Day 7- Thorong La- pass day!

I feel I should have some awesome, foreboding, dark intro...oh well.

Lets see if the account of the day will do.

So picking up from day sick, I mean six. Went to bed around 8pm with 3 digestive cookies a half bowl of soup, and cup of rice in my belly. Up at 230am to get baggage out door and breakfast at 3am. I had another 1/2 bowl of porridge and hung around restaurant until we were marshalled at the start.
We could already see the snaking of lights going up the pass and would soon lose ourselves amongst them. The pace was rather brisk off the start and even though I had made sure to stay within myself I was moving quite well. I think that with no riding and the death march I had mastered on day 6 evened things out a bit.  Bibs were down and TP ready. My whole world became my circle of light and the heels of whoever was in front of me.

Heel-toe, heel- toe, heel-toe.........made the first hour with no GI stops! Had to re adjust bike, took a minute to look around at the stars and lights, the moon shadows of the mountains to the west and the faintest hint that the sun would actually shine from the east. Heel-toe, heel- toe, heel-toe.........they said you had to watch for the false summits but in the dark no such pretender exists just the 6ft circle of light. I was generally cold due to the -15C, illness, and the fact you just can't move that fast to generate your normal internal furnace.

I knew I was getting nearer the top as the terrain levelled out and even went down at times. I had caught up to some of the porters. Tough stock those porters, wearing jeans, leather jackets and most in running shoes. Makes you feel a little soft. I am sure they would love boots and down jackets but those all cost money and with the annual income rumored to be between $1,000-$4,000, you realise it is what it is. Hopefully they are paying these guys enough to afford at least one piece of warmer clothing next time over.

If you not there, you havnt gone far enough. Well, when I saw a porter run back down the trail to greet his friend I knew what far enough was. A hoot and holler from the porter in front of my brought my head up to see the infamous tea house. Sometimes being a little late has its own rewards, 20 minutes earlier the tea house was closed for Kate and Erik, but Jeffy was able to get in out of the wind out on his down jacket and have the fine gentlmen fill his water bottle with scalding black tea.

People said to stop and enjoy, people said to take some pictures, people said to soak it up. Well people.....I would have loved to! But but with only a total of 1 cup of soup, 1 bowl of porridge, 3 cookies, and a cup of rice over 60hrs one was not thinking about tourist luxuries, one was thinking about the uncontrollable shivering, the tightness in the bowels and the left hand that had been painfully cold for 3hrs. I did stop and look around, so I do have the memories but will have to pilfer pictures from others and you will just have to take my word that I was actually there :).

I went down hill like a man possessed, as I was a man possessed! 2 things drove me, warmth and a toilet. I tried to go down hill breathing as hard as I had uphill. Dave, I went fast, I took chances. I fell into the snow a lot but my whole world got better with each meter of elevation loss.

If not for the snow, we normally would have ridden from 4,300m down but we had to wait until 3,700m. It was warm the layers came off the, the sun was up and the goggles stayed on. After such a start, the finish is all down hill at stupid speeds on jeep roads. Fast is a realitive term and all I could think about is how I had come this far and was not going to bunge it up by wiping out, that and my Mom's voice" be safe" with her tag line " this is your mother speaking Jeffrey"

So the finish line found me happy, safe, warm, elated, shit free, hungry, and stupid looking with my ski goggles still firmly planted on my face!

I didn't get away unscathed though, once I took off my gloves my left thumb was purple, white and numb. I don't have good circulation to my hands and my biggest worry before and during the race were my hands. I had frozen the top 1/2" of my thumb and no amount of warming was bringing color back to it. I had to wait to see how it would progress but after 12hrs and no blisters, Thomas Tetz the mountain man from the Yukon assured me I would not loose my thumb but mayabe the skin and nail. I know he is correct as I am typing this on my phone with my thumbs 2 days later and it is much better all be it unsightly. 

Expedition done! One more downhill stage and the race is over!