2011-2025 Recap

Okay, here we go....

First off, if you're reading this, you somehow have alerts set to this blog that hasn't been updated in 14 years.  Sick! This means you know me and were following my stories about travelling through India in 2011 and embarking on my yoga teaching journey.  Let's catch you up...

- That trip was extremely successful and kicked off a decade-long yoga teaching chapter in my life

- I found an immediate opportunity to become a co-owner of a yoga studio in Tampa from October 2011 through March 2013. In that stretch, I taught a ton, added additional training in new formats, met a girl, and decided to move to Australia with her.

- From 2013-2016, I lived outside of the USA, teaching yoga & acroyoga throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Middle East, and Europe. Firmly established myself as a respected instructor, led retreats back to the Himalayas, and got engaged to the girl.

- From November 2016-2020, we moved back to USA, settled in Santa Monica, and got married. I was hired to teach at the premier yoga studios in Los Angeles that were quintessential in popularizing yoga in America. I checked all the boxes I had ever dreamed to check within my yoga career.  The first 2 years in LA were a celebration of yoga-teaching success, but I started to plateau, and my passion for teaching began to wane.

- I began considering my next career chapter in 2018, and it was always going to be something technical, as that's where my previous career as a software engineer still contained dormant embers which could reignite.  I took courses at Santa Monica College as well as online to gain certifications in Cloud Computing and Data Science.

- When COVID hit in 2020, I taught the final class at Equinox Santa Monica on Friday, March 13 before everything was shut down. It turned out to be the last class I ever taught, as the world shut down, and by June, I had started working for a media tech startup as their first data science hire.

- In October 2020, my job was in full gear, and with the newly created freedom of remote work, we moved to Livingston Montana and bought a home. My job matured as I was thrust into developing a comprehensive AI computer vision infrastructure from scratch. Resources were always tight so I was forced into being the lead data scientist from Day 1. There were many struggles, breakthroughs, stress, and celebrations.

- From 2020 through 2025, as part of the nature of my work, I have been living on the cutting edge of AI technology. Early on, it was incredibly challenging just to get the underlying libraries installed on back-end servers that were capable of simply running open-source models and code to potentially identify the difference between a soccer field and a swimming pool. 5 years later, the services provided via OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, etc have made computer vision extremely easy, accurate and available to everybody.

- Without going into boring detail, over the past year, it has unfortunately become clear that our company is not going to succeed, and I need to turn the page into my next career chapter...

- Wife and dog are still doing very well, and I need to support them as much as they've supported me since 2018.

This is where we are today, and I have a bunch of exciting thoughts and goals that have been informed by the previous 14 years which I plan on documenting here initially, to help kick off the process of figuring out exactly what is next for me.

10 days in Shanghai

A lot of people in India asked me how it felt to leave. Was I sad? Excited? My answer was that I was entirely at ease and felt that the departure was at a perfect time and I was looking forward to my few days in Shanghai before I flew back to the states.

When I was getting ready to leave china, I was asked the same question. And I again had the same answer, as the 10 days that I spent were action packed and absolutely perfect to part ways with China.

I had the opportunity to see almost every single one of my close friends in china, including Ian coming up from Hangzhou and chris coming up from Shenzhen. I was able to start teaching yoga, giving 4 private classes and 3 public classes in those short 10 days. I learned that I love the yoga teaching and am very optimistic about pursuing it in the states. I completed a sufficient amount of swimming and running training in prep for ironman Louisville. I partied and was reminded of what makes shanghai so great. I met new friends via yoga and received great advice from other teachers in shanghai. I successfully passed my apartment over to my roommate an her new roommate. I planned out my logistics for my first week back in the states. I made some last minute clothing and art purchases to capitalize on the little remaining Chinese value. All my loose ends were tied.

It couldn't have been a better ten days. It certainly was quite the juxtaposition of ashram and himalaya life, and I discovered that I can efficiently mashup the two. Of course I overindulged as far as my diet and partying habits were concerned, but that was to be expected given the socializing blitzkrieg that I undertook.

I'm most excited to find that my business soft skills that I enhanced throughout my MBA - networking and professional communication - will complement my yoga teaching very nicely. I firmly believe that i will have the capability of building a yoga practice anywhere in the world that I choose to live. It's an ultimate travelling entrepreneurial opportunity. I can't way to just take it day by day and see where life takes me.

Landing in LA in 5 hours! MIami in 14! Let's go!

Himalayan Days 18-20

We are preparing for our final tent dinner. These last 3 nights have been spent within a giant canyon/river/floodplane that is in complete contrast of the rest of the topography we've experienced. It's had an added bonus of being potentially dangerous as torrential downpours have been all around us and we are in risks of flash floods. That's been the light-hearted humor of the past 48 hours...I am pretty sure we'll make it through the night and be safe back in Leh tomorrow.

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.

Himalayan Days 16-17

Well, I spoke too soon about the crew messing up. As one may have predicted, the location of camp turned out to be a blessing in disguise. After dinner at our arrival, Luke, Ana and I decided we'd try to wake up at 4AM that night and scale the massive peak above us that looked super steep and near impossible for my amateur mountaineering experience.

At midnight, I woke up to take a pee and the sky was clear and beautiful. Our original plan (had we been staying at the "right" place) was to start our trek to a different peak at midnight. When 4AM hit, it was snowing heavily. Had we been off on our originally planned summit attempt, we would have been screwed by the snow. As it was, we just returned to sleep for another couple hours, and eventually the snow cleared and we headed out towards our "backup" peak at 7:06AM.

5 hours later after a challenging and beautiful climbing experience, we reached the summit of the daunting peak. It was a great feeling and even more amazing view. We found a pile of rocks at the top protecting a Gatorade bottle, inside of which held names of previous summiteers. The most recent date was 2008. It was a neat time capsule of sorts.

After spending a good half hour in comfort at the summit (6277 meters), we headed back down to our gear and pushed onwards along a ridge to another (lower) peak and finally I went on my own to a 3rd peak to scope out a possible route for a trek the next day.

So what began as a total screw up day ended up in 3 additional 6000meter "peaks" for me while our original plan would have gotten snowed out and put us in a hairy situation in the middle of the darkness while we tried to traverse a glacier!

Funny how things work out.

That evening, the three of us tried to convince the rest of the team that an even more beautiful and challenging peak was possible the next day (the one I had checked out on my own). Everyone agreed to give it a shot.

The next morning, we took off at 5:25AM towards the lake I had been to a few days prior. When we arrived at the lake, Luke took matters into his own hands and instead of taking the "boring" route along rocks p the left ridge, he said we are going directly up the glacier and then up the snow as far as we can get. This initially caught everyone off guard and we thought he was nuts, but an hour later, we were all roped together traversing a beautiful glacier and loving its awesomeness. After scaling to about 5850 meters in altitude, we had lunch at a grouping of exposed rocks about 5 hours into the day. Feeling optimistic about our summitting chances, 5 of us continued directly up the snow wall towards the peak. It ranged between a 40-50 degree slant all the way up for the next 400 meters. As we continued up, we were all struggling and tired, and eventually we got through the snow to a vein of very loose dangerous rocks that we started climbing up. Some pretty ominous storm clouds were approaching, and we really tried to push it. Luke went ahead and made it to just below the summit before animatedly encouraging the rest of us to hurry the hell up before the weather hit. I was the 2nd one up, and Ana, Piotr, and Lars soon thereafter. We took a few pictures at the summit, but Luke told us we had to get down ASAP. Unlike the previous day, there wasn't much of a chance to enjoy the well-earned achievement. This kind of sucked because it was the toughest peak we had climbed and it would have been nice to get rewarded a little more. Oh well.

Anyways, coming down was just as challenging as getting up. It was super steep and slippery and rocks were flying down when people slipped. Plus the storm was coming. After about 10 minutes of frantic descending, we caught a brief stroke of luck when the storm dissipated. This was bittersweet of course because it meant we could have stayed at the summit longer. Oh well. We eventually fought our way down and ended up back in camp 11 hours after we started our day.

The 2 consecutive days of successful 10 and 11 hour challenging hikes were very ironman-esque in their mental difficulty. When I get to Louisville in 3 weeks, I will not be 100% physically ready for the race, but I do expect to be mentally prepared. This will be an interesting experience, a near opposite to my approach in Florida.

I managed to finish "Meditation and Mantras" while in camp below these massively beautiful Korzok peaks, and finally moved onto my final book, Shantaram. We've got 3 nights left so we'll see how far I can get.

Himalaya Day 15

Beware the ides of trekking.

Wow what a royal screwup today on behalf of the crew. At the end of the day, we netted about 5km horizontal distance and 150 meters vertical. Gross distance was about 20km horizontal and 1.3km vertical.

Basically despite Luke giving explicit directions to half the team, they went in the complete wrong direction with no explicable reason. Our entire goal of the day was to raise up about 500meters to get to a high camp in order to scale a massive peak tomorrow. I had personally done recon to find the best place for this. Luke knew my findings and vividly explained it but apparently no one listened and now we've spent about 10 hours of hiking to accomplish nothing and there's no chance of ascending a peak tomorrow.

On the bright side, we have our tents and gear, which was far from a given at 3:00PM when we had no clue where our staff was and we were debating our next move. Luckily 2 small figures appeared on a peak in the distance and we saw through Lars' camera zoom lens that they were part of the staff who had come looking for us.

Also, in my personal quest to become a better person and live in the present instead of dwelling on the past or holding expectations of the future, this was a trying day but I think I handled it as well as possible. I realize that people make mistakes and you just have to deal with them no matter how large of an inconvenience it may seem at the time. The staff has been very nice and helpful since we just arrived beat as hell (and had to wade through a raging stream at the final point) and they realized they screwed up, so there's really not much more I can ask for. It's all about non-enjoyership!

Himalayan Days 11-14

We are officially 2 weeks deep into the trek. Just waking up now on Day 15. Lars showed me his pics from a 28 day Nepal trek from a few years back, and that's just nuts. Luke is also trying to organize a 45 day trek up near Nanda Devi, which just seems crazy. We've done so much in just 14 days and beat the hell out of our bodies. 45 days would be intense. I'll miss the mountains but I'll definitely be ready to be in a hotel bed in one week.

I experienced my only true "rest day" in Gyama Barma the day after the glacier extravaganza. We think we may have been the first people to ever traverse that region, known as the Rupshu ice field. We're definitely going to google it when we get home. The rest was nice and I finished the book, "The Monk who sold his Ferrari." I thought it was a quick easy entry level book into spirituality. It was very basic, cut many corners, and didn't challenge me like the other books I've already read. I'm happy to be done with it.

I read all the way through the Bhagavad Gita the next 2 days. It was nice to be able to read through it as a story instead of jumping all around the chapters to focus on specific verses like we did at the ashram. I had been very confused and relatively uninterested in our Gita classes, but the limited amount of info that I retained then helped me very much as I read through the story here. I thought it was an interesting way to get the main teachings of Hindi across and It has inspired me to look through other religious texts like the Bible and Koran when I get home. I think it's useful to understand this stuff to be better prepared for interactions with religious people.

I've also started reading Swami Vishnu's "Meditation and Mantras" book in the natural way instead of jumping around like we did in the ashram. Had I never taken the time to sit down and go through it on my own, then most of my study at the ashram would have been forgotten. It's very helpful for truly understanding the theories behind every type of meditation. I'm about 40% thru it and Shantaram is all I have left afterwards, so I'm going to have to get on that beast soon.

Moving back to the physical trekking, we succeeded in mounting 2 more 6000meter peaks 2 days ago. Yalung Nong and it's twin mountain. Once we got to the summit of the twin (6090m), we had an excellent view of Lake Tso Moriri and the surrounding mountains. It was windy as hell though and I was freezing despite wearing 6 layers. It was the first time the whole team made it to a summit together so that was nice.

The day before the summit and the day after, there had been talk about going back up and attempting the 6350meter peak, Spangnak Ri, that we failed to summit during the glacier traverse. Despite being ready to go at 3AM, it never happened. Luke was beat and figure he'd save his energy for new peaks that Project Himalaya hadn't explored before (Jaime has done Spangnak Ri before).

Instead of going for that summit, I went off on my own to explore the Korzok mountain range and do recon on possible high camps. Each day was a 4 hour solo trek, which really put marathons and ironman training days in perspective. I hiked to a gorgeous glacier lake beneath a huge triangular snow face of a mountain, and also hiked up a valley that runs into a glacier stream about 250meters higher than that lake. That 2nd hike also has great views of Tso Moriri and I took some sweet pics. I've recommended the 2nd option for our high camp, and we're all packing up and heading there in 2 hours in preparation for a 12 hour summit up an intimidating 6260 meter peak tonight. Let's hope my camp recommendation is good!

I had a Godfather beer and some local rum the other night, which I think contributed to some explosive diarrhea yesterday, but luckily I think I've moved that all through. You really don't appreciate the intricate differences between explosive diarrhea and regular smooth diarrhea until you are able to compare and contrast in a beautiful outdoor nature setting. Needless to say, smooth is far superior.

I taught a short basic sivananda yoga class to Ana yesterday. She joined me after I had already started my own practice, so I was teaching as I was performing, which obviously is not proper, but it was still nice to get the rust out. She's already good at yoga so it was workable. She can do headstand no prob and also is like a pro at the peacock, which I think only 1 girl at the yoga course could do by the 28th day.

I'm really looking forward to our attempts at the Korzok range these next few days before an easy 3 day trek back to the Manali-Leh highway, where we'll get picked up on August 8th and brought back to Leh. We've met a few other trekking groups the past couple days, and none of them are attempting any peaks. I mean, it's beautiful and everything but I would get bored of just walking through valleys for 3 weeks. I definitely need the added challenge of vertical movement. So far we've made it to 6 6000m summits, and might pick up a few more before all is said and done. Considering our original itinerary had us only doing 2, I'd say it's been a major success (and incredible Ironman Louisville "alternate" training)

Himalayan Days 8-10

I am beat. We just got to a new camp in Gyama Barma after spending the last 3 nights in Spanglung. Each of the nights in Spanglung, I woke up at 2:30 to do Alpine starts on attempting 6000 meter peaks. I was 2.5/3 as far as success is concerned.

The first day, Luke and I trudged through the night and through morning fog to reach a peak that was 6173 meters. It was a very efficient hike and I was really excited about my first summit. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy so we weren't able to achieve a splendid view. We were back to camp by 10AM and I spent most of the day reading.

The second day, the whole group except Lars headed up to 2 peaks that were 6090 meters and 6160 meters. The weather was perfect and the views were spectacular. I really felt strong this day, pushing to the summits with intensity. We took many amazing pictures and I did some really stupid yoga poses near cliffs but luckily survived. We ended up back at camp at around 1:30 where I ate lunch and passed out.

The third day, Luke, Ana, Lars and I attempted to traverse a huge glacier and summit a 6350 meter peak which is the highest one around the area we are trekking. This was my first time on ice and it was incredibly challenging. The day got off to a bad start for me when I slipped and fell into the river while crossing some icy rocks. I was pissed for a while, and unsuccessfully tried to think positively and get over it. When we finally reached the glacial starting point, I was good again. We all strapped into our ice gear an roped ourselves together in case of falling into ice crevasses (luckily this was averted) We had lunch on the glacier at 6020 meters, but had already been moving for 5 hours and the ascent to the summit was very vertical and we were all so spent that we chose to skip it. However this was still only the beginning of the adventure. We had to descend down the other side of the glacier and this involved serious ice climbing and repelling. Luke was a masterful guide and set up all the rope lines and everything. Unfortunately I totally messed up on the climbing as I incorrectly fastened my crampons and one fell off my shoe halfway through my climb. In my panic, I scraped up all my knuckles on my right hand and they were bleeding pretty bad. I ended up getting up to the top on my second attempt but even then it was an insane struggle while the other 3 climbed up with ease. They said my shoes were the problem, but I think they were just being nice and that I sucked. I need to work on that. I could see it being super fun. Repelling was easy. Luke created an ice bollard to descend himself in order to maintain all his gear. Eventually we were off the glacier and sludged 3 hours to get to our new camp. The final 2 hour walk ended up being quite beautiful through an incredible open valley. I'm in camp now but the bottom line is I was thoroughly defeated by the glacier today. Really looking forward to an actual rest day tomorrow.

Really these last 3 days have consisted of just trekking, eating, reading, and sleeping. And pooping of course is still amazing. The food continues to be stellar and Tempa and Phuntsok keep whipping up new creations. Somehow we had cake last night.

I finished Ghandi's autobiography and "The Power of Now", both of which follow a lot of Vedantic spiritual principles and also touch on other religions as well. I found both to be good books which taught valuable lessons. I'm halfway through "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" now and I think it's way too sugarcoated. Gonna skim through the rest of it then start Shanturam.

This trekking adventure through the amazing scenery has really allowed me to expand on what I learned during my yoga teacher training course and I'm really excited about the discipline and ability to analyze the inner workings of my mind. Almost every day after the difficult treks at altitude, I had a headache. This is totally expected, but instead of taking Tylenol or ibuprofen, I attacked the pain through breathing and relaxation exercises and I've always been successful to eliminate it purely mentally within an hour. I'm growing very confident in my ability to maintain my personal practice and I'm really looking forward to sharing it with others.

It's been 10 full days with no contact with the outside world, and I can say that I'm quite happy and don't miss it at all. It's quite refreshing to have an escape like this to avoid all the problems that exist in our world. Obviously I'm also missing good things, but again that's a sacrifice that I'm fully able to wrap my head around. I couldn't live like this forever, but I certainly wouldn't mind 3-4 week escapes like this at least once a year. (I'm also quite enjoying the bowel movements in nature...I've got a pretty good technique worked out!) Washing my clothes in rivers and drying it on clotheslines still sucks.

Himalayan Days 4-7

Coming to you live from camp at Spanglung at 5250 meters. We arrived during a torrential hailstorm filled with lightning and all sorts of goodies. I had split with the group just after brunch, and I chose a path that allowed me to somehow catch up with the staff and horses about 30 minutes ahead of the rest of the group. After walking another 30 minutes uphill with Tempa, the clouds started to dump. We luckily had just about made it to our campsite and everyone started getting all the gear off the horses asap. Since this usually is a 45 minute process in sunny skies, there was no way it was going to be a smooth in these conditions. I was of minimal help, and after throwing tarp over all our bags, Tempa yelled at me to get under the tarp myself. By this point the hail was intense and lightning was on top of us so I gladly obliged and chilled under the tarp for the next 15 minutes while the staff went to work setting up camp as best they could.

Eventually the storm let up, and they came to take me out from under the tarp. It was hilarious. Slowly they started building tents and warming water as the rest of the team arrived. All were much wetter than myself. It was certainly uncomfortable for an hour but now everyone is dried off, warmed up, and relaxing as we sit inside a cloud.

This is definitely the most excitement we've had yet on the trek. The last couple of days were absolutely amazing as we trekked through the vast valley of Tso Kar, with endless desert landscapes surrounded by snowcapped peaks and a gorgeous lake. I actually went for a swim as we walked past the lake. It is quite salty, and was fun to float in, though nowhere near as bouyant as I was in the dead sea. I wonder if it is the highest (4500meter) saltwater lake, as that would be a nice feather in my cap to have swam in both the highest and lowest saltwater lakes.

The night before we reached the lake valley, we stayed in another spectacular valley where a nomad tent nearby was selling rum, so I bought a bottle to share with the staff and Tempa whipped up a mixer of water, ginger, cinnamon, and lemon, and it was fantastic. Our staff is truly awesome. They are fun, smart, strong, hard-working, and passionate about mountain exploration. They all do their best to communicate in English while I learn a little bit of ladakhi, nepali, and tjbetan from them. Harish, the main horseman, is my favorite. Dude just got a haircut and with his ballcap and sunglasses looks total gangster just like Eazy E. Vivek rocks a Chicago white sox sweater. I want them to trade to complete the look.

I've been extremely disciplined with my yoga practice, waking up every morning around 5:25, and getting in at least an hour of practice before breakfast. I think the breathing exercises have been incredibly useful for adjusting to the altitude, and the surya namaskar and headstands as well have made me feel great throughout the days. I have some great scorpion pics that I look forward to sharing.

Pooping has been an adventure! I am averaging about 4 sizable movements per day. They are of a nice consistency just above the threshold of diarrhea. Sliding right out without explosions. I'm getting really good at the squatting and I've finally figured out how to do it without entirely removing my pants. It's heavenly, as it feels like everything I'm eating is either being converted into energy or passing right through me. I am eating like a King of vegetables and grains, so it's also rather healthy. I just need to cut down on crackers and tea. Still peeing in the middle of the night is annoying me. The other thing is, my farts are deathly. Must be the eggs or some seasoning Tempa is using. I really am not sure if I'll be able to continue to use this sleeping bag after the trip unless it gets fumigated.

I tore up cricket our first night at the lake. They couldn't get me out and I just kept smashing the ball over everyone's head. I eventually broke the ball in half and one half got caught, thus ending my innings. I'm definitely going to figure out a way to play legit cricket when I finish this trip.

Speaking of returning to reality. These past 3 days have given me ample opportunity to really do some soul-searching. The long gorgeous big-sky walks allowed our group to separate, and I had hours at a time where I put in my headphones, enjoyed some great mixes, and just took in the scenery, oblivious to my body. This meditative vibe was pure bliss.

I also just got through Gandhi's autobiography last night. While the book was a bit long, it was full of incredibly inspirational passages and stories that I found very meaningful.

So I'm going to save my "spiritual" thoughts for another blog, as I'd like to keep that separate from the physical recap.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a rest day, as the team needs to acclimate to sleeping at this altitude (same as Mt. Everest base camp). Wednesday morning the plan is to explore 3 6000 meter peaks just above us. However, I am feeling very strong and Luke and I might head out tonight and try to sneak in an additional 6350 meter summit if the weather is decent. If we succeed, that is higher than any point in all of North America. Will keep you posted.

Himalayan Days 1-3

Himalayan Days 1 - 3

Our trip out of leh was pretty easy. Took us about 2 hours to get to our camp for night one. We pulled off the Manali-Leh highway into a parking lot if a small Indian army compound where we met our team of Ladakhis, Tibetans, Nepalis, and some other local ethnicities who were waiting there with all the horses and all the gear (tents, food, etc). Immediately we started setting up camp alongside a small creek in the valley behind the military barracks while about 50 Indian officers watched us intently. A few cane down to check out what we were up to, adn made us relocate toilet tent across the creek, which meant whenever we wanted to take a dump it would require a leap over a creek before you could do so. Useful for loosening you up!

Immediately we had lunch and I realized how spoiled we are going to be on this trek. I've never camped beyond slices of bread, fruit, and trail mix. Here we are loaded with every kind of snack and tea or coffee or hot chocolate at any hour. Filtered water 24/7. Breakfast is oatmeal followed by eggs cooked to order (yes omelets), lunch is some really good sandwiches and pasta and rice, which we either have in camp or stop for a break while trekking , and dinner starts with soup, followed by a main course of like 5 veggie dishes, and then fruit for dessert.

Now while this seems like we are all pussies, I have to say that with our itinerary, this kind of full service is necessary. We've revamped our plan to try and mount 5 6000 meter peaks in 21 days. Our elevation changes are quite dramatic versus other treks which just follow trails or do short 5 day summits of one 6000 meter peak.

Today (Day 3) was a rest day (our second night camping at 4600meters) but we all decided to climb this random mountain near camp which ended up being an incredibly demanding 5600meter summit which was far more dangerous and took way longer than we had thought. This on our "off day". So yea, the nice meals make the 21 day adventure possible otherwise we'd be completely spent after 5-6 days max. I'm totally cool with that style of trekking obviously, but it's nice to experience the 5-star version as well.

I slept horribly the first night. Many issues a play. First of all, I had eaten and drank way too much so I was constantly up to pee in the freezing cold night, plus bloated and farting like crazy because I really didn't want to use the toilet across the creek in the middle of the night. Second, I'm getting used to my mummy style sleeping bag which severely limits my leg positions, so they were getting very cramped. Third, I was sleeping on a slight slant and needed to adjust all the time. Fourth, it was a very dewy creek and misty night and somehow some water was seeping into my tent and that made things uncomfortable. Fifth, there was some damn dog barking all night.

Night 2 I eliminated most of these issues (still needed to pee and fart) and got used to my sleeping bag and had a much better sleep. Tonight is night 3 and I'm optimistic it will be good.

I've got up vey early each moving with the sunrise and put in about 45-60 minutes of yoga. I think the breathing exercises are really helping me perform in this environment. Today I skipped the yoga in lieu of a solo hike to watch the sunrise over the valley. When we did our 5500meter peak later on, I came back with a pretty rough headache, so I did about an hour of yoga (breathing for 30 minutes, relaxing for 20, then headstand for 10) and it practically eradicated my headache without any pills. I was super happy this worked.

Every day at camp we've been setting up a cricket pitch with the staff and it's super fun. I'm a very accurate bowler but can't get the ball passed anyone. Batting, I usually swing for the fences and get out by tipping it to the wicket keeper. Its kind of ridiculous because the field is set up in the middle of camp so half the time the ball is going into a river or nearly taking someones head off as they do their laundry or cook.

I've been reading a lot during our spare time and before bed. I've gotten halfway through gandhis autobiography. It's a very interesting book, and it's perfect that I've spent time in Bombay, South Africa, and studied Hinduism at the ashram because the book is far more understandable to me due to having all those experiences. I'm looking forward to finishing it and starting shanturam.

Conversation around camp has been fun. As usual, I'm talking too much. But everyone else has good things to discuss and I don't think they mind me just yet. We'll see in a couple days.

I earlier mentioned being bloated and farting all night. Let me say that the craps I've taken the following mornings have been spectacular. Our crapper tent is basically a hole in the ground that we dig, surrounded by a tall skinny square tent. I swear I have nearly filled the entire hole up each time. It's really tough to hold the squat for such an extended period of time. My legs are falling asleep, so wiping and standing up are incredibly difficult.

Showering also is quite primitive and involves freezing yourself to death in the glacial streams. But hey why not. Laundry same, but it's not bad because we've got a really bright and hot sun during the days so far. Hoping this weather holds (but honestly the heat and lack of any form of shade outside of our tents is tough as well). When a cloud comes in front of the sun, the temperature immediately drops like 20 degrees. It's nuts. Sunscreen is essential, though I've picked up some minor burning on the back of my legs. I should be quite tan by the time it's over.

Tomorrow and the next day are major moving days, and we'll be camping at 5000 meters, which should be fun. I doubt I'll be able to upload this blog anytime soon but just wanted to journal the experience while it's fresh.

Recapping a great trek

I kept a blog throughout the 21 days that I was without Internet in the Ladakhi mountains. I will slowly post those updates day by day.

Locked and Loaded

All packed and ready to roll. There's gonna be a lotta cricket goin down. See you in 3 weeks!

Rock and roll!

Just finished shaving my entire body. As most of you know, this indicates that I'm about to head off on a journey where cleansing oneself should be an incredibly efficient process.

That's right! 21 days in the Himalayan wilderness starts tomorrow morning!

My team consists of: Luke, the leader who has been running serious outdoor trips in colorado, alaska, india, and nepal for over a decade, Leo, an anesthesiologist from Sydney who has been my roommate in Leh, Lars, a Swedish software engineer who has been living in Sydney for over a decade, Piotr, an astrophysicist from Poland, an Ana, a very cool girl about to start her PhD in physics at CalTech. Everyone is incredibly interesting and has plenty of shit to talk about. There shouldn't be much silence during our trip.

We've all been acclimating in Leh for 3 nights now. The city is like an oasis town nestled in a desert valley between huge mountain ranges. It is incredibly touristy. Historically it is a Tibetan village, and feels nothing like the rest of India or Kashmir. There are so many white people here it's scary. 70% of the town is Buddhist, and many of the locals all look more Chinese than Indian. There are also many nepalis who work here.

The first day was sort of an orientation, the second day consisted of sightseeing in the morning and then a nice 2.5 hour trek over a ridge in the afternoon. Today we took mountain bikes up to the highest motorable pass in the world, the Khardung La, at 18380 feet, and biked 46km back down to Leh which is at 11562 feet, so needless to say it was epic. We rode trek mountain bikes an my gears were complete crap, but I still had an amazing time and definitely need to do more mountain biking in the future. I may try to bike up the pass when we return from the trek on august 9th or 10th.

We've been in leh also with the rest of the project himalaya team. Kim took her group out on a 30 day trek today. Her group was a bit larger than ours an they'll be doing a beautiful trek in a different region as ours. Jamie has been spending time with us during meals. He's climbed Everest 4 times and know everything there is to know about trekking and mountaineering so it's certainly awesome to converse with him.

Our trek will head aoutheast of leh towards the Tso Moriri region, which runs along the disputed border area between India and China. There are a few large lakes there surrounded by towering 6000+ meter peaks. We have a tentative itinerary but also have a few plan b's and plan c's depending on how things look. Luke and the team of locals will make day by day decisions to decide where exactly we'll go. The goal is to scale 2 of the 6000 meter peaks in the 21 days. We've got ice axes and crampons (which are like ice spikes that attach to our boots) to help in this endeavor. If we're really lucky we might stumble upon some snow leopards!

Along the way we will be supported by 7 locals who basically lead the donkeys ahead of the group, set up re entire camp, and cook all the food every day for us. We'll only be carrying day packs, and all of the rest of our crap will be waiting for us when we reach camp. I know this sounds totally pussy, but I have been talking to other Trekkers who told me about how awful it is to set up camp every night for just 5 days. So I'm okay with the 5 star service this time around!

3 of the group members (Luke, Lars, and Piotr) have serious Nikon cameras with tripods and the whole 9 yards, so they will have some amazing shots from the trek. I'll make de with my canon point and click, as of course I am in the top 5 best users of canon point and click cameras worldwide rankings.

We've also got all sorts of fancy amenities like iPhone speakers, a solar panel battery charger, camp chairs, a library tent, etc. The donkeys do all the heavy lifting!

Most of the days we'll be up at normal hours and hit the road by 9 after breakfast. The days that we try to summit will be 2AM starts so we can be at the peak during prime weather.

I've been getting up around 5:30 for the past 3 days and doing 1 to 1.5 hours of yoga. I'm going to try to keep it up during the trek. I was speaking with folks at the yoga course and they said that yoga and especially the associated breathing exercises are the best physical tool to assist in acclimatization. I'm going to focus on making sure I do breathing exercises every morning in lieu of taking diamox or the other weird pills I got in China to combat altitude sickness.

I'll likely be entirely out of touch with society until August 8th, so don't get worried if you don't here from me. If you don't hear from me by the 10th, then you can be worried.

Passing through Dr. Ass

I got up early on the 15th to head out of Srinagar. Had one last tea and breakfast with Rayiz' wife and daughter and then jumped in a rickshaw to the taxi station. I ended up throwing them some extra cash as the family had been so nice and helpful, even doing all my laundry for me cleaner than I would ever have been able to do myself.

The bus and shared-taxi station in Srinagar is kinda nutty. It definitely feels like a ripe place for a terrorism attack if that was gonna go down. It's nice to get out of there quickly, so I dd my best to get in a shared jeep for the "8 hour" trip to kargil. The drivers are quite aggressive, trying to get you in their taxis by offering such things as "only Englishman in the car" or "only 3 people in the back. They all say that they are the best driver in the best car. Eventually I jumped in the backseat of a chevy jeep with a British girl and local guy sharing the side-facing back section with me, while 2 Swedish brothers, an Israeli, an Indian an another Kashmiri sat up in the front 2 rows with the driver.

The drive was rather tense, as it seems all the drivers are racing each other. Our driver was funny but crazy. There were a few times when all the cars were stopped because traffic was only allowed to go in one direction, so most of the passengers and drivers would be wandering about on the side of the road. As soon as the signal was given that we could go, our driver would start screaming at all of us and run back to the car so we could get the wholeshot and be the first vehicle to head forth. Of course this advantage was always short lived due to poor road conditions, construction, and traffic.

When we stopped for lunch, he was adamant that we only had 10-15 minutes to eat. It was kind of sad because the drive was so beautiful, it could have been nice to get to enjoy it more. We passed over the Zoji La, which is a dramatic road up across a 4000meter pass and continued through spectacular valleys. At one point in a village the road was blocked for an hour as some locals decided it was a good time to build a ditch across the road and insert a water pipe. Another annoying thing was that the Kashmiri guy in the back with me kept blasting the Moslem prayers through his phone.

Let me pause for a second here to discuss the logistics of Moslem prayers. I get it, pray 5 times a day, it can be beautiful thing. But holy shit when you publicly blast the prayers through loudspeakers from every mosque and through cell phones, it's the most annoying sound in the world. I'm not talking about the language or the words or the meaning of the prayers at all. I'm sure that is all a very nice thing. I'm talking about the acoustics. When you play any high pitched sounds through a megaphone, it may as well be projecting a baby whining as loud as possible for the whole city to hear. And when they start every morning at 3:30AM, it makes the noises of China sound like heaven. Point is, use headphones, buy some subwoofers, do anything to change that horrendous sound that you force upon the world around you.

Anyways,

We made it to kargil in the afternoon, and I split off with the Swedes and Israeli. We had a decent dinner at "New Las Vegas restaurant" and then I passed out. I shared a room with the Israeli guy, he took the floor and I got the bed. I was getting a bit sick from all the dust we breathed in on the ride, plus had a headache from sitting sideways for 9 hours so I needed a good night sleep, and popped a sudafed which helped a bit. I was awoken by the fucking loudspeakers and tossed and turned for a bit before the sun rose. I eventually got up and did a nice hour of sunrise yoga on the rooftop which definitely made me feel better.

We caught another ride that morning in a better car with a Buddhist driver who was far less stressful. The road from Kargil to Leh was a lot nicer than the road from Srinagar to Kargil, but it still had some hairy parts as we had to wait for a few bulldozers to remove landslides. We had some great meals along the way and made it to Leh a little after 2 in the afternoon. I parted ways with my car buddies and searched for the hotel where I was to meet my trekking team...

Pahalgam overnight trip & return to Srinagar

It's been about a week since my last post. I only just regained Internet yesterday after 4 intense days of travel.

We last left off in Srinagar where I used an actual computer for the first time of the trip because my SIM card didn't work in this state. I later managed to somehow buy a local SIM card off the kid at the shop which kinda works for edge connections but not very fast. Either way, it was totally illegal for him to sell it to me like he did so I'm lucky to have it plus it has been useful.

The next day, Rayiz, Tessa (a girl who was also couchsurfing with rayiz) and I headed thru Pahalgam to a small town called Aru, where we set off onto a trek through the Lidder Valley. It was
Absolutely spectacular from start to finish. Lush green meadows flanked by pine forests along crystal clear rivers and small glaciers. Grazing animals everywhere, local herdsman and local hut people doing their daily routines. It was simply incredible.

The goal was to go as far as we could, then set up our sleeping bags and sleep under the stars. Rayiz was amazingly helpful throughout the day as not only did he arrange the transportation to aru but he chatted with locals to figure out where we should go on the trek. We totally had a million options to pitch camp but the valley was just so stunning we kept going further and higher. As it got later, the skies became ominous and rain started coming down when we were in the middle of nowhere along a ridge. We quickly found some herdsmen who told Riyaz there were a bunch of families huts up ahead. We figured it was our best bet to see if any of these locals would host us for the night seeing we didn't have any shelter from the rain. Eventually a group of 4 locals caught up to us and told rayiz it was cool. After they led us on an absolutely grueling final ascent to their hut, we quickly realized we were in for a hell of an experience. This hut was a combination o 2 families. The 2 adult males looked exactly like Osama bin Laden. The female mothers were a bit phased ar first when we showed up, but their combined 13 kids absolutely loved us. They were captivated by my camera and attempted their darndest to speak English.

We eventually settled in for the night in their hut, and they fed us tea, roti bread, and a rice & dal dish all cooked on a makeshift wood burning stove. The hut was crammed with like 17 people and a cow an a rooster. We eventually slept in the middle of the tent and as we were going to bed, the kids were hovering over us staring. It was pretty scary and I then mixed all my valuables into my sleeping bag with me. Nothing got stolen but there definitely was a little bit of a weird vibe despite their hospitality.

I didnt really get any sleep that night, but what was I to expect in that situation. I did wake up to a cow very nearby. After a nice tea and roti breakfast, we hiked up to a beautiful glacier lake beyond their hut and ten retreated back the way we came for the day. The kids were all very sad to see us go.

We made it back to Srinagar that evening after fighting rain much of the way.

That night I met up with Rebecca ad khuram (who I stayed with in Delhi) and they treated me to an amazing buffet dinner at this amazing hotel/historical government building up on a hill overlooking the lake. It was great to see them again and talk a bunch before I was to move on the next day.

To be continued...

Srinagar Couchsurfing

I landed in Srinagar airport yesterday and it was insane. It was like a battle for the luggage carousel. Vicious. Then i was hounded by people to fill out foreign visitor card, where they needed to call the local # i gave them of a couchsurfing host to verify that I had somewhere to stay before letting me pass. Then they still tried hustling me nonstop to stay in a houseboat. It was a mess. Eventually I finally got in a cab, and about 2 minutes out of the airport, we were stuck in gridlock traffic, cars turning around in opposite direction on one way road. Armed officers running through traffic to get up ahead. 10 minutes later they had cleared whatever issue was going on, and we were on our way to my hosts spot.

Then all of a sudden 3 Kashmiri army soldiers with huge guns jump in front of my cab and stop the driver and just jump in the cab with me. 1 up front and 2 behind me. I just smiled and nodded at them. We drove about 2 minutes, and then they stopped and jumped out. I guess when you're carrying a gun, hitchiking is free.

We finally got to my couchsurfing host, who picked me up on his beautiful shikara boat, and we cruised across the Nagin Lake to his house on the banks. There were 3 other couchsurfers staying there. I've been hanging out with a Dutch girl who lives in London right now and is also crusing around Kashmir.

The rest of the day consisted of paddling around the lakes, enjoying all sorts of hospitality, amazing teas, foods, dinners, and sunset.

This morning we woke up at 4am to get back on the lake for the sunrise and some crazy floating farmers markets. A bunch of sightseeing and now I'm finally at an internet cafe using an actual computer for the first time since I've been in India.

We're trying to figure out what to do tomorrow. Probably an overnight trek somewhere. Need to figure it out soon. Also trying to figure out a local cell phone.

Kashmir

I'm back in Delhi after a long train ride that was delayed because during our journey, another train in the same Indian state derailed and killed over 35 people. Yikes.

One of my friends from TTC was very kind and invited me stay with her family for the night in Gurgaon, just beyond Delhi. It was really weird not waking up in my ashram bed, and I had an incredible night's sleep. Enjoyed a great western breakfast with eggs and oatmeal!!

At delhi airport now, headed north to Kashmir. Planning on couchsurfing for a few nights in Srinagar then continuing to Ladakh via some form of transportation. It could be a shared jeep taxi, it could be a motorcycle. No idea yet. Well see what happens once I get to Srinagar. Hopefully it stays peaceful because obviously this part of the world doesn't have the greatest track record in recent years. Technically it's only about 100 miles from Abottabad, Pakistan which is pretty awesome. There are extremists in the region so I will consider keeping a low profile and not do anything entirely stupid. Still going to wake up every morning and wave the American flag for 5 minutes before anthony else.

Internet access may be limited as my current phone SIM will no longer work in the Kashmiri state due to security issues. I'm going to try and get a new one but not sure of that possibility.

Go USA womens soccer!

Success!

Satchidananda

Well, all done now. Test did exist afterall (no pizza! Doh!) All that's left is one more casual asana class, feasting and graduation. We've got some free time at the moment and I'm just sitting outside in the mist taking it all in.

I certainly feel incredibly educated in both philosophical and practical matters. I feel extremely healthy and I'd like to do my best to maintain it. I have greatly enhanced my understanding of what makes a good teacher, not just in yoga but in all walks of life. I have a much improved general awareness of others.

I don't necessarily feel any more "pure" or "enlightened". I haven't had any massive realizations or awakenings. I am sure that I will return to my normal life and continue to party and live freely. I hope to do so with more balance. I committed to a life of devotion and selfless action, but I will make small steps in that direction.

I'm certainly relaxed and stress-free, but then again, I've always been like this so it's not much of a change. I do have much more awareness about why I'm like this.

I've made some great lifelong friends who are all planning to help me out through the rest of my time in India, including a one month reunion dinner when I get back to Delhi on august 12 after my himalaya trip.

I will continue the quest for knowledge, refreshing myself at additional yoga events in the future.

At the end of the day, I'm still the same Trevor. Definitely better off and super happy to have enjoyed this experience. The only change is that I now have an additional name, ha.

The simple vedantic definition of self = awareness (sat) + consciousness (chit) + bliss (ananda) is a fantastic guideline to live ones life. This is a fantastic blueprint for life and one that I'm very happy to have experienced and understood.

Time for finals

As I enter this blogpost, it's just after 11PM and tomorrow is our final full day in the course. It is said to involves 3.5 hour open-response final exam.

I've been on the record since day 1 that I think the exam is total bullshit and they're just using it as a scare tactic to force us to learn. (fraternity conditioning)

Either way, everyone else is stressing out about it("How many points is each question worth?? What score do I need to pass?? Do we need to know the Sanskrit names for all the yamas and diyamas??"), while the teachers and staff just discuss it nonchalantly.

I personally spent about an hour reviewing some stuff but didn't stress out for a second. It's not like we're not going to "pass" if we don't know all the Sanskrit names for the 9 steps of Bhakti yoga.

Anyways, guess I'll know by 7:30 am tomorrow whether or not my intuition is correct.

Otherwise, it's been an emotional couple days, wrapping up our final classes and seeing some of the staff and students leave a day or 2 early due to various circumstances. One of my roommates left today after taking the "test" in a secluded area.

This TTC was a big deal for the teachers as it was the first time they operated a large scale TTC under their new independent sivananda organization. It was also the first time at this himalaya ashram that a TTC was undertaken. So a lot of their own blood, sweat, and tears went into this creation and you can really see how committed they are to spreading the teachings to others.

I've been able to have many one-on-one conversations with the teachers about practical issues I would face trying to teach yoga back in the states and they've all been incredibly forthright and helpful. It's certainly not a cakewalk to create your teaching arena. It's obviously yet to be seen what will come out of this experience, but I certainly believe that I would be an effective teacher if I choose to pursue this path.

Guess we'll have to wait and see. Bedtime.

In case you were curious...

I've been in India for a month now and only twice have I enjoyed a "real" shower when I stayed in the hotel in Agra and with Rebecca and Leyla in Delhi. I've still yet to shower with hot, let alone warm water. Nonetheless, this sacrifice is very minimal and I quite enjoy the bucket baths by now. They're quite water efficient. The challenge is just pouring that first bucket of cold water on your head. Just like jumping in a cold pool or ocean, you get used to it immediately after 2 seconds of pain.

Anyways, I'm sure it's going to be a massive step up from whatever type of bathing I'm going to get to enjoy during my Himalaya trek. Just wanted to be sure I documented it before leaving the ashram in 48 hours.