Expeditions / Trips Dragon's Backbone Summary
Friday, 20 March 2009 02:00 Last Updated on Monday, 24 August 2009 18:34
Name: The Dragon’s Backbone
Type: Bicycle Touring
Distance: 3000km
Countries: China (Tibet)
Date: 8 April 2009 – 31 May 2009
Team: Myself and my brother Muis
General
The Dragons Backbone is a bicycle journey that starts in the north western town of Kashgar and ends in Lhasa the capital of Tibet. The route is said to be one of the toughest bicycle routes in the world over that distance. What makes this route so difficult is the fact that most of it’s on dirt roads in mountainous area. The starting altitude is 1300m and goes up to a maximum of 5400m which also makes it the highest road in the world. The average altitude for the whole route is over 4000m and contains 24 passes. Other factors that count towards the difficulty are the remoteness, lots of rough camping and the weather and coldness associated with high altitudes.
Below is a route profile that we snatched from someone else's website that attempted this route a couple of years ago but failed to make it due to fainting and breaking his collarbone. Please note the first 260km’s is not on this profile.
Route Profile - Click to Enlarge
Why
First of all because climbing 6000m peaks in Nepal is just too expensive for me and my brother at this stage. We planned to do three 6000m peaks in just over a month in the Everest region to gain some high altitude climbing experience and after a lot of planning we had to cancel when the costs just kept on adding up.
Secondly because I’ve been dreaming of this trip for a long time now (long in my term would be around a year or so). One night I was searching the net for extreme bicycle trips and this was one that came up a couple of times. I’ve also wanted to go to Tibet before it changes too much and experience it for the vast and lonely place it is at the moment, but might change in the near future. Some sections of this route as you can see on the profile have already been asphalted.
And last but not least I know this is going to test me in ways I’ve not been tested before. At the moment I want and need to be tested. I want to push myself to figure out where I stand mentally and physically and what better way do it on cycling over the Tibetan Plateau for 45 days?
Route
Starting off in Kashgar, an ancient town near the border of Kyrgyzstan, we will head south east through 200km of the Taklamakan Desert at the end of which we will start climbing our way into the Himalaya. We will then climb from an altitude of 1400m to 4980 in 230km. We will then carry on over the region, a disputed area between India and China but under Chinese control at the moment, which borders on Kashmir. The Aksai Chin is one of China’s driest and coldest and least populated areas.
We then carry on south east till we reach the only big town on the route, Ali. From Ali we continue on south east to Mount Kailash, the holiest place on earth for Buddhists. Mount Kailash is also a holy place for other religions including Hindus. Thousands of Buddhists make the journey to Mount Kailash every year to walk around it in a holy pilgrimage. Heading east we will pass Lake Manasarovar which is one of the highest fresh water lakes in the world on our way to Everest base camp at near Rongbuk Monestary, the highest monastery in the world. From Everest base camp we will head north east to Lhasa where we will take a train or plain back to Guangzhou near Hong Kong.
Route indicated in green on map
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