Tim in Tibet - redoing, since text didnt stick to photos! (Part 4). ON the 5th day of my trek, my guide Thubten and I left our high altitude base camp for the peak of Mt. Shika. Shika was a massive yak goddess who, according to legend, once lived in Gyalthangs broad valley. But she left for this remote peak in order to provide room for yaks and other animals to live and to graze. Today, the airport has been build where the goddess once lived - Thubten told me this with no intended irony. We struggled up towards the summit at 4500 M (about 16,500 feet), and near the top I saw…a wooden observation platform filled with Chinese tourists! On the other side of the mountain, a cable car ran from the valley floor to the top! Some of them asked to take my picture - the wild trekking foreigner! Fortunately, the summit itself was closed off to all except Tibetans wanting to plant prayer flags or conduct rituals. From the peak, Thubten and I descended deep into a valley with a sacred lake, where we had lunch before returning to camp.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 10:42:35 +0000
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