Hike To(wards) Lake Tilicho

I decided to hike to Tilicho Lake and back in one day from Kangsar. That's going from 12,335 ft (3760 m) to 16,400 ft (5000 m). What I didn't count on was another ridge in the way. All told, I had to climb (and then decend) over 6,000 ft (1800 m).

The trail went up the right hand side of these valleys. On the way up I met Brad (South Africa) and John (Venezuela) coming down. I thought I had a tough day- they'd stayed at Tilicho Base Camp the night before to shorten the hike. However, the caretaker never showed up, so they had to sleep in the cold and had no food the previous night or that day!

A faint rainbow crosses the valley behind me.

After reaching the high ridge, you decend to the water. I didn't think it was a very impressive lake.

As I found out five days later, if I'd continued on less than 100 meters, over the next ridge I would have seen the lake. So technically, after hiking and running for over 12 hours at high altitude, I missed the lake by less than 5 minutes. But I did see the highest pond in the world!

Relaxing at the edge of the wrong body of water.