.
They have now reached 2,700 meters. The rainforest has lost its density, the first pines appear, ice along the road. The wind has died down, but the temperature has changed, the sun no longer warms. It’s time to abandon the summer uniform and put on some of those warm clothes that take up so much space in the backpack.
Gloves, thermal wear, windbreaker. And finally a decent food break. It would be enough to stop a little longer, remember to eat and drink, to increase the chances of success by 50%, but then it would take away the suspense of the challenge. Final kilometers to reach Chame, the goal of the day, another Tibetan bridge, two cursed steps to climb, a descent on hateful concrete, and the stage is over, there is only to choose the accommodation for the day. The choice falls on the one that seems to be blowing out the smoke of a lit stove. Hotel Yeti. Real beds, en-suite bathroom (but the bathroom has no glass in the windows!), abundant blankets. It’s only twenty-seven hours since they started walking, but small things are already enough to change the mood of the group.
It’s the first real day, the first day spent entirely on the road. Someone is tired, someone very euphoric, but everything seems to be going well. The pain thresholds are respected and the group chemistry is well established. Everything is going well. And when everything is going well… then it passes.
Day 3 - Chame– Manang, 35 km 1300 d+
“Don’t catch a cold or you’ll catch cholera”
Recommendations from a Venetian mom to her son leaving for Nepal
Goodbye to the luxury of leaving in shorts, kissed by the first rays of the sun. At 2,700 m in Chame it is cold. And not the cold we are used to in heated European homes. No, in this corner of the world it is a constant nuisance. It is cold when you get out of the sleeping bag, it is cold when you go to the bathroom, it is cold when you try to have breakfast at a temperature just above freezing. It drains your energy, especially that of the engine, enthusiasm, and motivation. Francesco’s, in particular, are running out too quickly, the initial unpleasant feeling has not improved. This morning he coughed up something greenish in the thin, oxygen-depleted air. He is afraid because he feels he is getting sick and if he gets sick he cannot continue his journey with the others.
The group photo at the beginning of the day, taken by the Chame hotel owner, shows five people covered in every possible layer of clothing asking themselves “but will I manage to get a little warm today?”. The menu calls for more food stops and less bullshit, just reach 3,500 meters at Lower Pisang, then you will pass into the wide valley north of Annapurna and to reach Manang it will just be a matter of straight-aways at the bottom of the valley.
Few alternatives and off we go, as always uphill, venturing through the shaded valleys that, due to the climate and widespread apple orchards, look like a facsimile of a Val Venosta with extended peaks.
The pace is more conservative than the previous days, more cautious, on the third day finally the attitude is more prudent and the pace regular. Almost monotonous. And then bam, just turn around near a Tibetan bridge and the eastern face of Annapurna II, 7,937 m of mountain magnificence slammed straight into the faces of five travelers who had been waiting for nothing else for days. A real image of the reason they have been walking out of sync with jet lag for a couple of days. For that. Nothing else but that. Something they would never otherwise have been able to see with their own eyes: a big beautiful mountain. Without needing to agree, the march stops, an unspoken, unwanted, desired forced break. Their eyes well up as they stare at that enormous pile of rock. Silence. Admire.
For a good twenty minutes they proceed suspended from reality, still struck by that change of perspective. They have already covered 20 km that seemed far too easy compared to the previous day, today they deserve to be celebrated with an adequate break. Arrival at 3,500 m at Lower Pisang and food stop.
Nepal is not the most suitable place for anxious and hasty people. Or maybe it is the most suitable place precisely to change these characteristics. The Nepalese lifestyle is more relaxed and minimalist. For us Westerners it would be easy to label it with a generic “poverty”, but it would be a mistake to limit it to that. Of course, less financial availability is noticeable, but it is not enough to justify this difference. It seems that every Nepalese before doing something asks themselves “but do I really have to?”. Everything must be tackled calmly, very calmly, that urgent things are never important. So it is an affront to have breakfast before 8 (but Alessio asked for it anyway), it is unthinkable to have lunch ready within an hour (and Alessio complained about it) or to expect that if a request is answered “I’ll do it later”, that later is immediately (and Alessio prompted). This is the reason why the quick “sandwich and hot tea” stop is lasting more than an hour and someone is getting more impatient.
Yes, Alessio, he is the organizer, the one from whom it all started, the one who first tried to convince as many friends as possible that going with him to Nepal was a beautiful adventure. He takes care of everything. He is the coordinator. But this trip is his, especially his. He never said it, but it can be seen in every gesture of his. He has never been seen with such determination to reach it at all costs, for his friends that new approach is almost bewildering. Alessio came to Nepal to be able to say he did the Annapurna trek in six days when few thought it possible, he wants to prove that he can carry that project to the end, his project, that he can do it. He walks at 3,500 meters above sea level on a thin wire that separates him from obsession. Nepal for Alessio is a project to be realized, a project he wanted so much.
But determination gives as much as it takes away. It can spur you to give more, but also consume when things slip out of your schedule. And so today Alessio is struggling, he has a haggard face that his friends know all too well. Of course, never like Francesco who by coughing new germs is alternating crises and resurrections with the frequency of a tuning fork at a metal concert, but they are two different difficulties. Francesco carries around immune systems that are ready for the scrap heap, Alessio weights and anxieties that are not given to know.
From Lower Pisang to Manang are fifteen kilometers of straight road straight ahead in which from Val Venosta we have been teleported to Finland. A long dirt road where at every shaded stretch ice and snow are hidden. Roberto and Michele continue convinced and relaxed, Camilla is reassured by not being the one struggling the most, but empathizes with the last ones in the group, Alessio tries to slow down the overall pace, Francesco alternates between hare-tortoise moments every ten minutes. It is a funny situation, from the outside it could look like a race run by five athletes with a terrible strategy; instead, they are just trying to reach the goal of the day each in their own way.
Francesco snaps as soon as he sees the village, but it is the wrong village, Roby laughs, off we go, Camilla sings with Michele, Alessio sproloquizes, Francesco redeems himself because it is worth living on adrenaline anyway, Michele runs away from the yaks. Here is Manang, the real one, the one from which the climb on a real path at the pass starts.
Entering the hotel, relief at seeing almost real beds and food that can be ordered in two hours. Tomorrow is the day of the great ascent, the one at 5,400 m, the one that scares every member of the group. But it is a problem for the fourth day, and when you are traveling you learn to tackle things as they happen and enjoy the present, especially if the present is group dinners with loud laughter. And a warm stove.