Alpine Ninja

After two weeks of flights, jeeps and trekking, Alan and I have established ourselves in a base camp at the head of the Rolwaling Valley on the Drolambao Glacier at nearly 18,000 ft.  Above our camp we are surrounded by iconic peaks, many of which have only been climbed once, if ever: Takargo, Langmoche Ri (which Alan and I made the first peak ascent of in 2012) and of course, Tengi Ragi Tau. To start the expedition off right, we decided to attempt the West Face of Pachermo (~20,590 ft), an enticing wall of rock, ice and snow rising 3,000 ft directly above camp. Pachermo is a classified as a trekking peak and many groups traveling from the Rolwaling to the Khumbu climb it's North Ridge. We knew little about the West Face or whether it had been climbed, only that it looked cool. The West Face of Pachermo

Two years after our first trip to the Himalaya, Alan and I have returned for another round of testing ourselves against the world's biggest mountains and soaking up the amazing culture that comes with climbing in Nepal.  We busily made our final preparations in Kathmandu and, as of the time you are reading this, are well into our six week off-the-grid expedition. Paintings on a monastery in Simigaon, a village in the shadow of the sacred  Gauri Sankar, and our first stop during the trek into base camp.

Driving away from Osh, it was clear that we were far from home. A constant line of trucks carting coal for power and heat passed us going the opposite direction, bound for the city. Occasionally, a truck would have a slaughtered animal, bleeding and tied to the roof, in addition to it's other cargo.