Sha Shing la (17 June)

You're nearly there!

It was with flagging energy and a creeping feeling of wistfulness as our days in the mountains waned that I wrote this journal entry:

Yaks in the morning and Camp Seven

Ugh, more boulders?

The lunar-like landscape approaching the Sha-Shing la

It's mostly a long slog to cross the Sha Shing La at 18,000 feet. Lots of boulder hopping on a typical mountain day: sunny or cloudy (ha), windy and cold.  Approaching the pass, Cliff and I are right behind the camp staff.  Gary and Karl are behind us, and then our yaks and yak men.  Usually, the direction to an actual pass crossing is clearly defined by multiple cairns and the flapping of many prayer flags.  This pass is hard to distinguish . . . only as we reach the highest point do we see two cairns -- one small, the other large (constructed on a boulder).  Cliff and I head for the larger of the two and add our own stones to mark our arrival and give direction to the travelers who may follow.  As a group, we adorn the cairn with our prayer flags -- they are the only prayer flags on this pass . . .

At the Sha Shing la, 18,000'

Looking back at our prayer flags

Yaks at the pass

Beautiful lake, but no place to camp

And because our route today is based on a map recon, we find that in actuality our planned campsite for tonight is not possible (area around the lake is flooded), so we keep moving . . ..  Finally Dharma and the team approve a camping site along a stream (we always have to be near water for cooking and cleaning) below the pass (16,900 feet). It is our highest and coldest camp. The surrounding mountains 21-23k+ are mostly formed from glacial moraine. The yaks have found some grass along the stream that fronts our tent.  After tea and wash water, we all take refuge in our tents, trying to stay warm (it has snowed throughout the day).  The camp is quiet now except for the sounds emitting from the kitchen tent as Dharma prepares dinner (often he chants as he prepares our meals -- a wonderfully calming and grounding sound).  

Camp Eight

No real wildlife of which to speak today. We heard the marmots and saw a single Himalayan Griffon vulture playing in the winds high above the jagged mountain peaks.  Tonight starts the beginning of the end of the trek and Gary has asked us to bring together our tips for the camp crew. 

A quiet sunset just below the Sha Shing la

On this trek we have seen not another trekking group (of any composition) and only a couple of foreign (non-Chinese) tour groups in Lhasa and larger outlying monasteries since we've been in Tibet.  The rather mercurial application of new rules, which apply only to foreigners, put guides and their work here at risk. Gary has learned his scheduled trip to K2 in the late summer has been cancelled (for example) because the Chinese are not allowing foreigner access to the mountain via Tibet.

*************************

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” -Mark Jenkins