We left the High Camp and its frozen toilets at 5am and hiked the first hour in darkness with our headlamps. The slog to the pass was long but an easy trail, especially near the top where the terrain evened out. Like several of the easier passes in Dolpo, Thorong La had been carved by a glacier and was really just a flat wide place at the top. We had a cup of tea at the overpriced shop at the pass.
We knew that coming down would be the hard part, because we had to drop 1700 meters (5500 feet) to the first real lodging at Muktinath. After some initial gradual descent, the trail began dropping sharply. Each pitch got longer and steeper until we were descending several hundred meters at a time. The trail remained snowy most of the way down, and there were some tricky icy patches near the bottom. I fell once, as did Sonam, but no one was hurt. Marcia's knee was quite painful due to all the steep descents, but still better than coming out of Dolpo.The steepest part ended at a lunch place, and it was more gradual after that. A suspension bridge and some chörtens heralded our entry into Muktinath. Because we were so tired, we agreed to bypass the temple complex and return in the morning.
Our hotel had a shower with gas-heated water, which seemed like heaven after 10 days on the trail. Until then, all the lodges used solar power to heat their water, which meant cold water when it was cloudy. Marcia and I opted to stay dirty, but now it felt great to get clean.
