Changing conditions on Thorung La - And Then There Were 3

Annapurna Circuit Second Third Time Around.

You'll have to check out the previous post for the blurb - this is just a little update. It seems the family can't keep itself away from Thorung La. After my father and I tackled the Annapurna Circuit about 7 (and a bit) years ago, I took my wife a couple of years ago; then my mother (not to be left out) went with my father last year.

We all went at roughly the same time of year - that's peak trekking season - between October and November, and within literally within a few weeks range.

So, to include all three trips, in vastly different conditions...

Here were the conditions in 2008:

Between high camp and the pass

Snow at Thorung La

My second go at the circuit in 2012 was within 2 weeks in the year of the 2008 trek and I expected very similar conditions. The monsoon this year was especially late however. This meant we had exceptionally clear skies every day as the rains ended (we had one wet day in Kathmandu before the trek), but in turn temperatures plummeted without the cloud cover. Every night was cold.

Here are the conditions in 2012:

At high camp (around 4,500 meters) we recorded -17C at 4:30pm, making getting water a challenge:

Water was available by smashing through the ice plugging the container with an old saucepan

The extreme cold (-30C by the time we starting heading to the pass at 5am the following morning) had some trekkers short of water as it froze in their bottles. despite the cold, the exceptionally dry air left us to trek through a moonscape compared to the previous trip:

Needless to say, the Mars bars we'd saved for the top had to wait until half way down the other side. Our teeth would never have got through them...

Finally, just a year later: the conditions in 2013 were much more cloudy all round, and the snow came early - from Yak Karka, leading to near blizzard conditions past Ledar.

The conditions in 2013:

Cloudy conditions and a good amount of snow on the way up to the pass

At the pass

Clearing over as the morning goes on

Three years, three very different conditions.