In the summer of 2009, part of a fairly long journey, I traveled from Kathmandu in Nepal to Lhasa in Tibet and got to enjoy the spectacular high-altitude landscapes of the Tibetan Plateau. During the week spent mostly above 4000 meters, altitude sickness was a really concern as traveling by car from Kathmandu to Tibet means that in one day you go from about 1200 meters to 4000 meters with no time to acclimatize. I did buy some Diamox pills which are supposed to help you cope with high-altitude and some of the side-effects were really strange – for example you can barely feel the gas in a soft drink or sparkling water – it all feels very flat when you drink it. In the end, it all went ok and although breathing at 5000 meters while walking up a small hill becomes quite difficult, it was all worth it in the end.
As for the photograph above, it was taken at just above 5000 meters (5010 to be precise) from the beautiful Lablung-La Pass, looking towards the Himalayan range. Oh and it was photographed with my old Nikon D300 which was a really good camera for its time!