The Thorung La

3 am and the alarm clock goes off. Today is the day of the big climb thru Thorung La; 1000 meters of altitude gain from Thorung Phedi at 4450 meters. Breakfast is finished and we’re ready to leave by 4 am. It’s pitch black outside and those who have headlamps are “armed” and ready. The path is steep, rocky, zigzagging and full of cliffs. Not having had time to digest my breakfast the start is needless to say hard. After a while I find a steady pace without getting completely out of breath. As I am passing several ppl with headlamps, I suddenly find myself without light but the path is perfectly lit up. I turn my head towards the sky and spot the moon lighting up the entire valley from a cloud free night sky. I’ve never seen a moon shine so bright and I’m realizing that the ppl with headlamps are missing out on something truly wonderful. The rest of the sky is filled with twinkling stars which complements the glowing moon perfectly. All around me I see snow covered mountain ranges and peaks outlining the valley, making the sky darker and in a mystical way shedding light on the road up ahead.

The climb towards 5200 meters, where allegedly tea-break is, goes nice and steady. Due to the experience from the trek around Mt Kailash in Tibet, there are dos and don’ts to this sort of climb. Whatever you do, don’t stop, or at least stop as little as possible. The reason is that the energy it takes to get back on a comfortable pace is worth saving. Another factor is that your muscles are sore and tired fairly early on due to lack of oxygen, and therefore stiffen up terribly quickly. The most important reason; it’s fucking freezing (- 6 degrees). Another factor that will get you to and over the top is finding a steady pace that you can stick to without getting too much out of breath (I sound like a whale when walking in this altitude because I’m breathing heavily thru my mouth). Keeping this no matter what pace your group or the ppl in front or behind you keep can be alpha omega. Preserving energy is most likely the key to success and a way of doing so is taking long steps. This recipe has so far gotten me to the top of two passes above 5000 meters, so for me, it’s a winner.

After having a couple of cups of the at the tea stop at 5.30 am (the most expensive cup of tea I might add, 120 rupees – 12 kr) and chowing down chocolate and energy bars, we were frozen solid and the sun had not yet broken over the peaks stretching from 6-7000 meters surrounding us. Hopefully it wouldn’t be long thou, so we kept on walking to regain some body heat. After walking for about 20 minutes I felt a warm sensation at the back of my thighs. I stopped and felt how it spread to my hands, shoulders and head. The sun had finally awoken. With a new urge to keep on going, we reached the pass 40 minutes later. The glimpse of prayer flags made tears sting in my eyes due to complete exhaustion. My knees ached, my toes and fingers were none-responsive, my heart was racing and my breaths were weak and short. When 5416 meters officially was reached, all of the above went away and all that you could see were big smiles, hands stretched triumphantly into the air and exclamations of joy were expressed. I got to the top not far behind the first member of the lead group and was soon followed by the remaining two. There were more high fives, hugs and kisses and the 30 cold minutes we spent at the top were fun, crazy and memorable in every possible way thanks to three funtastic great guys!