Early morning in Kathmandu
Bus station in Kathmandu
Our guesthouse in Bhulbule (850 metres)
Bhulbhule
The streets of Bhulbhule
Tommaso (from Italy) on the first day of trekking
Tommaso and Kaji take a short rest
Kaji Sherpa
Tommaso arrives Syange (1100 metres)
Marsyangdi river
Lyngve in Jagat village (1250 metres)
Nepali girl
The most beautiful waterfall in Annapurna region
Teahouses in Chamje (1400 metres)
Maoists collect money from us. We had to pay 500 rupies each, while later we heard they raised the fee to 2000 rupies. They call it voluntary donation, but that's bullshit....
The village of Tal (1675 metres), along the Marshyangdi river
Guesthouse in Tal
Kaji and Tommaso
We bid farewell to Tommaso in Tamang (2600 metres). While Tommaso was planning to go all the way to Pisang in one day, we decided to have an easy day to Chame so Lyngve could recover from his illness (a bad cold with high fever).
There is only one good guesthouse in Tamang and that's the Hotel Royal Garden
Manaslu (8156 metres) as seen from Tamang
The streets of Chame (2670 metres)
Chame occupies both sides of the river
The bridge in Chame
A stupa beyond Chame
Arriving Pisang village (3300 metres)
The welcome gate at Pisang
Pisang Peak (6091m) as seen from Pisang village (3300m). It is indeed very similar to Mont Blanc from the Chamonix side.
Annapurna II (7937m) from upper Pisang. Notice the snowdrift from the summit (high winds).
Our guesthouse in Upper Pisang. This is the best and most friendly guesthouse in the entire Annapurnas...
Lower Pisang from Upper Pisang
The valley of Manang
High above Pisang
En route to Pisang Peak BC
Lyngve on his way to Pisang Peak BC
Annapurna III (7555m)
Kaji Sherpa and our porter below BC
Kaji Sherpa and our porter in Pisang Peak BC (4400 metres)
We have pitched our tent in BC
Beautiful views of Annapurna II (7937m) from BC
Pisang Peak Base Camp
The white cone of Pisang Peak
The upper snow slopes seem pretty steep
Kaji between BC and Highcamp
Lyngve during a load carry to Highcamp. We decided to not take the porter beyond BC, thus we had to take a day carrying half of the gear and supplies ourselves up to Highcamp and then return to BC for sleeping and then a new carry next day.
Pisang Peak from Highcamp
Kaji Sherpa at Highcamp (5100 metres)
Annapurna III (left) and Gangapurna (right)
A cold evening inside the tent in Highcamp
Part of the Annapurna range by sunset
I was surprised to meet Mingma Tenzing again. He was our sherpa on the Cho Oyu 2007 Expedition, and now he was on Pisang Peak with a Swiss team.
Pisang Peak and the entire route can easily be seen from this viewpoint at 5300 metres
A zoom on the upper part of Pisang Peak. Notice the trail in the snow. We chose a slightly different route by climbing the rock slabs directly
The Sherpas from a Swiss and Belgian team went up the day before to fix 500 metres of rope
Lamjung Himal from Highcamp
The tents of the Swiss team in Highcamp
Kaji Sherpa takes a nap in Highcamp
Evening in Highcamp
Pisang Peak by sunset
Kaji prepares for take-off in the night. We started 04:30, way behind the Swiss team (03:00).
Lamjung Himal at dusk
Sunrise at Annapurna II
Macchapuchhare (Fishtail), Annapurna III and Gangapurna by sunrise
Macchapuchhare (6993m) looks very steep also from north
Annapurna III (7555m) and Gangapurna (7455m)
Annapurna II and its amazing ridge by sunrise
Annapurna II (7937m)
Lamjung Himal (left) and Annapurna II (right)
Fixed ropes on the rock slabs
View from summit
The Swiss team on the summit of Pisang Peak (6091m). It took us 4 hours to summit while the Swiss team used more than 5 hours.
Amazing views southeast of Pisang Peak
Kaji Sherpa on the summit. Annapurna II behind.
Lyngve on the summit of Pisang Peak
Manaslu (8156m) as seen from Pisang Peak (6091m)
Kaji going down from the summit
The summit ridge of Pisang Peak
Steep down from Pisang Peak
Lyngve starts the descent
Steep snow slopes at an angle of more than 40 degrees
Swiss members abseil a rock pitch
Looking back at Pisang Peak
When we returned to BC, some other groups had arrived as well.
Kaji and our porter during the descent to Pisang village. In one day Kaji and myself went down almost 3000 metres. Good we didn't have any knee problems.
The streets of Chame. Manaslu behind.
Manaslu (8156m) from Chame
Our guesthouse in Chame
Our porter cutting buffalo meat in Syange
A boy in Syange
Kaji Sherpa in Syange
We took the shortcut from Syange to Bhulbhule, 1-2 hours walking and then by jeep along the new road under construction.
Inside the crowded jeep
