ot yet 48 hours since landing in Kathmandu. Sank 45 holes in the mountain cores of Gokarna in preparation for the grueling trek forthcoming. Some fine flying through the labyrinth of mountains in this monsoon season of all-powerful clouds brought us a part of the group to Humde. (11,300MSL) Indomitable AS350, a rotary wing marvel, brought only 17 of us and the rest could not make it through these cloudy gates of heaven I should say. Rest of the group will reach the next check-in station of Manang by noontime tomorrow from Pokahara. These journeys through these most incredible mountain ranges is as much as testing one’s inner pluck as it is about pilgrimage. A great leveler of people, offers insight into life’s farcical hierarchy and the immediacy of mortality. As clouds open and close like a drug induced mind revealing a different aspect and mood of the mountain. As the sun hides behind the mighty Annapurna peaks, a certain stillness sets into the beautiful Manang valley. The colorfully dressed valley undresses itself into one color of the cosmos. Still a lot of mountain miles to cover to get to Muktinath. Painful Paradise Overshadowed by the snowy Annapurna The beautiful Manang valley and my mountain madness, intoxication of oxygen deficient chill air The promise of stretching every muscle fiber into a painful paradise It is not in search of ultimate liberation that I make this journey It is just the pleasure of pure air, pain and the test of pluck It is the mountain, its mist and mystique. Above all my madness that sets off a magical tingle in all that is Me and the Mindless Sense of heady Emptiness Journey to Muktinath I walk unfettered by life or death