When I was last in Nepal and Tibet in 2002, I fell deeply in love with prayer flags. Prayer flags are flown by Buddhists from mountain passes and summits, from bridges, from homes, and from stupas. The brightly colored flags have prayers printed on them that are released when the wind blows. I fly them from my house and in my office at work-they reach a deep part of me that is beyond words. The Tibetan term Lung Ta literally means windhorse and it has become practically synonymous with the English term "prayer flag".

On this adventure, I returned to Tibet to complete one of the world’s hardest bike rides from Lhasa, Tibet to Kathmandu, Nepal. The 1200-kilometer ride crossed eight mountain passes ranging from 4300 to 5200 meters above sea level. I needed to make peace with going uphill. Making peace with going uphill meant surrendering to moving slowly, to breathing hard and in rhythm, to learning to enjoy the hillside as much as the summit, to staying present in each bike pedal or footstep, and to embrace suffering without trying to change it…a tall order…one that required lots of practice at extreme elevations.

I have called this adventure “Looking for Windhorse” because I was searching for the clarity that only intense physical exertion in high mountain environments brings to me. When my life is simplified to the bare essentials of breathing, moving, eating, and sleeping, my mind, in turn, simplifies and moments of vision, luminosity, clarity, and direction result. These moments are fleeting and demand a high price but there is great joy and adventure to be found in searching for them. I followed an intuitive inkling that I would find such instants on the high passes of Tibet beneath the prayer flags that will be flying there…