Jade Mountain

I'm back closer to sea level and feeling great. Some of the most beautiful views of my life occur ed in the last two days and also some of the hardest physical challenges. I can easily compare what I completed in the last two days with any running event I have engaged in as well as any physical activity I have ever tried. Yesterday alone we left our lodge (11,158 ft elevation) at 2:45am on our way to the North Peak. The only way to get to this peak is to climb within 650 feet of the main peak and then head down the back side of the mountain. You drop down approximately 1,000 feet and then climb up the North Peak which is 12,618 feet. We reached the peak at 5:45am and watched the sun rise. We then took the same trail back to within 650 feet of the main peak however, this time we completed the last 650 feet to summit the tallest mountain in Asia at 12,962 ft. After spending some time to recover and drink some tea/coffee 2-1/2 miles above sea level. We then descended to the lodge, picked up the gear we had left there that morning and hiked back to our original starting location at 8560 ft where we could catch a van ride the rest of the way. In total from the time we left the lodge, until we ended the day we had spent almost 11 hours on the mountain trails.





This is going to take many posts and I'll work on them as I can. I'll also go through all the collected pictures and try to post only the best. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

This is not a joke or staged. It is part of the trail and it is a 1,000 ft drop-off that we were walking along on a two foot wide ledge. One of the guys with us has a great picture of this portion of the trial from a wide angle lens that I will post later. It was fucking crazy at this point.

Here are lots of pictures. Unedited and unreviewed.