Hi readers. Have a happy Christmas. I'm back on my feet after the fracture and hobbling around without crutches at last, but certainly not in any shape to walk in the foosteps of anyone just yet, let lone the rugged terrain of Yunnan or Sichuan. Hopefully with a bit of rehab and training I will be fit to go by May - at least that's what my physio says!
Yading trip 2010 (Pic by Rolleicord).
Here are pictures of the basin containing the stone shelter:
And approaching the first pass:
Some pictures of the circuit round towards the epic views of Chanadorje and its glaciers:
Looking towards the Third Pass (Yaka Pass as Rock called it) from the Second Pass:
Some pictures looking down from the Yaka (third) pass:
Looking towards the shelter (on the left):
Here are some pics of the 'ampitheatre' (an ideal camping spot, with a stream for water. 
(Pic by Peter Jost).
And the shrine:
When you reach the fourth pass, you can look back and see the route you have travelled down the Lawatong valley from the Yaka Pass. Great views of Jambeyang (left) and Chanadorje (right).
Not quite the same view, but it gives you the idea of seeing the route you have travelled:
The fourth pass is a major milestone, where the hard slog ends and you switch direction 90 degrees to head north again over relatively level terrain:
Here's typical terrain heading towards the fifth pass:
This is the view looking down from the rather gentle Fifth Pass - almost a non-pass, really. It's not apparent here, but the big lump of schist known as 'Rock's rock' is at the centre of the grass bowl at the bottom of the pass. This pic is from near the top of the fifth pass. 
This pic is of the area around 'Rock's rock', looking back at the fifth pass.
'Rock's rock':
This is the view looking down from the sixth pass to the lake 'Zumi Ho', Shenrezig in the backgound. Jambeyang is just out of picture to the right, and is even more imposing.
It's quite a steep descent that requires a bit of scrambling over rocks. Here's a picture of the same spot, paying off our porters, who wanted to run ahead and get home that same day!
(Pic by Peter Jost).
Here's a picture taken from almost the same spot, looking back at the lake and sixth pass, but a bit lower down, near the lake:
Here is a picture of the three-way pass, as we approached it from the lake. The kora continues to the left, while the short cut back down in to the Luorong valley is straight ahead (you can see Chanadorje peeping out to the right).
There is a fairly impressive level of detail now on Google Earth images for the Yading area. Here's an image I grabbed from the place that we called 'the shoulder' looking back towards Jambeyang (left) and Chanadorje (right). You can see the image from the real world below.
