Tom and Shelley and Ian decided to call it quits and we dwindled to three. Shelly's flu was not improving and in the cold and austerity of Braga, she felt she would not get better. Ian's ankle did him in also, after talking to some guides, he figured that the crossing of the pass would demand too much from his injured foot.

After Braga, we took very conservative tack, given no time limitations, we ended up spending about five days getting into position to cross, whereas many take just two. Two groups of Israelis pushed past us up the hill, despite complaining already of headaches (a sure sign of the onset of AMS) and we saw them retreat past us downhill later that day, now suffering full on from AMS.

THORUNG LA

We finally rose to our feet for the push to the summit. The past hour teased us with several false summits which we anticipated from our reading and prepared ourselves for a few more. I put on a final layer of sunblock and we threw our packs on and headed off, 200 yards later we came to the top of a rise and found ourselves at the pass. Just like that. We stared in surprise, expecting another 30-40 minutes; but we stood right at the teahouse straddling the top.

It was 10 am and across the summit into the Kali Gandaki valley, we spotted the top of Dhauligiri, the 6th hightest mountain in the world at 8,167 metres, once the home of the legendary Buddhist guru Padmasamba.

After a quick cup of Nepali tea, we started down the other side towards Muktinath, the town at the bottom of the pass where most people stop after a long day, descending some 1,600m in five hours. The route often called for trekking poles since snowfall blanketed a lot of the route and became slushy icy and slippery over the past few days. One wrong step could see us falling down some steep mountainside several hundred meters. I used my trekking poles to take some weight of the descent off my aging knees.

DESCENT AND LETDOWN

The anticlimacticness finally hit us a couple days off the pass in the scenic town of Kagbeni at the foot of the Mustang Valley. The views of the mountains deteriorated in the dryer Kali Gandaki valley and everything that fascinated us in its newness now beat our brains into boredom. The three of us were ready, in my words, to "get off this f-cking mountain."

I vacillated (imaging that) back and forth on whether or not to undertake the additional six day trek into the Annapurna Sanctuary, a valley surrounded by the Annapurna range and one of the most scenic parts of the area. But after the weather and views continued to deteriorate, with daily afternoon thundershowers, I shelved the idea. Besides my legs screamed in rebellion over the prospect of climbing another 2500m.

In the end, we just walked off the mountain, culmininating in a final 10 hour day descending into the muggy heat of the Pokhara valley. We checked into the first hotel we found in the city, which turned out to be quite nice, with private baths and TV. I caught up on the war in Iraq (now over) and feasted on spaghetti and pizza and steak in the many Western style restaurants in the lakeside area of the tourist city.

After the energy and ups and downs (literally) of 23-days on the trail, I zoned out for a few days. It wasn't until I returned to Kathmandu and developed my pictures that I really realized the extent of the accomplishment of the past three weeks. The pictures summarized the high points of the trip and incredible majesty of the mountains to the friendly Nepali villagers.