The Roadside Glacier- Noijin Kangsang EarthCache
The Roadside Glacier- Noijin Kangsang
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(not chosen)
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The cache is easily accessed from the Nagartse – Gyantse road
near the 5'036m high Karo La pass. Take precautions for altitude
sickness when visiting this location- this cache is at over 5,000
meters. Note: coords are a little off, lots of signal bounce
here, but should be for the pullover point by the glacier on the
road. If you can take better coords send them my way.
The difficulty rating for this cache is high because I can't think
of a way to get to this part of Tibet that doesn't require a huge
amount of preparation. As of this writing, a visit to Tibet
requires getting a guide, a Tibet travel permit and one for travel
outside Lhasa, a car and driver (land cruiser not required, the
road is paved), and of course the near-death experience all driving
in Tibet requires. Trust me, it's fun.
The terrain rating is set because while the overlook point marked
by the coordinates is just a few meters from the road over gravel,
it is at over 5,000 meters and is in fact the first such pass going
south from Lhasa, so don't underestimate the amount of gasping for
air any physical activity involves up here!
Now, the cache:
Noijin Kangsang (7'206m / 23'641ft) is the closest major Himalayan
peak to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It belongs to the Lhagoi
Kangri belt, a heteroclite juxtaposition of sub-ranges squeezed
between the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river to the north and
the High Himalaya to the south.
Noijin Kangsang is the highest peak of the massif extending around
the Karo La group, to which belongs Kaluxung / Kalurong (6674m),
and several other little know snow-capped mountains over 6'000m,
many of them still unclimbed.
Two major glaciers descend to just a few hundred meters from the
highway, and make for a spectacular sight! Unfortunately the
glaciers have been receeding at an accelerated pace in recent
years, in large part because the highway nearby reflects additional
light onto the mountain face.
To log this Earthcache, email me the answers to the following
questions:
1. What is the altitude measured by your GPS at the given
coordinates? (Yes you are very high up- drink some more
water!)
2. What evidence do you see of the glacier contributing to the
formation of the pass?
3. Do you see evidence that the glacier is receding? What is
it?
4. As an optional requirement, this is a spectacular site and
uploading any photos you may have taken with your log would be
great. Safe travels and happy caching!
Note: No retroactive logging of this cache please- as an earthcache
you couldn't have fulfilled the requirements to log it before it
was placed. Thanks!
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)