K2S: Katraj to Stok

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K2S: Katraj to Stok

Quiet an unusual trek?

For those who are not from Pune, K2S stands for katraj to Sihagad, a tiring 5 hours (at least) trek made famous by Enduro.

What made me to name my blog after this trek name was because I did K2S (Katraj to Sihagad) twice, thrice rather. Once a straight K2S & then….the tiring S2K & return K2S, back to back on the same day! Itserved as a stepping stone, a foundation for the mighty Stok Kangri Climb. I thank my group members for being with me.

The foundation of Stok Summit was rather laid many years back during my Harishchandragad via nalichi waat (makad naal) climb, which happened to be my first trek. Innumerable treks later, I was finally prepared by the Sahyadris for the mighty Himalayas.

This was a lone trek by me, i.e. I was only one from our trekking group. Being out of any constructive work & temporarily out of responsibilities, one gets a chance to move to his passion. My only passion that I know is mountaineering
So after several rejections from family, friends, internet blogs & other skeptics….I listened to my heart & decided to go ahead ….alone.

Remembered the line of Khalil Gibran shared to me by SOMEONE:

Travel and tell no one,

live a true love story and tell no one,

live happily and tell no one,

people ruin beautiful things.



I went ahead with a sole intention, I have to summit Stok. All my practice, energy, minds power was directed to one thing, Summit.

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama has said: “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”

but I just wished to get to the Summit & have that wonderful stroke of luck too 😊



One month might be a small time to prepare, but so is three months 😊 , rather one month made me rush through the preparations. My major focus was on cardio. Unfortunately the trade mill in my gym was out of order due to renovation, hence had to work with cycling & cross trainers. Visiting a gym twice a day might not be a best idea, but was the only option for me to prepare for such a mammoth trek in a short time.

All these preparation days I was just praying that my body gets acclimatized itself in Leh & above as I trek towards stok. Challenge, I felt before leaving was not so much the tiring hike, but the lack of oxygen during the hike.



I decided to acclimatize in Leh for three days instead of two & ensured vising place at quiet some height. I left by flight from Pune to Delhi on 15^th Sept, Anant Chaturdashi on late night, took a fight to leh on 16^th early morning. The altitude difference was great! Straight to 11500 feet /3500 meters from 560 meters 😊



Day 1- Leh: Reached this beautiful & one of its kind airport called Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport. I was actually asleep throughout the flight from Delhi to Leh as I had spent a sleepless night before at Delhi airport. Flight to leh was at 5:15 AM from Delhi. I woke up in Leh as the flight landed. & the first reaction was, FUCK! Where have I come!! The place was surrounded by mountains with zero vegetation. First time ever I saw such arid mountains. I had a very different impression of mountains & these were so different. Some were snow clad though. Took a taxi costing 250 INR 😞 for a 5km journey. Leh is expensive for transportation. Reached my guest house Basera Inn on Sheyam road. I didn’t feel much lack of oxygen & wasn’t restless at all. No signs of headache too. Quiet happy with my physical condition , I had breakfast & left to see the Leh palace. I climbed up & saw this deserted place. Not the most interesting of the palaces I saw. Had planned to see one Gompa just next to the palace but sun was too bright for one more climb. A peculiar characteristic of Leh is extreme cold & extreme hot sun , at the same time ! Quiet a puzzle. There is treeline in Leh but not much anywhere. I returned to the Guest house, had lunch, slept, got up in evening, and went for a walk across the town…….&…..& …something started happening to me. Returned to Guest house & started feeling more restless. Vomited twice 😞 . At this point, alone in Leh, I really got frightened. Even thought to return back if I didn’t get well the next day. Didn’t even have dinner that night. Fortunately I was ok the next morning. This is quiet usual in Leh. 1^st stage is headache, 2^nd is vomiting & 3^rd is loose motions if one is caught by the altitude sickness.



Day 2-Leh:
Other participants started pouring in at the Guest house. Got introduced to them in the first half. In the 2^nd half, borrowed a bike with some of them & headed to hemis monastery. There was a festival going on, sort of Kumbha mela of the Buddhist. The road was a picturesque one, next to a river flowing. It was a big queue outside Hemis Monastery to enter & hence had to skip it, but journey itself was a reward. Passed the 3 idiot school, Shea Monastery en route, but couldn’t go there due to lack of time. I will reserve my next trip to Leh for these places.



Day 3-Leh- Met our guide from Sikkim , Vijay @9AM in the morning and had a small briefing. I opted for mules to carry my luggage as I had to reserve my reserves for the
climb. After the session , headed straight to Khardung La, one of the Silk routes of ancient times.

Was quiet tired after coming & hence decided to skip the visit to Shanti Stupa. Next time again.

Day 4- Leh-Stok village-Chang la: Started our trek finally @10AM from the Guest House. Started via bus to STok Village. After a brief stop started the Stok Kangri journey. Trekked for 2 hours & reached a place for the days stop called Chang Ma. Met some America & Belgian guys en route. The last 15 min were difficult for me. Was just waiting to reach the place. I started feeling restless & tired in the end. I understood that mountain sickness is taking over me. Quickly took a Diamox which I resisted taking at Leh, but now I had no option. Had maggi for lunch & rested for the remaining part of the day. Weather started getting cold as we gained altitude. First casualty of a team member as he started suffering from restlessness, He left back the next morning.



Day 5- Chang Ma-Manokarma: This was a day of short trek of 1.5 hours to Manokarma. There was a small steep climb from our camp at Chang Ma. Rest was plane but rocky ground till Manokarma. Was a cakewalk to reach Manokarma. Had 2^nd casualty from the team as one more team mate said that he had headache and left the next day.

This place Manokarma is a very beautiful one , a small camp site located just next to a stream of river flowing . There is also a small hotel at a place where you can get food items , including beer ! I refrained from the temptation. Anything for the summit ! Some of us had a small climb to a hill nearby this evening.



Manakorma was even cold than Chang La. I expected worst at the base camp and mentally prepared me.



Day 6 & 7-Manokarma-Base Camp: After a small trek of 3 hours arrived at the base camp. This would be our home for the next 2 days.

Day 6 was spent lazing around. Got mobile range here which takes a small climb on a neighbouring hill, not much. Can ask any local guy on where to go for range. One more characteristic of this trek was some extremely delicious food, tea, snacks we got. Unconventionally none of us 10 has a problem of low appetite as heard. We were eating normally.



Surprize was the heavy snowfall we got the first night. I got up at 4AM on day 7 for natures call & saw everything at basecamp white in colour. Snow had accumulated on my tent too. The people going for summit attempt that night had cancelled it. This got us worried. But our guide Vijay assured us that we will go come what may !!



It is also a custom to do an acclimatization climb before the actual summit attempt. So @ around 9AM on Day 7, we left for Advanced Base Camp. It was still snowing; still we decided to give a try. Some left half way, but most others managed to reach the advanced base camp. Descent from there was a quick one. This gave me a good confidence. We had lunch as we came back. Slept for some time. Had dinner at ~ 7PM as we had to start the summit climb at that night itself. Sleeping @7PM was difficult for me. Infact I hardly slept. At 11PM someone came knocking asking us to get up for the grand climb.



Day 8-D Day- Base Camp-Summit-Base Camp: We started at 12AM, midnight. Somehow I started feeling very breathless the moment I came out of tent, a first sign of doubt on me. Somehow wore the harness, kept the crampon in my bag, wore multiple layers of clothes, some water, packed lunch, walking sticks, chocolate’s, chikki, high hope….&
we all began to march.

There is a very steep climb from the base camp itself. I was so tired that was left behind everyone here itself. I think it took me no less than 45 min to climb that slope, this was much more than my initial climb of the same place while going to base camp 24 hours before. 2^nd sign of worry ! Self-doubt is dangerous, really dangerous. But I left Pune, with
only one thing on my mind, to enhance my resume, to add stok summit to it. So no thought of going back. Once we reach that slope end, the journey to advanced base camp isn’t too difficult, though there are many small ups & downs on the way. Came across a foreigner who was desperately trying to cross us. At this point one more team member gave up
& decided to go back as she had started experiencing a headache. Finally reached the advanced base camp. Somehow I felt more tired in reaching here than yesterday. To give me a push I decided to have chikki at regular intervals & found it quiet useful. More than the energy bars ,I trusted the cheap chikki 😊



From advanced base camp we walked through a rocky terrain for 30 min to reach the glacier. My energy began to fade steadily. One helper accompanied me as I was at the end of all. After half an hour , we reached the glacier. We removed our crampons from the bag & began wearing them. I was the slowest to wear . A foreigner got pity on me & helped me to wear them 😞 We crossed the glacier slowly. Came across a small crevice but a small jump saw us through.

As we crossed it, took off our crampons & started climbing the mountain in a very zig zag road. Within 30 min, I started dying ! I was totally exhausted. & then, due to my slow speed, others gave up. Said you are too slow & their speed was being affected. It was decided that a helper will come with me & I should try to come as much as I can & the
others left ahead. So here I was abandoned by team, yet hopeful. I just went up & up & up. Don’t know what took me up. May be the conviction that I have to summit, come what may. I didn’t want to prove anyone that I can summit. I just knew that I can. Finally as the Sun began to rise, I too reached the ridge. The helper asked me if I really want to
go up. No second thought on that. I wanted to summit anyhow. Vijay had told me about a girl who took 19 hours to summit. I thought I would break her record today 😊 The
foreigner who was trying to cross us on way to base camp was seen coming down. He had summitted. I asked him to pray for me 😊 He said he was sure all we guys would summit. The ridge was slippery due to fresh snowfall the earlier day. I wore my crampons again. I was continuously eating something sweet to get more & more carbohydrates. Tried to gulp some water but found that to be frozen😞



As I was heading nearer to summit the other guys had already reached & hence Vijay came down to see if I was still there. He tied a rope to my harness & walked me to the summit. On way I say the other foreigner who had helped me wear crampons near the glacier. He got too frightened just 10 min from summit & was returning back. Felt sorry for him. But life moves on & I moved ahead. Finally I was, & I reached the top. Hushhh. This was just bound to happen. It was ~8AM in the morning, 8 hours of climb took to the top of the world. But surprisingly no great feeling of accomplishment at the death zone. Clicked a few photos, calleda friend, thanked the mountain for allowing me to reach the top & in just 5 min. , started my journey down.

The descent felt even more killing. Thanks to the walking sticks, somehow reached the basecamp around 2PM. Gulped some maggi & went to the tent to sleep. Next day was our descent to Leh directly. Thought it would be very difficult, but somehow managed to reach.

Thus a gruiling mindgame came to an end. Looking back , it was less physical but more mental. Already started planning the next trek for 2017 😊 What would it be ? Kanamo Peak ? EBC ? Mt. Ladakhi? Mount Shitidhar? Seven Sisters? Hanuman Tibba? Mount Baljuri? Parang La? Or the familiar Ladakhi names, Kang Yatse 1 ? Chamser / Lungser Kangri ? OK, break for some months till I gather some bucks. A familiar sentence from from an Everest submitter rings often in my ears….Ye pahad ek nasha hai , jisko lag gaya....

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