Our day started at 4 am when we were picked up by our guide and cook. Much to our surprise and delight it turned out that instead of being with a large group of 8-12 people we ended up with a private trek. More handlers then participants - perfect! There was a 3 hour drive that started out on nice paved roads but ended up on a knarly dirt track with small rivers running across it and the car bottoming out regularly. After passing lovely lodges, we finally ended up in an alpine meadow we gathered our gear loaded up 2 horses and started climbing on foot. For all of you lowlanders there is very little oxygen at 12,000 + feet and after the first 15 minutes we were both questioning the wisdom of our choice of holidays. 
For the next 3 hrs we gasped like fish out of water as we climbed over loose rock to reach the summit at over 15,000 feet.
The view was truly spectacular and we could hear sounds of the glacier cracking and landslides happening around us. We stopped to make a sacrifice to the earth mother.
In lieu of virgins a beer was opened and a small shrine created to make our offering. Apparently the earth mother prefers beer. We carried on for another 4 hours with nary a break and finally stopped for lunch at 3:30pm in the middle of a cold downpour in a very rustic shed. A quaint lunch was served and both of us thought we were pretty much done for the day when Darwin our guide asked us to dig out our flashlights announcing we still had several hours to trek and most would be in the dark and wet.
Trekking downhill in ankle deep mud with a small flash light for illumination was not one of the highlights but it was an acheivement. There were no options for an out so on we went. Too tired to care after a 15 hour day on the move we collasped, exhausted at our first campsite.
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