Category: Uncategorized

I had both set out alone, days before.  I had left the security of Pokora to follow the famous Annapurna trail through the Himalayan mountains, aiming for the Thorong La Pass at 18,000 feet.  I had been warned the pass was closed due to the recent bad weather, but with rumours of Alpine guides having been rescued by Helicopter that week this had just added to the adventure.  I had not appreciated the danger, for when you are young you believe you are immortal, rashness is yet to be replaced by experience and responsibility, so I had set out into the virtual unknown, telling himself that I could turn back at any point.  How bad could it really be?

The first few days the going had been fairly easy going, the snow covering everything, but manageable.  Nights were spent in deserted guesthouses, manned by the owners, and perhaps a child…

The air was cold, as cold as I had ever experienced it. I had been told it was -45c at one point, a fantastic figure outside anything I had known before, but it was so cold you couldn’t stand outside for night for any longer than it took to pee unless you had just about every item of clothing available on so I believed it.

Me and Boz were lost, the path had disappeared from view an hour ago, so we had dug into the snow, a cave just big enough for us to crawl into and warm some of the surrounding snow over a small gas burner. We needed to find heat from somewhere, and although the thin air would not permit the water to boil, steam was now rising slowly from the surface. We poured powdered orange from a sachet into our mugs and mixed it with the…