Spiti Valley: Lalung – Dhankar

I don't remember much of the walk to Dhankar, I just know it involved a lot of pain and with no McDonald's within hundreds of miles to provide an appropriate hangover cure, doom was imminent, at least for my liver and at least one of my kidneys. We were joined for the first part of [...]

Spiti Valley: Demul – Lalung

We were assured that it was downhill all the way from Demul to Lalung so we enjoyed our breakfast of eggs and bread, packed our lunch of Tibetan bread and jam into our bags and headed on our way. So it turns out that Spitians consider terrain to be down when there's more down than [...]

Spiti Valley: Komic – Demul

This morning we were provided with a breakfast of egg and bread, and a packed lunch of Tibetan bread and jam to take on our walk to Demul, the next village. Right. Our first real walk on this trek. We were advised to take the "cow road" until we got to what passes as a [...]

Spiti Valley: Kaza – Komic

So you're meant to start at Kibber or Langza for the Spiti Valley Homestay Trek, that's the classic route, but apparently that first leg from either of those two villages to the village of Komic is an absolute bitch of a walk, up a massive, relentless, unforgiving hill at altitude. Remember, even Kaza is around [...]

Boom Shankar

We'd been assured that the path down to Kasol was easy, "You just go down down," and it was more used than the Malana to Rashol pass and a guide most definitely wouldn't be needed. We set off in the morning and it was indeed down down. It's slightly less simple than anticipated on account [...]

Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 10

A few people this morning got up early to head to a museum in the town but the thought of walking up more steps than I had to, and before food at that, made all of my muscles recoil in horror, so I politely declined in favour of breakfast. They did learn some cool stuff [...]

Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 9

I woke up this morning and my immune system basically went, "Nope. Fuck you. Have some mucus." I couldn't even talk, my voice was trapped beneath layers of crap that I proceeded to get rid of Nepali style, hocking and spitting until I'd gotten as much of it off my chest and out of my [...]

Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 8

This morning some of the group got up at 4.30am to try and climb Kala Patthar, the 5554 metre mountain that Gorakshep sits at the foot of. It was a two hour climb but here's the thing; it was before breakfast. I can't function before breakfast. But I was going to try anyway. Katherine, Sin [...]

Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 7

Everything was frozen this morning. Condensation hadn't even bothered forming, the window was just covered in frost which I grudgingly admitted was pretty and took photos of it against the better judgment of my fingers which weren't enjoying being outside of my mittens. People not used to using bucket flushes tend to miss a lot [...]

Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 6

I woke up this morning, wriggled partially out of my sleeping bag, pulled back the curtain and wiped at the condensation. It didn't fucking move. The condensation was frozen in place. I braced myself and slid the rest of the way out of my bag, went in search of a toilet and met Melissa on [...]