Sonam moves up singing, chatting, all the while moving through his Tibetan Mala beads. Mingmar dances from stone outcroppings to thatches of stems and back. Always he is looking for medicine, herbs, or simply that which matters to him – and when outdoors, there is much that matters to our energetic Mingmar. He carries an extra back pack for juniper that he will collect, which will in turn be dried and used as incense. Above all of us is the land where ice, stone, winds, and t

Langtang, the land called “Ox’s land” is grassland valley and ‘was’ a village…one that has been destroyed, reset eastward and rebuilt (if such a thing is possible). It lives again not far from a swath of rubble, stone, and line strokes that descend from the north. An avalanche obliterated the village with inhabitants, travellers, and animals alike being wiped out. The ‘new’ Langtang sits just east and higher than the swath of stone that covers what once was. Crossing the rubb

Perceptions are everything and here there is so very much within sensing distance. Syabrubesi is a dusty gateway that lies behind us. We head west through green tree lines of pine, birch, and rhododendron and nettles. The Buddhist sage and one of most provocative characters in Himalayan lore, Milarepa, is said to have gone entirely green during his meditations on a diet exclusively made up of nettles. That brilliant Tibetan yogi known for achieving an enlightened state in one

The second part of our journey took us from the high arid zones of Mustang right into the rumbling, high spires of Solukhumbu. The lands of the Sherpa people, the Rai people and names like Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, and Ama Dablam. More people, more lunacy certainly, and more of the human realm as we came right at peak climbing season. This post is more of an assortment of images with some thoughts and quotes than any kind of attempt at a narrative. Our journey took a counter-c

Abu is chatty. Not prone to overly long sessions of speaking, Abu, when he is talking, usually has something to expel and it is always a treat watching it begin to emerge. Weeks in and heading west out of old Samzong to Lo Manthang, with our caravan of two and four-legged ones spread along a weaving line, Abu is going on how “the valleys need to talk to one another and they need to share”. His energy is ‘up’ and his eyes glow with some sort of inner force of conviction, which

Berinder is impatient and staring in his mournful way at Saurabh and I to hurry. He wants to move and it is our day to make another incursion into the Chaturangi Glacier valley and then head south up a smaller feed valley. The three of us for much of this journey have been a party of wanderers while others wait in base camp. Berinder has had his tea and stands like a shy gunslinger with hands at the side, ready. Some of the multi-hues of Chaturangi Glacier We chug tea down in

Berinder, with pink wooly marvellously intact. Berinder is his name. Tiny, unsmiling, and topped off with a vibrant pink woolen cap I’ve locked onto him and his intense energy. These porters can take the breath with their abilities to pirouette on little more than rubber soles, while hauling crippling loads. There is a not-so-secret adoration I have for them and I’ve long been fascinated with their balance of sinuous power and clairvoyance on ‘all things mountain’. Our porter

Our departure nears from here in Hong Kong’s heat to India’s northern Himalaya range and the ascent to Gangotri glacier. From the heavens it is said, the Ganges River descended at Gangotri (‘Ganga’ meaning river, and ‘Utri’ meaning descended) and despite the heat and blur of Hong Kong, this simple image of water descending from the skies stays with me. It will be a welcome swap of heavy humid air for clear brisk stuff but the magic lies in the transition from one to the other

Preparation Notes…and Tea Stirring through some cakes and balls of tea deciding on the leaves to take on this upcoming venture to the Himalayan Headwaters of the great Ganga, the sacred life giving Ganges River. A 2,527 km river of water that sluices through the Indo-Gangetic Plain and discharges close to 40 thousand cubic metres of water per second (third in the world). Tea = Fuel. Even in the realm of the glaciers This journey, beyond all of the stuff needed, beyond fabrics

Debra Tan’s lungs and ligaments are strained still but she is learning the mountain way: ‘dirè dirè’ (slowly slowly) and all will pass. She has undergone a titanic effort to simply commit to a month of uncompromising living as winter settles in at a world of +4000 metres in the Himalayas. Whether a month or an hour the efforts at altitude play differently in every metabolism. We have long discussed the need for those who legislate, dictate, and influence (or simply care) to c

Glacier water sluices down near the Changtang region of the Himalayas Preparing to head back into the precious Himalayas of Ladakh for a month of living atop two glaciers to see what the great bodies of ice are up to. Moraine and stone on the Bara Shigri glacier in Himachal Pradesh. It is part of an initiative not simply to ‘explore’ and discover but rather observe, document and bring back a tangible view of a glacier’s life – day and night. ‘Impact Exploration’ with a goal t

Delighted to make the cover-feature (top-less no less) of Canada’s award-winning Outpost Magazine in the current edition. Our journey last year along the Route of Wind and Wool, tracing the ancient Himalayan pathways by foot is the focus. Expedition Ladakh, Jeff Fuchs Another of the great mountain’s unheralded routes gets a little light shone on it with some emphasis on the glaciers, which continue to ‘bleed’ and disappear. Our ‘expedition Ladakh’, known more accurately as th

-Back for the final instalments of our expedition along the Route of Wind and Wool. Leh is gentle pandemonium, but this is an overstatement really because it is more a case of Michael and I being overly sensitive to every horn, four-wheeled vehicle, and body that comes close to us. As is so often, I have the urge to simply bolt back into the great silences where I can hide and my mind can function with the winds and stones as my guide. Leh’s ancient mountain appeal We have a