Category Archives: Glaciers
Intuition, Water, and Tales from a Boy
Thinking about times past, lessons, and inspired moments and a little sun burned cheeks, few words, and a fearless countenance comes to mind. Thinking too about the importance of communities that still transfer their knowledge as a point of pride … Continue reading
Langtang 3 – Top To Bottom and an Avalanche
Sonam moves up singing, chatting, all the while moving through his Tibetan Mala beads. Mingmar dances from stone outcroppings to thatches of stems and back. Always he is looking for medicine, herbs, or simply that which matters to him – … Continue reading
Langtang 2 – Across What Was
“We cannot change too much of what is there, but we can manage what we see and how we move forward”, Uncle Dawa says at one point over a tea. As with so much in my own frames of life, tea is a conduit and facilitator. It is a fluid that soothes, and stimulates. Continue reading
Langtang – Himalayan Water Towers…and herbs
Perceptions are everything and here there is so very much within sensing distance. Syabrubesi is a dusty gateway that lies behind us. We head west through green tree lines of pine, birch, and rhododendron and nettles. The Buddhist sage and … Continue reading
Tea, Mountains and The Close of a Year. Tributes and Moments
A new year comes and some looking back at moments and a summoning back of experiences and people seems required to pay homage to time having passed. This contemplation isn’t something noble but rather something of appreciation, and it very … Continue reading
Feature Article: The Great Gangotri – Feeder of the Ganges
One of the great moving river bodies of the planet, the mother Ganges, is fed by the Himalayan Water Towers; glaciers that ebb slowly at greater speeds. We know the river itself but not necessarily the epic bodies that feed it. They are revered and worshiped…and they do ebb. The Gangotri is one of those feeders. Continue reading
Glaciers’ Breath ll – Gangotri Update V – A Descent
Berinder is impatient and staring in his mournful way at Saurabh and I to hurry. He wants to move and it is our day to make another incursion into the Chaturangi Glacier valley and then head south up a smaller … Continue reading
Glaciers’ Breath ll – Gangotri Update lV – Nandanvan (Paradise)
Camp Nandanvan (or “Paradise”) is the first of a series of camps within the greater valley that shoots northeast out of Gangotri. Gangotri is one of 4 “dhams”, or places of pilgrimage for Hindus. To the west, Yamunotri is where the Yamuna River is worshipped, Gangotri where we are is where the Ganga or Ganges is worshipped, Kedarnath where Shiva is worshipped (Kedar is another name for Shiva, who is considered not a god, but rather a yogi), and finally Badrinath where Vishnu is worshipped (Badri is one of the names for Vishnu). Continue reading
Glaciers’ Breath ll – Ganges Gangotri Update 3
The line is uneven. Random dark and bright spots lie along a long diagonal path that at times is nothing but some smudges in the sand. Our team is spread along a kilometer long portion heading south further into the … Continue reading
Glacier’s Breath Expedition – Gangotri Update 2
Berinder is his name. Tiny, unsmiling, and topped off with a vibrant pink woolen cap I’ve locked onto him and his intense energy. These porters can take the breath with their abilities to pirouette on little more than rubber soles, … Continue reading