Annapurna: The climb to Tilicho

Dec. 23, 2008

Tilicho Base Camp at an altitude above 4,000 meters is a small lodge that hovers in the shadows of Tilicho Peak (7,134 m) and the Muktinath Himal chain. The place has very few amenities, an outdoor toilet that is nothing more than a hole in the ground, tiny, simple rooms with four walls and two hard beds, and no showers, though it's far too cold to consider undressing there. The landscape is stark and beautiful but desolate. It is one of the most remote places I have ever been.

I awoke from my second long night of sleep feeling much better than I had the previous few days. I felt hungry again, though I was tentative about what to eat. In these high altitude lodges, as the trekkers were thinning out and the locals leaving to head to warmer climes, the quality of the food was becoming more and more questionable. Some of it tasted like real last rations, bottom-of-the-barrel type fare. The poorer quality food most likely is what made me sick, though my international comrades around me seemed to be doing fine eating the stuff.

I have a feeling my stomach ailments are correlated with our almost antiseptic, FDA-approved lifestyles back in the the U.S. of A. I remember one evening in New York City, a group of my friends all went out together for some Indian food. Everyone came back that evening with the runs except for this one little Filipino girl.

"Ha," she cackled. "You Americans can't stomach anything. Gain some damn microbes."

At Tilicho Base Camp, Alina, my Russian friend, was slurping down chicken soup which I wouldn't touch. There are virtually no refrigerators in these villages around the Annapurnas and there certainly wasn't anything of the sort at the base camp. The trek to get in supplies there takes several days. Because I didn't see any chickens running around outside the lodge, I wasn't going near the chicken soup.

I did eat eggs though. Two, fried with a little buckwheat toast. It was nice to eat food again.

Shortly after breakfast, Alina and I set off up the path to head to Tilicho Lake, a 3-4 hour walk. The way up is a long hard slog along a steep ridge and then up these switchbacks that rise high up the mountain out of sight. As soon as I started up, I started second guessing just how good I was feeling that morning. (See photo of me looking less than thrilled to be hiking at altitudes three miles above sea level).

Walking slowly along the pathway, I felt like a ghost. At one point I looked at the hundreds of meters of trails above me and thought about turning around and climbing back into bed. It was cloudy that day and quite cold and windy. I was hot from the effort, but also chilled to the bone by my own sweat.

But soon I started playing a little game with myself. "Ok, Maggie," I'd say. "Walk 20 meters to that boulder than catch your breath. Walk to that hairpin turn, then catch your breath. Walk 10 steps, then catch your breath."

I didn't look up the whole time and I didn't think about anything except the next target.

Along the way, I ran in to the Colombians who had set off early that morning with their guide to go to the lake. They were surprised, after seeing me in such a pathetic state the night before, that I was leading the way up the trail with Alina more than a hundred meters behind me and the others even further. The Columbians reassured me it was only about an hour more to the lake, that the hard part was over.

After getting through the switchbacks, the trail evened out substantially and headed over snowy flat lands covered in jagged ice spears. I picked my way through the ice and over a ridge and finally after several false ridges came to the lake.

Tilicho Lake, at 4,919 meters high (16,138 feet) is the highest altitude lake in the world. It was beautiful that day, a deep electric blue surrounded by white peaks under the cloudy sky. I stopped for a few photos, but once having seen it, I was ready to descend. It was cold and I was lightheaded and headachy from the altitude. I was also anxious to get out of the valley and push on toward Thorung La pass. It had been looming long in all our heads, this epic gateway at 5,400 meters to the other side of the circuit. Our hope was that our climbing at Tilicho would be helpful towards our acclimatization. We would know in a few days time.