Just a bit of background: the valley that we've been hiking through has waterfalls cascading down 1,000 feet on either side. Every time I've looked up, I've wondered about the source of each, because seemingly, they are born straight from the clouds. This morning's sunny skies cleared up any misunderstanding - there is a whole other layer of mountains ABOVE the valley walls we've been staring at. It is these snow capped and glaciated peaks that are the source of our waterfalls.

Welcome to the Himalayas ladies and gentlemen!

Today was a rest day but after some deliberation, Ryan and I decided that we would haul our big MSR H.U.B. Base camp tent to our next camp and in doing so scout the route ahead. Once we leave Na village, there are no more tea houses so we are on our own. Well, mostly on our own - Tshering, Peter, Go Paul and a few porters will accompany us to our base camp two to three days hike from here. Therefore, getting information about the trail and scouting our route across the glacier was worth the extra effort.

We left early and made quick time through the valley past Na. Several yaks looked up from their grazing to watch us walk by. The walking was easy and we remarked how comfortable our Granite Gear packs felt. Of course, we were carrying about half the weight than the previous day's.

Eventually, we made our way to the terminal moraine of the Trakarding Glacier, a huge mass of gravel and rock easily 250 feet tall. We worked our way steadily up to the rim where we were treated to another amazing view, this time the glacial lake created by the glacier and more snow covered mountain faces.

We wound down through a valley along side the glacier's lateral moraine and for nearly 30 minutes, it felt like we were just on a casual walk. The small stream flowing alongside the trail had the clearest water I have ever seen-- or as the case may be-- didn't see :)

We slogged up a loose scree field for another hour reaching the top as the clouds rolled in. On our left, the steep cliff face carved by the glacier. On our right, scree. Waking around, I found a line of paw prints in the sand. Snow Leopard tracks.

Finally, the clouds lifted enough and I was able to follow a very faint trail to a distant cairn where we then pieced together the rest of the route down to a small valley where we we quickly set up and secured our MSR tent. We had wanted to go a little further but a landslide obliterated the route.

It was already getting late and we still had to hike four miles back to Na. We walked back in silence each of us lost in our own thoughts.