We’ve just climbed up to Australian camp (2400 m) to go for a mini trek over the weekend to check out some beautiful retreat spaces up in the mountains.
It’s quiet, so quiet, and the Fishtail + Annapurna peaks seem so so so close but I know, that this is a big illusion. What looks like I could reach in a few hours is a constant up and down in a chaotic, dangerous environment. From here, it would take me more than 5 days reaching Mardi Himal at 5400m, the actual base of those mountains.
Trekking in Nepal is different from hiking. I remember the first time coming here in 2019, full of confidence to do the Annapurna circuit all on my own without a guide. After I did my first „trek“ walking up to Pokhara house mountain Sarankot I know: no, with my European sense of orientation I can’t find shit here.
Where there is just two directions in the alps, up and down, there are a thousand different options here. You gotta walk for 5 days to get even close to the mountain you want to climb on and this 5 days are not just „going up“. You got up, down, right, left, sideways and all over the place. The hills of the Himalayas are entangled in a way my mind can still not grasp and ending up at the same altitude or lower after a day of constant ups and downs is normal.
There are now rows, no order, on the way of the mountain alignment. Hills flow over and into each other, greenish, jungelish, giving shapes and dimensions changing with weather, time and light.
Where in the morning there might be one valley, the afternoon sun brings up the dimensions of ten other hills in between. All this gives the Himalayas a special magic that is seducing and deadly at the same time.
Always thinking about snowy peaks and steep flanks is not what this mountain range is – it is, after the home of some of the gophers peaks in the world, an endless chaotic collection of evergreen hills.
Trekking here is barely every just walking along and gaining altitude with distance. Trekking here is climbing up and down stairs, and when I say that I actually mean that, the whole day long.
Vegetation grows almost up to 4000 meters altitude here, leaving the tree line of the alps far behind. Because the Himalayas are on of the freshest massives on this planet, the landscape is characterized by landslides. Facing the north side of this mountains, nothing grows at all. The peaks are blocking off any clouds carrying water into those areas. It’s dry, and it’s cold.
What is green, wet and chaotic on the one side is brown, dry and flat on the other side.
The variety in landscape of those mountains is breathtaking, every time, and I can never stop staring once one of the peaks is showing.
The humbling experience of being shown where my place is by the simple presence of a 8000+ rock standing still in front of me is what draws me back here, over and over again.
When walking up today, it was hot. Hot, sweaty, steep, taking one step at the time. First the body and mind are screaming with every step. „I don’t want to do this. This is stupid. It hurts. Can’t breathe. What are we even doing.“ The mind is sending attention to every single place on the body that feels uncomfortable. With every single signal coming from your brain to move your body, your limbs protest. The legs hurt. The feet are unstable. The back is painful. The breath is limited, your lungs hurt and the body screams to stop.
But then, after half an hour of continuous movement up those steps, something happens. The body’s screaming gets quieter and as you keep on moving, the mind stops controlling the breath. Slowly but surely, the body accepts what you are doing and the breath slows down, aligning the rhythm with the steps, steadily driving your movement forward.
What was loud before, turns quiet. What hurt before, starts to heal. What was limited, expands.
For me, this is what the yogis call enlightenment, samadhi. When the body mind connection stops fighting and the nervous system calms down to allow the physical movement to achieve maximum performance with minimal energy usage, using the breath as the bridge in between mind and body. There are no thoughts, no commands needed when the bodies intelligence simply takes over and the ever analytical mind finally shuts up.
The space in between two breaths, two steps, expands into eternity and compresses into a millisecond at the same time, filled with nothing but pure presence without any intention. The legs now, what to do. The breath flows, rhythmical, and drives you into a deep state of meditation where your energy, your power, is not limited anymore.
Why?
Because your don’t think about it.
