Incredible mountain views and rustic winding roads through the Himalayan terrain set the backdrop for this incredible Royal LePage Shelter Foundation Fundraiser.
A group of 13 riders raised over $132,000 for their local women’s shelters across Canada. Over $17,000 was raised by our Benchmarkers, Ken Morris, Debbie Leah and ChrisPitman.
Excellent tour guides led the 13 Royal LePage Canadian riders through 1,224 km of the Himalayan mountain range. Increasing altitude to a gruelling 18,400 feet, higher than Everest base camp. The riders experienced intense Indian mountain roads, numerous obstacles and altitudes not for the faint of heart. At the peak, on the highest roads in the world, the group suffered through oxygen deprivation and managed to appreciate the view of the valley below.
The riders conquered three of the highest mountain passes in the world!
Baralacha La Pass at 4,850M above sea level.
Lachungala La, which is 5,059 metres.
Taglang La is an elevation of 5,328 metres. One of the highest roads in the world!
The Benchmark team had the following thoughts;
- The locals were accommodating and always wanted pictures with us Canadians; it was like we were rock stars!
- Our Royal LePage Family was a wonderful group to hang out with for a couple of weeks.
- The tour guides were a lot of fun and treated us exceptionally well.
- Nine days on the bikes, over 1200 Kilometers and four days at elevations between 13000 and 18000 ft.
- The ride was difficult due to dangerous road conditions, generally going about 40km/h to 50 km/h.
- Running over a fellow rider’s foot in a hairpin turn never feels good. (We’ll let you vote on which rider did this!)
- The views were breathtaking!
- We crossed through cities, villages and vast countryside, riding motorcycles for 13 days straight on some of the most chaotic roads in the world. There were accidents, injuries and a lot of near misses.
- We rode among many people, cars, trucks, military convoys, commercial convoys, Tibetan road workers and many cows.
- Roads were barely one lane wide, with traffic going in both directions. Our motorcycles would have to overtake vehicles that were squeezing into one another.
- Visiting Pangong Lake, the highest saltwater lake in the world, was breathtaking!
- Military bases, 1k to Pakistan, 1k to China and Tibet
View our interactive Google Map, showing the route the riders took!
Thanks to the Royal LePage team for raising such an incredible amount to support women’s shelters across Canada. 100% of the proceeds go directly to the needy shelters. For more information or to donate to this critical cause, go to:
Visit www.rideforshelter.ca.
Contact a Fully-licensed Real Estate Agent
Looking for an experienced REALTOR® who specializes in real estate across Calgary? At Royal LePage Benchmark we are here to help you.