So Greg and I had made plans to do the Ghorepani-Gandruk loop which takes about 5 days and gives you STUNNING views of Annapurna, Maccapuchare (yikes I am butchering these spellings) and lots more peaks on the ridge. Imagine moving your chair around at lunch so you can have the optimal view of the television show, except you're moving your chair to gawk at ANNAPURNA while drooling and spilling your soup in your lap instead of following something-or-other's love escapades in NYC. Yes, swoon.
Anyway, at one point (Gandruk or Chumrung, as if ANYBODY is going to google that) you can split off and head up to Annapurna Base Camp (~4200 feet) for another 5-6 day adventure or head down. Greg was itching to go to base camp because well, duh, when else are you going to be so close? and almost convinced me to come, but the whole time I had this nagging feeling like I had to be next to a computer or telephone to receive some kind of news. I was worried that it was bad news, maybe something from home. But a phone call to my mother (while staring at Annapurna out the window, that's right) turned up that I would pretty much miss the climbing training that Harry was giving if I went up, which would make me entirely useless as a climbing instructor volunteer.
Note on climbing instruction: not everybody in the rest of the world has access to an unlimited supply of ATC's and ATC guides if you need a self-braking device, etc. Sounds logical, right? Somehow in my vain planning this simple concept completely eluded me. Here I thought I would be teaching people to belay left and right, and I am still struggling to master the art of belaying with a munter hitch. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the munter is now a half sailor knot and clove hitch is a full sailor knot. So am I doing more learning than teaching? You bet, but I plan on taking a toothbrush or weeder and going to town on cleaning up parts of the rock where weeds are getting in the way of climbing. So yes, usefulness after all!
Anyway, Greg is somewhere in the mountains, with his birthday, my water pump, and a 200 rupee map of the area. My intuition tells me he is just fine, and I'm psyched for the pictures.
I've been having a great time hanging out with the girls and Laura and Harry. All the climbers are so incredibly badass and it's great to continue being part of this great climbing culture that transcends continents. Laura is a volunteer from Germany staying here for a year. The German government is fronting the $$ for her to live here, that is after finding the organization and housing for her, because they want students to take a gap year to volunteer in between high school and college. Does the American government do this?? Where was I when this was going on ?!
The sporadic power outages which sort of follow a schedule but also occur on their own are keeping things interesting. Reading by headlamp is nothing I'm not used to; it's mainly the water situation since Greg has my pump - there is a water filter in the dining hall but it is out when the power is out. Yay more boiled water!
I am skipping my 20 minute jog around the lake this morning to catch up on some correspondence and hopefully have time to stretch. I was supposed to join Laura for a 8 AM yoga class, but woke up about 20 minutes too late to eat, get ready, and then head up. Who knew I had to set an alarm for a 8 AM yoga class when I was in bed falling asleep by 8:50 PM? Blame the jet lag. The 15 minute time difference between India and Nepal is really killing me.
Until next time!
Anyway, at one point (Gandruk or Chumrung, as if ANYBODY is going to google that) you can split off and head up to Annapurna Base Camp (~4200 feet) for another 5-6 day adventure or head down. Greg was itching to go to base camp because well, duh, when else are you going to be so close? and almost convinced me to come, but the whole time I had this nagging feeling like I had to be next to a computer or telephone to receive some kind of news. I was worried that it was bad news, maybe something from home. But a phone call to my mother (while staring at Annapurna out the window, that's right) turned up that I would pretty much miss the climbing training that Harry was giving if I went up, which would make me entirely useless as a climbing instructor volunteer.
Note on climbing instruction: not everybody in the rest of the world has access to an unlimited supply of ATC's and ATC guides if you need a self-braking device, etc. Sounds logical, right? Somehow in my vain planning this simple concept completely eluded me. Here I thought I would be teaching people to belay left and right, and I am still struggling to master the art of belaying with a munter hitch. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the munter is now a half sailor knot and clove hitch is a full sailor knot. So am I doing more learning than teaching? You bet, but I plan on taking a toothbrush or weeder and going to town on cleaning up parts of the rock where weeds are getting in the way of climbing. So yes, usefulness after all!
Anyway, Greg is somewhere in the mountains, with his birthday, my water pump, and a 200 rupee map of the area. My intuition tells me he is just fine, and I'm psyched for the pictures.
I've been having a great time hanging out with the girls and Laura and Harry. All the climbers are so incredibly badass and it's great to continue being part of this great climbing culture that transcends continents. Laura is a volunteer from Germany staying here for a year. The German government is fronting the $$ for her to live here, that is after finding the organization and housing for her, because they want students to take a gap year to volunteer in between high school and college. Does the American government do this?? Where was I when this was going on ?!
The sporadic power outages which sort of follow a schedule but also occur on their own are keeping things interesting. Reading by headlamp is nothing I'm not used to; it's mainly the water situation since Greg has my pump - there is a water filter in the dining hall but it is out when the power is out. Yay more boiled water!
I am skipping my 20 minute jog around the lake this morning to catch up on some correspondence and hopefully have time to stretch. I was supposed to join Laura for a 8 AM yoga class, but woke up about 20 minutes too late to eat, get ready, and then head up. Who knew I had to set an alarm for a 8 AM yoga class when I was in bed falling asleep by 8:50 PM? Blame the jet lag. The 15 minute time difference between India and Nepal is really killing me.
Until next time!
I was supposed to join Laura for a 8 AM yoga class, but woke up about 20 minutes too late to eat, get ready, and then head up. Who knew I had to set an alarm for a 8 AM yoga class..
ReplyDeleteThanks for post.
Gregory Chairs