Upper Pisang -> Bhraka – (Wo)Man in Love

10. March 2023

 

 

Yay – blue skies and sunshine again! I actually thought I had 8,000 m in front of me, but then I looked at the map again: this peak of Annapurna II is “only” 7,937m high. But an avalanche came thundering down in a very exciting way. It looks thrilling, on the one hand like slow motion, but on the other hand very fast. Luckily there is no one on the way.

 

Speaking of altitude: I was in Upper Pisang at 3,300 m. No problems with altitude, not even when walking. So I cheerfully set off again. The path meandered gently up and down with a little more down along the mountainside.

 

 

 

 

And then you already knew that the first heavier climb awaited you. The path wound steeply up to the village of Ghyaru at 3,700 m in serpentines. I often like to listen to podcasts while hiking (but in Nepal less often than usual so far), especially on steeper climbs. Here I got a music recommendation on my ears that I liked very much: Man in Love by Morgan Heritage – and that became my motto of the day in female, of course. I had finally understood why so many people travel to Nepal to trek. It was really fantastic to be so close to the mountain giants and also to have varied scenery. Pure love.

 

 

 

But actually the climb wasn’t that difficult – and at the top there was a great view, lots of people again and the French Swiss who took my picture.

 

 

 

The village of Ghyaru is small with just over 30 households, a few lodges and restaurants. Especially the sections off the road are nicely marked in red and white and sometimes there are signposts. Here are a few pictures of the village:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, I was mainly fascinated by the stone buildings. However, I was not in the mood for a longer break and so I continued my hike. The path meandered along the mountainside again – this time only a few metres higher up. The lunch destination was Ngawal at a similar altitude.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Ngawal, I spent a bit of time pausing and felt like I was the last to leave – and then I had the trail to myself. The mountain formations were still great – but at the end the trail dragged on.

 

 

 

 

Bhraka has a very old monastery in a great location and is at an altitude of about 3,450 metres. You can also do a day trip to Ice Lake from there. That was my plan and so I booked 2 nights at the lodge. This was better than the previous one, i.e. the owner family (a father mumbling prayers with 2 sons and their wives and a cute little grandchild) was very friendly, the room was nice and they were not stingy with wood for the stove. One of the sons was quite talkative and entertained us with wild stories of his ancestors who had been in the gemstone and other trade and had experienced adventurous (smuggling) stories. He himself had gone to school in Kathmandu but was happy to return to the mountains because he was not so comfortable with city life. The family has fields, but they don’t farm them – no time because of the lodge work and labour costs too much.

 

 

A Dutchman had been at Ice Lake that day, talking a lot about altitude (it’s at 4,600 m) and snow and beauty. Four others also wanted to go up. 2 of them, however, were still suffering a bit from snow blindness – they hadn’t had any sunglasses with them until now….

 

And how would I get along?