At 11,566 feet the air is a bit thin. It took a week to acclimate to the point of being able to run out of breath every 10 steps instead of every 5. However, I needed to get the adrenaline pumping again. Nothing could quite top seeing His Holiness the Dalai Lama, but our new found Dutch friend and I decided we’d try. The plan was to reach a gompa (Buddhist monastery) soaring almost at 1000 feet above our current position in downtown Leh. Two liters of water, a spare oxygen tank, and about 2 hours later, I found myself looking out over the city of Leh. Kasper, our Dutch friend, even managed to take some very rare photos of me sitting on the edge of the overlooking cliff just below the gompa. What can’t be seen in the picture was the fact that I crawled on all fours to that position, visibly cowering at the drop-off on either side. Who, knowing that he is scared of heights and whose mere gaze over a cliff hints at a blackout, decides to climb an extremely steep cliff and smile about it?

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That’s why this picture is rare. Yeah, that was a fake smile. I decided I’d have a lot more genuine smiles on solid ground without the 200 million foot drops on either side of me. Leaving my tutu in the trunk, I decided to man up and climb even more to the gompa. I even tried out these incredibly stable ladders to get to the amazing 4×4 foot viewing room. Setting foot on the deteriorating mud-brick platform, I eased up a bit to take in scenery not visible in the town below.

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As if I wasn’t having a hard enough time breathing after the hike, the views were breathtaking as the Himalayas towered behind the little town of Leh. For a few moments I was able to disregard the heavy pants of exhaustion, and take it all in. Of course, as we got around to the other side of the gompa, karma decided to slap me and presented us with none other than…a parking lot. I could have skipped the entire near-death experience and hailed a cab to see these amazing views. Chalking it up to life experience, or, an exercise in being less of a wuss, I brushed it off and we started our descent, very happy with the clean air and exercise.

Go vertical with us on the hike to the gompa.

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