To the entire creative team at Outpost Magazine, Canada’s award-winning adventure travel magazine who helped turn the Tsa’lam feature into one of their classics – a big thank you. To Wild China, whose patient support and award aided and smoothed the road to actually getting it done (the crucial part).  The Salt Road feature in Outpost Magazine is now out in Canada and available to order. In honour of the feature article, posting some favourite moments that rekindle the ‘feel’

The calm force that is Songjem The man we pick up in Nyimalung has the calm eyes and weathered face that the mountains create and sculpt almost at will. Songjem is in his early sixties and his face and countenance have a lived in quality that seem universally recognized; appreciated for what it shows. We head south towards Gansu’s border with Sichuan. Somjem is one of those absolute necessities in any travels in this part of the world – a one-man source of tales, geography an

Click here for the article. For access to the full feature article you must sign up (free for the first two weeks). Enjoy with a cup of tea and a lick of salt. #TibetanQinghaiPlateau #sacredmountainsofTibet #Nomad #SaltRoad #HimalayanTrade #Qinghai #Amdo #Golok #Chinatravel #circumambulation #Tsalam #Expedition #Tibet #Mountain #Himalayas #JeffFuchs #mountains #Golog #kora #tibetantraderoute #AmneMachin #exploration

So often it is the elders who remember tales through their time spent recounting orally the comings and goings of the past. Here Amne Machin is a backdrop of life. Breakfast often brings realizations – some stimulated by the first thoughts of the day and others brought to life from without. Tucking into bowl after bowl of milk tea this morning comes with a nugget of information imparted almost casually, which reminds me very clearly of what is key to this journey. It has to d

We awake with a shudder to mountain cold and the realization that something has changed overnight regarding our ‘team’. Clear air with a hint of blue in the sky as dawn gives way to day waits…. while by the fire a strange figure coaxes more heat from the coals. Our canine friend is stretching out his little limbs to rid them of cold. The larger mastiffs have all disappeared – home I guess. It is the figure near the fire that holds me as I emerge from our tent. Where is our gu

Amye Maqen (Amne Machin, Anye Machin) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amne_Machin), the stout, the muscular, and for much of time, the utterly hidden from the outside world…our first glimpse of it is of a snow capped wonder that appears far closer than it is. There seem to be as many ways of spelling it as their are potential descriptives. Neither wind blown sand nor a haze can obscure its brilliant bulk. It seems to hang from the sky as we come in from the northwest towards th

#HimalayanSaltRoute #Nomad #HimalayanTrade #ancientsaltroad #Nomads #Qinghai #Amdo #sacredmountains #Golok #Himalayansalt #MichaelKleinwort #Salt #circumambulation #Expedition #Himalayas #JeffFuchs #Golog #tibetantraderoute #AmneMachin

We have moved further southwest near Da Re (Darlag), from Maqen towards the badland-borders with Sichuan province, less than one hundred kilometres from Serthar. We’ve arrived to a town that sits squeezed along the Yellow River wedged in between auburn coloured valleys. Our travel thus far has been the moving equivalent of the Russian Doll concept – one doll is opened up to reveal another smaller doll, and so on. In our case it is one small town leading to another smaller com

Pilgrims at the Tashi Monastery Sun (neema in Tibetan) blasts into the day as we wake to a reckless blue sky and a wind that hums. Snow capped peaks shimmer on the horizon and wind whips smoke and sand into mini-tornadoes. All of Mother Nature’s elements are on display today in a show of force, and Michael and I both feel this bodes well for the journey. The city of Maqen (3700 metres) scatters for cover from winds that rip down the main street daring any to test it. Eyes bur

Before anything happens on our expedition, one has to actually get one’s body to the site– and this journey is often an adventure in itself. Michael will be following me a day later in Golok while I organize, coordinate and socialize a bit with old friends. Departure Jammed into a 4×4 in the early morning, when senses and moods are muddled, you wait to see who is along for the journey. All is well as my companions are all from Golok and in good spirits, returning home after t

Mountain Warmth Time is always the great and constant editor and time winds down to the actual departure date of the Salt Road (Tsalam) journey. One can prepare gear, the body and the mind but that first blast of wind in the face from the heights in a blink obliterates everything but the ‘now’. The landscapes we will enter on this journey have their own stories and their own fierce abilities…but I inevitably imagine entire caravans passing through these lands being ushered by