If we told you there was a place beyond the pass with crystal blue skies and base at 7,000m you’d sell your grandmother to go there, wouldn’t you?
Manu Beno, Andrej Durana and Martin Gaborik went there last year to try to set their own personal height records, camping at close to 4,000m and flying in thermals that went to 7,000m and beyond.
Make no mistake, this is no place for beginners. Andrej and Manu are big mountain specialists who recently pushed the triangle record in Bir, India, to 240km. They’re not messing about.
Their journey took them through some of the highest habitable terrain on the planet, as they explored Keylong and then the high mountains around. A journey to the ‘Shangri-La’ valley of Spiti, where they found a flying site above the monastery, showed them just how much there is out here still to explore.
It’s a special place, needing special care. But these guys trod carefully and came back with a story that we think you’ll enjoy, about a place that only a few ever dare to fly.
Out now in Cross Country 161, July 2015.
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