Annapurna Base Camp

The trek to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) in Nepal was transformational for me.

We started the final leg from our last tea house in the frozen morning - 4 a.m. We wanted to catch the day's first sunlight on the peaks of the Himalayas and so Tam and I headed out. It was a biting darkness - freezing air with increasingly less oxygen. We moved steadily, but each step felt heavier as the altitude thinned the air. Quite soon we could only manage about six steps before we had to lean on our hiking poles and gasp deeply for 5-6 breaths before doing another six steps. Our muscles ached, but we kept focused and made steady progress as we looked up now and then to the faint outline of the peaks ahead.

Tam and I were hiking with our two guides Giri Maya and Dilshova. They were having a much easier time than we were even though it was Dilshova's first time to ABC as well.

Dilshova was my assigned guide and she was always adamant that she bring up the rear - never letting me fall behind. I got faced with a bit of my sexism and ageism as I was used to bringing up the rear and making sure everyone was accounted for. I had to learn to surrender to being one of the herded instead of the herder. She was patient as she herded me up the mountain and this morning waited for each of my regular gasping sessions.

I want to say that Tam was having an easier time because she and Giri Maya were ahead of us, but they never really pulled ahead and I don't think they were making a point of waiting - so I think we had similar needs for oxygen breaks.

Earlier at a tea house below the clouds (our most recent tea house was above the clouds!) Dilshova had helped me learn some Nepali words. I would write the word in English, draw a passable drawing and ask her the word in Nepali. She would tell me, I would write the phonetic version of what I had heard and then she would write the Nepali word(s) along with the Devanagari script version.

All of the words had been mundane and utilitarian up to a point when I suddenly wondered how to say "magic fire" in Nepali. Dilshova was a bit stumped and the host of the tea house - who had been listening to our lesson - said "Aagoko Jadu". I spontaneously said, "That's my name in Nepal!" and Dilshova happily called me Aagoko Jadu from there on out. It turns out that the literal translation is the possessive - more like "Fire's Magic".

If I ever change my name it will be to Aagoko Jadu - Mr. Jadu if you're nasty.

We finally made it to within sight of the heated building where we would be eating breakfast - and more importantly RESTING. We paused to take photos of ourselves and the towering mountains crowned in the earliest sunlight. The towering peaks of the Annapurna Massif and Machapuchare were catching the first light as the air lightened into a gorgeous clear dawn.

We went to the base camp proper and very happily took a load off as we had a delicious breakfast and warm drinks. Afterward we explored around a bit. There were Tibetan prayer flags stretched between rock cairns. There were memorial plaques for fallen climbers. The landscape was very raw and a study in jagged greys.

Tam and the guides were ready to go down before I was. For once Dilshova agreed - at my insistent bidding - to let me hike down by myself. They headed back down to our tea house where we had left most of our belongings. There was no way of getting lost as the path down had no branches in it, but only led to the tea house.

I waited a while and then headed down - not knowing what was ahead.

Where going up made you feel weaker with each step - going down had the exact opposite effect! With every step down I felt more exuberant, more energetic, more like Superman! I also hadn't thought about how thin the atmosphere was and how immediate the radiation of the Sun!

I was fairly skipping down the mountain getting bathed in solar radiation and super high off of the increasing oxygen. I was alone - which I had not been since the beginning of our trek many days earlier - and I broke into song. The song had only two words: "Aagoko Jadu" and they were sung to the tune of Cat Stevens' "If You Want to Sing Out".

I didn't realize that I was getting a very respectable sunburn - not even wearing a hat. I didn't realize that I was singing "Fire's Magic" while I was getting burned by the Sun. I only knew that I was having one of the very best (peak?) experiences of my life.

I sang "Aagoko Jadu" over and over until it was like a mantra - singing at the top of my lungs as I hopped and skipped down towards the top of the clouds.

"Aagoko Jadu, Jadu - Aagoko Jadu Jaduuuu..." and on like that.

I have many times thought about how most of the atoms in my body were formed by fusion in the heart of a star in a different solar system.

I will never forget coming down the mountain singing and skipping - one little bit of Fire's Magic.