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03.2014 BACKPACKER 71 be trusted. By his ffh day on the trail, he can’t force down one more bowl of bland rice and gritty lentils. His hip feels like it will tear through the scar lef by the operation. He continues to search, as do others, but not a single shred of evidence regarding his only daughter turns up. On June 6, he and Crofon leave Langtang, and Crofon fies home to Colorado. Paul remains in Kathmandu, scheduling interviews, meeting with the police and embassy ofcials. In mid-June, he Skypes Connie to tell her, through a choke, that he will not be delivering on his promise to bring Aubrey home. As his crowded Lufhansa jet climbs above the Himalayas, Paul looks down on the vast alpine kingdom. He sees billowing white clouds, miles of lush jungle, ice-encrusted mountains. He knows Aubrey is out there, some- where, and that he has failed her. He turns his entire body into the window so no one can see, and weeps. I N R E C E N T Y E A R S , Langtang Na- tional Park, just 20 miles north of Kath- mandu, has gained popularity as the less-crowded, easy-access alternative to the Everest and Annapurna regions. On a weeklong journey up the Lang- tang Valley, trekkers climb toward the Tibetan border and the towering Hi- malayas. Te track passes shaded for- ests and scattered farms, ofering occa- sional views of fn-shaped, 23,711-foot Langtang Lirung. Almost all trekkers stop in Kyanjin Gompa, at 9,800 feet, to taste the famed local yak cheese. Brightly colored stucco teahouses in the Buddhist villages along the way ofer cheap beds and a steady supply of dal bhat—all-you-can-eat rice, lentil soup, meat, and curried vegetables. An- cient stone monasteries welcome visitors who want to witness a way of life that hasn’t changed in centuries. It’s no wonder Aubrey—who majored in Eastern philosophy—chose to hike there. When she arrived in Nepal, Aubrey was nearing the end of a post-college adventure, during which she’d made a point of going beyond the beaten path. In Sri Lanka, she’d searched for octopus in the Indian Ocean with a boy she had a crush on. Later, she volunteered at an orphanage and stud- ied yoga at an ashram in sweltering Mysore, India. Aferward, to escape the heat, she traveled to Darjeeling, India. It was there, from a hostel roofop, that she gazed at the vast, white Hi- malayas for the frst time and decided she must visit Nepal. A two-day journey to Kathmandu, a day of renting gear, and a seven-hour bus ride to the trailhead, and Aubrey was at the start of a life-list trek any backpacker would covet. It was April, one of the best seasons for trekking in Langtang because the days reach the 70s and rhododendrons paint the hillsides red, pink, and purple. Te roaring Langtang River, swollen with snowmelt, pours over falls and crashes around giant boulders. Walking down a two-track road, Aubrey arrived at a simple, open-air checkpost stafed by a Nepali military police- woman. Despite the thousands of people who pass through yearly, Aubrey made an impression. Te soldier later reported that Aubrey signed the trekkers’ register, beamed her wide, toothy smile, walked through the check- point, and waved. Hiking north, Aubrey passed sun-drenched hill- sides, mist-flled hollows, and farms ringed by wild marijuana plants. She also would have encountered a steady stream of people—porters hunkered beneath rice and fuel, trekking guides with clients, and villag- ers dressed in colorful kirtans and hand-me-down pufes. Te porters, carrying loads twice their body weight, likely wouldn’t have acknowledged her. But the compact Tamang women, themselves carrying bulky loads, would likely have smiled back if she smiled at them. And everyone who knows Aubrey agrees the odds are good she smiled. Tis was a girl who, at the University of Colorado in Boulder, orga- nized a Campus Dance Day, and who was known by her friends as “Aubrey Glitter” for her habit of carry- ing a bottle of the stuf and sprinkling it on people, to remind them to live life to the fullest. Her exuberance had been unleashed in college, where she frequently went to raves. But Amanda 21,085-foot Langshisa-ri rises above the foothills in Langtang (top); searchers posted missing-persons fliers with Aubrey’s photo, like this one on a bridge over the Langtang River.