Reaching ABC (May 21)
Breakfast at Deolari was again porridge and coffee. I was definitely anticipating the day. We began by ascending
to the "base camp" of Machhaupuchhre. I put base camp in quotes because no one actually climbs the mountain as it is sacred (one team came within 50m of the summit in the 1950s.) We were joined for the entire day by a dog from Deolari. The dogs there generally just roamed freely from village to village, I assume taking food from anyone willing to give them some! We reached Macchapucchre base camp and took a snack/drink break. The climb to the first base camp was somewhat steep and wet so we still needed the bamboo poles. Time for the final leg!About 30 minutes into our walk to ABC we noticed a Nepali man crouched o
n a hill and crawling forwards. Ram and Navaraj decided to join him. I thought he might have lost a contact lens or something. Instead, it turned out he was looking for a pretty rare "Catterpillar fungus" known by its Tibetan name Yartsa Gunbu. They invited me to join on the search and showed me what one looked like. It was pretty fascinating as the fungus actually parasitically takes over the larva of a type of moth, so the end product is actually part insect and part fungus. Have that bite someone while
exposed to radiation and you have a new super hero. The Yartsa Gunbu is actually prized in Chinese and other Eastern medicines for its medicinal properties, which are thought to counter insulin resistance. Apparently, one sells for $1500 in Dubai! After searching for a few minutes I ended up finding one myself. Too bad I couldn't keep it!The rest of the way was smooth and scenic. We reached the official ABC sign, took the obligatory celebration pictures, and set our gear down in the teahouse for the day. I had to do something to celebrate, so I ordered a Tuborg, basically ignoring the "alcohol inhibits acclimatization" rule. Oh well, it tasted great. We shared the table with 6 other trekkers: a young couple from Canada, a couple from Australia, a girl from Sweden, and an ex-pat from New York originally and in a VERY different walk of life from me. He had some very strong opinions that the Federal Reserve should be abolished and that Obama was essentially the same as George Bush. I relied on my best "agree to disagree" social skills.
Post Tuborg I joined Navaraj and Ram for a walk around base camp
. We did some mild rock and snow climbing then slid down patches of snow on our butts. We were also joined in the snow by the dog that we met in Deolari. I thought about how accustomed I'd grown to waking up at sunrise and calling it a night at sunset, the mountain life. It feels very natural. I also thought about how glad I was I had the season of Team In Training to strengthen my legs for the trek. And perhaps even our "hypoxia" swim drills to help with acclimatization. I literally had NO altitude issues at all at ABC and slept like a baby. Following our explorat
ion of the area, we joined a few other trekkers and guides for a game of volleyball. In other words, a pretty sweet Sunday afternoon :)An ABC Sunrise (May 22)
I'll let the video/pics do most of the blogging here :) We awoke at sunrise to capture absolutely beautiful pictures of the panorama at base camp. Awaking there makes you feel a bit like you're in some remote promised land. You can't see most of the trail you hiked in on since there's a sharp bend west after the Machhapuchhre base camp, just a 360 degree view of peaks. Cool. Oh, and cold. I put on all my sub-freezing layers and I was still pretty cold. As cold as I felt, it wasn't cold enough for the village to turn on its heaters! We left ABC and returned to Sinuwa. When cell phone reception returned I used Navaraj's phone to write a facebook update to let friends/family know I had not been eaten by a Yeti.
The GPS data for this part is largely inaccurate due to many losses of signal.
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