October 2nd Our group leads first today, our first day without any guidance
from the mountain gurus, and we start it off with a steep descent over
long, slick grasses to a ravine crossing. Everything goes smoothly and
Nate's patiently and kindly waiting for me to follow. Surprisingly, all of
the other guys seem to be reigning in their usual speed-racer tactic of
hiking as well.

Our pace and the fact that we stayed together for the most part contributed
to the awesome day of hiking that we had. That, and it was a beautiful
hike. We spotted Martoli from 3k away and the distance all of a sudden
seemed longer than we had anticipated. We crossed an amazing waterfall at
the end of our trip and then walked up to the 3 people in the deserted city
and ordered chai. They came out with drinks, but also something I would
have never expected in such a remote area: mail! A manila envelope was
handed to Nate and of course, it wasn't for him, but one of the
instructors, but it was still a wacky scenario.

Once the instructors rolled in with the last group, Gaurav ran in the
building and came out triumphantly shouting "We got a sheep!" This is where
Nate started getting antsy and began talking about his meat cravings. He
also resolved that if he wanted to eat any of the sheep, that we was going
to wield the weapon that killed it!

Gaurav asked the locals if they had anything that would do the job and they
came out with a small scathe to start sharpening it on the rocks. Then
Tyler heroically and comically whipped out a sharpening block from his
backpack to do the job! This is in addition to his yo-yo and whatever else
he may have... a small block of /metal/. Funniest and most unpredictable
guy on the course, by far.

I went off to make cornbread and tea with my tent-mate Lin from Taiwan and
Nate stayed behind to behead the sheep. Apparently, he somewhat botched it
and got a bit stunned after the first blow. Gaurav immediately took over
after to spare the animal from any more misery than necessary. I was just
glad I wasn't there to watch like the small peanut gallery that was there.
Some said that the most disturbing thing was how all of these Americans
were making such a spectacle of it and some younger boys actually giddy
from the experience. I wish our culture could show more respect to the
animals that feed us. Tonight, the meat eaters and Nate feasted on the
heart of the animal with the rest in store for tomorrow's dinner.

October 3rd "We're in Martoli now at the convergence of several valleys all
tearing the wind around us with a made ghostly by the emptiness of the
village. It's amazing to see nothing but mountains for miles and miles.
What's more amazing is the village itself. This ghost town only has four
people living here, but has the housing for 1,000. Martoli was once a main
village for trade between Tibet and India. The agriculture of Tibet was so
scarce that rice and grain would come from India while wool came from
Tibet. With all of this trade, it's a shame that the route has been shut
down after the Indo-China war in '65. Now, this once bustling city has all
but died for the Nanda Devi traffic of mountaineers and tourists. We're now
up at the village's temple, giving thanks to Shiva and Nanda Devi for safe
passage by hanging a temple bell.

October 4th Today we had a bunch of classes and it was pretty uneventful
aside from choosing our groups for our solo travel. Nate's group is only 4
guys who'll all be leaving first thing in the morning with our group
leaving an hour later. Poor Sam got stuck with the three of us girls. Last,
there's a group of 6 with the instructors actually zipping ahead and paving
the way for the next four days of villages without guides.

And now what you've all been waiting for! Here are some photos that Kutts, one of the instructors took on the trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=kuttss&target=ALBUM&id=5396047009466717761&authkey=Gv1sRgCPb53cT62LvoWA&invite=CJi1qbUF&feat=email

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=kuttss&target=ALBUM&id=5396185292543127713&authkey=Gv1sRgCLLT4LmYouriVA&invite=CM_b7coP&feat=email

Sorry, if I remembered any of my code from my MySpace days, I would make these clickable links, but those days have gone out of memory.