It’s brutal, brutal hard work. Not for the feint hearted.

You don’t sleep. That’s the first thing I realised. You just don’t sleep. You sort of drift in and out waking up with your mind feeling crazed. It was a crazy wake up call for my body. The hike was an easy hike but I was still unprepared for how taxing it was. I also packed far too much adding to the issue.

The second day was better much better but it still wore me down and by the end I could barely walk and move I was so exhausted. The weather grew colder and mistier. I also started coming down with the flu from my stupid play in freezing waterfall water.

The food is all vegetarian no meat once you get up.

Langtang is a spectacular place. Everything is made of heaped stones and wood. The people bring everything up on the backs of the porters. Who walk all day hauling goods up and down the same paths that I struggle to find a foothold on. Whole water tanks, bundles of plans at least 3m long and inches think and full glass window panes are all hefted on the backs of men. It seems an impossibly gruelling task as they march on by.

The walk from Langtang to Kensin Gompa was especially hard. Made so by the fact that my flu made it impossible to lift my bag let alone carry it. Today’s trek was only 3 hours. We hired a porter to carry my bag and I barely managed to walk myself there in 4 and a half hours. The terrain and the view was spectacular and I have countless photos and videos. My head was aching and Lakpa was a bit concerned but I was sure it was mostly from the flu and exertion rather than altitude. I rested for most of the day before seeking out the Canadian. A fellow trekker who was marching up in sandles a shirt and shorts – crazy. His guide Ching was a friend of Lakpa and the four of us became heated card buddies duelling out games of gin and five hundred.

The next morning we made out for the Yala peak ascent. Again no breakfast just my water bottle. About halfway we were overtaken by the Canadian and his just marched on stoically up as if nothing could stop him. We made the peak and what a view. The day was perfect the weather amazing. Ching remarked that someone must have fucked a yak in order to get such lucky weather. We rested a little and decided to press further on and up by following the ridge to the next peak. Another brutal climb and I arrived just as the weather turned and the mist rolled in. The views were still amazing and another two gents managed to meet us there. We witnessed a couple of avalanches on the opposite ridge where the massive glacier was. And even though I was panting standing still, the Canadian and I were still being competitive and moved on to push up further, we were about 5000m at this point and the ridge simply vanished above us. The Canadian lead and I followed and our guide who thought we were crazy simply sat and waited for us to come back. We went up a fair bit further the Canadian far ahead of me and his was enveloped by the mist. Exhausted again I sat to compose myself. My mind found it hard. All my senses were heightened and I could feel my heart blasting away in my chest and the affect of the altitude on my breathing and focus. The Canadian came bounding back down. The way ahead was treacherous and he had started getting dizzy. So we sat for a while against a rock which blocked the freeing wind. We decided we would not go back but rather across the face of the ridge slope. It was dangerous if you slipped you may not stop for a good couple of hundred meters. We pressed on until we hit a landslide and the Canadian went down and back for the guide while i sat and desperately searching the surrounds for snow leopards. I had spent most of my time glued to the binoculars desperately seeking movement denoting a leopard. When I saw the guys below me using the yak path cut into the slope I made to descend. It turned into a full blown run down a steep slope towards them. It was an amazing effort on my behalf just to keep my footing though I lost it a couple of times and my water bottle in one of those slips but I made it down like a madman. Lakpa managed to capture it on film!!

We were now in the valley behind in front of the glacier. In no mans land.

We managed to make it back to town about 3 hours later by walking around the mountains through the valley. Through scrub and river and rock we plodded.