After a chilly first night in Kanjin Gompa, we were happy to awaken with minimal issues related to the altitude and were eager to explore the area (primarily because movement=warmth). Our plan was to hike to Langshisha Karka, a place further down the track from Kanjin Gompa where three glaciers all converged. We set out on what was a particularly cold and cloudy day.

Surrounded by snow covered mountains on all sides, we walked for hours through alpine terrain next to frozen rivers,  and we didn't see another soul. This was both exhilarating and a little unsettling. We walked passed a deserted air strip that we learnt had been built by the CIA to spy on China. You can see the outline of the strip below.

After walking for almost four hours straight, only stopping to take a few pictures, we still hadn't reached the viewpoint for the glaciers. Everytime we came around a bend in the mountain we would think it would be the last and then another would stretch out before us. We were exhausted at this point and we still had to turn around and walk the four hours back. While i think JB was slightly excited at the prospect of having to put his wilderness survival skills to the test, we decided it was better to turn around and guarantee our return before dark than to risk a sleepover with the yaks. 

 The next day, the weather did a 180 and there was nothing but crisp blue skies.

Initially we had planned to begin our descent down the mountain after breakfast, but as it was such a clear day we decided to climb to the Kanjin Ri viewpoint and head down the mountain after lunch. The climb took us straight up the mountain (literally) but the views were awesome and worth every sluggish step.

The view of Kanjin Gompa from above.

The whole trip took us about four hours which had us departing from Kanjin Gompa at around 1pm. We wanted to at least get back down to Lama Hotel so that our next day wouldn't be too brutal. It had taken us about 8 hours to get to KG from Lama Hotel but we were banking on the fact that we would be mostly descending and so would be making much better time. While this was true, there was still quite a bit of flat and uphill to contend with and so we ended up in yet another race against the sun.  I'm happy to say we were victorious and arrived at Lama Hotel 15 minutes before the sun finally went down after a 5 hour run/walk down the mountain. We had a very early night.