Cycling through the Himalayas

[View the slide show which accompanies this piece.]

The air is brittle dry. Despite the fact you are well above the clouds and the sun is shining brightly, it is freezing cold and every time you round a bend you feel the icy breath of the Himalayas rushing at you. Although an artery of the Silk Road, the Trans-Himalayan Highway has facilitated no more than a trickle of trade between Chinese merchants and the Indian subcontinent for centuries. The inhospitable altitude, isolation and abominable snow meant that it was left to lowly yak herders to transport rice and vegetables back to Tibet in return for salt, butter and wool. Since the Chinese invasions of 1951 and 59 however, the Highest Road in the World is slowly being transformed from a goat trail into a major highway. For mountain bikers, the Lhasa to Kathmandu trip is "in" and the three-week cycling trip is suddenly all but a Must for anyone who is resolute enough.

The daunting mountain passes are the tax your legs and lungs must pay to witness some of this planet's most spectacular vistas. At 5000m altitude your lungs are only receiving half as much oxygen as they would at sea level, so as you climb higher and higher around the hairpin bends you face a constant battle against breathlessness, not to mention altitude sickness. However, after four or five hours huddled into a headwind, with gritted teeth, saddle rash and weary thighs bursting at the seams, you finally reach the cairn at the top of the pass, adorned in colorful Buddhist prayer flags. Suddenly the curtain is pulled back to reveal the row of Himalayan peaks you have been chasing. You are now feeling physically and mentally ragged. Those last few switchbacks were accomplished on will power alone. You might well find an emotional tear freezing on your weather-beaten cheek as you finally dismount and gaze in awe at the white bowling pins before you: Makalu (8463m), Lhotse (8516m), Jachonggangri (7985m), Cho Oyu (8210m), Shixiapangma (8012m) and finally, at 8850m, the one the Tibetans have been calling Chomolungma ("Mother Goddess of the World") for centuries - Mount Everest. Almost close enough to touch.

[View the slide show which accompanies this piece.]

Text copyright © Colin Hinshelwood / CPA 2004

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