Common Grounds

Annapurna Circuit Trail is a common trek that many people talk about being once in a lifetime, which it really is, but in some cases, like our own, tragedy unfortunately was a binding factor.

in 2014, a huge snow storm killed many sherpas and trekkers alike as said in the article.

When my husband and I were on our way home after a very successful ascent to descent, yet none of us would have been the wiser that the danger was still out there.

I read after the fact that this year's monsoon was going to be pretty bad and a friend from India told us to be careful of the roads this time of year yet we didn't really pay heed to it until yesterday, Aug. 11 2017.

The first time we started to become mentally fatigued was during our stay in Thorong Peti when a fellow trekker fell ill and needed to head back down to La Kharka and Manang to be on the safe side.  My husband tended to him and help write notes on his arm and bag to make sure he knew when he took his emergency Mt. Sickness pill that night in case he forgot the next morning.  We were all worried for him the next day but it also had our good friend worried about his own headache and he didn't sleep well that night worrying about the trekker and himself.

The next morning, we hiked to High Camp hoping to stay and acclimate overnight but we were all worried about how he was feeling and about making it over the pass.  We woke up later and started later, but the altitude was impacting my breathing and evening going from Thorong Peti to High Camp was a hard chore.  We decided to get over the pass and coming down the altitude would be a welcomed change along with not being stuck at our shitty inn in Thorong Peti.  Our porter said that we won't make it at the rate that we are going and would probably need to stay a night if we want to clear the mountain at a safe time.

We decided to get me a horse to at least take me to Thorong La Pass because it would give us the chance to get up at a reasonable time despite our late start and I'd be okay to hike for 5 hours, which I was.  To say that I was tired even after the horse ride head start was a bit of an understatement but we all were in the same boat and were so relieved to be at Muktinath when we got there.  The hot shower there was glorious and the food for our celebration make the hike worth it!  We met all the people we met in Thorong Peti and were relieved to hear that the trekker that had to go down was safe and felt better so we were grateful and happy for those days there.

It wasn't until we left Muktinath for Jomsom that things started to turn sour.  We wanted to catch a flight, a terrifying flight from what everyone says, from Jomsom to Pokhara but only 20 mins long.  Only problem is that it was cancelled two days in a row.  We thought that didn't bode well, so we decided to take a bus and deal with it then.  The bus ride was going to be long but we were going to save so much money.

How I wish we had taken the stupid flight in the morning instead of taken that stupid bus.

We thought our bus was going to go over the cliff many times over the course of 5-8 hours in a bus ride from Jomsom to Pokhara.  There were two definite times that I was sure I was going to die and started to pray to all the deities out there because we are agnostic.

 

To say that we were terrified was an understatement and after what seemed like 5 hours of nonstop fear, cortisol and adrenaline in one's system, we wanted to drink and eat like crazy because we lived through that crazy experience.  We had three other friends in the same bus and over dinner, we talked about our fear and how it was very real for all of us yet surreal to be eating dinner like it was any other day.

The day after that, our friends from Spain told us that other trekking friends were not so 'fortunate' in their experience and actually watched someone get hit in the head and another person fall down the cliff side.  There were told by the driver to walk around the recently felled landslide and a British woman and two others became victims of that poor decision to walk in those conditions. We heard third hand from the Oz couple that we met in Thorong Peti that they and another couple were on that bus and watched it happen.  We all felt traumatized just from hearing about that because we could have been any one of those people and we actually met them as well.

It's been about three days since the incident and we are still in shock about what we heard and how our experiences are "lucky" and I use that word loosely.  I don't know how I feel as it's surreal that I could have been on an earlier bus to see what the others saw on that bus but this was definitely not how I anticipated the ending of our triumphant trek to be.  For two nights in Muktinath, we were all relieved and unscathed by what will be about to impact us mentally for the next few days, but trying to remember those nights of celebration in Muktinath seem so far away now in light of the events that have happened following our stay there.

I know I'll feel grateful to be here and where I am now, but for now shock is still coursing through my body and I can't help but feel I was prepared for everything else on this trip but this outcome.