Bill Roberts’ feature article of our February expedition to Kawa Karpo is set for an August 6th release date in Canada’s award-winning Outpost magazine. The story will document our successful attempt to be the first-ever Canadian team to make it to the sacred 4800 metre pass in Yunnan’s northwestern tip.
A pilgrimage footpath, trade route into the sky, and ancient migration route, the Tea Horse Road extended far into the Himalayas and beyond. Our destination was the fabled and daunting 'Sho'la' Pass, and our successful attempt made us the first documented Canadian team ever to make it.
A huge 20-plus-page feature with photos and notes from yours truly will accompany Bill’s article and Roberto Gibbons Gomez’s additional imagery.
About JeffFuchs
Bio
Having lived for most of the past decade in Asia, Fuchs’ work has centered on indigenous mountain cultures, oral histories with an obsessive interest in tea. His photos and stories have appeared on three continents in award-winning publications Kyoto Journal, TRVL, and Outpost Magazine, as well as The Spanish Expedition Society, The Earth, Silkroad Foundation, The China Post Newspaper, The Toronto Star, The South China Morning Post and Traveler amongst others. Various pieces of his work are part of private collections in Europe, North America and Asia and he serves as the Asian Editor at Large for Canada’s award-winning Outpost magazine.
Fuchs is the Wild China Explorer of the Year for 2011 for sustainable exploration of the Himalayan Trade Routes. He recently completed a month long expedition a previously undocumented ancient nomadic salt route at 4,000 metres becoming the first westerner to travel the Tsa’lam ‘salt road’ through Qinghai.
Fuchs has written on indigenous perspectives for UNESCO, and has having consulted for National Geographic. Fuchs is a member of the fabled Explorers Club, which supports sustainable exploration and research.
Jeff has worked with schools and universities, giving talks on both the importance of oral traditions, tea and mountain cultures. He has spoken to the prestigious Spanish Geographic Society in Madrid on culture and trade through the Himalayas and his sold out talk at the Museum of Nature in Canada focused on the enduring importance of oral narratives and the Himalayan trade routes.
His recently released book ‘The Ancient Tea Horse Road’ (Penguin-Viking Publishers) details his 8-month groundbreaking journey traveling and chronicling one of the world’s great trade routes, The Tea Horse Road. Fuchs is the first westerner to have completed the entire route stretching almost six thousand kilometers through the Himalayas a dozen cultures.
He makes his home in ‘Shangrila’, northwestern Yunnan upon the eastern extension of the Himalayan range where tea and mountains abound; and where he leads expeditions the award winning ‘Tea Horse Road Journey’ with Wild China along portions of the Ancient Tea Horse Road.
To keep fueled up for life Fuchs co-founded JalamTeas which keeps him deep in the green while high in the hills.
I’m a new member to your blog and am interested what you have to say. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia and have been reading about your tour of The Ancient Tea Horse Road through WildChina. I’m interested in taking the tour in spring of 2013 and hope to do so along with some other travel. For now, thank you for your writing and photos – inspiring!
Kim
Glad there is some interest in these pages. The Wild China tour is – needless to say – loaded with tea so come with a thirst.
Be well and greetings to the west coast.
Jeff