Total Distance cycled: 60 kms

Morning altitude: 3700 meters (12,000 feet)

Highest altitude: 4800 meters (15,750 feet)

Evening altitude: 4450 meters (14,600 feet)

AFter a great night's sleep we had a leisurely morning as we didn't have far to go today. It would be a hard day, but not a long one. We didn't get on the road until 10:30, and started with a 25 kilometer climb from 3700 to 4800 meters. It was a long, hard, windy climb--think Galibier or Ventoux. I felt great and rode right up. The last few kilometers were very hard and my head was spinning, but I was really happy with my effort. It took 2 hours and 10 minutes for me. The views at the top were incredible: the river valley where we had come from on one side and the amazingly blue Yamdrok-tso holy lake on the other side. There were some locals on the pass giving yak rides to passing tourists, which of course I couldn't resist. Stan had made it up ten minutes behind me, but the rest of the group was 1-1.5 hours later, so we had awhile to wait. We put on lots of clothes to stay warm and that worked for me but Stan got really chilled. After everyone arrived, we rode down a fabulous descent to the lake where we had a late lunch of stir fried yak, rice, and yak yoguert for dessert. How cool is that? (We have been eating really well so far!)

Now we had about 20 kms to go to the end of the lake and our campsite. Jean Pierre and I rode off ahead of the group for a nice speed run around the lake. About 15 minutes in, though, I couldn't keep up with him anymore. I got a truly awful headache and waves of nausea washed over me. I struggled on to the turnoff point to our campsite and sat there overlooking the lake to wait for the others. It was almost an hour before they arrived. Stan had had a worse downturn than I, and had to stop for while to rest. We all finally made it to the campsite at 5:30, and no sooner were the tents up that it started raining. Everyone collapsed inside their tents with no complaints about the weather.

We got rousted out for dinner at 7:30. Stan, Laurent, and myself couldn't eat anything at all. I had a few cups of tea and went back to bed. I woke up at 9:30 and felt much better. The aspirin had made my headache subside, and the nausea was gone. Stan, however, wasn't doing so well in the next tent over, and we ended up putting him on oxygen. Laurent had had a splitting headache ever since Lhasa so was getting worried about it. After all that fuss, I booted up my computer to record the days activities but it wouldn't work because of the altitude. Stan ended up using up the bottle of oxygen, and the guides took him and Laurent to the hospital at 4am for more. What a night! The altitude doctor that I had seen before I trip had said that this would be are hardest day because of the large change in altitude were were doing in one day, and sure enough, we are struggling!

Below are pictures of the day, left column, then right column: our elevation profile, rugged terrain on the way up, the view from the top, Jean Pierre out front around the lake, a typical Tibetan home--note the piles of yak dung on the walls to burn for heating, the road down, and lunch stop.