Team Completes Trek

Friends, family & loved ones,

We’re back on the grid! We’ve seen and done so much this past week. It’s been an adventure- where to begin? First and most importantly, the Team is healthy and doing very well. We were blessed with mostly good weather and crushed it on the trek and crossing the pass. The first couple days of trekking were relatively mellow. We took it slow and easy and acclimatized well. We navigated many stream crossings, which were made more sporty because of high water levels from the rains of the previous week. We had time to soak up the scenery on the trail and at camp. Big views and stark beauty. We saw very few other trekking parties on the trail but we did see lots of wildlife- yaks and dzos, blue sheep, a wolf, many marmots and pikas, almost 40 species of birds (according to Konrad the official team ornithologist) but alas no snow leopard, The most exciting day was crossing the Lasermo pass into the Nubra Valley. What is normally a relatively straightforward climb and descent of a small glacier turned into an interesting logistical challenge for our pack horses, who could not have safely descended the soft, deep snow on the north side of the pass. We had anticipated this and arranged for reinforcements (4 cheerful young guys who served as porters for our gear) so that the horses could descend with no loads to carry. This operation took some time, but we ended up at a lovely stream side camp, feeling tired but happy with our accomplishment. Continuing down valley for two more days, we walked alongside the braided river and admired the beautiful wildflowers. We passed grazing yaks and herds of goats and checked out some isolated shepherds’ settlements and the village of Upper Hunder Dok along the way.

Tomorrow we will make our way back to Leh.

Thanks for following,

Carole Tejas