An Ashville College Sixth Former has scaled new heights on a winter expedition to Nepal.
During his 145-mile trek around the world famous Annapurna Circuit – which crosses two different river valleys and at its highest point traverses the Thorong La Pass at 5,416m or 17,769ft – Alex Fennah braved temperatures of to -30° Celsius and two landslides.
The route encircles a whole host of the world’s highest mountains, including some of the 8,000m peaks featured in the recent Netflix documentary ‘14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible’.
Alex, 17, said: “I knew it was going to be challenging being in the depths of the Himalayan winter, but with two days of heavy snow in the lead up to crossing the pass and a blizzard on the day itself, what should have been a nine to 11-hour day turned into a real adventure.
“We set off at 4.30am and got down to shelter at 4.37am the following morning over 24 hours later! Needless to say, we were the only group to make it over that week and our guides said it was the worst conditions they had faced in their 20 years crossing the pass.”
During his adventure, Alex managed to visit all seven of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley, and walked to two Tibetan refugee villages on the Nepalese side of the Tibetan border.
He added: “It was a brilliant trip filled with stunning scenery, amazing cultures, fascinating animals like blue sheep, yaks and Himalayan griffons, as well as many challenges.
“Apart from the altitude, depth of snow, and temperatures down to -30°, we had landslides twice taking out the road in front of us on the way back to Kathmandu and hardly anything was open higher up due to the weather conditions. There was also a general lack of trekkers due to the impact of COVID-19.
“Prior to COVID and away from the winter period, this was one of the busiest trekking routes in the world. We had the luxury of having the route entirely to ourselves much of the time.”
For more information about Ashville College, please visit www.ashville.co.uk or call 01423 566358.
Categories: Ashville College School News
