Yubeng, Glacial Lake and Sacred Waterfall

Yubeng village, tucked up in the mountains, is currently inaccessible by road and as such tourist numbers haven’t grown to disproportionate amounts yet.

Every direction you look in is worthy of a postcard and as such, I take far more photos than I usually do.

Overlooking Lower Yubeng Village.

Rather than taking it easy after the previous day’s walking, I decide to see both of Yubeng’s major sights within the same day. The first of these is the glacial lake and involves a three hour walk, mostly uphill.

I arrive at the lake to find no other people present and spend the next hour taking in the serenity, pondering the beauty of nature and taking photos.

I’m not a fan of backtracking and so leave the lake by following the stream it creates. This involves following a rough path over not-so-stable rocks and crossing the stream numerous times. Not the brightest idea, although not the stupidest thing I do all day.

After returning to Yubeng from the lake, I begin the walk to the Sacred Waterfall.

 

Along the way, as is norm for the day, I take plenty of photos.

The waterfall, or rather waterfalls, sit hidden at the top of a mountain, adorned with Tibetan prayer flags and the mounds of rocks found throughout Yubeng.

 

After visiting the waterfall, a combination of not wanting to backtrack and a love of snowboarding has me take the second stupid (albeit fun) detour from the main track.

I decide that rather than walking back down the mountain, I will snowboard my way down using a plank of wood I find lying around. When I’m halfway between mountain and snowfield, after losing my water and walking stick, I realise the way down is far steeper than I’d first thought. Unfortunately the way back is too steep to get any solid footing and so I have to continue my way down.

After reaching the snowfield, with only a few scratches, I proceed to run down the snow field, throw the plank in front of me, jump on it with cat-like grace and proceed to be the first person to snowboard down from Yubeng waterfall. The ride is short-lived when the board hits a block of ice, sending me flying through the air, arms flailing. Sheer dumb luck allows me to land on my boots, skidding down the rest of the way down, past a couple of Chinese girls who’d been watching the spectacle with much amusement.

I successfully make the trip back in a fraction of the time that it took to make the climb and would recommend others do similar if it weren’t so dangerous.

All in all, I return to the guesthouse twelve hours after I’d left and consider myself ready to tackle the climb to Everest Base Camp (5200m).

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