End of Day Elevation:
- Day 6: Samadao 3500m
- Day 7: Acclimate day at Samadao 3500m
- Day 8: Samdo 3875m
- Day 9: Dharamsala 4460m
- Day 10: Summit Larke Pass 5103m, descent to Bimthang 3590m
Once we passed 3000 meters, we started to really see some of the snow covered peaks of the mountains and this is when it really started feeling like we were gaining elevation. The first time I saw the peak of Mt. Manaslu was pretty spectacular. It was the first super clear morning we had so all the Trekkers in the guest house were staring out at the peaks taking pictures before setting off on the hike for the day. In addition to the mountains, we started seeing more yaks! Yaks are mountain animals and I had never seen one prior so it was cool to see them more commonly just roaming in the fields free. They’re quite intimidating looking but they’re very timid and run away if you get close to them even though they’re pretty huge and have huge horns. Either way, I would not want to piss a yak off.
Not only was the scenery changing with more snow covered mountains visible, but the temperature was getting colder by the day and the effects of less oxygen in the air started kicking in. Personally, I started getting shortbreathness not too long after 3000 meters. Narayan talked to us about altitude sickness and what to expect, like minor headaches and losing your breath easier so that seemed to be pretty common among other Trekkers we were meeting that had the same route as us. Luckily (to my knowledge) none of the Trekkers got too sick and everyone on our route made it over the pass.
As we were getting closer to the “Pass day”, everyone started anticipating the day more and more. On the 7th day, we had a rest day in Samadao to acclimate to the higher altitude. We did a day hike and reached a glacier lake by Mt. Manaslu. Unfortunately, the glaciers had mostly melted over the last few years (thank you global warming). It was still beautiful nontheless. During the time spent there, I also saw two avalanches way up Mt. Manaslu. It looked like it got really smokey but the smoke appearance was the snow/avalanche.
The following day, Day 8, we set out to Samdo which was just a half day to adjust to more altitude. I spent this day cocooned in my sleeping bag with 4 layers of jackets. On Day 9, we arrived to Dharmsala. This place was not a village, but just some building structures that were made for Trekkers to stay in the day before the pass. By the time we got there, we were one of the last groups meaning there were no more rooms so we had been assigned to tents. The thought of sleeping in a tent at the time seemed very, very cold. Luckily, one group I had made friends with at the beginning of the trip had an extra bed in their room so I was able to avoid the tents. The “rooms” were these stone structures and the floor was also just rubble of stones. The bed wobbled since the floor was just a bunch of rocks. The stone walls were covered with tarp and I remember at this moment, I looked around and wondered how did I got myself there.
The day of the pass we had a wake up call of 4AM with breakfast at 4:30! We put on our headlamps and started hiking. Hiking is a strong term to use here. For me, it was more of a walk and stop every 5 minutes to catch my breath. The altitude was pretty rough to deal with, but once the sun rose, the views were just incredible. We started hiking through snow but the day was so clear and it got warm very quickly. We summited Larke Pass at 11am! It was the best weather we could have had with perfect blue skies. Getting there was very rewarding and I think the adrenaline made me forget about the altitude sickness until we started moving again. We spent about 30 minutes at the top taking pictures and enjoying the views and then eventually started heading down. It was a long descent of 1500m. Once we got to Bimthang at about 4pm, I think everyone was pretty excited to get to bed that night. All in all, the day of the summit was such a crazy day filled with mixed emotions. The first few hours I was pretty miserable but getting to the summit made it all worth it.
Eni Travels 