Up

Riding up over the 3900m pass between Tosor and Archali was definitely the most physically demanding thing that I've ever done and the hardest I've had to push myself to 'just keep going'. All day the road zig zagged up and up and up, much of the way too steep or rough to ride and so we pushed. To break down the 24 kms that we rode that day, approximately 4 of them were ridden downhill at the very end of the day, another 4 were ridden uphill where the road allowed and the remaining 16 were pushed... and pulled, and heaved and ho'd. On the steepest and roughest sections, the process was to take one step forward, find solid footing, then pull your bike up a few feet, squeeze the brakes hard so that it didn't roll backwards and repeat. This is how we inched forward toward the top of the pass, often moving less than 2kph!

As we rose higher and higher, it was impossible to see where the road would go next and so we were constantly guessing. The lesson for the day: if your guess "doesn't look so bad," you're wrong!

Two vehicles passed us going up over the pass and it absolutely baffles me how they made it, but seeing them gave me hope. "If a truck can do it, then a bike can do it!" I have to admit, though that there were times today that I was questionning that and wondering just how long I could keep going. My legs, arms and back were all cramping from the exertion and my heart was pounding because of the altitude.

The weather was constantly changing and with it my outlook. When the wind was scouring us with dry snow and the peaks weren't visible, I had to fight to stay optimistic about making it to the top but when the sky cleared to reveal the 5000m snowy peaks that surrounded us, my mood and energy soared and I knew we could do it.

When we finally did top out at 3900m, we were both all smiles. What an amazing sense of accomplishment! We shouted out loud and took some victory pictures and a few minutes to catch our breath. We didn't spend long up there, though - it was getting close to sun-down and we had to descend lower than the snow to camp.

Christine