The sun hits the tents at about eight, when we start faffing about. An hour and a half later and we are moving along with both sherpas, one cooks and five heavily laden porters. We still can’t get used to Himalayan style climbing!

The waterfalls at the valley head Photo © Jeremy Thomson 1998

The walk up the valley is superb, with a glorious and very climbable looking peak to the left, a huge rock barrier including Kwangde to the right, and some very high, very steep falls at the valley head. It’s made even nicer for me because I’ve already decided not to climb and am just along for the ride.

At the bottom of the large falls is the turning point, and in the end only Tom and Alan are going ahead. They make a difficult river crossing and head up the steep rock step while the rest of us go for a paddle and then climb the other side to watch their progress. The perspective is strange, and the porters seem to be making their way up a near vertical face when the going is actually quite good. Eventually they reach the top of the falls where the Tsho Og glacial lake lies and disappear.

Collecting more wood, we amble back to camp where Gazan is pleased to see us. The pretty but increasingly cold site is our home for a few days, but we soon get fed up and head back over the now icy Moro La to wait in Ghat.

Meanwhile, the climbers have reached their basecamp near the two lakes where they set up shop and prepare to explore. Take it away, Tom…