Day 4 of Mardi Himal Hike

High Camp to Viewpoint

We woke at 0330 to prepare for our hike to Mardi Himal Viewpoint, departing at 0400.  Unfortunately, Suzan was running late and we didn’t start our hike till 0420.

During the wait outside our accommodation, we were treated to a view of the Annapurna range and Machhapuchre in the clear dark sky, illuminated by the nearly full moon.

The hike of 2h20 took us through hills and tortuous steps; lots and lots of them.  We were in darkness for the first half, aided by a headlamp.

There were a couple of points when it looked like I was near the flat of the Viewpoint but nope, there was further climb.  The sun rose as we approached the Viewpoint which we reached around 0640.

The Viewpoint (4200m) had a collection of sheds serving tea, some tables and seats, and lots of people.  This is the highest point the both of us have ever been to on our own two feet, the previous record being Mt Kinabalu at 4095m.

Oh, the view … did I mention the view?  We were treated to a close-up view of the Annapurna range starting with Annapurna South (7219m) and Annapurna I (8091m) on the left leading to Machhapuchre (6993m) on the right.

The portion to the left were spectacularly lit-up by the rising sun.  Not so for Machhapuchre on the right and clouds were starting to rise up and threaten it with cover.

The hike had been cold at subzero temperatures.  The water in my bottle had started to ice up and there was frost on the ground, grass, tables and chairs.

We spent about an hour on the Viewpoint absorbing the view over a cuppa tea purchased from Mr Bhim whom we had met yesterday.

We had already decided not to continue to Mardi Himal Base Camp (4500m) and back as that would have taken another 3h perhaps.  From what we have heard, there is nothing there in terms of buildings or sheds, and the view isn’t much better.  I was told that some of the peaks are obscured from there by nearby mountain slopes.

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Viewpoint to High Camp

We started our descent from Viewpoint back to our High Camp accommodation around 0745.  In the daylight, I couldn’t believe the endless steps that would take us down and down.  If I had seen them on our way up, I probably would have given up.

I’m a slow descender and we took 1h50 to reach our accommodation, as opposed to 2h20 to make the climb.

We met a few people during our descent that were late, having come from further away.  Some were very old but strong.  Strong in the legs but perhaps not so in the head.  For a daytrip, they’ve chosen to bring all their belongings along.  I really don’t know why they didn’t store it somewhere.

I was happy to have made it to our highest point successfully and unscathed by injury or altitude sickness. However, at my breakfast afterwards, I could feel a slight headache pulsing, as if my brain was a tad too big.  That’s probably a sign of the altitude but we are on our way down, down, down soon after breakfast.

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High Camp to Sidhing

After breakfast, we commenced our descent at 1035 from High Camp to Sidhing where we would take a jeep back to Pokhara tomorrow.

It took about 2h10 mins for us to cover the ground that we had traversed only yesterday morning.  But with the early start and this morning’s climb, it felt arduous during the few stretches of uphill amidst the overall descent.

We reached Low Camp around 1245.  We rested at the teahouse where we had overnighted two nights ago.  Sital cooked us lunch as the one-man show had trouble coping, as he already had some customers.

Around 1400 we continued from Low Camp to Sidhing, taking a route we hadn’t used before.  The route had varied terrain comprising of steps, rocks, earth and tree roots.

Suzan, caught up with us about 40 mins later.  He was cheerful and lively despite having made the extra hike to Base Camp and back, and having missed breakfast and lunch.  Despite being slightly chubby, he’s obviously young and fit!

Thunder threatened us with rain but fortunately there was none.  For the first time on the hike, I needed a helping hand from Sital every now and then descending steep earth and rooted areas.

We saw steps being put in by hand.  The rocks were being manually cut into rectangular blocks and manually being shifted into place.  It is such back-breaking work we just had to leave something in the tip plate.

My knees were starting to hurt, as were my toes despite having sufficient room in the toe-box of my shoes.  Closer to Sidhing, my balance on uneven ground was starting to get poorer as my muscles got tired. I was requesting lots of rest breaks.

We arrived at our accommodation at Sidhing (1850m) at 1705.  That’s about 3h after our lunch stop, or 6h30 after our breakfast stop, or 12h45 after our first steps this morning.

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It had been an awfully long day.  The day would have been a bit too short if we had finished at Low Camp at 1300.  Arriving half a day later, tomorrow afternoon, presents logistical issues in terms of getting a jeep to Pokhara as well.  It’s a hell of a lot more comfortable at Sidhing than at Low Camp with less altitude, good shower and warmer temperatures.

It got dark soon after we arrived.  There was no rest for Sital as he had to cook us dinner again.  It’s a pretty tough job as a guide.

Hiking Summary

As if we didn’t have enough “chiak kho” (literally “eat bitterness” or 吃苦 in Hokkien, meaning hardship) in our lives, we paid good money to do the 5 day Mardi Himal Base Camp hike. We had compressed our five-day hike into four days.  Tomorrow we will only have half a day, spent in a jeep and not on our feet.

Here’s a summary of the hiking stats:

 

Day (Date)	Route	Up	Down	Steps	Max heart bpm
1 (07/11)	Kande to Pothana	02:00
	Pothana to Pitam Deurali	00:55
	Subtotal	02:55		14,454	167
2 (08/11)	Pitam Deurali to Forest Camp	03:25
	Forest Camp to Low Camp	02:40
	Subtotal	06:05		29,531	122
3 (09/11)	Low Camp to High Camp	03:10
	Subtotal	03:10		15,798	137
4 (10/11)	High Camp to Viewpoint	02:20
	Viewpoint to High Camp		01:50
	High Camp to Low Camp		02:10
	Low Camp to Sidding		03:05
	Subtotal	02:20	07:05	42,110	177
	TOTAL	14:30	07:05	101,893	–

 

We had spent a total of 14h30 ascending and 7h05 descending, making a total of 21h35 mins walking over 4 days.

Internet on the Mardi Himal hike

I was told that mobile internet is available throughout the Mardi Himal Base Camp hike for those on the Namaste mobile network only.  Unfortunately, my telco’s roaming partner is N-Cell.  In practice, I found that I had an internet connection all the way up to High Camp but it was very poor from Low Camp onwards.

It was sufficient just to get a message out to let family know that I was safe or we had achieved what we had wanted!

It did appear to me that those on Namaste weren’t having an easy time either.  They often had to sit by the window to get messages to go.