During the week it took them to reach the top of the glacier to get that perfect view and light 18,000 feet above sea level, Rutuja, and her team were faced with ordeals rounded up in a septet of days. Regaling her memorable experiences, Rutuja enthuses, "While training at the base camp my shins and shoulders developed a swelling because of the koflachs (shoes which weighed around 2 kg) and the 15 kg rucksack we were made to carry for 12 km everyday. My feet were hurting to an extent that I couldn't control my tears, so I used my snow goggles to cry, as I did not want others to see me crying. I knew that I did not want to back out so after the night's rest I decided to carry on,”

And she bore it all to freeze those moments of pain in her vividly moving shots of human faces and frozen places. Ask her why she endured so much, and she smiles as if the answer is implicit, "I wanted to have the adventure. The surrealistic landscape of the region combined with almost overwhelming presence of Buddhist monks in the region, invariably bestows a solitude, which in general is yearned for by most of us. My photographs of this region focus on- how people and landscapes of this region sharpened my sensibilities and understanding of the human mind", she reveals.