Day 7

This was the hardest day of the ride, and honestly one of the hardest in my life. It started with a sprained wrist from the day before, which is not ideal when you're about to face 200+ km of dirt, mud, switchbacks, water crossings, and mountain goats using the road as their personal highway. 

Along the route we stopped at a monastery to deliver rations. One of the resident monks, a small elderly woman, simply blew on my wrist. And at that point I stopped noticing any pain in my wrist for the rest of the day. Believe it or not, but it happened.

Then we arrived at Key Monastery, which rose like a fortress from the rockface, white and red walls stacked against the cliff, with young monks in red robes in the courtyard below. Then we crossed the Chicham Bridge, Asia's highest suspension bridge, the gorge below deep enough to make your stomach drop. After lunch we arrived at Kunzum Pass, which is at 15,060 feet. There we saw more stupas and prayer flags, peaks disappearing into clouds. 

Camp near Chandrataal was Swiss tents on a high plateau, with temperatures dropping fast after sunset. A smaller group kept going up to Moon Lake just before dusk, but I stayed back. Dinner was pasta and noodles in a communal tent, everyone in every layer they owned. No signal, nothing but the cold and the stars.

The hardest day of the trip, but also one of the best.

Click here for Day 8