March 22, 2024, edited by Francesco Rigodanza
Day 4 - Manang– Ranipauwa, 35 km 2000 d+
“Altissima, Purissima, Levissima”
Reinhold Messner describing his first crisis in Nepal
The trek around Annapurna involves no peaks, no 8000ers in mind, and living a life of comparisons, so reaching 5400 m amidst this array of possible hypoxias seems like a walk in the park. It isn’t. Once you reach 3000 m, altitude becomes a factor. Not just constant bathroom breaks to deal with completely disrupted internal pressures. It’s been a while since the symptoms started becoming more frequent: the pressure in the head, the constant feeling of exhaustion, the loss of appetite, the shortness of breath.
Slowly, a second backpack is added to carry along the route, a variable-weight pack loaded at Chame that can only be ditched once you descend below 3000 m. In every village passed along the way, there are plenty of information boards listing the symptoms of altitude sickness, but that isn’t enough to understand it and deal with it in the best possible way.
Today is the day of truth. Either they get over the 5400 m of Thorang La Pass or they won’t be able to complete the entire Annapurna trek in time for the return flight.
But Francesco was coughing up green phlegm yesterday and things aren’t any better today. He couldn’t manage breakfast and after 500 meters on the road he is forced to stop to avoid an unwanted fainting spell.
“I can’t do it. I have to stop here”
“Come on, let’s go up slowly”
“It’s not true and I can’t do it. I don’t feel well. I’m going back to the sleeping bag. Don’t worry. Keep going”
Roberto and Alessio say goodbye, Michele is already too far ahead to realize what is happening behind him. Camilla stops and despite being convinced she would be abandoned at 5000 meters by her companions, she assists the person in distress. The group splits up.
Michele, Roberto and Alessio are left. Up to 4000 meters at Yak Karka the climb is steady, then difficulties arise. It’s the altitude and no one could have predicted how they would react. Alessio seems to have recovered. Roby seems more tired. Michele seems to have been a porter up until the day before departure.
Michele came to Nepal because he is lucky enough to have older friends who are very patient in trying to convince someone to do the things they like most without them realizing it. Michele is in Nepal because he likes mountains, but what he wanted most was simply to be with his friends. Those friends whom for so long, when he was much younger, he had seen as heroes. Those people who when he started running were already his points of reference. He wanted Alessio’s legs and his free time, Roby’s determination, Francesco’s carefree attitude and Camilla’s positivity. In Nepal he sought stronger and more intimate bonds, because it is on a journey like this that you strip down before those close to you and truly get to know them.
His fear was going to the other side of the world and continuing to think about what he had at home, feeling lonely and not being able to be alone. He wanted to live day by day and after the first few days he did it brilliantly.
While the other two companions alternate moments of difficulty he keeps going, supporting them with enthusiasm, which is what is needed to reach the 5400 meters of Thorang la Pass just in time to appreciate the view with the last rays of the sun, a freezing moment to immortalize in every possible way.
“Here we are”
They have reached the top. None of them has ever been this high. Never.
Moved, happy, but it isn’t over. The charm of Thorang la Pass is that there is nothing for miles. The problem with Thorang la Pass is that if you are tired, hungry or injured there is nothing for miles. Stopping is not an option, it is a matter of survival. It is time to use one more ounce of adrenaline to descend despite not having eaten anything for hours.
“It’s almost done. After this it will be all downhill…”
By the light of their headlamps Alessio, Roberto and Michele enter a hotel in Ranipauwa and stick themselves to the common room heater. No festive laughter, they are more exhausted than ever and even a happy mood needs a minimum of calories. Jump into the sleeping bag, cocooned in as many layers of dirt and clothes as possible and try to recover as best as possible to try and cover the remaining kilometers to civilization in the most dignified way possible.
Day 5 – Ranipauwa - Tatopani 36 km 400 d+ + 15 km by 4x4
Day 5b – Manang – Chame 35 km 400 d+
«Who are you? Where are you going? How many of you are there? A coin!»
Trekking Casella
Annapurna Circuit Trek is one of the most famous treks in the world, coveted by many, but where many are just tourists. It is specifically designed for those who need an itinerary, preferably a loop, to give a greater sense of fulfillment and journey to their route. Nepalis don’t have this need, many reach high altitude by Jeep, venture up to the pass and then take detours by instinct. And they have good reasons. Many kilometers of this trek are embellished by the filters of novelty and diversity, but the paths are far from exhilarating. Often dirt roads, occasionally paved, sometimes even asphalt with few or no curves. A hell of a lot of straightaways!
On one of these straightaways today are Alessio, Roberto and Michele. They have overcome the hardest obstacle, the pass at 5400 m, and now they have the last 90 km to go. But they are tired, very tired. They ate very little during the long 9 hours of marching the previous day and are eating even less today. It happens. It happens often when you get used to being on a bike for 8-10 hours a day and lose the perception of the exceptional nature of the activity. Physiologically, a recovery day awaits them: very little elevation gain, descent in altitude, almost no technical difficulties. But their heads are thirsty for motivation and distractions, and from Kagbeni onwards the little group has seen nothing but gravel and future concrete monstrosities.
Roberto tries for long stretches to make his companions run with little success. That is his job, disciplined and tenacious, which is best when it comes to not listening to the warning lights lit up by your own body and simply doing what had to be done. Sometimes too good. Roberto came to Nepal because he likes training, and a lot, and it is much better if he can combine hours of lightness with friends doing things he would never have done otherwise, or at least not doing bike rides in Val Chiampo. In Nepal his friends were a bit afraid that he would take something too competitively, which, if approached too competitively, brings promises of withdrawal and disappointment, instead, thanks to the distance from his races or the Nepalese lifestyle, he managed to show a bit of lightness too, even if to do 35 km on flat ground today they are proceeding at a “brisk walking” pace. Tired, hungry and a bit sore from all those kilometers on their shoulders.
Michele tries to find a detour to find shortcuts on the path, impossible, he insists, they go down towards the stream, stuck, they slow down even further. It is still cold and they are far from a destination that promises a heater. At some point Alessio, driven by the motivation of a nervous breakdown, suddenly sprints uphill towards the road. He stops him by throwing himself into the middle of the narrow roadway.
“Give us a lift!” Firm, determined.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Annapurna, Camilla and Francesco find themselves on another lovely straightaway. They have set off again from Manang to do the previous days’ route in reverse and thus be able to return to Kathmandu somehow in time for the return flight. They proceed at a slow pace, very slow, Francesco is no magician from two days ago. Weak, sad, full of guilt. Unfortunately, reducing himself to this was his fear. Fortunately, not only that.
Alessio, Roberto and Michele get left behind, after 15 km of hitchhiking at Tatopani. At the first real Hotel with beds and hot showers. They cheer because it is a sign that they have almost arrived.
Francesco and Camilla, after several failed fainting attempts by the former, reach Chame after 6 hours of walking. They cheer because it couldn’t have been worse, so things can only get better.
For all five, only 40 km remain.