Dispatch 7: Drive from Marpha to Muktinath (12,171ft/3710m)

The group in Muktinath

Today we had breakfast and awaited the arrival of our bags from the small shepherd’s hut. We packed up our things and the bus to Beni arrived in the late morning. After much deliberation and an argument with our tour operator, we finally decided to head in the opposite direction from Beni and drive to Muktinath at 12,171ft/3710m elevation. We weren’t confident that the porters would be ready to leave the following day from Darbang since the person who was to arrange them hadn’t even arrived in the city where they were to be sourced. We didn’t want to spend an extended amount of time at very low elevation and lose the acclimatization that we had gained from our hike to Yak Kharka and from sleeping in Marpha. Muktinath is a sacred place for both Hindus and Buddhists and the name means “place of liberation”. The Tibetan Buddhist tradition states that Guru Rinpoche, also known as Padmasambhava, the founder of Tibetan Buddhism, had meditated at Muktinath on his way to Tibet. After arriving to this beautiful sacred town, we all felt liberated from our earlier troubles and more at peace. After checking into our hotel and having dinner, we were greeted with stunning views of Dhaulagiri as the sun fell behind the range, our first glimpse of our climbing objective since arriving to Nepal. The energy of our group shifted and we all had smiles on our faces. We plan on waking up early tomorrow to climb up to Thorong La, a high mountain pass with an elevation of 17,769 ft/5416m, returning in the early evening, and leaving Muktinath for Darbang the following day to begin our trek to Dhaulagiri Basecamp, working under the assumption that 3 full days should be sufficient time to ensure that we have porters ready upon our arrival.