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Published: September 18th 2007
Very Happy Couple
Summit of Stok Kangri, 10 July 2007 8.02 amOur plan when we arrived in Leh was not to stay too long. We had been longing for high mountains and nice people and really were looking forward to leaving India and returning to Pakistan, where we had wonderful memories of just those things. However in Ladakh we found a wonderful "kingdom" full of smiling people, beautiful mountains, massive rivers, different customs and buddhist culture. The vastness of the Indus valley and the scale of the landscape blew our minds and we found ourselves on one of the first nights there sitting at the massive World Peace/Shanti Stupa gazing at the evening light as it played across the desert hills and ridges all around us. The rocky dry mountains reminded us of Iran or Baluchistan but the Buddhist monastries (Gompas), Stupas (religious monuments) and prayer walls (Mani walls) were features from an unknown but often dreamed of Tibetan kingdom. Finally we had entered a different world and the desire to rush on slipped further and further away.
Ladakh was once a closed kingdom, it hides behind the great Himalayas and for most of the year the passes remain closed; in the 8 months of winter the only contact with the
outside world comes from satelites and areoplanes. Over the years different peoples and traders have passed through all leaving a bit of their culture behind, so now the Ladakhis find themselves contained in the Indian troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir. The west of Ladakh (Baltistan) falls behind the line of control (LOC) and is controlled by Pakistan, but there are still a large number of muslims on the Indian side, however in Leh the majority of the people practice Tibetan Buddhism. These days though in summer a massive tide of Israeli tourists has left its influence too; falafel and shakshukar are common fare in the many restaurants along with the more traditional thupka and momos.
Whilst parts of town are dominated by the usual tourist ghetto, you dont have too look too far to find the more traditional side of Leh, the old town is just below the surface, round every corner down a narrow mud-walled alley where young calfs wander next to the water channels lined by shady poplar or willow trees. White washed traditional houses are decorated with prayer flags on the rooves and red marks on the walls, and at the junction of these timeless
shady lanes there is always a stupa or prayer wheel. Below the royal palace is the heart of the old city, where narrow lanes climb steeply up and down the hillside sometimes passing through long tunnels underneath houses which protrude from the steep cliff. Here again are stupa's and prayer wheels but many of the old Ladakhi men who wear the customary long brown robes sport straggly beards and muslim prayer caps, although the prayer beads they finger are almost identical to the buddhist ones. It is quite strange to hear the Azan echo across the valley from the mosques whilst the the same time bhuddist drumming and chanting comes from a nearby Gompa.
Leh sits at 3500m but unlike most tourists who either fly in or take a two day vehicle ride over the passes to get there we had cycled there and were thus pretty well acclimatised. The lure of the "Highest Motorable Road in the World" proved too much and so shunning the tours offered by local agencies we set off up to Kardung La; a 5600m pass over the Ladakh range to the Nubra valley. It was 50 km of up and up, we had
to buy a permit to travel on the road; it leads eventually to the LOC and Siachen glacier (the worlds highest battlefield) and many places in Ladakh near the borders have this requirement. Jeeps full of tourists passed us with bikes strapped on to the roof. "Cheaters" we thought; we were going to earn our downhill!
We were in no hurry, as we went up we seemed to push the clouds ahead of us and we kept hoping and praying for a clear view through to the Karakorum. Even without luggage the pace was extremely slow but our spirits were high and marmots seemed to cheer us on as they played at the roadside. We could see the lay of the road ahead, but the scale was just too huge to comprehend and it did not do too much good to look too far up. Many Indian Tata trucks were stranded steaming at the roadside waiting to cool down as they struggled to climb in the thin air. The last 4 km seemed to take forever; slowly we got closer to the snow fields near the top then finally we were there. My head was a little spinny but
I knew that some sugar and a rest would sort it out and wonderfully huge snow capped mountains shone in the distance showing the massive grandeur of the Karakorum. We were elated and the soldiers at the army base up there were very happy to see us and congratulate us too. A couple of soldiers had a go on our bikes and one was very keen to measure our pulse and blood oxygen levels; we passed of course! It seems that a lot of tourists keep them busy falling down with altitude sickness. We were fine however and climbed up to some higher prayer flags on theridge above the pass for a cup of tea and a rest. It was on this climb that even Robin noticed that his legs felt very heavy.
The ride down was great, we marvelled at the shepherds who were gathering their animals for the night, staying up for the summer months at these very high altitude grazing slopes, it was a good day but even so it was getting decidely chilly. Still I suppose compared to winter this was nothing and marmots and hares shot about as we startled them on our descent.
The way up had taken about 6 hours but it really was only on this descent that we truly realised how far up we were. Leh looked tiny below us and it just took so long to get back down to our lovely Guesthouse (Jimmy Guest House) and host Yangchan who was waiting with a huge feed for us.
In Leh we finally caught up with our Polish cyclist friends that we had last seen in Kathmandu, we had some good times going out for beers and chocolate cake. We also made good friends with our host Yangchan (Chan), it was total chance that had brought us to her home that she ran as a guest house, but it was one of the best decisons and a defintiely a reason why we spent so long in Leh. Chan and I really clicked; It was fantastic to be in a home environment again and she really made sure that we were well fed, although I do not think that she ever saw anyone eat quite as much as us in those first few days after all the high altiutude cycling. Chan delighted us by showing us the traditional Ladakhi clothing
Stok Range from Shanti Stupa, Leh
Stok Kangri is the highest peak, on the right. and making traditional dishes for us. Our favourite was Chu Tagi, which is a nourishing stew full of butterfly shapped pasta dumpling things, high in carbs and great for replenishing cyclists' legs. Ladakhi tradtional food really has to rely on few ingredients. It is a difficult place to live as the summer season is so short but the traditional skills and way of life produced a vibrant culture and farming varieties that did well even at the high altitudes. Special cereal crops were grown and breads and dumplings were the main foodstuffs in the traditional diet, supplemented in winter time by vegetables harvested and dried during the short summer.
Although Chan's house was modern in style it was surrounded by a massive vegetable garden and she tirelessly spent a lot of each day tending her veggies, this was so important because in winter the price of the airfreigted vegetables soar. We really enjoyed the spinach and cauliflower season and it was great to get a glimpse of the traditional Ladakhi way of life which is very tied to the land. In the past the Ladakhis were really self sufficient, only really needing salt and tea from the outside world.
They had developed an intricate culture of co-operation, resoursefullness and lack of wastage that really was good to see, and from which we could learn a lot from in our busy and anonymous western societies. In Ladakh families and villages had to rely on each other for help with harvests and at times like weddings and funerals, when neighbours could always be relied on to help. We found ourselves at the Women's Alliance and an organisation called LEDEG, which has recognised that since the 1970's with the modernistation drive and the coming of tourism that Ladakhi culture is massively changing and that a lot of the highly specialised skills necessary for life in the high desert valleys was being lost and that a lot of the worst problems from the west were being imported as well as some of the benefits. These organisations had managed to ban plastic bags from Ladakh since many cows were dying through eating them and there was no adequate method of dealing with all the modern waste that had been unknown before.
Some really interesting work was being done by these organistations and the Indian govenrment was subsidising solar pannels for remote villages not
on the grid. This was perfect for Ladakh which has hardly any rain fall and hugely intense sun. It was good to see some thought going into development and to see local and Indian people thinking about whether the new methods from the west were really a good ideas or not. Also they campaign to get tourists to think about the choices they make in the fragile environment of Ladakh. For example asking people to look for tradtional compost toilets and not to use the highly wastefull flush sytems, especially in the desert environment, and getting people to think about the packaging on the products they buy and promoting local foods which are less resourse intensive than 'tourist food' like wood fired pizzas; Ladakh has few trees and the wood for the pizza ovens had been trucked in on smoke belching trucks over 3 passes from Kashmir (where deforestation is another issue).
We also could not resist the lure of the high mountains. On that first evening at the Shanti Stupa Robin had been strangely drawn to the highest peak visible to the south, trying to guess how high it was, convinced it must be over 6000m and that
it looked a fairly easy climb. We later learned this was Stok Kangri and it was indeed around 6120m high, and a trekking peak. That pretty much sealed it, he was never going to be happy without making an attempt. After a bit of asking around we signed up with Wild East agency for them to provide us with a guide and ponies for a 4 day trek up to the peak and back. We normally would shun using an agency since we do not like to take more people and animals into the mountains than necessary; trying to minismise the impact from erosion of our visit and also trying to keep our experience as self sufficient and wild as possible. However yet AGAIN our MSR Dragonfly stove had broken for the third time on this trip and we were waiting for a replacement to be sent! This meant we had to use an Indian kerosene stove,which required at least a donkey to carry it! Once you have one animal you need a pony-man then another animal to carry the food for the ponies and .... the numbers seem to mushroom. In the end Rob our Polish friend joined us
and so we bought all the food for ourselves, Nima our Sherpa (Nepali) guide and Sonam our ponyman, and set off on the bus to Stok to start the trek.
We set out in not too promising weather; having been clear for days it now started to pour with rain and the clouds were really low. However our spirits were high and even through the drizzle we could see amazing rock formations around us. The people who live up there were definitely a tough bunch; old and weather lined faces smiled constantly at us even though the temparatures were cold. The first night we camped by a shepherds camp halfway up to the base camp, set amid pastures of wild alpine flowers,and the weather began to clear. The next morning we were greeted by full sunshine and our first proper view of the mountain towering above the valley ahead. After an easy walk up to the base camp we spent the afternoon showing Rob how to use crampns and ice-axe and Nima taught us a lot of rope tricks, even though it was unlikely we would need to do any crevasse rescues on this route. Late in the day
we climbed up to the ridge above the camp for a close up view of Stok Kangri and to help our acclimitisation, sitiing staring at the mountain in silence for over an hour preparing ourselves for the following morning's summit attempt.
The next morning we are up at 1am and walking in the dark by 2am, climbing up the glacier under the most amzing canopy of stars any of us had ever seen - a truly breathtaking experience. Slowly as we climbed the steep rock and snow slopes above the glacier dawn began to break and we could start to pick out the Ladakh and Karakorum ranges to our north. Hours later at 8:02 am we arrived on the sumit in perfect conditions to see a full panorama of the Karakorum, Himalayas, Zanskar, Ladakh ranges and well into Tibet. Above the sea of 6000m plus peaks rose groups of higher mountains, many of them across the LOC in Pakistan. One group towered above the rest and we realised this must be K2, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum, and way further west the huge bulk of Nanga Parbat was also easy to discern. It was amazing.
Nima our guide
was professional and excellent. We all watched and learnt as he carefully chose the line along the snowy corniced ridge to the summit. It is not a techincal climb at all, but it was good to have an experienced guide to give us tips on staying slow enough on the way up to base camp and to get us in order as we roped together to cross the snow fields. We all kept an eye on each other for signs of altitude problems. This was the highest we have ever been and I am so happy that I enjoyed every moment of it, not ever being afraid of the drops or the exertion. It was so exciting to wake up and set off up a glacier at 2am and I think it is an experience I will never forget.
Once we were back in Leh we discovered that we had gone with one of the best agencies there, we heard terrible storioes of untrained guides passing out from altitude. Inexperienced tourists thinking this was no big deal because they made the summit! Unfortunatley one of our friends hired a guide for herself and we listened in horror as she
Erika and Nima
putting on crampons at first light on our way up Stok Kangri told us her experience. He had left her on her own at 3 am in the dark on the glacier. She found him again with the help of some other climbers, later he told here she was on the top, she asked where the prayer flags were, he said that they were under the snow, only for moments later the clouds to clear and a ridge upwards to be revealed. This guide did not know the way down and forced her to scramble over a really dangerous a loose rocky slope rather than go near the glacier, also all the time he would not let her stop to rest or eat. When she complained back in Leh the agency's reaction was to say it was no problem because she was not hurt and made the summit. Again we were so happy to have chosen our agency carefully.
We ended up staying in Leh for my 29th birthday. Chan made a special Chu Tagi for us and Robin and our Polish friends brought chocolate cake. My birthday coincided with a festival at a nearby gompa. On the day we hired an Enfiled 350 motorbike to go over there. We followed
the crowds to the Gompa and saw the massive beautiful thanka (religious painting) unrolled specially for the day and the many intricate dances performed by the monks. We made a motorbike tour of the valley going back up to see in detail the amazing gompas at Thiskey and old palace at Shey. Thiksey is an amazing sight, with whitewashed buildings rising up a steep hillside to the huge crowning Gompa and Palace looking for all the world like the Potala in Lhasa (later we would learn that the Potala palace - residence of the Dalai Lamas - was modelled on Thiksey gompa). Shey has a field of stupas stretching across the sandy desert floor and the customary gompa and palace. It was a really lovely day but surprisingly a lot more tiring than we had thought. We thought that a motorbike would be easy, but it was so noisy and required so much concentration on the dodgy Indian roads that we were really tired out. Also I was a complete wimp and just could not get over the speed - give me my bicycle anyday!!
After 3 weeks finally our replacement stove arrived and it was time for us
to set out again on our bikes. Politics prevented us from following the Indus to Pakistan so, having to return to Punjab, we decided to enjoy the scenic cycle back over the Himalayas to Kashmir and famous Srinagar.
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Tashi
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I really like the pictures n photographs... they are really cool n nice.. keep up. Cud you mail me if u have more pics n time? thank you... oh yea by the way nice couple... hehe...