My Favorite Baraadsar Pictures...

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip. Haven't edited any of them (I'm learning how to use GIMP, slowly but surely!), this is the rawness of what we saw! Lots of pictures...hope you enjoy!

Right before starting out...we're all still clean!

BEAUTIFUL trees...

Just hanging in the field with his mama

His mama with her sickle

The first big climb. Everyone was SO tired, so fast!

A very common sight on this trip.

Tired, but happy!

We stopped in villages randomly as we passed through. The first one was SO much fun, and the people were so friendly. The boys of the village were in the middle of a cricket game when we came into the village...so we watched a while, and then our guys joined in. It was a neat commonality. :)

It's harvest time in the village

The architecture was ASTOUNDING. This was a temple built to the hindu god Shiva about 6 years ago, and everything is hand carved. If you look closely, you can see how extremely intricate all the woodwork is. It was really neat to see the pride they took in their work.

At first the kids ran away from the camera, but after I showed them their faces on the LCD screen, they all pushed to get into the picture. They were adorable!

Back on the trail

Our outdoor "kitchen". Our hands FROZE, but we made some pretty good food!

Casey Guenther, our fearless leader

Out of the woods, and onto the mountaintops for the first time!

Sometimes it really felt like we were in heaven on earth.

FREEZING in the morning!

Each student receives a grade for activity week, and part of that grade was to write in a journal about their experience. Not a bad place to journal, huh?!

Coming down from one of our campsites. It was SO steep! The porters (the guys that carried our food) just ran down it, and about 20 minutes later the rest of us inched along. It was scary!

One one of the days there was a "sheep stampede!" We were just about to this pass area, and suddenly hundreds of sheep/goats came through and were ALL AROUND US. It was actually really scary...they were running down above and below us, kicking rocks, baaing SO loud. We all made it in the end, though.

These two guys were especially scared. :)

Contemplating....

Scene from "Pride and Prejudice" anyone?!

I ended up not "summiting" with the group because a girl was sick. BUT, while we were back at camp, the rest of the group was risking their lives up in the snow! You can't see really well here, but the snow is actually covering the path, and sloping right down with the rest of the mountain. I guess it was quite scary. :)

For a lot of the kids, it was their first time seeing snow. They liked it. :)

Our guide, porters, and Casey.

Nellie...

Arsh...

The beautiful "snows".

The whole group :)

Our "down day" was quite interesting. It ended up being a REALLY long day (about 9 hours of hiking in all), and almost all down hill. This spot was interesting, as the waterfall had partially eroded the path. Below the path was straight down, so it was a little scary! I perfected the "one-foot-in-front-of-the-other" mentality.

Wash day! Looks a little different in India than in the states...

Notice anything that just "doesn't belong here?"

A real scarecrow!

Packing up our last camp. It was glorious!

The last day was only about 2 hours of hiking, and almost the whole time we got to hike right next to this BEAUTIFUL river. It was a perfect way to end the trip!

CHEESE! We're done!

Such elation!

Packing up the jeeps.

Smile boys!

Me and Mina, on our way home. :)

It was a WONDERFUL experience, and one that I won't volunteer for again for at least a good month or two. :) Like all hard experiences though, you learn SO much...and when it comes right down to it, you wouldn't trade them for the world!