Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board I Can Climb...

And your hydration and caffeine levels have been consistent? A rapid change in air pressure does me in sometimes, too.

Typical of Tibet and Nepal Guest Houses, Ladakh Homestays offer Milk Tea as the drink of choice...I can tolerate it to be polite, but it's not my drink of choice...The place I stayed had instant coffee, so I was drinking it...and not in moderation...I hate caffein withdrawals...

The Dumb question I was going to ask: Does cold have an impact on acclimatization? The season change and bad weather coming in made it significantly colder...2 thin layers were plenty a few weeks ago...definitely winter gear time now...your mention of air pressure changes makes this seem less dumb...

Back in Leh for a couple of days...everything is fine again...doing my last big ride of the trip over 2 17,000'+ passes in a 185k loop...

One last selfie from the last big loop on the RE450...
You can see the wind take the drone for a ride at the start...lucky for me it landed on a flat boulder a few feet off the road...
Google called it 185...my track called it 220...

https://piotrowski.smugmug.com/Whats-New-1/Ladakh-2026/i-7tVHtZq/A
(I thought the AI choice of music appropriate...)

This is the Wari La...my favorite 17k+ pass...almost always No Traffic...
You used to be able to ride it off-road, but it is now Posted No Off-Road Riding...




The pass to get home was the Khardung La...probably my least favorite...it's on the Must Do List for tourists...




Always Crowded...A Military Base on top...



Although not on this afternoon...late in the season...probably below 0 on the Cissy Scale...and probably at least 30kph of wind chill...


BTW, GPS altimeter readings are not to be believed...the Tourism Authorities are even worse...they call the Khardung La 18,300...which is a joke in that it's so far off...The Indian government "monkeys" with GPS...probably to keep Pak and China from shooting missiles accurately...I've seen readings off by over 2000'...this day it wasn't so bad...



If I get bored between rides in the mud in Thailand, I'll post up some of my favorite photos from Ladakh...There were some Amazing Scenes...I've already started planning a trip for next year...getting a Taste of the Greenery Down South has me Chomping At The Bit to see The Rest Of The Himalaya In Northern India...

I found a really cool (alternate route) climb up to Phukhao Suan Kwang Forest Park..(my favorite single/2-track in the area)
Here's a 40 second AI created video:

https://piotrowski.smugmug.com/Whats-New-1/Thailand--Summer-2026/i-3ttFdDq/A


Recovering from my second bout of CV-19 in 2 years in Thailand..
(I haven't been sick back home in ages...I don't know why I keep getting sick over here...)
...so it was a tough day...of only about a hundred K...

Check out the Jungle Decorations on my helmet...
Put a few more tears in my Sacrificial Sun Shirt...
(if you're wondering why I always seem to have on the same orange shirt...)