Mt Kailas looms 18,000 feet above the Tibetan Plateau. The walking trail around it is at 15,000 feet and goes over boulders, across glaciers with meter-wide crevices. "Taxi" service is by nomads with their yaks, if you can catch one! Mainly we walked, step by step, inch by inch.


Actually, I crawled from 15,000 feet to 18,000 feet after I slide off the back of the saddle-less yak and was left unceremoniously dumped and abandoned by that care-less animal.


Huffing to the top of the pass was cause for celebration.  People were lighting candles, hanging prayer flags, chanting, and passing out treats to each other.


Some die on the ascent, and some have to be carried back to base camp by the sherpas.


On this ascent, people strew old clothes and cuttings of their hair - to symbolize their death of whatever is old in their life - as they move into the higher vibration.  It did look like a garbage patch on the side of the mountains with all the strewings of the pilgrims, adventurers, and guides.