Mission

[Expedition Itinerary]
Our expedition began with a long flight from the west coast of the U.S. to Chengdu, Sichuan, China. From Chengdu we flew to Lhasa (elev. 11,697’), the heart and soul of Tibet, object of devout pilgrimage, and prior home of the Dalai Lamas.

While acclimatizing in Lhasa we spent several days documenting life and architecture, and organizing gear and supplies for our journey to Ngari, the remote western region of Tibet. The real adventure began with a 750-mile, four-day bone jarring Land Cruiser drive west through Shigatse to Mt. Kailash and Lake Manasarova, which the Lonely Planet calls two of the most remote and legendary travel destinations in the world, and I will second the motion. Not only did the road beat us senseless, it inflicted serious havoc on our trusty landcruisers, including at least seven flat tires, two brake assemblies, various seals, gaskets, filters, and at least three headlights. Long days in the vehicle were 15 hours and the stamina and skill of our Tibetan drivers was almost superhuman.

Mt. Kailash is known in Tibetan as Kang Rinpoche, or ‘Precious Jewel of Snow’ and was accessed via the small and pathetic town of Darchen (elevation 15,048’). According to the beliefs of millions (our team being part of them), a circumambulation of Mt.Kailash will wipe out the sins of a previous lifetime and 108 koras will lead to nirvana. Our circumambulation by foot took three days and covered almost 32 miles. The blessed path was sprinkled with several ancient Buddhist monasteries, hermitage caves of the reverant Milarapa and a procession of pilgrims that circled both clockwise and counter clockwise. On the second day we reached 18,600’, and crossed the Drolma-la pass, named for the goddess of compassion. The days to this point were full-on ass kickers and we had now been above 15,000 feet for much of a week. The push up to the Drolma-la had been preceded by several days where travel, food and elevation were beginning to let us know we were at their mercy. Fortunately we passed the test, rounded the corner and headed down hill. Completion of the kora put us back in the “one pony” town of Darchen to re-supply and prep for our final objective.

In Darchen we received a large dose of corrupt and extorted rhetoric regarding renting yaks and ponies for our ascent into the back country. Finally we settled on a suddenly inflated price for yaks and left for stage two of the expedition: the first descent of the Senge He, headwaters of the Indus. Known as the Lion River by the Indo-Aryans, the Indus was believed to flow from Senge Kabob, “the mouth of the lion.” Yaks loaded with gear and supplies, we embarked on a 42 mile hike through a dusty, broken, landscape to reach what was once the village of Cushu and the headwaters of the Indus.

Our river descent was approximately 70 miles of remote river that meandered through incredible landscape replete with wildlife and a handful of nomads.

On our 1970’s Russian topos we noticed a symbol (Swastika) on the Senge He that looked like we would hit a monastery on our second day.  Nothing was there, which wasn’t surprising because neither was the town that was shown at our put-in.  However, to our great excitement we stumbled upon Dhak Gya monastery on the afternoon of our third day. 

Remote and isolated would be understating the feelings I got seeing these few monks living their life of devotion in this small monastery on the banks of the Senge He.  We stashed our kayaks, climbed out of our drysuits and scrambled the half mile up to the front gate.  With looks of surprise we were invited in, given a tour and almost drowned in the gracious offerings of “all you can drink” yak butter tea.

From interpolating the "relatively" accurate and most recent Russian topographic maps and predicting the river’s geological makeup, we had anticipated the river to be class III to IV in nature. However, this was not the case. The actual geolic makeup of the river was shallow gravel from eroding glaciated rock. This caused a shallow and consistently braided class II stream bed.

On our fifth day we learned that the Chinese were building a bridge just up stream from our predetermined take-out. We took off the river a day early and headed back towards Lhasa to run a section of a tributary of the Yarlung Tsangpo which we had scouted on the way to Kailash. We boated the Raka Tsangpo (class II-III) for two days, and then drove four days back to Lhasa.

Goals

[Team Focus]
The focus of this expedition was two-fold: completion of a safe exploration of a remote and currently un-run section of the Indus River, and return with a body of information on the adventure, the environment, and social state of Tibet and particularly western Tibet.

In the 30 plus day period that we were in Tibet we covered a developing route of eco-tourism in the Mt. Kailash Kora circuit (pilgrimage) and documented the infant eco-tourism economy in the region. Effects of both foreign and Chinese tourism in the area were noted. We have tried to identify how native Tibetans and the land are being affected by an increase in both . As our expedition headed off established paths and to the remote Yak trails and the little known area of the Indus Headwaters, we encountered a sprinkling of the remaining nomadic inhabitants and experienced amazing undocumented terrain.

[Mt. Kailash]
Unanimously claimed as the holiest mountain on the Indian sub-continent and perhaps all of Asia, Mt. Kailash (22,112 ft) has long been an object of worship for four major religions. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Tibetan Böns believe it to be the domain of their gods, and worshipers have made pilgrimage to this sacred mountain for centuries. The mountain has long been associated with ancient myths of Mt. Meru from which four great rivers flow and deliver life-sustaining water to millions of people. Of the four greatest rivers of the Indian subcontinent all originate at the base of Mt. Kailash: the Karnali, which feeds into the Ganges and heads south; the Sutlej heading west; the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo) flowing east; and finally the Indus or “lion river” which heads north and then south into Pakistan.

[BACK TO TOP]

Tibetan Plateau

Riding yaks bareback was sketchy at times.

Expedition

[The Headwaters: An unknown source]

Our exploration focused on the source of one of the world’s longest and most prolific rivers. Beginning high in the Himalaya, the Indus headwaters pumps up from the northwestern foot of Mt. Kailash at 16,400 ft. Tibetans refer to this branch of the river as the Senge He, the “lion river.” Near where we believed we would find runnable water we were looking for what the map suggested was a small village named Cushu. In fact locals on the other side of the pass had heard of Cushu's existance but apparently they weren't aware of its dissapperance.

Cushu, which was on our 1970's Russian topo map no longer existed. At the previous location of Cushu, we inflated and loaded our kayaks loaded with 100 pounds of gear and supplies.

Traveling with us and supporting our kayaks and river gear were an eclectic, and sometimes disgruntled, group of yak herders from a village outside of Darchen.  Perhaps unclear expectations on both parties caused initial tension, but during the four days of long, arduous trekking a mutual respect developed.  The day we got into our kayaks and paddled away from these amazing people I could sense that a bond had been created between all, and many stories would be told and retold by both parties about our journey together through an unfamiliar and rugged mountain range.

We left them with extra food, rope and lip balm, smiling and waving us toward our destination. This first descent was 70 self-supported miles. Along our course we saw only a handful of human inhabitants. The climate was mild for 16,000 feet; sunny days, crisp to icy winds, and cool nights, water temperatures to hover around 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, making the venture a cold water experience.

We were traveling during the soggy monsoon season which provided larger flows and made the runs feasible. We had calculated from our maps the 70-plus miles of our adventure headed predominately north through at least three major canyons and would deliver us into a sweeping river valley as we pulled up to our planned take-out at the village of Bongba. This was much the case however, the geolgy of the river valley was a consistent gravel bar that braided and meandered and never forced the river into constriction. The class III - IV we expected from our maps turned out to be consistent class II with really interesting wildlife and desert scenery.

[The Indus River]
With a length of 1,920 miles the Indus (basis for the name India) is one of the longest rivers in the world. The river’s annual flow is about 2.4 trillion cubic feet – 10 times that of the Colorado River, twice that of the Nile and three times that of the Tigris and Euphrates combined. The Indus rises beneath Mt. Kailash in Tibet at 16,000 ft. and flows northwest for over 500 miles through Tibet and Kashmir, between the Ladakh and Zanskar mountain ranges. Turning southwest, the river seeks a southern passage to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.