My time on the rooftop is coming to a close. So I would like to write a few posts about the things I love about Tibet. If I inspire a few more people to think about living or visiting this amazing place then I will count these posts successful.
So without further ado...
As we crossed the first pass I thought to myself, "I don't remember being so tired in my life." Yet we still had a valley, and another pass before we could start the 3 hour trek back to the road in hopes of catching a ride back into town.
These are the thoughts I had from a hike about a month ago. Yet I found myself back on the mountains to do an even higher summit just this last weekend.
Lhasa is actually an amazingly flat city. In fact my preferred form of transportation is the bicycle. It may seem strange that the highest capital in the world is actually quite flat but don't worry once you leave the city you will find what Tibet is famous for: Mountain after mountain.
The views of the old city are quite spectacular from some of the nearby mountains such as Sera Mountain and Pumbari Mountain. If you wanted to just do a quick afternoon hike there are plenty of opportunities just outside of town.
And on the same vein, if you want to climb a 5,000 meter + mountain ( more than16,400 feet) there are plenty of those options as well.
Here is a video of my last hike.
The stats for that little jaunt:
16 miles bicycling
5 miles hiking
11 hours total
The final topo reading at the top of the mountain was 5,453 meters (17,890 feet)
We gained about 5000 feet of elevation...and I felt every foot in 5 miles
Although 16 miles of biking seems like a bit, it really isn't factoring that was basically from our front door. And we picked a mountain that was far from the closest. The options are endless when it comes to mountains to hike.
So, coming as no surprise to anyone, the first thing I am going to miss about Tibet is the hiking.
