It was pouring rain while I stayed at my friend Mingma’s Panorama Lodge. I was trying to figure out what to do for the day beyond sitting in his dining room drinking coffee. “Go see if you can find the old nun who lives in the cave,” was his challenge. I had a day to myself and wanted to do something new. Finding a nun in the caves above Thamo seemed like a great way to spend a rainy day.

I set out wrapped in a rainshell and splashed my way in the direction of Thamo, a small village just west of Namche, and home to the ornate nunnery, the Ganden Tenphel Ling monastery.

Just before Thamo I came to the uphill turn he advised me to take - the very spot where Kim and I had a crisis while running 3 Passes back in 2018. Instead of puking on the steps this time, I charged up them on my way to Lawudo Gompa in search of a nun in a cave. 

As soon as I left the main trail, my day switched from running to steep uphill walking. With each step higher into the clouds, my interest in the nun waned, and instead I began thinking about getting dry. A smooth left turn onto a traversing piece of singletrack was an easy distraction to switch to plan B. I turned and carried on in the direction of Thame where I knew I would have several options for a warm, hearty lunch.