Dhaulagiri Circuit

To start off, the Dhaulagiri circuit was one of the most beautiful hikes I have done. It started off at about 1200m, and we slowly climbed to 2500m in 4 days. The trail went up and down through small villages and then went up steeply towards Italian Base Camp, at 3700m. We spent a rest day there, climbing to 4300m for terrific views, and then left early the next morning to follow the treacherous trail to Dhaulagiri Base camp.
We had some troubles with the stove at Italian Base Camp. I brought my MSR Whisperlite International, and it turned out the kerosene that we were sold was actually diesel, which worked, but didn't burn hot enough to keep the stove running properly at 5000m. Fortunately we had a backup stove with butane cannisters, but it took a very long time to cook anything with that stove at any altitude. It took a lot of cleaning, and black fingers, to get the stove working properly again, but still it has problems because the diesel was so dirty. Our guide, Arjun, brought a pressure cooker as well, so it was really useful for cooking noodle soups, and rice, which became our main source of food.