Winter Touring

[BigDan]

Hi,

I'm planning a tour starting in Korea and heading through China and up to Tibet then across to Nepal. I'm really excited about it and have to ration the amount of time I spend thinking about or else I get nothing done at work!

I have a few questions though-I will be leaving Korea on the 1st September and therefore will be heading up into Tibet and across into Nepal in October/Novemeber/December. It will be cold I know. What I want to know is just how cold and things I can do to help me. Does anyone have any touring experience in these kind of conditions? Does anyone know of any items of clothing/kit that worked/didn't work well? I'm thinking about taking some studded Schwalbe tyres-has anyone used studded tyres before? They are heavier but the added traction is apparently phenomenal.

From Nepal I will head down to the warmer climbs of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan (hopefully), Iran, Iraq (hopefully) and them across the north of Africa and down the west coast. Does anyone have any experience or info (preferably constructive!) on this route or parts of it?

Any help and advice will be greatly recieved!

Cheers,

Dan

[piggling bland]

This looks one heck of an adventure!  But winter at high altitude sounds serious.  I would be concerned about exposed flesh and about compression of blood vessels in the contact areas.  You have probably already sourced a face mask.  Consider stiff, racer-style shoes so that none of your foot blood vessels get compressed.

I don't know this area at all, but when Steve Leonard tried to film geese migrating over the Himalaya he had trouble with roads blocked by snow and ice and also with altitude sickness.  I guess you'll just have to take things steadily.

Best wishes.