My trail comrade Luca and I decided to explore the side trip of Tilicho Tal, the lake Herzog's men crossed while searching for a route up Annapurna. Reaching it involves crossing high-angle scree slopes on narrow trails with intense exposure, with blue sheep potentially knocking down rocks. Words I'd use to describe this trail, as a rock climber, are "heady" and "sketchy", and I imagine in the US this trail would be, at most, a "cross-country route". My trail buddy Luca seemed nervous on the outbound journey, but only in the evening at base camp used the word "vertigo". Ack!
The rewards of this mischief were some beautiful views of sandstone formations, close-up walking near ice falls, and seeing the great barrier, a wall of mountain and glacier. Pics!
After the lake day hike from base camp, Luca had become a ball off stress leading up to our outbound journey. I found myself going all Yoda on him: "you must control your fear, focus your mind". We took every step to maximize our chances of success: we hiked on fresh legs in the morning, spotted each other in the rockfall section, and stayed close together for moral support. And, yay, operation scary trail was a success and Luca performed brilliantly!
But he is not a Jedi yet.
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