It’s a weird feeling waking up on the day that you have been waiting for the entire trek, and finding yourself in the middle of a literal cloud. Trekking in Nepal during monsoon was never our original plan, but the experience we have had over the last ten days has been unforgettable. Yes, there have been cloudy spells, and no, we haven’t gotten those famous 360 degree panoramic mountain views, but we have had so much fun and had some absolutely amazing weather. All that being said, I would be lying if I said that my heart didn’t sink a little when I realized it wasn’t clear on our equivalent of a “summit day”. Today we were climbing another 730m up to Larke Pass, skirting along the side of the glacier before descending down into the Dudh Khola valley. 

Once we were awake my lingering nerves about the climb were forgotten and it became a game of moving through the motions. Josh did not get much sleep at altitude unfortunately, but I somehow managed quite a deep five hours or so before the alarm went off at 2:45 AM. We all had a quiet breakfast in the tea house together before heading off in the dark. We were wrapped up in nearly all our layers, including puffer jackets, raincoats, beanies and gloves. Even after looking at the map, we were surprised at how gentle the climb was! I think New Zealand makes you tough. We seem to love to create routes where it doesn’t even seem possible to do so, and this felt like a really gentle five kms up to the pass compared to what I expected. It slowly got light, and although not totally clear, the immediate cloud around us dispersed and we got some very cool views of the peaks on either side of us. Even though it was gentle, it wasn't by any means easy, and after about three hours of slow pole planting and lots of stops to catch our breath, we made it to our high point. 

In classic Nepali style the pass was covered in prayer flags and stickered signs, and we got heaps of photos while admiring the view and enjoying some well deserved snickers bars. I felt a mixture of relief and admiration for what we had achieved. Something about this trek that was especially cool is that we started so low, on foot.  For lots of treks in Nepal you will get a jeep (or even a plane if you’re in the Everest region) to over 2,000m, often closer to 3,000m! We walked from 860m above sea level to 5,160m which feels like such a cool achievement. As to be expected, reaching the pass really gave us the Himalayan mountain buzz and we’re already excited about when we can come back again to these magical mountains. 

There is no other way to describe the way down apart from long and steep. Josh was fighting the no sleep scaries and I was fighting some sort of stomach upsets. It dragged on for what felt like forever!! They had trail markers every 100m (descent) and this was a nice way to measure our progress. Once we were over the pass we had views in the other direction, towards the Kanguru ranges. These were pretty clouded over but we got a few peeks at some different peaks. 

With some Taylor Swift in the AirPods, we made it all the way down to Bimthang before lunch. It was cloudy here but much warmer than the top had been, and we spent the rest of the afternoon tucked up having a well deserved nap. It had been a big day, and I was so proud of how we both coped with the altitude, the challenging descent and the early start.