The other exciting aspect of these last 3 days has been the inexplicable disappearance of Tempa, the leader of the staff. The morning we left camp beneath the 2 massive peaks, he took off in a different direction than the rest of us and the staff. When we finally reached camp in the new valley on the other side of the Korzoks, Tempa was nowhere to be found. We sent out search parties to no avail and we had no clue where he was. He knows the area well so it was a bit disconcerting and we feared he might be injured. We also lit a giant fire out of yak turds that Harish collected to try and signal him. The night was very cold, below freezing, and again in the morning we sent out a search party on horseback. Finally, Luke received word via satellite phone that Tempa had somehow trekked himself to Korzog, a small village on the shore of Tso Moriri, a good 20 kilometers in the complete opposite direction of where we were all obviously headed. It's been 36 hours since that revelation and it's still a huge mystery as to how and why that happened. Guess we'll eventually find out what the heck he was thinking. The rest of the staff is flummoxed as well, but they've picked up the slack and continued on without their "boss" with no signs of slowdown.
The climb over the pass to get out of the Korzok valley was deadly. It was a 5900 meter "pass" which was effectively as challenging as some of the peaks we submitted. I was amazed the horses were able to get over the pass. Luke had led the staff and horses over the pass about 30 minutes ahead of me, and I was about 30 minutes ahead of everyone else, so while Luke waited at the pass, I took the opportunity to scale to the top of another 6090meter peak right next to the pass. It was a good ascent and felt neat to be up there on my own. I made it up and down in about 50 minutes, just in time to have lunch with everyone else.
The trudge down 1200 meters into camp that night was pretty fun as Luke and I did a ton of scree-surfing. It's scary but a relatively safe way to run down a steep mountain if you've got strong legs, good balance, vision, and coordination.
Since then, we've been easily progressing through the canyon, dodging raindrops, and enjoying the last couple of days together (sans Tempa). I've gotten through 722 pages if Shantaram in these last 3 days...it's definitely the perfect book to finish this India adventure on. Sort of sad I didn't read it before I went to Bombay, as the story is largely set there.
Tomorrow will be our final morning in the mountains and then we will catch a 4-5 hour ride back to Leh. I'm really looking forward to cleaning myself up. I haven't seen a mirror in 3 weeks, and the glacial stream showers are refreshing but only go so far when it comes to hygiene.
I plan on giving a lot of my trekking gear to the staff because it doesn't make sense for me to lug it back to China and then to USA. Plus they are sure to make better use of it than I am.
It will be very interesting to check the "news" tomorrow and catch up on everything I've missed out on in the past 21 days. It's honestly been amazingly refreshing to completely unplug for so long. Obviously the scenery and daily activity helps to relieve any feeling of disconnectedness. It's allowed me to really analyze myself, my plans, and my goals far more than I ever have before.
I couldn't be happier with the total package experience of this trip to India. The random chronological order of my adventures, my teachings, my readings, and my thought processes could not have worked out any better. Everything I learned seemed to flow perfectly into the next thing. At points where I felt bored or complacent or even confident, something came along to challenge that and open my eyes further.
Ive got 5 full days left in India and 10 in China. Crazy to think that I'll be "permanently" back in the USA in just 2 weeks.
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