Handicraft school - woodcarving class - dragon in progress For a journey that was mostly in the remote mountains, our group was happy for an extra day or two of cultural connection and sightseeing. All of the hiking was behind us, so it was easy to relax and enjoy the...
During our last few days of hiking, we crossed our final pass and strung prayer flags across the top, then descended for two days to reach the road. We passed a monastery being restored by prisoners on work-release-rehabilitation, herds of Blue Sheep, carpenters...
The revised route of our Snowman Trek took us through a wider array of altitudes and climate zones than originally planned. It was springtime in the Himalayas, and we saw an incredible array of blooms—dozens of species of rhododendrons, whole fields of primula, tiny...
The afternoon rains were typically light and late, but one day the skies opened early, the wind blew, and a heavy rain came down almost sideways. With good raingear, it’s not a big problem to hike in the rain, but eating in the rain is a different story. When we...
Lead mule. The horses & mules are an important part of the local team! Our days unfolded steadily in a rhythm of walking and resting, eating and sleeping, silence and sharing, climbing and descending. It takes some time to drop into the slower rhythms of trekking,...
Turning west, we began a new route for the coming 10 days. This area has more trekking and local-use trails, but there are still very few tourists compared to other trekking routes around the world. We saw only 7 other trekkers, in groups of 1-2, during the entire...
Prayer flags placed by a family to help the soul of a loved one achieve a fortunate rebirth. Some of the strange creatures the soul may meet in the Bardo, the space between death and rebirth. After turning back from the snowed-in pass and medically evacuating one...
Over the course of these first few days, too much snow is not my only concern. Altitude sickness is an ever-present concern, and it’s unpredictable how bodies will adjust in thin air. People across the world can (and do) die every year from severe altitude sickness,...
Hiking up into the snow From Laya, we head east, away from the villages and trails of habitation and into more remote mountains. Camped at 13,800 ft by a glacial river in a wind-swept alpine valley where yaks graze freely, this will become our home for the next 3...
Layap women are easily recognized by their traditional handmade bamboo hats In the Himalayas, you can hike uphill for days. We spent the entire next day gaining altitude, until we reached Laya at 12,400 ft. This final outpost of 44 houses was once a poor and rough...
Blessed, packed up, and ready for adventure, we drove off into the mountains on a road that wound up over a high pass, strewn with prayer flags and chortens. Bhutanese hospitality is everywhere, even on the roadside, where we met 2 truckloads of monks at the pass....
Paro dzong Our Snowman Trek began in the western town of Paro with a cultural and religious orientation to Bhutan, as well as physical acclimatization to higher altitude. We explored the town’s dzong, a massive stone monastery-fortress which helped defend and unify...