Mu Gompa, at 3700 meters, is the final outpost of habitation in Tsum Valley. Set on a mountainside about two hours walk beyond the last village, the monastery is home to perhaps 10 monks. It is a spartan and windy place upon the earth. We stayed for a night in the...
A man drives two horses out of his field, throwing a rock with dangerous precision. The kerosene stove whirrs in the kitchen tent. Sun tries to work its way over the near mountain. The air is dry and cold. A light wind shuffles the edges of prayer flags....
Each village in Upper Tsum holds a horse festival where riders are decked out in silky shirts, thick fur-lined jackets, and large round red-tassled hats, carrying old rifles and fluttering banners. The riders start drinking and singing the night before the festival,...
Gettin' (and givin') a little yak love. He let us come up close and pet him, hoping for a bit of salt, but all we had were cameras.
One of my favorite moments: we're all crammed into the space around a huge prayer wheel as local women push endless cups of sake on us and our staff and then do a traditional dance. Video of the women dancing here.
Our first monk is steeped in Tantra. He wants to teach us mantras and meditation and tell stories of Padmasambhava (not to mention the Yeti). He knows all the deities painted on monastery walls and gives us advice for passing smoothly from this life to the next. He...
Tsum Valley is a beyul, a sacred Buddhist valley. Killing is prohibited and small monasteries abound. Monks and teachers from Tibet used to come regularly to the valley, and Buddhism has thrived here. In addition to traditional monasteries, every village has a lineage...
Tsum Valley is idyllic, the quintessential Shangri-La conjured in Himalayan dreams. Snowy mountains in the distance, women in Tibetan dress harvesting millet or barley in the field, stone houses in small clusters, chortens all along the trail, dozens of small...
6 clients, 1 Nepali guide, 2 sherpas, 1 head cook, 5 kitchen staff, 23 porters, 2 Buddhist monks, and me. 13 tents including client tents, monk tents, a dining tent, toilet tent, kitchen tent, porter tent, and sherpa tent. 24 day trip, 18 days hiking, all the way to...
By the time you read this, I'll be in the Hidden Valley of Happiness. We're hiking 19 days from the end of the road to the Tibetan border and back, through the sacred valley of Tsum. Six clients, one monk, one sirdar, two sherpas, one cook, five kitchen staff, about...
After a few days rest, I do it all one more time...Kathmandu temples and monasteries, spine-tingling flight to Lukla, yaks and packs and porters and gear, hours of hiking from the lush and livable "hills" at 9,000 ft to the rocky summit of Kala Pattar at 18,450 ft,...
Finally we hike out to the comfort of Pheriche where 14,000 feet feels like thick air. From there we have a few days of beautiful hiking and hanging out with our staff. Life is good on the trail...