A Wintery Arrival at Base Camp
The terrain began to change almost immediately after leaving Deurali on the way to Annapurna Base Camp. Green bushes and grasses slowly disappeared, replaced by bare rock faces dusted with thin yellow grasses as the valley narrowed and the mountains closed in around me. With every step higher, the landscape felt more stark and more dramatic.
Walking through these massive rock formations made me feel incredibly small. After about an hour, the first patches of snow appeared underfoot. Less than sixty minutes earlier I had been moving through jungle, and suddenly I was surrounded by an entirely different world, cold and exposed.
There was a refuge along the way where I could have stopped, but I wanted to reach the snow-covered heart of the valley, so I kept going. A helicopter droned overhead, repeatedly moving up and down the valley. I assumed it was resupplying the lodges, but later learned it was carrying tourists directly to Base Camp, skipping the hike entirely.
As I continued, clouds began to build and the snow deepened. Fresh snowfall from the night before made the trail difficult to follow, and I had to carefully pick my way forward, occasionally stepping off the path entirely. Ahead, the outline of the Base Camp refuge slowly emerged as clouds thickened around me. Snow was clearly on the way again, but I arrived just in time.
The hike from Deurali took no more than three hours, and I realized I could have made it the previous day if the rain lower down had not likely been snow at this elevation. With my cash running low, I shared a room with a French couple I had met earlier in Chomrong. After settling in and enjoying a hot shower, I spent the afternoon in the dining hall reading, eating, and watching the winter landscape outside the windows.
The snowstorm passed after a few hours, leaving behind crystal-clear blue skies and drifting clouds that hovered low in the valley. I wandered outside to take in a nearby drop-off filled with a surreal cloud inversion before returning indoors to read more. A couple of resident dogs kept trying to sneak into the dining hall for warmth and food, much to the hosts' annoyance. Over meals, I made friends with a few Americans from Colorado and Washington. As night fell and the lights dimmed, I turned in early, hoping to wake up in time for sunrise at Base Camp.