n March, I took a few days off from work in India to visit Ley in the Indian region of Ladakh. Arun Agarwal and Dorjee Shrestha, principals of our sole manufacturers in India and Nepal, accompanied me. At 13,500 feet above sea level, I have been told that the Ley airstrip is the highest commercial airport in the world. Ladakh which is on the Tibetan Plateau in the headwaters of the Indus River is in the northern rain shadow of the Himalayas. Except for a few cultivated fruit trees, willows, and barley and potato fields growing beside the glacier fed streams coursing down from the twenty thousand plus foot high mountains there is essentially no vegetation. The landscape is austere and hauntingly beautiful. The culture is pure Tibetan Buddhist. Here are some photos.

- Teddy Sumner