Not having time enough to hike the entire Annapurna circuit, I flew up from Pokhara to Jomsom.

Weather permitting, planes can land and take off here during about two hours of early morning calm. The rest of the day the valley is too foggy or too turbulent.

When the Karmapa came down from Tibet months later, he may have flown out from here on his way to Dharamsala, India.

Bishnu Prasad Subedi, my guide/porter, waiting for tea in a restaurant at the northern end of Jomsom.

I met Bishnu in Pokhara, while renting a sleeping bag in a mountaineering shop. I had planned to look for a guide only after flying up to Jomsom. The shopkeeper recommended instead that I fly his "cousin-brother" Bishnu up with me (Nepalis fly half-price on the several small local airlines.)

Hiring him was the best decision I made.

To the south is Nilgiri (m7061).

Photo: Bishnu Subedi.

Looking south from Kagbeni toward Nilgiri. Which way does the Kali Gandaki, the river in the middleground, flow?

In most parts of the world, looking toward such a tall mountain, you could safely assume that the river flowed toward you. But one of the great peculiarities of the Himalayas, stemming from its geologic youthfulness, is that all its great rivers flow directly through it, down from the high Tibetan plain.

"Here the Comfortable Camping & Best for Kitchen."

Exterior of a new lodge in Kagbeni, with recently slaughtered goat.

Candle in my room of the Red House Lodge, Kagbeni.

Some years ago a project to electrify Kagbeni through wind power failed. Though a hydroelectric plant further down the Kali Gandaki powers many neighboring communities, as of 1999 Kagbeni was still off the grid.