Markha Valley Adventures I

On the first day of our trek we started walking around noon, after the drop off at the start point - Zingchen (3396m). We wanted to have a short day to allow ourselves to acclimatize properly. The trail was going uphill from the beginning. After about three hours of walking we stopped for a tea break, and then continued for an hour and a half more before getting to Yurutse (4150m), our final destination for that day, or so we hoped.
Yurutse turned out to be a lone house, surrounded by mountains. We arrived late in the afternoon, and all the beds in the house were already taken. It took a while before we managed to persuade the owners into letting us sleep on the floor in the living/dining room, because we really, really weren't going anywhere else that day. We were exhausted from the 800m climb.
We spent that whole afternoon and evening drinking tea in the dining room and talking to the other travelers who were staying there. It's not like we could go to sleep or anything - our "bedroom" was the dining room...
I didn't sleep very well that night, probably because of the altitude.
After breakfast, followed by a water-sterilizing session, we were ready to hit the road.Read more