Weather was still cloudy when we woke up, so we decided to take the easier lower route. The upper route would have given better views, but clouds look the same from every perspective.

The walk followed the wide Manang valley, so a lot of it was as flat as any trail we’ve seen in Nepal. The forest was mostly pines, so we sometimes thought we were walking in the Sierras.

We had lunch next to the airport, which was humming with flights carrying out groups that had given up trying to cross the pass after the snowstorm. That had us a bit worried, but we soon got word that at least some groups had gotten through.

We arrived in Manang around 2pm after a few more hours’ easy walk uphill. Manang is quite a trekking center, since people normally spend two nights here for acclimatization. Our hotel is three stories high and has great food including yak steaks and oven-baked pizzas. It’s also one of the more expensive places in Nepal.

Most of the conversation at other tables centered around the dangers of altitude sickness and the 5400-meter pass we will be crossing. Most of the young Europeans on this circuit haven’t been much above 3000 meters. For us it’s old hat, though we are still acclimatizing as if this were our first trip, since medical authorities say we may have lost most of our previous acclimatization in the two weeks since we returned from Dolpo.