trek suggestion, late Dec to Jan

[james sharkey]

a few years a did the everet/gokyo trek in late jan through february and loved it, particularly the lack of tourists. in 2002
i intend to go back to nepal, i cannot get there til 9-11 december 2002 and have 5-6 weeks to play with there.

Is it possible to do the Annapurna circuit or the Langtang & Gosainkund treks or would the high passes be shut most likely? i realise conditions change year to year, but does anyone know whether they actually have cut off dates for commencment of the treks?

sincerely

james sharkey
sydney, australia

[Andrees]

Hello James,
most of the times i was in the annapurna in November /December. For three times the first big snowstorm, who definitively shut thorong la for the next two months was exactly on 24.december and I had even white xmas in Tadapani at only 2700 m. not to tell the half meter snow in gorepani, where we all with the tourists and the nepali people had the best snowbattle fight of our life, it took 3 hours and was just georgious. and in the morning we went partially up to poonhill in the snow and fullmoon. This year there was 1,5 m snow already in Muktinath and a crazy japaneese guy, who was to late coming back, lost his way in the dark, and had to spend the whole night outside. He was coughing very hard, so i gave him a strip of codeine tablets for the next 3 days, but he all ate them at once, pretty crazy, as I said. He was later complaining about a dry thongue.
Another year there was no snow at all in the winter, so you never know exactly.
You could try to go up very fast, but please still allow you acclimatizatiuon days, altitud sickness can easily be deadly.
If thorong la is already closed, you will have to wlak back, wich is still a very nice experience, and maybe go the path from Khudi directly to Begnastal near Pokhara.
Anyway, where ever you might go, have the warmes clothes with you, december in upper nepal is really cold.