Muktinath, Nepal

Hi all,

I completed the highest pass in the world yesterday and never want to do it again! Thorang La Pass is incredible. It was amazingly beautiful and beyond challenging. Maybe in a few days I'll have kinder thoughts!

I got pretty sick at the top and tried not to think of AMS and not having ever had it... when you can't breath well and have a headache and want to vomit and your lips feel tingly (and I hadn't taken the medicine which makes you tingle so either cold or lack of oxygen?)... I almost lost it but eventually made it to the top. Gina (the German sister) was very helpful as I wasn't sure if things were okay or not so it was at least nice to have someone there! At the top I warmed up with some mint tea but I needed to descend quickly.

Small problem though... the German father/brother, Peter - of the trio I've connected with, busted his leg at the pass (not while trekking!) and that put us into a predicament. If you stay too long at the top you risk potentially getting the high altitude sickness (which can result in death) but there were no porters or horses to carry him down and you can't get a helicopter up that high - or use a phone to call for help. So... I had to descend asap because I wasn't sure if my symptoms were from AMS or the extreme cold and you don't mess with AMS and maybe see if we could get a porter. Another family from Canada though had already gone down and Hans was able to arrange a stretcher and 4 porters but with the time to descend, etc, it would be hours before help arrived. I met up with his wife and step son (10 years old!!!! OMG!!! What a trooper!!!) and we descended together.

Back at the top, the German trio and two German guys eventually hired the teahouse man to "porter" the two backpacks down and rigged a splint and the two Germans helped hobble him down. Consider however that we were at 5,400 m and the town below was to a descent of 3,600 m (Muktinahk (sp?)) which under good conditions typically takes 3-4 hours to descend - it's quite steep and it's exhausting but they made it about 1 hour after dark (with the help of 4 more porters who brought up a stretcher to about an hour from the village. AMAZING that they made it that fast as we didn't summit the pass until about 11:30 - 12:00 (having started at 6:00 am when the sun rose).

I was exhausted and there are many details I'm leaving out but will post more again when I'm back to cheap internet or in Thailand where I can load the pictures. This trek is absolutely amazing. I love it but will be happy to be finished! I have about 10 more days to go or I can wimp out and fly from Pokahra - about 1-2 days from here. We'll see!

I'm meeting some amazing people from all over the world. When you travel alone, many people form groups and continue on together for much of the trek. There are Israelis, Australians, Germans, Austrians, Polish, Swedes, Spanish, Netherlanders, Denmarkers (obviously I don't know how to spell all these or say them!), English, a few from the US - Colorado of all places!, South Africa, ... and I've really enjoyed many of them!

Anyways, I am safe and doing well. (The pass is over!!! YAYYYYY!!) I hope things are well for you. I am staying an extra day in Maktinath and will continue on tomorrow. Peter will be going by jeep to Pokahra and then flying to Kathmandu for the hospital to check out his leg. He is doing very well though!

Mush love and hugs.
ps - sorry if I can't respond to comments or e-mail right now. :-(