Annapurna Trek Team Getting Close To The Mountains

April 28, 2014

IMG guide Jenni Pfafman reports that the team had a good first day on the trail yesterday, climbing up through the hardwood forests to Dhampus.  Today, the team crossed the ridge into the Modi Khola river valley, and continued on through the forests and terraced hill-country to the village of Landrung, at about 1700m.  The tidy villages in this area are populated by the Gurung people, who inhabit the south side of the Annapurna area.  The team are just starting to get their first close up views of the mountains, farther up the valley.  The two big guardian peaks of the Annapurna Sanctuary are Hiunchuli (6441m) and Machapuchare (6993m), which tower over ten thousand feet on either side of the valley entrance to the Sanctuary, and mark the beginning of the rugged trekking that will take the team up to Base Camp.  It all brings back fond memories to me…I climbed Hiunchuli in 1981 and again in 1983…on a couple of my early Himalayan trips.

Eric Simonson