After breakfast, around 8:30am, our group climbed the slope in front of us to get closer to Kailash.
At some point in the ascent, I realized I was not breathing. There was no obstruction to the respiratory process, I was not struggling to breathe, I was not trying to suck in air, there was just no air coming in or leaving the body. There was no nutrition, no succor, no nourishment from the air, nor was I trying to get it. The body was surviving on its own stored energy, and I could have walked on slowly but I preferred to go down to the camp - that was the thought he had put in my mind. I told Hiraji, I was done - so he asked one of his Sherpas to go down and get another cooking Sherpa to stand with me as long as needed, and then accompany me back. I leaned against a rock, looked at the people climbing upwards towards Charanapada, and started my downward climb. Hiraji had asked me not to sleep once I reached my room, so it was a difficult sitting-up for 3-4 hours till the group got back.
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| glacier waters at the foot of Kailash |
It was Ganesh Chaturthi - the festival that starts with invoking Ganesha at home on the fourth day of Bhadrapada, and on the tenth day, bid him goodbye to go back to Kailash.
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| pooja prep for Ganesh Chaturthi |
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| glaciers and ice streams |
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| going back to Deraphuk |
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| a view from Charanpada |
The group got back by lunch - exhausted but exhilarated from the short trek to Charanpada. This is a good taste of the trek to Dolma La the next day, except that the trek past Dolma La promises to be unpredictable and exhausting, with the possibility of falling off ponies.
The sunset view today did not happen because of clouds.
AUM Namaha Shivaaya
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