Annapurna delight for Norrdine
Norrdine Nouar summited Annapurna last week and now safely back has told their story of the climb.
“Greetings from the summit of Annapurna I, 8091m above sea level! My 2nd 8000er without the use of supplementary oxygen. On the 14th of April 2024 approximately at 10:50am, I reached this extremely challenging summit and made it down safely.
Annapurna is simply a beast! She tries to throw everything at you to test you and harm your precious life.
Unpredictable weather, cold winds, snow masses, crevasses, avalanches and a difficult and exhausting climb! She does not offer her summit to anyone that easily especially without the use of supplementary oxygen.
Only about 420 people summited this mountain in total since the first expedition in 1950. Acclimatization already started for me on the 15th of March, when I began to walk the Annapurna circuit. I wanted to make sure my body has enough time to slowly adapt to the increasing altitude. I spent about 2 weeks at Thorong High Camp at 4800m and ran several times to Thorong La Pass at 5416m to build a solid base acclimatization! After this little training, I was ready to move to the Annapurna North Basecamp at 4200m arriving there on the 31st of March.
After a heavy material transport directly to Camp 2, my job was done and I was ready to use a good weather window for the summit. Then suddenly everything is happening very fast on Annapurna. If you are ready and well prepared you suddenly have a chance to push to Camp 3, then to Camp 4 and attempt a summit push, always hoping your body and mind will be able to withstand the intense climb and heavy exhaustion. The body degrades naturally, the more time you stay up there, suffering from cold, exhausting climbs through deep snow, breathing thin air, dealing with unsufficient food/nutrition and lack of good sleep.
If you prevail and with a little bit of luck, you might reach the summit. But you never tamed the beast, because she will make it hard for you again to get down safe and tell the story.
Thank you Annapurna, that you let me tell the story of how beautiful you are!
Thank you to everyone cheering me up, supporting me, following and travelling with me and boosting me, with their positive energy!
Next #Everest”!
