On the last day of the trek we were all in a lazy mood. We had only about 3 hours of walking to do to reach the road for our pick up to Leh. Tsering, however, was looking worried. He wanted us to move as early as possible. He was nervous about an infamous stretch that is often unstable. And that day it was. The ice was broken. We approached it to find our porters rolling up their trousers. There was much chatter all around as they decided on where to cross. Wangtuk opened a route along the rock face. Tsering tried another route that cut across from the edge of the gorge towards the centre of the river where there was a narrow sliver of firm ice. Moving slowly, prodding with his heavy wooden stick to check the depth of the water ahead he made it across to firm ice. We changed into our gumboots and chose to follow Wangtuk. The ability to hold the side of the gorge was reassuring. The rocks under our feet were slippery and uneven. Chunks of ice abutted our thighs. The side of the gorge under the water level curved at a sharp angle. And what seemed like a fold in the rocks overlapped the angled edge and made it difficult to hold balance.