Deurali to Annapurna Base Camp
The big day has arrived, the last 900 vertical meters to base camp. We woke to a nice surprise, after days of mist, cloud and rain it had finally cleared – for now at least. So as we headed up the valley full of excitement, and as we headed towards Machhapuchhare Base Camp, the sun slowly filled the canyon as we began to work our way deeper into the Sanctuary. We stopped for lunch at MBC 500m gone another 2 hours and 400m vertical to ABC. But again the clouds were forming and once more we were in the thick of the clouds as we crossed the moor like tussocky terrain that leads up to Base Camp. It was hard going as we got higher the air, pressure or lack of it you could feel pressing against your temples. By around 4pm we made it Annapurna Base Camp at 4130m, through the breaks in the cloud we could see some of the many peaks that make up the range. After a garlic soup on arrival (good for oxygenating the blood apparently – with the lack of showers the smell doesn’t matter anyway) a few of us went further up past base camp to a ridge over looking Annapurna I and it’s glacier which left us with some great views of the glacier and it loudly crumbling face. But the extra couple of hundred metres in height proved too much for a couple of people who are now suffering the affects of altitude sickness, it’s not a nice sight at all and shame to end such a massive climb up like that. Hopefully in the morning everyone will be ok and the traditional morning cloud clearance lets us see the sights of this magical area.
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