Tag Archives: mountains

Omu, The Strong

Arriving to a new camp and homestead, Omu sets about going through an unending list of ‘musts’. One of the musts is securing tent ‘fly’ lines of twined yak wool, hammered into the high-altitude turf. Using a stone picked up … Continue reading

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A Snow Pass, The ‘Feel’, and Karma’s Chai

The mind wanders back to a mountain pass, a blizzard, and that wonderful thing that exists still: instinct. On a day of few words along a portion of a trade route in Ladakh as a blizzard piled in at 5000 … Continue reading

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Part Human and a Little Part Goat

Over the course of years since meeting Dorjè I’ve written and pondered much about him. “Part goat and a little part human” was how he was described to me. Perhaps sounds unfair but the goats’ abilities in the Himalayas are … Continue reading

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Way Out, and Out Again

Yeshi and I shared tea with this old memory palace of time. Goat milk and butter were used instead of yak variations. The tea was deadly but his memories as he recounted the days of watching caravans along a portion … Continue reading

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – There Are No Straight Lines Through the Mountains

Not heeding the warnings of Sonam Gelek; I should have known better at this stage of our journey than to plunge onwards without his counsel…but onwards I plunged. Consistently accurate and intuitive, Sonam had warned against our team traversing a … Continue reading

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Tea Horse Chronicles – Tea’s Value

“Tea is our everything. I don’t know where it comes from but we take it every day in the morning, afternoon, and night. Our children learn to make it when they are young but we must help them get the … Continue reading

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Tea Horse Chronicles – The Hostess, The Keeper

Tea is offered in the Himalayas as part of an ancient code and tradition Continue reading

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Jokhang Boyz

At various times all of these gents were pivotal characters along the journey and in my life. The slim and polite denim-clad Sonam (at far right) belies one of the most ferocious wills and straight up strongmen that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and journeying with. Amongst this group he was the only one on every one of those 52 days and nights of journeying on the Lhasa portion and he would be a partner on dozens of subsequent mountain journeys. Continue reading

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Part 5 – The Load

A continuation of some of the embedded moments – both large and small – of our 7.5 month expedition to chart and document the Tea Horse Road. Along the Tea Horse Road, the careful daily ritual of loading and unloading … Continue reading

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – The Coming Snow

The Coming Snow. A nomad tucks in amidst a coming snow storm at 4200 metres near Litang, western Sichuan. The Litangba (people of Li’thang) were revered and feared along portions of the Tea Horse Road for sometimes opposing reasons. Not … Continue reading

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