Crossing the Thorung La was going to be high point of the Annapurna Circuit trek both literally and figuratively, the event everyone on the trail had been talking about for days, at 5,416 meters (about 17,800 feet) for most people doing the trek the highest altitude they had ever been or likely would ever be. That was the case for me; the highest I had been previously was at two spots in the neighborhood of 16,500 feet August 2013 in Peru and Bolivia.

Dawn broke bright and clear with a impressive moon hanging over the icy white peaks, everything brilliantly bright with the thick layer of new snow . I didn't set out too early because of the cold and my preference to trek in the trodden boot track of those before me, probably at least 100 trekkers plus their porters and guides crossing the pass that day. With the thick blanket of new snow the scenery all around was amazing, and (carrying only my small day pack) the walking was easier than I anticipated at higher elevation than I ever experienced before.

Raj and I made a stop at the only teahouse between High Camp and the pass after about an hour and a half of walking. I kept a very close eye on my altimeter watch the whole way up….and then when it said 5,270 meters I could see the prayer flags waving at the top. We’re here! My watch lied in a good way – I thought I still had 130 meters upwards to go! I found on my two treks and again in Tibet that my altimeter watch tended to give a somewhat lower than actual reading from about 5,000 meters upwards.

Yeay, I made it! What an incredible sense of accomplishment! The teahouse at the pass was an atmosphere of great celebration for the trekkers, as was the line for photographs with the sign marking the Thorung La besides the prayer flags .

I didn’t dilly-dally for too long. I paid Raj his 5,000 rupees plus a 1,000 rupee tip over which he was ecstatic. I’m sure he’d have to give the rest to his family to help support the education of his 13 siblings, but the tip he could spend on fun stuff for himself – like cigarettes. So now I had my full pack on my back for the first time in two and a half days. While the elevation gain from high camp to the Thorung La was less than 2,000 feet, the way down to Muktinath would be 1,700 meters (about 5,600 feet).

In some respects the way down was harder. The first stretch wasn’t too steep and was still in fairly solid snow, but as I descended things became ever, slushier, slipperier, and muddier. I fell flat on my ass about half a dozen times, luckily not at any point where I’d go sliding uncontrollably downward towards big rocks or off a cliff.

With only my hands and head exposed, it became ever more furnacelike as I went downwards, the brilliant sunshine reflected off the snow . I wore a hat and was wearing high-SPF sunscreen, but apparently the lip balm I purchased in Kathmandu didn’t have much in the way of UV protection. My lower lip ended up painfully sunburnt, as was my tongue. How did my tongue get burnt - it’s not as if I was walking with my tongue hanging out or even with my mouth wide open?

The way down was slow because careful footing was necessary and seemed to take forever for this tortoise. I had a late lunch outdoors at a restaurant at the base of the pass where things more or less flattened out into desert for the last few miles, the homestretch towards Muktinath.

Along the way I passed a fit-looking older lady, possibly in her early to mid-60ds walking in the opposite direction and carrying a fairly significant backpack, quite odd since the Annapurna Circuit trek is almost always done in a counter-clockwise direction because of the massive elevation difference between Multinath and the pass . I said "Namaste" to her, the greeting in most of South Asia, as we passed. She stopped and looked at me in apparent utter disgust. “You are so fat. You really need to lose weight!” she said to me in a thick German accent as she shook her head and continued on. I was speechless but immediately thought, “Was that Gisela?”

Gisela is an older German woman I was friendly with in Colorado in the 1999-2003 era or so but have since fallen out with – for reasons relating to her behavior that similar to that of her Doppelganger I just met on the trail. “Has Gisela taken up trekking?” I wondered and later posed to a friend who remains in touch with her. So here I was having just trekked over 10 days from under 3,000 feet to almost 18,000 feet and back down a ways, probably lost ten pounds or so in the process, and was feeling a strong sense of accomplishment and I’m told by a complete stranger that I’m “so fat”. Ha!

I told the story to some of my trail buddies when I got to Muktinath. They said they met a weird German lady earlier who was leaving town and was planning to camp at the base of the pass before crossing the next day. We had a good laugh over celebratory beers and bottles of hard cider, a local specialty in the Upper Kali Gandaki Valley. I made it!