Approach

     On 30th September we climbed to Muktinah, where a silent crowd of Hinduist pilgrims goes to. Álex went to Kathmandu to take steps to acquire the permit to climb the summit. On 3rd October, we moved down from Marpha to Lete (2300m), last village before starting the approach. Together with 15 porters and Lapka, our cook, we began the approach in the afternoon of the 5th. It was raining.

Despite the inclement weather, the porters showed us again their great spirit of sacrifice (in the picture, one of them loads a 45kg power generator).

On the dotted line, the route of approach followed to reach basecamp on Annapurna.

     The trip was a concurrence of misfortunes: four porters took delay and we had to wait more than half a day for them; while moving down the sheer slopes leading to river Miristhi Khola (3200m), a porter slid and fell down a 300m gully with the only kerosene tank for cooking we had; mountain cats ate part of our food... But we didn't lose illusion. Our porters strength and sacrifice spirit encouraged us. On the 9th , we arrived at basecamp (4300m), where there wasn't any other expedition. We got surprised at finding water and bushes, so we could make a fire for cooking.