Haba Snow Mountain Base Camp 4100 m - Haba Village 2600 m
16 May 2004
  
  
  aftermath  
  laying out our gear in the sun before packing up  
  
  
  messy  
  a messy scene as we cleared out our tents  
  
  
   
  my camp  
  this is my home for the last few nights on the mountain  
  
  
  packing up  
  Clifton and Seck Hong packing up their gear  
  
  
  antisocial ?  
  Mike really knows how to enjoy himself in the mountain wilderness  
  
  
  horses  
  our caravan of horses arriving at basecamp  
  
  
  looking beyond  
  looking towards the more difficult northern route up to the summit of Haba Snow Mountain  
  
  
  around haba  
  Mike and myself decided to take the more scenic route back to Haba Village by trekking around the mountain  
  
  
  snow bound  
  we crossed many alpine meadows that were still very much snow covered  
  
  
  haba pass  
  Old Phang pointing out the way towards the 4500 meters high Haba Pass that leads down towards the Tiger Leaping Gorge  
  
  
  floor  
  wild flowers everywhere... the floor we constantly trot upon as we crossed the meadows were actually beds of tiny beautiful flowers  
  
  
  black sea  
  the first of four alpine lakes that we were to pass... Heihai  
  
  
  rest stop  
  a beautiful alpine scene to behold as we rested on a spur  
  
  
  winter wonderland  
  climbing down to another snow covered basin surrounded by beautiful but barren snow covered mountains  
  
  
  another lake  
  the second of the alpine lakes that we visited  
  
  
  water and ice  
  mountains and lakes, beautiful but barren... a most serene sight to behold  
  
  
  waiting  
  taking our time to enjoy the solitude and beauty of the mountains  
  
  
  grassland  
  still early in season and thus in isolation, one of the many alpine grassland that serves as pasture land for stock during the summer months  
  
  
  bent lake  
  the most beautiful of the alpine lakes that we passed... Wanhai still had a frozen surface  
  
  
  vantage view  
  climbing up one of the nearby peaks to enjoy a vista of Wanhai  
  
  
  twin lake  
  the last of the four alpine lakes that we visited... this was the western of the twin lakes (Xuanhai)  
  
  
  rhododendron forest  
  soon descended from the high alpine meadows down into the lower rhododendron forest  
  
  
  snow forest  
  snow covered in many areas while wet and boggy in others, trekking through the forest was not an easy task  
  
  
  relaxing lunch  
  lunching by an alpine stream as Mike reassumes his famous posture  
  
  
  haba view  
  we crossed many more meadows which offered views back towards the summit of Haba  
  
  
  sea of purple  
  the lower forest are in full bloom, carpeted by a sea of flowering rhododendrons and other flowering shrubs  
  
  
  flowers  
  the trail follows through oceans of flowers... a drastic contrast to the landscape that we crossed not so long ago  
  
  
  pines and clouds  
  a monochrome landscape of backlit clouds and pine tree silhouette  
  
  
  fallen beauty  
  the forest floor was littered by thousands of fallen flowers  
  
  
  felled forest  
  as we descended and neared Haba Village, much of the lower pine forest were devastated for timber  
  
  
  ugly scars  
  the land here was permanently scared by many of these ugly tracks created as timber was dragged by buffaloes back down to the village  
  
  
  arriving at haba  
  entering the maze of trails that crisscrossed the terraced pastureland above Haba Village  
  
  
 

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