Day 7 - Moving Up in the World (12,200 ft and Climbing)

We have reached Machhapuchhare Base Camp (MBC). We are one day and 400 meters from our goal. I didn't think anything could entail so much up.

From Himalaya Hotel we climbed and climbed and climbed to the next village of Deorali. Fargo made a brief appearance to soak in the sun's rays and help us eat the Tibetan bread and hot chocolate that we ordered. When that was gone, we shoved off again to cross the Modi Khola river. From there it was more up and more up and more up and more...

But up does have it's bennies; the views were incredible. From the left bank of the river we were introduced to stunning views of the Annapurna Sanctuary. The further up, the better the views and, after Bagar, where a group of porters had set up camp for 16 hikers, we had a hard time watching the trail instead of looking up at the sharp edges of the towering Himalayas slicing into the sky.

The last leg of the trail to MBC was brutal. With each step, the distance seemed to increase. "How much further?" I asked someone coming down. "About two more hours," he said. A half an hour later the time had increased to two and a half hours. By noon, when we should have only been a half hour away, the distance again lengthened and it was an hour and a half more. "Thirty minutes, forty max," Simon said. We'd met him earlier and we wanted to believe him. But when that half hour and another had elapsed we gave up asking. Finally the stone lodges of MBC came into view. We were exhausted, it had been a steady, steep, uphill climb for nearly six hours and the lodges still lay on top of a ridge. "Come on legs, don't fail me now." Eventually we dragged our bodies and packs into a room and collapsed.

Timing is everything they say, and in this case it worked in our favor. Had the prediction been for another half hour of hiking, we would have been doing it in the rain. The wind swept in suddenly and brought the clouds and the clouds brought the rain. Within minutes the mountains disappeared, replaced by thick fog.

We listened to the BBC news report while the rain drummed on the tin roof; then at 4:30 we ordered dinner. We sat in the dining room on long benches covered with carpets and pulled the wrap-around table blanket over our legs. The food at the lodge wasn't all that good but the kerosene heater under the table warming our toes was wonderful.