At 4130m, ABC is not particularly high. But its location in a bowl of 8000m peaks means that it is pretty damn cold as the ice cold air descends off the peaks (remember your primary school science and geography? Cold air sinks while hot air rises. Hot and cold are relative concepts, therefore -1 is warmer than -2!) and sits in this bowl.

Not only that, but the peaks create their own weather and practically every afternoon the clouds build up, obscure the peaks and the whole bowl in covered in a shroud of dense mist until the very early hours just before dawn. As soon as the sun hits the peaks at sun rise, the cycle is started off all over again.

The afternoon before the clouds descended and the peaks hid from view before we could get a good look at them and the last few hours was spent straining our eyes into the mist trying to stay on the path. Especially when we could only see 20 yards around us! Ordinary rocks and boulders, remnants of glaciers from ages past, become fantastical figures from other worlds. Coupled with nothing but the deadened silence, you can almost feel invisible eyes watching as we walked ever uphill to ABC and the promise of warm food, a hot drink and shelter from the evermore piercing cold! Even 5 layers didn't really keep the high mountain cold out for long......and it was only coming up on midday!

Not long after we had made ourselves as "comfortable" as possible in the dining room cum freezer, did it beginning to snow. And snow. And snow. And snow. The snowfall was nothing dramatic. There were no blizzards, howling winds or screeching sprawls of snow; just the dead silence that comes with a gentle snowfall and a sense of anticipation. Even if the weather didn't clear for the dawn, or by the time we started to descend, it was absolutely outstanding to have been in these mountains, right in amongst them. Whereas the Annapurna Circuit Trek takes you right round the Annapurna Range, you never really get into the mountains, on this Annapurna Sanctuary Trek, you had to crane your neck to take in the sheer scale and majesty of these enormously impressive mountains.

The Nepalese at the lodges that mark ABC didn't worry about a thing.

"Cold? What cold? Mountains? They come tomorrow! You wait. You see!" Well, not if we die of hyperthermia first. Since we had arrived and gradually increased the layers, the temperature was steadily dropping. The big concern was that once you have no more clothes to put on, you start to freeze! It was when I lost the feeling in my feet that I decided that getting my sleeping bag havingafternoon tea in that in the communal dining room was no great shame! We pitied the poor b******s that were in the tents for the night! It seemed their porters were having an absolute blast in the kitchen......but you would when you are as drunk as a skunk on the local brandy!

Knowing that the greats of mountaineering like Sir Chris Bonnington and the Russian Anatoli Boukreev sat here in these very dining rooms planning their next stages to ascend these peaks just added to the atmosphere and excitement of just being here!

So waking up is like those first few Christmas mornings when Santa had come and filled up your stocking and put all the pressies under the tree! You don't dare leave your sleeping bag, which is buried under a thick down duvet blanket, for a toilet break. Not only would the bits drop off because it is so bloody cold, but getting to those bits under all those layers is just too much effort to contemplate! Even if you did go through all of that, then standing in the falling snow at 0200 with nothing but grey silence around you and your hands surrounding other warm bits gives you no hope for the dawn! So getting back to bed is part hope for a clear start in the morning, part blessed relief to find a warm bag to climb back into and part thankfulness that the bits you kept warm had not fallen off when you answered the call of nature!

Nothing can prepare you for what awaits as you stumble out into the snow! There are just too many places to look at once! How can you just observe and take it all in and take photos and get everybody else out of their sleeping bags and climb up onto a little hill for the best photos while slipping and sliding on the ice and snow all the while trying to avoid tumbling into the glacier 50m below? There are not enough mornings in a person's life to experience majesty like this!

It is truly like those first few Christmas mornings years ago (Ed: and still today for some people )! Breathless excitement and mounting anticipation of the grand finale! And this show does not disappoint! The peaks of the mountains slowly become unwrapped from the clouds and reveal themselves in their glory. And glory be! With the golden light of a mountain dawn reflecting off the pure white snow and glaciers, you have something so spectacular as to almost defy description!

It was nothing short of jaw-dropping, breathtaking and awe-inspiring to observe this grand natural spectacle!Every bit of bitter cold, breathless step and aching muscle was well worth it for the sights we show alone! It was truly truly amazing and nothing can quite prepare you for the absolute splendour that unfolds before your excited eyes!

Of all the sights we have been privileged to see, this dawn breaking onto these mountains is probably the most spectacular of them all and it is little wonder that the Anatoli Boukreev penned these words relating to his being in the mountains like these before he was swept away by an avalanche not far from ABC in the late nineties: "I wanted to achieve something essential in life, something that is not measured by money or position in society. I wanted to respect myself as a man, and I wanted the respect of my friends and family. My fate was to be an athlete. I was born with certain physical and mental ability...I have tried to use those gifts to realise myself as a human being. The mountains are stadiums where I satisfy my ambitions to achieve. They are my cathedrals, the houses of my religion. Their presence is grand and pure. I go to them as all humans go to worship. In their presence I attempt to understand my life, to purify myself of earthly vanity, greed and fear. On their alter(sic) I strive to perfect myself physically and spiritually. From their vantage point, I view my past, dream of the future and with unusual acuteness I experience the present. My ascents renew my strength and clear my vision. They are the way I practise my religion. In the mountains I celebrate creation, on each journey I am reborn."

Standing in the middle of the bowl, gazing upward, you fill this sentiment in no small measure. These mountains are cathedrals indeed and we can only bow in reverence at their altar.