Up and down.

Three days into the hike to Annapurna Base Camp, the first efforts are taking their toll. It’s obvious that this is not a competition, but some of us are better trained than others. Trying to follow the guys that set the pace is not always a good idea, and you might pay a price for it in the days to follow.

Food is also an issue. One of us is running off into the woods every twenty minutes, because his body doesn’t agree with what he ate.
Age and injuries play a role too. There is no doubt that a man in his sixties is not as fit as a twenty year old athlete.
As for myself, I’m not complaining. Apart from a cramped up belly, I feel quite good. My body is cooperating very well with my brain and does better than expected.

Let’s be clear, this is not a stroll in the park. It’s a hard and heavy trekking in high altitude. You can’t see thin air, but you can certainly feel it above 3000 meters. Breathing is harder and it takes longer to recover from an even minor exercise. Running up a staircase is out of the question, and a simple thing like sleeping is more difficult. It’s as if your nose doesn’t have the capacity to inhale the needed amount of oxygen.

Having said this, I realize that this is only day three out of ten. Four more days uphill before we start descending. And that too is relative. We’re sleeping at 2800 meters today, exactly the same altitude as yesterday, but that doesn’t mean that today’s hike was pancake flat. We climbed to 3240 meters, than dropped to 2600 and again uphill to 3100 meters, walked down again to 2300 before conquering another 500 meters of difference in altitude. And the hardest day is yet to come, according to the reliable source that our guide is.

It only means that I will continue what I’m doing: eat well and sleep well. Spaghetti for lunch and hit the sack around 8pm. I am definitely here to finish it, and let us hope that I will make it to base camp and back safe and sound.
Anyway, if there ‘s one thing I’ve learned from someone who did it before me, it is that everything always works out fine.