Running the Annapurna Circuit

Now back from Nepal and training in Spain I have finally got around to telling of a mission accomplished: I ran the Annapurna loop. This was my main aim for my Asian adventure, the intention for it to act as the kick off for my time training full time.

After some extensive fitness testing I have since found out that the trip did absolute zip for my fitness but for backdrops and amazing mountain feeling it was worth every moment. The period was a little light on tales though so this entry is really about the pictures.

The Annapurna loop is a classic. Winding through small remote villages starting at Besi Sahar and ending in Beni some 150 miles away, it is only passable on foot or by mule and for many life has changed little in centuries. Yet now change abounds. Tourism has touched the Annapurna much more than the Helambu and with that you see the development of a major road. From talking with sherpas a similar thing happened in Everest and the people said no ... but in Annapurna one already sees an effective shortening of the loop with a jeep road to Jomsom. Now a road is being build right through to Manang, perhaps making communication and life easier for some but many others will be cut off and life changed. I didn't want to be a westerner standing by and making my judgement on issues outside of experience but there surely could be better way?

However, right now the highlights are still relatively unaffected and they are highlights indeed: a great trail winding through terraced fields and into pine forests, the onset of a sparsely beautiful tundra and then up to an exposed snow covered pass the "Thorung La" at a whopping 5,418 metres.

That pass would be almost 1,000 metres higher than I had ever been under my own steam. It would be tough but I hoped that the majestic, ever looming Annapurna range with its peaks of up to 8,000 metres would keep guard or at least inspire me to the top.

With the changes to the trail I decided like most others to skip the jeep track to Beni and just cover the hundred miles to Jomsom before the choice of a 15 hour jeep ride or 15 minute flight back to the laid back lakeside town of Pokhara. It was the right decision as if I had continued I would have had to forego the wonderful Helambu.

Guide books state that it is a 15 day trek to Jomsom. As ever most choose to go heavily equipped with porters and often in a big group. I neither had the luxury of time nor the disposition to arm myself with poles and a porter so I packed as light as I dared .. looking forward to some fast moving alone time.

Fully prepped with Everest beer and a curry I had a nice sleep and then headed to Pokhara bus station for another ludicrously leisurely bus ride - Destination: Besi Sahar.

I have been to enough far flung outdoor locations in my life to know that whenever westerners are due in number there will almost invariably be a raft of services on offer from last minute tourist shops to super slow internet cafes. However upon arriving in Besi Sahar the outlook was somewhat different. I was literally dumped off the bus unceremoniously into a rather normal shabby looking Nepalese town.

I had to change out of my bus gear and into my running set up and quickly found a strange rooftop restaurant. A trip to the squat toilet for a clothing change was followed by a greasy chowmein and an interesting chat with the proprieter and his eleven year old son. Within minutes a full scale geography lesson had ensued - but time was tight and before we made it to Ox-Bow lakes and terminal moraines I made a bee-line for my first stop; Bahandanda. Now being the painfully competitive type I knew how quickly top sherpa and everest marathon winner Hari Rokaya had covered this section in a race in 2007. I set off with Chow Mein tumbling in my stomach and clock running. Now I may really enjoy pushing myself but it took me all of one minute to realise that clock watching would not really be happening. I was working my way up a beautiful river valley surrounded by terraces in blissful silence.

After two hours or so I made it into my first port of call happy as can be... I then broke my no beer rule at the first juncture.... some things never change.

The second and third days were to be tough back to back classics and with this in mind it was an early start. I had looked at the map and worked out that if I pushed I could see waterfalls, small villages and a change from lush lowlands to pine forests and great rockfaces. Better still I would finish with a view of the Annapurna.

Needless to say those two days were standouts. Working hard and racing the mule trains! Taking tea with an Englishman at the Hotel "Dorchester" and then slowing for the final magical ascent to Ghyaru. It was on that ascent I had one of those special moments. Rather like when I first saw the "Fitzroy" mountain in Argentina - I had no choice but to stop and be overwhelmed;  Annapurna II stood tall and clear over my head and there was total silence. I was made to feel like a speck.

At 3,700 metres the altitude was increasing significantly but I was full of beans as it was beautiful and somewhat away from the standard villages in which to stay. It was here that I got a taste of the British traveller. The Annapurna was dominated by groups of French trekkers be-decked in the lastest and brightest mountaineering kit. The British take seemed to be somewhat different. I met two mid-60's Chris Bonnington types travelling alone and with well worn equipment and now here in remotest Ghyaru I was presented with two 30-somethings with no experience just beer, cigarettes and herbal refreshment picked from the side of the trail. They were also travelling with a portable DVD player for late night films and documentaries; brilliant.

A run down to Manang, the district's central town, was my easy recovery from the two previous tough days and on the "Upper Pisang" high route I was taken through magical mountain perched villages and past buddhist shrines. Manang itself was a carless tourist centre and although I should have stayed to acclimatise to the altitude and ease the onset of my stomach blues I couldn't face the groups so I pushed on... not before some Yak meat and plenty of cake.

Now came the truly hard bit. The big distance may have been covered but the high altitude and potential headaches beckoned. From Manang it was up to around 4,500 metres at base camp and then a further 900 metres over the top of the Thorung-La. I was nervous.. I remember when I first hit 4,000 metres in Bolivia back in 2005 and I went a bit doo-lally; now I was going to go to over five.

As luck would have it the perfect accomplice for my trip up the mountain appeared as I rested for lunch. Cal from err.. California was just the type of character that I just had to give respect. In a long sleeved Tee-shirt and some fingerless gloves Cal was armed with a hire bike from Kathmandu and he'd just headed up the Annapurna on a whim and on a bike. Surrounded by those who had made meticulous plans for months he was making mincemeat of the trail. Pleased to talk to a biker we pretty much headed north to basecamp together and in typical fashion a race ensued. At around 4pm we were the last of around 70 people to roll into basecamp and we did so laughing and in shorts.

The camp itself was fantastic. There was a head sherpa with an amazing fur hat making sure everything was taken care of; an American ready to be helicoptered out due to Acute Mountain Sickness; A superb blues guitarist and a bizarre tea dance cd that closed out the evening. That evening closed out at 8pm as most would get up at 3am the next morning to ensure that they would make it across the pass and down to Muktinath.

Cal and I surfaced at around 7.30am deciding that we'd make it over the top just fine! We were greeted by a deserted camp - at 8pm we would be the last to leave. That climb was as expected: tough. Steep and the air thinning to the point of non existence by 4,800 metres my headache was in full swing and the stomach was churning! But I was now in true mountain terrain - snow and ice surrounding the trail I knew that big pass was in site. It was at this point the carrot of other people began to spur me on and I started to pass some very slow movers and also some who'd had to revert to travelling on mules. My legs lifted the pace as I knew I was going to be just fine.

The top arrived bedecked in prayer flags - 5,418 metres or around 17,800 feet in old money. It felt like a genuine achievement to come so high and to celebrate the moment I whipped out a long saved Mars Bar and put on my jacket. I did however remain in my shorts!

The route down was bedlam. Ice and snow coupled with steep terrain made for an interesting sideways style. As I got further down the headache abated and after an hour I found a small place to take in a cup of tea, this time with another Chris Bonnington, 60 something solo - Dave. As we neared the end of our brews Cal roared in on his bike. He had made it to the top and smoked it downhill to catch me before Muktinath! Dave and I couldn't contain ourselves - it was a genuine elation for him and for us that he'd made it over and made it look so easy and with a smile.

Within an hour we were taking in a celebratory beer in Muktinath before we felt it best to head on out of the tourist town and toward the smaller realms of Jomsom and the finish. That last run a 10km downhill classic through isolated valleys where nothing grew was the moment I liked best - just me, big mountains, fading light and a sense of achievement as I hit the final river bed knowing I had completed the Annapurna in around 6 days.

To come: Journey home the long way round: overland through India and then the training begins!

In keeping with the old Mountaincyclediaries here are some recommendations: Blood River by Tim Butcher a fantastic book on adventure, risks and the rise and fall of the Belgian Congo. Music - I seem to have been listening to lots of female vocalists with Kate Bush's Hounds of Love finding its way back in after many years of gathering dust.