PART 1 - The Markha Trek, Kangyatse-II
Photo credits - Most photographs by Aditya Dogra. Few others by Nikhil Naniwadekar, Subodh Kulkarni, Jamie Fuhrman, Avilash Bisht and Amit Rawat
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Today is the last day at office before a long break. Our flight is past mid-night 130 am. I have gathered frantic pace and wrapping things up when I get a call from Satyajit around lunch. The flight is rescheduled to an earlier 1030 pm. With Ladakh, you just can't predict what can't go wrong. The adventure begins.
Satya and I, along with 9 others from various places are off to Leh for a trek to Kangyatse-II. I plan to do one more, Dzo Jongo. These two make it to a list of few peaks which mountaineers classify as trekking peaks. That said, at more than 6,200 m each, the altitudes are serious and it requires you to use basic mountaineering equipment to summit. We are signed up with White Magic Adventure, a highly recommended mountaineering company.
Pic - Thats me and Satya (in green) waiting for our flight at Pune.
Friday, July 13
Friday, July 13
We have an overnight transit at Delhi. I hunt for turmeric and salt water to gurgle my throat which is now fully infected. At one extreme end of T2 @ Delhi, I discover recliners. Uncomfortable but still recliners. Satya and I try to sleep for 2 hours before getting ready for a 6:30 am flight to Leh. Our other Puneite friend, Nikhil calls up. His flight too is rescheduled. Its Ladakh.
I try to stay awake watching our flight enter the mountainous geography. Snow caps, deserts, meadows - all varieties freshen you up despite of the lack of sleep.
Pic - Leh from the air
Pic - That’s Nikhil arriving at Leh.
Subodh and Nishant from Mumbai make the 5 of us signed-up together. Once in the car, I realise my Vodafone won’t work here in Ladakh. Satya has a BSNL which works.
Tenji from White Magic is at the hotel. He made sure that we felt at home. I was happy to learn that the gentle and always smiling Tenji would be with us for the entire trek as one of the mountain guides.
That’s Tenji.
One by one all 11 of us climbers are in. Though it was relatively cold in Leh, it wasn't difficult for us to break ice. We spent good part of the day in the garden playing cards, chit-chatting and sipping hot water.
Pic - From Left to Right.
Subodh Kulkarni (Mumbai) - The only holy soul in our group 1
Vaibhav Gaaydhani, (Pune) 2
Amit Rawat, kneeling (Delhi) 3
Nikhil Naniwadekar (Pune) - The other Godman - Gurudev. Kripa Rahegi. 1
Aditya Dogra, already bearded (Bengaluru) - official expedition photographer 3
Krishna Kumar, KK (Mumbai) 4
Jamie Fuhrman (Boston) 5
Tony Lee (Boston) 5, 6
Satyajit Chitale (Pune) 2
Nishant Shah (Mumbai) 4
Aubro Mukherjee (Stockholm)6
Superscripted numbers indicate room-mates/tent-mates.Avilash Bisht of White Magic is our trek leader. One of the finest mountaineers I have met. We all had been speaking to Avilash. So we knew him. He probably came straight to the Hotel on landing to check on us. He couldn't contain his curiosity as to what kind of herd of sheep he has to put up with for the next 16 days. Once satisfied, he promised to come back later for a briefing.
Pic - That’s Captain Cool. The chief herdsman. Avilash Bisht.
Tenji came in the evening again with snow boots for size trials along with one of his colleagues. We mistook this other fellow for a rock star going by the rapturous welcome he got from one other group at the Hotel who had trekked with him just until a day before. We were introduced to Rock Star, Sunny, our 3rd guide. We would meet Nima, the 4th guide, much later.
Tenji came in the evening again with snow boots for size trials along with one of his colleagues. We mistook this other fellow for a rock star going by the rapturous welcome he got from one other group at the Hotel who had trekked with him just until a day before. We were introduced to Rock Star, Sunny, our 3rd guide. We would meet Nima, the 4th guide, much later.
Pic - Please meet Sunny
After sorting out the snow boots and briefing by Avilash, the team went to each room to check our summit day clothing. My down jacket was rejected forthright for being too inadequate for the cold on 6,000 m.
Later in the evening, I was feeling nauseated but chit chat with the gang and little rice helped me stay in my senses.
Saturday, July 14
After a good breakfast. We went to Shey & Thiksey monastery as a part of our acclimatisation. The sun was beating down on us to give us a flavour of how it is going to be starting tomorrow.
Back to Leh, we got off at the market to purchase missing, additional items for the trek. I picked up a good down jacket and a head-lamp. We had a masala dosa at Neha Snacks. I procured an Airtel sim using only my Adhar number & thumb impression. Impressed. Subodh took us to a local monastery to acquire additional blessings for our trek. Can’t take chances.
Had full dinner today although the throat continued to be infected. Too late to see a doctor. I stopped thinking about it and went to bed. All set.
Sunday, July 15
Drive from Leh to Chilling & trek from Chilling to Skiu (3,500 m)
Trek starts from Chilling. It is a noun, not an adjective. We loaded all our stuff in 3 vehicles and we were off to Chilling, the village from where the trek starts. We stopped by at Zanskar | Indus confluence to click some pictures.
Pic - The muddy waters are of the Zanskar. We drove into the valley on the road you can see in the picture below along the Zanskar.
The road too turned muddy soon and it was a test of patience to sit in the cars, windows rolled up without the AC in 30 plus deg heat to keep the dirt out that was flying off the tires of our other vehicles.
At Chilling, the motorable road ends near a bridge under construction. Bridge can’t be used yet. You have to crouch in a trolley which needs to be pulled from the other side.
Pic - That is Amit and Nishant. Last few people waiting in the background. The empty trolley will go back to fetch them.
Subodh did his small customary Pooja. Out went the loud war cry’s and good omen slogan’s. We are off to what would be an eventful journey in the mountains.
Subodh did his small customary Pooja. Out went the loud war cry’s and good omen slogan’s. We are off to what would be an eventful journey in the mountains.
Rules of walking are simple. Avilash sets the pace. We walk in a file behind him at our respective pace but never exceeding his pace. The slowest member is accompanied by Tenji, who is the sweeper guide. This was pretty much the formation till we summited. Pic below
The heat from the Ladakhi clear sky was amplified because of the arid, yet beautiful, landscape. You could feel it burn your skin. Avilash set an easy pace. With 2 breaks, we reached Skiu camp site within 2.5~3 hours, a good hour before the anticipated time. The site was one to fall in love with. Lush green tree lined meadow. The horses followed us and the camp was being set as we had our packed lunch - Pic below.
Some of the guys went to the stream to take a dip. Later, the dining tent became our meeting room. Everyone was there. We had the whole of afternoon for some intense discussions on how to make the world a better place and on whether Data is the new religion and Google is the new God and similar subjects. We were an all-boys' group in the wild, so there were no holds barred.
I had to pop a combiflam to take care of the fever from infection.
After dinner, when all of us were in the dining tent together, Avilash used to brief us with necessary details about the next day. He used to answer each and every stupid question but the moment we veered into the day after next or summit, he used to defer the question to the day prior with a smile. Tomorrow is one of the longest days. 7~8 hours of walking.
Monday, July 16
Trek from Skiu (3,500 m) to Markha (3,700 m)
I woke up in fever feeling terrible but equally determined. Combiflam was a must but it also made me drowsy.
Our morning routine was made up of rolling up the sleeping bag, packing the duffel bag that goes on the high altitude goods train (horses) and the day pack, tanking up the electrolyte and water bottles, applying Sunscreen etc. The action began quickly. I walked right behind Avilash step-for-step for the early part of the trek but my energy quickly depleted and I started trailing behind gradually. Aditya stayed back with me. Our sub-group walking at the tail was made up of me, Tenji of course, Aditya, Satyajit and Nishant.
We met a French family at a parachute tent. The enthusiastic lady not only told us that France won the world cup last evening but also explained the 6 goals scored in great detail.
The landscape was beautiful. Greener than yesterday, serene and home to one of the oldest continually inhabited places.
It soon turned spiritual for me with the arrival of these 2 monks (Lama’s) as if descending from outer world. Pic below snapped by Aditya. Hardly a minute spent talking with them, seeking their blessings was refreshing being down with fever and slugging it out on one of the longest days of the trek.
Sunny and one more staff had carried our lunch in a gigantic lunch box. We stopped by for lunch literally on a stream or should I say in a stream. You decide seeing this pic below. Tony (in green) has the best seat in the restaurant today.
Walking after such a refreshing break is always difficult but we were lucky to get cloud cover minus the rains thankfully, most of the day today.
We reached Markha, after a 7 hour walk. Markha camp site which was a shade more beautiful than Skiu. Nicely spread on the edge of a farm that had mustard yellow swaying to the winds.
Pic - Markha camp site from an adjoining hill.
There was some entertainment for the bathers in the camp. One of them mistook a long haired European male bathing in the stream to be a real Mandakini (the actress) until he turned around to the utter disappointment of our fellow campmates who discovered he was actually Randhir Kapoor. The Mandakini topic in different variants continued to trigger a riot of laughter in the dining tent for the rest of the day until it was replaced by a riot of colours around sunset. Pic below
I was still unwell. I started my daily dose of Diamox. Things were to start getting better from tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 17
Trek from Markha (3,700 m) to Thachungtse (4,120 m)
The landscape continued to be beautiful. We had to cross a just-broken bridge a few minutes into the day.
Pic - That's KK walking on a tight rope
We came across a monastery perched high up on a hill.
Amit, Jamie, Aubro and Aditya climbed up to meet a young monk staying all alone up there for a year as a part of his education. Pic below
At Hankar, I managed to call home from a BSNL landline number. Hankar is the last village in the valley.
Pic - We had lunch here. Hankar village.
We reached Thachungtse. This camp, unlike previous 2 camps, was up in the open in the middle of a windy valley. Things had gotten a little serious on altitude and cold front. No one ventured to take a bath today. Probably because there were no Mandakini’s around and also because Avilash told us about how a climber had died after bathing above 4,000 m.
Pic - Thachungtse camp
Wednesday, July 18
Trek from Thachungtse (4,120 m) to Nimaling (4,720 m)
Walk to Nimaling was not long but steep. The Kangyatse range of mountains will appear in the horizon today and will dominate our skyline till the end of the trek. The first glimpse is seen the picture below.
Pic - You can see KY-II merged in the sky in the middle of the picture below.
We had come a long way and far higher.
Pic - A glance at the Markha valley that we were leaving behind.
Just before descending from a pass at 5,000 m in to Nimaling, we got a clear view of Kangyatse.
Pic - Reflection in a large puddle of water at the pass.
Nimaling is as beautiful as it can get.
Nimaling is as beautiful as it can get.
Pic - Nimaling camp site
Nimaling is bustling with people and animals. It is the last camp on the popular Markha trek. Ladakhi herdsmen have a settlement on the other side of Nimaling Chu, the glacial melt that can be seen above.
There were all types of animals - Dzo’s, Yak’s, Horses, Donkeys, Sheep, Pica’s (smaller than rabbits, bigger than rats) and Marmots. The Pica’s were chased around a little by the children in us but none of them were harmed. Everyone had their favourites animals & topics - Aubro was enamoured by 2 cute foals, KK was researching the number of brays every individual donkey does and what it means etc, Amit wanted to cuddle a Pica.
Pic - By the way this is a Pica. Don't remember the local name.
Aditya and I went for a stroll up the valley towards a herd of sheep. Pic below
Kangyatse 2 and 1 as seen from Nimaling.
After dinner, Avilash circulated his pulse oximeter and started keeping notes of everyones readings. Either on seeing our poor readings or reading the poor weather forecast, he took a call to rest tomorrow instead of a planned trek 250 m up to Kongmarula and back. The weather was cloudy but not raining.
Thursday, July 19
Rest at Nimaling (4,720 m)
We woke up knowing fully well that there is nothing to do today. It was cloudy since morning. A little after breakfast, it started pouring hell. It was hail and rain both if I remember it right. We spent most day playing cards, sipping tea and hot water sitting it out in the dining tent.
Our cook, Daawa and his assistants - Dorjey, Daawa Jr and Ramesh, used to whip up so much variety that we relished every meal. Apart from regular fare, we were treated to Pizza’s, pasta, apple-pie, gulabjamun, puri sabji, paratha.. endless variety of delicious food.
My tryst with medicines continued. Today, I had a swollen upper lip. Food allergy, some insect bite - on an idle day all theories were discussed and some jokes cracked on the tempting subject and my swollen funny 'Anushka' look. The anti allergic didn't help but only made me feel drowsy.
The afternoon was utilised for equipment demonstration and handing over our respective kits.
My snow shoe inners both turned out to be left footed. Sunny offered his shoes to me which fitted well. He had a spare pair.
The kit was made up of Snow boots, crampons, gaiters, harness, carabiner etc. We had some more weight added in our day packs.
Continued in Part 2 - The summit story
- https://altitudesandattitudes.blogspot.com/2018/08/part-2-summit-story-kangyatse-ii.html
- https://altitudesandattitudes.blogspot.com/2018/08/part-2-summit-story-kangyatse-ii.html
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