We are told there are two ways up the final mountain pass, straight up or the long winding way. Were not talking a modest incline it was to be our highest summit of the trek. So without much of a hesitation 6 of us headed for the straight shot in Tashi’s words we chose the “adventure”. The beginning steps were deceivingly easy I was thinking this will be no problem we’ll make it up there sooner than we know it. But as I kept climbing the oxygen around me felt like it was depleting with every step, my leg muscles ached, my heart felt like it was beating to one of the Ladakhis odd techno songs that they love so much., and even as my lungs burned and eyes water as I looked to the snow covered top of the mountain I have never felt so happy to be braced against the steep slope of a mountain in the Himalayan mountains. As our efforts continued the sun was covered by a massive snow cloud that made the surroundings around us look exactly like fresh piece of white paper, and when I looked down the bottom of the mountain I could no longer seen the base and the top was just barley in sight. The effort put into scaling that mountain gave my body a rush of adventure I felt like an arctic explorer and extreme ice climber!
After what seemed like a slow painful process I made it to the top and with a rush of energy gave a victory cry with Taylor cheering by my side. Jake, Cedar and Caroline had already collapsed into a pile out of exhaustion. At the top it was still so snowy we couldn’t see where we had started but the lack of view didn’t matter we had just pushed ourselves up what seemed like a perpendicular mountain!!! Of course that’s a bit of an exaggeration but have you ever tried to acclimate to high altitudes, it’s harder than I expected and makes trekking a whole different experience! When the rest of the group made their way up to join us we had a giant peanut butter and paratha feast! I can tell you one thing that was the best peanut butter I have ever tasted!!!!!
---katrina
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