From Manang it normally takes two days to reach the base of the Thoring La pass. Even a turtle like me could do it in one day, though, but taking it slow is a precaution against getting altitude sickness. I considered taking a side trip to Tilicho Lake, but some of the other trekkers' guides advised against it because of some steep exposed stretches that hold snow and would be especially treacherous after the recent storm. So onwards to the pass it was!

I was somewhat concerned about hiking to almost 18,000 feet with my full back pack . Even in Bolivia in when I got up to 16,500 feet in August 2013 I was only carrying my daypack. I inquired with the shopkeeper who manned Manang’s safe drinking water station about a porter and entered into negotiations. We settled on 2,000 rupees ($20) for him then and there and 5,000 rupees ($50) for the porter at the end of his gig at the top of the Thorung La. I met the shopkeeper and my porter at his shop the morning I set off from Manang. My porter was named Raj and was 15 years old, almost 16 he insisted, and probably about half my weight. I thought it was funny that I hired a skinny little 15 years old to carry my pack to the pass.

The first day’s hike into a side valley towards the past was pretty easy with a gradual incline and sunny skies. Raj mostly lagged behind me and walked with his porter friends. I stopped for lunch at Yak Kharka, the only significant settlement of a few guesthouses along the way and continued on for another 90 minutes to Letdar at 4,230 meters (almost 14,000 feet) to stop for the night . Letdar was a pretty bleak place with only two guesthouses and located in a narrow valley. At such a high elevation it got very cold at night in my $1/night unheated room.

Because it was a short day I arrived mid-afternoon and hung out with tea in the busy dining room where there was at least a wood burning stove for some warmth. I pulled out "The Fountainhead", the first of Ayn Rand’s two major novels, and started reading. I read her other major novel “Atlas Shrugged” on my overland trip in South America the summer before and was thoroughly unimpressed. Browsing through the English-language bookstores in Kathmandu for a lightweight but long and dense novel for this trek I came across “The Fountainhead” and immediately thought “That’s it!”. I’ll give Ayn another chance.

Anyway, some members of the crowd of mostly young Israelis noticed my book and started asking me what I about it. A big discussion about Ayn Rand and her philosophies followed and lasted for several hours . I think a trekking guesthouse in Nepal is one of the few places in the world where you’ll nowadays find a large number of people intellectual enough to all be well-versed in the philosophies of a Russian-American pop philosopher – and they all had a deeper understanding of her Objectivism that the simplistic notions of it held by her modern American right-wing Republican followers.

They say you’re not supposed to drink alcohol at high altitude because it tends to relax you and slow heart rate and breathing (the exact opposite effect of Diamox) and thus increase risk of altitude sickness. I don’t care – I’m tired and I want a beer! After dinner I sat alone reading in the colder quieter room with my beer. Raj came and joined me, glass in hand. “Oh, so you’d like some beer, huh?” The small amount I gave him seemed to make him immediately sleepy. Ha, I’m corrupting a minor at 14,000 feet!

The snow started in late afternoon and lasted into the night . By morning there was around two inches on the ground, making for a slippery walk to Thorung Phedi. The trail rose quite gradually in elevation as the valley narrowed. At one point I had to pee very badly and insisted Raj wait behind for a few minutes while I went ahead to pee. “No, No!!!” Apparently we were at a spot very dangerous for rock slides and rolling boulders. I had to wait to pee as I was about to burst. We lunched at Thorung Phedi before undertaking the steep 1,000 vertical foot hike up the scree trail to Thorung High Camp, the highest place to stay before crossing the pass at about 16,000 feet elevation, the highest I’ve ever slept. I decided I was more concerned about doing the steep climb from Thorung Phedi to High Camp the same day as crossing the pass than I was of the higher risk of experiencing altitude sickness at High Camp. I was correct; I felt no altitude sickness whatsoever.

High Camp was extremely busy because the day’s snow kept people from crossing the pass, so I’d have to share a room with someone (the porters and guides stay in separate rooms). My roommate was a young German composer from Dresden, also trekking solo. High Camp looks a little like an American style motel without the parking spaces and cars – several long buildings of rooms with doors facing outwards and a communal restaurant area in the middle, of course all covered in snow.

It was a long cold afternoon and evening hanging out in the crowded dining room reading, talking, playing cards, and eating with my fellow trekkers, followed by a long bitterly cold night in my sleeping bag under several layers of comforters, a night so cold the contents of my water bottles turned slushy. It snowed heavily into the evening but dawn broke with brilliant blue skies. By morning you could tell every room where men had stayed by the yellow patches in the snow right outside the doors – those outhouse toilets were a long way away on such a frigid night!