Prologue

In the cold winter of 2007, Pema Norbu Sherpa, a 22 year old student from Kathmandu tried to hike the Himalayas to visit his parents in the upper Dolpo of Nepal. That was the last time anyone saw him. According to his elder brother Urgen Gyalsen Sherpa, Pema never met his parents either. When he attempted to visit his parents in Tiling, he had just finished his high school. His parents, who lived in a village close to mine, realized only months after the winter season was over that Pema had disappeared from the face of Earth.           

At the time period of this incident I was still in Nepal trying to ace my high school exam. Two years later, I received a scholarship to study abroad, in the US; and became the first person from my village to have a college degree. Not so long after, in the summer of 2010, I would also attempt to visit my parents in the Himalayas; only to find myself lost in the middle of hundreds of deserted mountains, alone, trying to find my way home across the Crystal Mountain.