Annapurna Base Camp trek - ABC — 03.04.2023

April 19, 2023

Annapurna Base Camp trek - ABC — 03.04.2023 - 09.04.2023

If you’re an avid trekker or just a bit adventurous you’ve probably heard about the ABC trek. With more than 100 000 trekkers using this route every year, you can say it is one of the most famous treks and rightfully so. Known for its level of accessibility in the Himalayan Chain it is what Google calls: “very beginner friendly”. I, naturally, just assumed that being young would be the most training I would need, seeing how “accessible” they pretend it is. Well, I for one, was not young enough apparently.

I went with a group of friends and we were all between 19 and 23 years old so, we justified our being cheap and choosing not to hire a porter for our bags on our age. Mistake. ( Fast forward to the second day, we welcomed Iloveyou, a porter, to our small mountain family. Oops ) We were accompanied by a guide, which is now compulsory, and by a young Nepali boy.

The first day was definitely the most challenging, as there was a landslide the Jeep was not able to drop us where it should have which resulted in us walking 4 extra hours on top of the amount of time we were supposed to walk. Our first stop was Chomrong which is on the top of a hill, so here we were; under the rain, after having walked the entire day, climbing up a ridiculous amount of stairs. The least I can say was that it was memorable, I for one will never forget this day, in a good or bad way, yours to interpret. We got to the tea house soaking wet and very tired from the day so a hearty Dhal Bat was exactly what we needed to recover, it was indeed not enough for me because I had a bit of a difficult night. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that this would be my next 10 days. So for me, the trek was more of a mental challenge rather than a purely physical one. So the next day my sister and I decided to chill and stay put for a day while the others continued.

But now looking back the first day was definitely the hardest. It only took us 2 days from there to get to the base camp. Which was relatively very quick. Each day would start at around 6 - to pack up your things and have breakfast and by 7 you’re already walking. You would get to a different village by lunch, eat something then get to your final tea house at around 2 or 3 pm. Which is around 7 hours of walking per day. Going down was quite easy, we even walked 20km one day. But going up is something else. What makes it so “beginner friendly” are the stairs. Most of the trek is actually stairs, which means no real climbing and not-so-accident-proof grounds. However, it just feels like you’re on the stair master for a week. Which personally is not my favourite activity.

My favourite part was definitely the tea houses and meeting the people there. A fun little thing that happens is that you see the same people every day (which is quite obvious because you’re all going in the same direction) but still, it was always funny overtaking the girl you had breakfast with 2 days ago. Meeting people is my favourite part about travelling - I feel like I wouldn’t meet these people in “real life” so it’s just nice to take away a little something from each small interaction. I am slowly becoming a puzzle of all the weird people I’ve met while travelling and I really like that.

Regarding the food, chips and chapati with cheese is the way to go because you really don’t want to be sick. Beware toilets and showers are very tricky. Most of the time the toilets are just holes in the ground and as the French guy in the room next to us in one of the tea houses so beautifully said: “ f* I just pooed on my feet”. Showers are just cold, if you’re lucky enough they’ll have a water heater but most of the time they don’t. So prepare yourself to be stinky. As for the tea houses themselves, they were always nice and clean and as comfortable as a tea house at 4000m can be. The only time it was a bit difficult was one in Dovan that was literally 4 pieces of plywood stuck together which was not great for insulation nor for isolating the noise (hence us hearing the French guy's conversation about his toilet experience). But other than that I would give a solid 7/10 in my booking.com review.

After 4 days of suffering, we got to ABC in the morning after having slept through a blizzard at MBC. We started walking at 5 am to see the sunrise which was just breathtaking. As someone who hasn't experienced snow much, this was just magical. Snow up to my knees, huge white mountains surrounding me, I won’t forget this image either.

Overall, it was such an enriching experience. Would I do it again? … but I really loved it. And I’m really proud of myself because I didn’t think I would ever do something like that. In retrospect, I was absolutely not prepared enough for it and maybe if I had been then my feelings would be different but I don’t think I would feel this proud afterwards nor would it have been this fun. It was very interesting in a personal way because you’re completely put out of your comfort zone, but also in the people you meet, may it be the old man smoking on his rock or the mad German who did the 10-day trek in 2. One thing I take back from one of my conversations is “be young for the longest time possible” and I think that’s a good thing to live by. And the other thing is never to trust a Nepali when you ask “How much more up?”- the answer will always be 5 mins, a bunch of liars. All in all, I would recommend doing something like this at least once in your life- just to show yourself how much more capable you are.

Enjoy the pics :)