Hiking Chongmu

This past Saturday, I went hiking with two friends - Justin (a familiar face on my hiking posts) and Geoff, an Aussie. We drove about 3 hours out of town, to a village in a valley that is pretty much the definition of "middle of nowhere."

Fresh snow made the drive up pretty incredible, with yaks and the occasional nomad tent dotting the landscape as we went.

From time to time, we would get out and talk with the nomads, which was fun, as well.

A nomad camp surrounded by their herd of yak

Dad and mom....

... and the kids.

Continuing on...

Almost there...

The village is at about 16,000 feet elevation, making it one of the highest permanent settlements in the world, not that the inhabitants care - the "village" is just 6 families trying to scratch out an existence in very hard conditions. What makes the village exceptional is that it sits at the base of a mountain that shoots up to ~23,000 feet (which, unfortunately, stayed shrouded in clouds the whole time we were there).

Finally, we arrived at the village. And The Middle of Nowhere.

Skepticism.

Curiosity.

Swagger.

We spent some time in the village and then hiked up the valley a ways (about 3 hours) to about 17,300 feet.

Starting out on the hike.

Taking a break with "Swagger."

View from the top: mountains, snow, and right in the middle at the bottom - a glacier.

I love to hike, but I have to admit that this one really destroyed me for some reason. The last hour of the hike down, I was feeling nauseous and my legs were smoked.

Me and Justin - back down and more than ready to head home.