At long last the Kawa Karpo Expedition that Bill Roberts, Roberto Gibbons Gomez, myself and a titanic guide named Daba undertook and completed is out in tangible print in Canada’s award-winning adventure travel Outpost Magazine. It marks the first documented Canadian team to ascend the sacred pass along the legendary Tea Horse Road…and in February no less.
Our team (Dorje at left, Daba with mule, and Bill coming up on right) arrive to within site of Shola Pass and its icy slope
Bill’s words and wit, images of my own, and Roberto’s incorrigible energy run through a stunning 20 page feature in Outpost Magazine’s edition #89. Huge credit to the team at Outpost who makes our journeys that much more endearing. Huge thanks to our primary sponsor Revo Sunglasses. A thanks too to Mountain Hardwear, Zoomer Media, and GT Snowshoes for their sponsorship. A thank you too to Wild China Travel who backs up my buttocks on my journeys high and low.
Our understated but heroic Dashi with his breakfast hair
A link here to download and subscribe to Outpost online. Best enjoyed with a tea.
Editing our equipment at close to 4.5 kilometres in the sky to ensure that only essentials will be carried to the pass. The sun is dropping and with it the temperatures. Time in the mountains is something absolute.
About JeffFuchs
Having lived for a decade in Yunnan, Fuchs’ work has centred on indigenous mountain cultures, oral histories along with an obsessive interest in tea.
Fuchs is the author of 'The Ancient Tea Horse Road' (Viking-Penguin) and he was the subject of 'The Tea Explorer' documentary based on his exploration of the Tea Horse Road.
His photos and stories have appeared on three continents in publications such as Kyoto Journal, TRVL, and Outpost Magazine, as well as The Spanish Expedition Society, The Earth, Silkroad Foundation, The China Post Newspaper, The Toronto Star, The South China Morning Post, and UNESCO amongst others. Various pieces of his work are part of private collections in Europe, North America, and Asia. Fuchs served as Asian Editor at Large for five years at award-winning Outpost magazine.
Jeff has worked with schools and universities, giving talks on both the importance of oral traditions, tea and mountain cultures.
His recently released book ‘The Ancient Tea Horse Road’ (Penguin-Viking Publishers) details his 8-month groundbreaking journey traveling and chronicling one of the world’s great trade routes, The Tea Horse Road. Fuchs is the first westerner to have completed the entire route stretching almost six thousand kilometers through the Himalayas a dozen cultures.
Fuchs partnered with Wild China to create a journey along the Tea Horse Road which National Geographic Traveler called one of the "50 Trips of a Lifetime".
He is co-founder of Akahiao Nature Institute on the island of Hawai'i along with his wife, Julie Rogers.
