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| tickets | ||||
| purchasing tickets... entrance fees, grass fees, peak fees... the list goes on | ||||
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| switchbacks | ||||
| the trail climbs up onto the ridge that separates ChangPingGou and HaiZiGou | ||||
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| choten | ||||
| many of the locals living in the valley were originally from Tibet | ||||
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| across the valley | ||||
| looking across ChangPingGou onthe mountain slope are the rural farming settlements around and about RiLong | ||||
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| mountains & beyond | ||||
| the view towards the south with many more snow-covered mountain ranges awaiting to be explored | ||||
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| ridge travel | ||||
| the trail goes northwards along the ridge top towards the peaks | ||||
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| yak yak yak | ||||
| many yaks could be seen grazing on the grasslands here | ||||
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| long winding track | ||||
| it was a long 15 km trek from RiLong to the base camp of the second sister | ||||
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| road to chengdu | ||||
| looking down towards HaiZiGou is the road that links ChengDu with RiLong and the mountains | ||||
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| geared up | ||||
| even with the sun shining strong, the temperatures were still very chilly | ||||
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| snow ahead | ||||
| much of the trail below the treeline is not snow-covered making walking relatively easy | ||||
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| lunch | ||||
| lunch was at the junction of the trail that leads down to HaiZiGou | ||||
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| smoke break | ||||
| with very little food brought along, a smoke was the next best thing to fill the mouth | ||||
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| mobile lawyer | ||||
| the ability to communicate with his clients anytime anywhere was most essential for our lawyer friend | ||||
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| journey continues | ||||
| from our lunch point it was still a long way to go before reaching our intended destination for the day | ||||
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| snow and ice | ||||
| as more elevation was gained, a whitish landscape starts to gain prominence | ||||
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| all whites | ||||
| the weather also started turning for the worse as we gained elevation, making it very cold and dull | ||||
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| struggle | ||||
| the trail was gradual, but the high elevations makes the unacclimatised trekker tired very easily | ||||
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| waiting | ||||
| our guide Yuan being well acclimatised to the high elevations moves so fast that he has to wait for us very often | ||||
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| rest | ||||
| Xavier and Raja taking a breather rest along the trail | ||||
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| taking time | ||||
| ... as Annie inches her way up the mountain trail | ||||
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| misty | ||||
| the mist gives a lovely ambiance to the landscape | ||||
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| trio | ||||
| tired but it feels great to be out here in the mountains... Xavier, Raja and Annie | ||||
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| snow walking | ||||
| the uneven depth of the snow on the trails makes walking difficult | ||||
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| approaching base camp | ||||
| base camp was a sight of relief... we had been trekking for 8 hours this day, gaining more than a thousand seven hundred metres in elevation | ||||
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| moss | ||||
| setting up camp when snowing was a challenging task... the snow will somehow find a way to get into the tents | ||||
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