Home/The Twelve Steps/Step 02

Two trekkers, small on a stone-stepped trail through misted rhododendron forest, dwarfed by the Annapurna wall above them; the guide has turned back mid-sentence to point out the line.

Annapurna Base Camp

Lose an argument you could have won

Country
NepalAnnapurna Sanctuary, Nepal
Duration
10–12 daysSeason Two
Grade
Moderate 2AGet High scale
Max altitude
4,130 m13,550 ft
Daily activity
Approx 5–7 hours walking
Season
Oct–Nov, Mar–Apr
Skill required
Trekking fitness
Months on the plan
One monthof 24 planned

Step 02Annapurna Base Camp4,130 m / 13,550 ft

Altitude profile: 12 steps, 1,400 m to 8,849 m at Mount EverestA line chart of every step in order. Step 1, 12 Days of Silence, is the lowest at 1,400 m / 4,593 ft, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. Every step is higher than the one before it, up to step 12, Mount Everest, 8,849 m / 29,032 ft. Everything above 8,000 m is the death zone, marked in red: step 11, Cho Oyu; step 12, Mount Everest. Each point is a link to that step. You are on step 2, Annapurna Base Camp, 4,130 m / 13,550 ft.

Everyone around you has said yes for a decade. This is the first no you cannot buy your way past, and it comes from a man earning less in a season than you spend on dinner.

What you are walking into

Ten days on foot into a ring of 7,000 m peaks with one way in and one way out. Rhododendron forest, terraced villages, and then the walls close and the sky becomes a circle directly above you. You sleep indoors, you eat the same meal twice a day, and by day six you look forward to it — which will surprise you more than the mountains do.

Nothing here is technical. It tops out at 4,130 m, which is exactly high enough to put a fit, impatient, extremely well-financed man in a helicopter the moment he decides the schedule is a suggestion.

What it takes out of you

You are very good at getting your way. It is arguably the skill that got you this far, and up here it is the single thing most likely to hurt you.

Altitude does not negotiate, cannot be flattered, has never heard of you and will not take a call from your lawyer. For the first time in years something outside you is in charge and is not wrong about it. Notice how much you hate that. Then do what the man says.

The logistics

Duration
10–12 days
Skill required
Trekking fitness
Season
Oct–Nov, Mar–Apr

The trek profile

Left, elevation only: no horizontal axis, so its width means nothing. Right, air: bar length is the one thing here that does.

Trek profile: Nayapul at 1,070 m to Annapurna Base Camp at 4,130 m, 3,060 metres of verticalA vertical elevation chart with no horizontal axis. The scale runs from 0 m at the foot to 5,000 m at the top. Nayapul is marked at 1,070 m and Annapurna Base Camp at 4,130 m, a difference of 3,060 metres. No intermediate camps are sourced for this one. The elevation part of the chart has no horizontal axis because the horizontal distance from Nayapul to Annapurna Base Camp is not published by any source we could find. Its width carries no meaning. Cumulative ascent over the route is not sourced and is not shown. To the right, a bar hangs off each of those elevations and its length is that altitude's share of the air at sea level, which a dashed bar across the full track marks as 100%: Nayapul 89%; Annapurna Base Camp 62%. The bars shorten as the elevation rises.
Start
Nayapul, 1,070 msource
Finish
Annapurna Base Camp, 4,130 msource
Vertical, start to finish
3,060 mthe difference of the two elevations above, nothing more
Horizontal distance
Not yet sourcedNo operator route description, alpine club record or mountaineering reference we could find states it for this route. It is not estimated here.
Cumulative ascent
Not yet sourcedThe up-and-down of the whole route, which is more than the vertical above. Nobody publishes it for any of the twelve.

Only round-trip distances are published, and they disagree badly — 70–120 km depending on the source, because the road head keeps moving and some itineraries add Poon Hill. Halving a round trip to get one way would be our inference, not a citation. Some operators start at Tikhedhunga (1,577 m) rather than Nayapul.

The highest point is Annapurna Base Camp, 4,130 m, where the air is 62% of what it is at sea level. Everything you carry gets there. The air does not.

The part we will not lie about

Altitude sickness does not care about your fitness, your age or your balance sheet. It begins around this height and the only reliable treatment is going back down. Learn the symptoms before you get on the plane.

Two trekking pole grips held in gloved hands at the bottom of the frame, a wet stone trail climbing through dripping forest ahead.
Ten days on foot. Somebody is always a little further up the trail.

Who you do it with

First real altitude, and the first time your body argues back. Everyone else in that valley is paid to keep you comfortable. He is the one with nothing to sell you at the end of the day, which is why he is the one you end up telling.

What the word means, and where it came from

$2,400,000 at the plan's pace — $100,000 a month, charged monthly, for as long as it takes. All twelve steps. One client at a time.

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A minute white helicopter crossing the floor of a vast glacial basin entirely ringed by sheer fluted snow walls.
A glacial basin closed on every side, and a helicopter small enough to show the scale of it.
The Annapurna Sanctuary at first light and empty of people: a grey moraine basin ringed by fluted ice walls, with sunrise reaching only the highest snow.
Mud-caked leather trekking boots and the steel tip of a trekking pole on wet stone steps scattered with fallen rhododendron leaves.

All twelve steps

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