This guy makes Joseph Rock look like a cissy ...

Doing some research for my impending trip to Xining and Ragya monastery on Google Earth ... on which you can click on the photos that people have posted on Panoramio. Looking around the region of Amnye Machen I came across some amazing pictures taken by a young trekker from the US called Hannibal Taubes. He's trekked extensively in this area - and then I realised I had been in email contact with him a couple of years before his trip and he'd been asking me for advice! Looks like it should be the other way round ... He has dome some pretty impressive trekking around Amnye Machen and elsewhere in the region, real bones-of-your-arse hardcore stuff on his own, and with not much money. I can't imagine doing this kind of thing any more - just wandering around solo for days and weeks and dossing down with whoever you run into on the hills. He seems to keep running out of money and getting arrested/deported from forbidden areas. And he's only about 21! He's done the kind of journeys into the wild that Rock did but with virtually no support or money. Good on you, Hannibal.I can only look at your pictures and turn green with envy. Wish you'd write something about your trip - the pics looks amazing.

Pic: Hannibal Taubes.