Gangapurna

I snapped this shot on my 2006 trip to Nepal. This mountain is called Gangapurna. This was easily one of the most amazing places that I have ever been to. My friend, Dave DeFranza (the guy in this photo), and I were just about 11 days into a 25 day trek into the backcountry of the Annapurna region when I took this picture. I'm almost embarrased to say that it was taken with a little Sony digital camera. I've since invested in a Nikon D40X 35mm SLR, but in Nepal, that little point and shoot didn't fail me.

Dave's one of my best friends, and I jumped at the opportunity to meet up with him in Kathmandu in November of 2006. Dave had been heading westward from Japan after the end of an english teaching job and we coordinated our meeting date and time. Lucky for me, Dave is a great adventure traveller who can pretty much "make anything happen." As the story goes, he was travelling through Tibet on his way to the Nepali border when he found out that no foreigners were allowed to cross the border checkpoint at all. Dave acted quickly and hastily made friends with a local Buddhist Lama who wanted to practice his english (and who conveniently was also travelling to the border). When it came time to cross the border, the Lama vouched to the military guards that this "white man" was part of his travelling group. Whether or not it was that or the wad of money Dave handed the border guard on his way across, I'll never know, but he did make it to Kathmandu 2 days later to meet my arriving flight.