Woke up to watch the sunrise... ran into Clive just outside my door, "You may as well go back to bed." He told me, the clouds had set in and we couldn't even see down the valley, let alone up to the peaks! Everyone about the place was equally bummed as we all sorta milled about, no one went back to bed. A few of us ordered breakfast right away, and as we ate, the clouds slowly started to lift and break up! Everyone was abuzz, in and out of the dining hall as a new summit peaked out! It was really something to watch the clouds lift and slowly reveal different views! The clouds really added something to the views too! We ended up getting at least a peak at everything but Annapurna I.
As we started to descend after breakfast, the clouds settled back in. We hiked through the fresh snow down to MBC and shortly after that we entered the rain... hiked in the rain most of the morning. Just after Deurali on the way down, we encountered a flock of the most brilliant blue birds I've ever seen! They were amazing!
The rain slowly lessened and we only had off and on sprinkles down to Sinuwa. We stopped for tea and biscuits there and then proceeded to Chomrong. On the way up the steps from the river through Chomrong, I had been counting the steps and at 2000 I stopped and announced to NP that that was the 2000th step from the river! He smiled and took about eight more steps and announced to me that that was the 2000th step! We'd both been counting! What nerds... At the top I had 2301 and NP had 2295, so we agreed on 2300 to make it easy! That was a lot of steps!
That evening the rain settled back in and it got pretty dark with thunder and all! Met a Kiwi girl on her way up to ABC, she's headed to Montana to work at a teen outdoor program. She's been working similar jobs in NZ and summers in Antarctica! How cool is that, she works as a field instructor, teaching survival, glacial travel and safety, as well as heading up the Search and Rescue for Scott Base! Sounds like a cool gig!
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