Reaching once again for the sky

Here we are again, planning another trip in the near future. This is going to be another climb – feeling confident after the trip to Stok Kangri and realizing that I am getting in gradually better and better shape with my regular workouts and runs, I wanted to try and push things a little. Deep down I think I have been wanting to go for quite some time, but after realizing the departure was filling up (and it is only once a year) and went to a presentation by the travel company, there was really no other alternative. It will without a doubt be an amazing trip and I am just hoping that it won’t be involving regrets on the way up. Because, let’s face it; this is going to be a massive undertaking for me.

On to the part you came here for.

21^st – 22^nd of January

Flight to Mendoza in Argentina via Spain (Madrid) and Chile (Santiago). Finally I have found a trip where you don’t have to show up at the airport until afternoon. No showing up at inhuman 0400 in the morning. Nope – check in at 1330. Starting off easy.

23^rd – 25^th of January

Spending a day in Mendoza to get permits and the like before transferring to a hut at 2800m in Vallecitos. From here we will acclimatize up to 3664m on Loma Blanca.

26^th – 28^th of January

Trek to the Vega Superior camp at 3448m. It’s a short trek so there will be time for relaxing. From this camp we will acclimatize on Cerro Adolfo Calle which gets us up to 4270m. The following day we will have another walk, this time to El Salto at 4288m.

29^th – 30^th of January

Return to El Salto, this time to set up camp and use as base camp for the climb of Cerro Vallecitos, which is 5461m. The climb will have quite an ascent (app. 1200m from base camp), but it will ensure an effective acclimatization for the following days. From the summit you are able to see Aconcagua, assuming the weather is clear. This summit is almost as high as Elbrus – which was a very hard-earned summit back in 2012. This will be interesting.

31^st of January – 2^nd of February

Transfer from El Salto and spending 3 days reaching Plaza de Mulas at 4230m, Aconcagua base camp. On the way there we will pass by Puenta del Inca on the first night and Confluencia camp the second. Apparently we have mules these days so we will be able to walk with a smaller load than usual. That will likely be a relief at this point.

3^rd of February

In base camp – rest day!

From here on everything depends on the weather, but the following is what they will be trying to get us through.

4^th – 6^th of February

Trek from Camp I to Camp III, located at 4910m, 5380m and 5979m, respectively. They are named Canadian Place, Nido de Condores and Camp Colera (charming…). The days are relatively short, and with the climbs before arriving here we will have plenty of acclimatization done making it easier – but reaching Camp Colera (…) it will be obvious to all that we are up high and breathing is labored. Note, the highest camp is just below the summit of Stok Kangri.

7^th – 9^th of February

3 days are reserved for summit attempts. Everything depends on the weather. We might be stranded in the tents for two days before we are able to make a push (or even all three days and having to return back down), or we might be able to go the first night. Only time (and the weather Gods) will tell. In any case this will be a very hard day, but reaching the top it will be very rewarding. Reaching the summit will bring us up to an altitude of 6959m, the tallest point outside Himalaya.

10^th – 11^th of February

Descend from Camp Colera all the way down to base camp, and the next day all the way down and back to Mendoza. Some very long days, but at least we are only descending at this point.

12^th – 13^th of February

The flight home is the same way as when we arrived.

Again, just as I have concluded several other trip descriptions that involved climbing, I’ll state that this will by far be the hardest trip I have been on yet. It’ll be fun. And hard. And mentally and physically tiring. Yeah, some people do this voluntarily. No, I don’t know why, either. People are weird.

24th – New Delhi Airport, aka I Don’t Give A Shit Airport

Arriving at the airport in the early morning you need to get past the guards at the entrance; showing your passport and tickets are enough. One in the group got a bit ahead of us and went through without any problems. When the rest of us showed up the guard looked at us and began waving us away – apparently he wanted us to go to one of the other doors to get checked there instead. On the way over there looking back you could see him letting single passengers in at a time, apparently a large group (of 9) was too much work. His colleague at the other door also seemed perplexed why he hadn’t let us in.

We checked in as a group but had to show documents individually. I asked nicely (despite it being early and only after 2 hours of sleep I can be nice) if it was possible to move/upgrade me to a seat at an emergency exit. She looked up and looked at me as if I had asked her to give me upgrades to 1^st class for all future flights, scoffed loudly and went back to work completely ignoring me from then on. Nice.

We were given name tags for our carry-on luggage, apparently as to confirm that the check-in counter had approved them as carry-ons. The security check went without a hitch, being early there weren’t too many people around. I found my bag lying ready for me after I came through the detector and they confirmed I could take it. We wandered the airport and basically just tried to kill time while waiting for boarding to start.

Entering the plane the security guy flipped when he saw me. Apparently the security check should have given me a stamp of some kind on that luggage tag, but because they seemed to have missed it I must have been smuggling everything from drugs to the entire Taj Mahal and half their nuclear arsenal with me on board the plane. He took me aside, let others on, and asked me to show him the contents. He was a very unhappy Indian guard, but he let me go at last. I had barely gotten on board the plane together with one of the others from the group before they started closing the doors. I hurried to my spot, found it in the middle of everything, but being the last one to enter I just grabbed to two seats at the window next to it instead – the plane had plenty of free seats so you were able to move around and claim different – better – seats if you were fast.

The rest of the trip home was fine. Well, almost. I met a very large hairy Indian guy on the plane. And completely unrelated; a very large hairy Indian guy learned he had to remember to lock the lavatory door when doing his business on the plane. We had a couple of hours in Istanbul airport which were spent on sitting in a café and getting something to drink and eat, and the flight from there was very uneventful. The moment we left India things went much more smoothly. And coming back to Copenhagen everyone got their bags. Success!

Once again big thanks to Susanne, Bo (again), Per (again, and have a great trip around India and Nepal!), Steffen, Christina, Mads, Thomas, Lars, Tina and Annika for being such an outstanding group on this trip. You guys are amazing – and after my recent realization that means a lot to me. I hope we will meet again sometime, that would be awesome!

23rd – The gravestone

Today was a full day free of plans according to schedule, so we were free to do what we wanted. Most of us decided it would be a good idea to spend the day in Agra to see the Taj Mahal, including me, despite it meant that we had to get up early (again).

We were picked up at the hotel and walked to the local train station a couple of minutes away. At 0600 the train departed on schedule and two hours later we arrived in Agra where we were greeted and brought to a small café where we met up with our guide for the day.

After a short coffee break we drove the few km out to Taj Mahal. Tickets were bought and we entered what I realized was a huge complex where the Taj Mahal (which is “only” a mausoleum built by the mogul emperor Shah Jahan for his third wife who died giving birth to their 14^th (!) child) is the center of attention. The area is riddled with huge gates in all four directions where one of them leads to the Taj Mahal, guest houses (“houses” is used liberally, “small palaces” would be more accurate), mosques and other various buildings.

While the Taj Mahal looks amazing on photos I don’t think they measure up to reality. This is a beautiful building with a lot of details you won’t see until you get up close. It’s a huge marble building with lots of carvings, engravings and an impressive amount of inlays. The inlays deserve special mention; the skill required to carve the marble and mount the many small different pieces of gemstones so they fit perfectly, while the end result looks fluid and organic, must be insanely high. It’s an impressive – albeit a quite narrow – skill to possess, and the result is stunning.

We had a walk around in the area, taking the obligatory shots and saw the inside of the main chamber where the wife and emperor were buried. She was buried exactly in the center, he next to her. This is the only non-symmetrical part of the entire complex and very intentional. Symmetry is perfection, and as only Allah is perfect they had to add some amount of asymmetry somewhere, and that was how they did it. We also managed a quick look of the nearby mosque and generally just taking in the views in the park. It was overall very pleasant.

I could have spent the entire day out there (as could others in the group) walking around and photographing the beautiful buildings, but unfortunately we were scheduled to leave for lunch. For lunch we visited a restaurant in a rundown part of the town, but the food was absolutely amazing. As the last real meal we have together in India this was not a bad place to finish it off.

After lunch we continued on to Agra Fort, a large fortification where 75% is still closed to the public as it is used by the military. The remaining 25% didn't make it feel small, though, on the contrary. The place was huge! Double moats and walls, large gardens and intricate craftsmanship appearing in all the buildings to name just a few features seen in the few hours we were there. It was also here Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his 3^rd son for ruining the economy by building the Taj Mahal (he even had planned a similar building in black marble). The “cell” he was confined in was a corner of the fort, beautifully decorated like the Taj Mahal itself and with a straight view to it.

Afterwards we had a small walk in the city center, which wasn't really overly inspiring. Back at the coffee shop we said our goodbyes to one of the group members who would continue on his own around in India for the next couple of weeks before going to Nepal. We returned to the train station to grab a train back to Delhi. This time it was a different train and it took us 3 hours to get back. While waiting for the slightly delayed train we were introduced to the various wildlife on the station; baboons, dogs and rats. Fun times were had!

We were back at the hotel a bit past 2200. Because we hadn't had a meal on the train despite it has said so some of us had a small dinner at the hotel’s rooftop café before retiring. To our joyous surprised they were fast at making it, and it was as usual absolutely delicious.

Tomorrow we are flying back home. We will be picked up at hell o’clock as we need to check in at almost-hell o’clock as we are flying out at way-too-early o’clock. The flight departs at 0600 and we need to be there 3 hours before, so, yeah… But it means that we will be back in Denmark already in the evening so that’s not too bad.

And back at the office Friday. Yay….

One of the entrance gates.

Taj Mahal.

The mosque to the left of Taj Mahal.

Another shot of Taj Mahal, this time from the left.

All this is carved from one piece of marble. It isn't pieces glued onto a block - it is one whole block.

The inlays. Lots and lots of this kind all over the place.

The writing is also inlays. Fun detail; the higher the writing, the bigger it is, so that when you look at it from the ground the size looks the same all the way up.

Taj Mahal as seen from Agra Fort.

The holding cell for Shah Jahan.

One of the many gardens at the fort.

Prison in foreground, Taj Mahal in the background.

22nd – Dust and noise

We were picked up at the hotel at 0500 as planned and as opposed to when flying to Leh we had no problems what so ever checking in our luggage and getting through security. This time we checked in as a group instead of separately as before which seems to have had made a difference – presenting the poor attendants with 11 large dusty bags it seemed as if they just wanted to get rid of us as quickly as possible.

Arriving in Delhi our pickup hadn’t arrived yet but after just half an hour’s wait he finally showed up and brought us to the hotel. The traffic was heavy, slow and noisy – we were obviously far away from the serenity of the mountains and back in the big city!

After a short break we took some tuk-tuks to the Red Fort where we had a walk-around before taking a route through the old part of Delhi, dictated by one’s Lonely Planet guide book. The tour was actually quite interesting and we saw parts that we might not otherwise have seen when walking around in the nicer parts of the city. Among other things we came by a Sikh temple where we got a tour for free for almost an hour. It was unexpected and very interesting seeing the temple from the inside during prayers/service. Very beautiful.

For dinner we ended up in a mogul restaurant which made some delicious food. While not spicy in Indian terms it did have a lovely zing to it that never was too much. Unfortunately my burnt lips were of another opinion, they are still very sore. My face feels OK, now, but due to all the burnt skin that’s peeling off across my face I look like I would be the perfect extra for a zombie movie.

Back at the hotel we had a small drink on the rooftop bar before going back to our rooms. Tomorrow will also be an early morning as we will be picked up at 0500 to be able to get to the train station in time to have enough time in Agra and Taj Mahal.

Walking inside the Red Fort you realize it is quite large.

Very large!

Seeing a Sikh service.

Serious business!

21st – How I turned into a fried chicken

The rest of the day after returning from the summit was spent on relaxing and sleeping, so when dinner was done people went straight back to their tents. The Topas group would be leaving that same night for the summit, using the same route as us, and the weather had improved so much so that for the first time since Rumbak there was barely a cloud in sight. Everything seemed to indicate that they would be having a visually better – maybe perfect – summit day as opposed to our group. But due to the lack of clouds the night ended up being by far the coldest night on the trip. Looking towards the summit in the morning we realized that it was the clearest we had seen it yet and a bit of jealousy was had as the group would have some great views from the top, including K2. But we consoled ourselves with the fact that our achievement with climbing during a snow storm and whiteout would be the bigger one.

I woke up several times during the night and I soon realized. It was quite annoying as I usually slept though most of the night without problems (except for the night where my travel pillow had a puncture…), but it was soon clear why this was; descending from the summit and having the sun occasionally popping out through the clouds when spending hours on a glacier it is a good idea to apply sunglasses and sunscreen. In this case 1 out of 2 is not good enough – the sunglasses do not cover lips, cheeks, forehead… I woke up due to when turning around my face touched the zipper of the sleeping bag (which was for once completely zipped). I was far from the only one making this mistake – there were even some who hadn’t even been using sunglasses. We looked like a group of inverted raccoons. My face has never been so sore before.

The rest of the morning went without hiccups and we were soon on our way down, descending 1300-ish meters in 5 hours to the town of Stok where we were picked up and driven back to our hotel in Leh. The walk brought us through more parts of the beautiful landscapes (when thinking of India this is definitely NOT what I have in mind!) and even seeing a flock of blue sheep (bharal) which to me mostly look like a mix of mountain goats and impalas. And no – they are not blue. We were lucky enough to stand within 20m of them for what felt like an extended period of time, but I must admit that for just a moment, only having my small compact lens, I was missing my long tele. It is stunningly beautiful here and absolutely not what I had expected to see.

Also arriving at Stok we said our goodbyes to our guides and other personnel. They will be remembered for the high spirits and good humor, and also for their impressive breakfasts and dinners (plenty of food at both meals, dinners were always a mix of salads, pastas, potatos, rice, weird tasty concoctions and the occasional deep pan pizzas, steamed momos and the like). Therefore it was always surprising that while these meals were so impressive the lunches were merely a piece of limp deep fried white break, a juice box, piece of fruit and candy. It was a huge contrast.

Being back at the hotel we had the obligatory showers. Being a creature of habit when drying off the first thing I do is to throw the towel in my face and rub. If anyone was wondering; doing so with a burnt, sore face is NOT a good idea. At all. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent on having our last walk around in Leh, packing bags for the trip back to Delhi tomorrow and generally relaxing and enjoying not having to worry about more climbing mountains in the next couple of days. Breakfast is at 0430 as we are leaving for the airport at 0500 to catch our flight.

Clear weather in the morning. Bad timing!

You can clearly see the summit!

Blue sheep.

We came down from the right and turned down the way straight ahead into the shot. When going towards BC we came up from the left.

Just beautiful. 

If you look carefully you will be able to see that there are ruins from watch towers/a castle on the top of those two cliffs.

20th – Black, white, wind, snow.

We were woken up at 2330 where we had a quick breakfast before departing for the summit. The weather was great; we could see stars and the moon was clear.

The plan was that we further up would have 2 rope teams. These would require a guide in the front and back which meant that we needed 2 more guides than the primary and assistant that we had had until now. One of them came from the kitchen, a small guy from Nepal (who travel back and forth in the Himalayas to take kitchen/tour work in accordance with seasons) and another one, also Nepali, who had 8 8000m-summits under his belt so far. He was put in front but after having ascended the first 200 meters he was swapped with our usual guide so that we could get back to a more… reasonable and human pace.

We passed ABC and continued up along the glacier in absolute darkness apart from what we could see from our headlamps. We crossed over onto the glacier, and after having walked a bit further the glacier got so steep that we were put together on the two ropes. An incline of 40 degrees would not be a bad estimate as we slowly zig-zagged upwards.

At this point the sun started to give light but what we quickly realized was that we just went from darkness to white. The visibility was down below 100 meters which wasn’t overly impressive, and it didn’t help much that the winds had picked up and it had started to heavily snow.

Still ascending we switched our poles with our ice axes due to another increase in steepness. Also, what had until now been a surface of pure snow and ice had now turned into ice/snow and rocks which we had to scramble across. While this could be intensive enough for my tastes with the rocky nature mixed with crampons, whiteout winds and snow/hail it was still just a warmup of what we would be facing on the ridge. Still app. 300 altitude meters from the summit we were to scramble our way on the narrow ridge with drops on both sides and the weather unchanged. We had some quite narrow parts we had to get by to get closer to the summit and it got a bit hairy at times, despite being tied together.

At one point near the top we saw some of the guides stick their heads together, discussing whether or not the weather was too bad to continue. Luckily, they seem to agree that it was still not bad enough to turn us around (though apparently bad enough that they had to discuss it…).

At 0835, in snow and hail, horrible visibility and high winds we reached the summit, exhausted. The summit was quite small, almost a long and narrow platform. There were snow piled up on both sides, but with the soft rounding of the tops you were actually not able to see where they started and ended due to the massive whiteout so people stayed carefully in the middle. After only a few photos we were on our way down again.

We were going the same way as up which meant the rocks had to be crossed once more. When descending the weather started improving; it stopped snowing and the winds eased up. This meant that you occasionally got a view out on the surrounding mountains on the way down, and what you were able to see was amazing: Huge rock and ice walls and beautiful mountains all around. The clouds were moody, though, so a view one moment could be gone the next. Too bad the weather wasn’t good enough on the top as we could potentially have ended up with some great shots.

We all made it to the summit, and we all came safely down again, though one needed to be assisted down quickly half way down by the guides due to not feeling well at all. Apart from that we all came through scot-free.

I was back in base camp at 1400 as one of the two last in the group with sore feet and thighs but not really caring. The scrambling and weather made the climb more technical than I had mentally planned for, but in the end it was still a success. It is a new personal record for me altitude-wise; last one was Kilimanjaro with 5895m which was beat with more than 250 meters. It is now 6153m, I wonder what should be next?

On the way to the summit. Photo taken by Bo Belvedere Christensen.

Summit! Photo taken by Thomas Jul Andersen.

On the way down again along the ridge. Photo taken by Thomas Jul Andersen.

One of the lucky shots through the clouds on the way down. Photo taken by Susanne Irvang Nielsen.

On the way down. This isn't even the steepest part. Photo taken by Susanne Irvang Nielsen.

19th – Do you know your ABC?

Today the program was an acclimatization walk with glacier training and return to base camp before lunch followed by resting and restitution before the summit attempt at (around) midnight.

The day’s walk would bring us up to 5300m and Advanced Base Camp. Unfortunately it is not allowed anymore to camp at ABC as they got tired of the large amount of trash being left there (though some might also speculate the more people at ABC the fewer at BC where there is a small kiosk where you can buy a small selection of snacks and drinks which would result in a hit at profit). Too bad, actually, as the 400 meters head start towards the summit would have been helpful.

Arriving at ABC we reached the glacier we will be traversing towards the summit. Here we were introduced to self-arrest techniques (extremely basic compared to what we were taught on Elbrus) and introductions to how to react when someone on the rope you are tied to slips/falls.

We came back to base camp at around 1230 where we met the Topas group (Topas and Kipling (who I am travelling with) are basically the two big Danish travel companies that do trips like this) who is doing the summit push the night after us. We had a small talk with them and out of the group of 14 originally they have already lost 2 on the way to base camp. Let’s hope for them that they won’t lose any more on the way to the top. After lunch it was purely relaxation until dinner which was served earlier than usual, and then straight to bed.

Rumors spread quickly; the wounded tourist yesterday hadn’t been as wounded as feared; apparently he hadn’t broken anything. When falling he had apparently panicked and froze, not being able to move or get up, which some people had concluded being broken body parts. Good to hear!

Looking at the weather it seems to be clearing up. The last couple of days we have had overcast with the occasional drizzles (which at BC has been snow). On today’s walk we had snow most of the time and clouds not much higher than where we were. If the weather clears up for the summit attempt we will be getting some great views – potentially including a view of K2 if we are lucky.

We are 200m above BC on the way to ABC. The ridge seen going up behind BC is the one we went up yesterday.

One of the many marmots in the area.

18th – Base Camp

We left camp at normal time despite only having a short schedule for the day which consisted of ascending 500 meters to base camp at 4900m. We arrived at around 1100, keeping to our normal pace of app. 200 m/hr.

Settling in the camp we noticed 3 helicopters circling the area. Rumors had it that a tourist had fallen and broken arm and back, but he had slid down to where the helicopters couldn’t reach him so people were working on trying to bring him to somewhere we they could reach him. After a while the helicopters disappeared and there was very little information to find.

After a short break a few of us together with Bo decided to do a small acclimatization walk on the ridge opposite Stok Kangri. As we didn’t have the “normal” guides with us we approached the ridge with a more liberal speed. When we hit the 5100m mark 2 people turned around – the altitude was getting to them – while the rest of us (3 + Bo) continued. We ended up stopping at 5300m, flying past the summit of Mt. Ararat in the process. We did it in 1:03 – which was double our normal speed. It felt good being able to have ascended that much in so short time, but I must admit I prefer the gentler pace we usually have. It took us 20 minutes to get back down.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and for those not having it done before getting their crampons fitted on their boots.

This is the highest I will have ever slept – the last record was from Kilimanjaro, but base camp/Barafu camp there is “only” at 4500m.

Stok Kangri as seen from 5300m.

Enjoying the view at 5300m.

Stok Kangri and base camp in the same photo. It isn't even that far! 

The paths you can see going left and up from BC is the path to go when going to ABC and/or the summit. Where it reaches the ridge and goes behind the edge is 200m above BC, 200m below from where we are now.

17th – The walk of passes

The morning started as usual with the exception that we from the very beginning prepared ourselves for rain on today’s walk.

We started following the path we had taken yesterday for acclimatization but when reaching yesterday’s stop we kept going up towards the pass. After a slow but steady ascent we reached the Stok La pass at 4900m. During the morning it had been raining on/off but at this point it had turned into a more continuous pour with the occasional mix of hail. From our elevated location at the pass we could see the path continuing down and up crossing the next pass before disappearing from sight. After a short break and enjoying the view from the Stok La pass we continued towards the next pass in line and when we reached our lunch spot we had crossed 4 passes after Stok La of decreasing height. What didn’t decrease was the rain, but around the last pass, half an hour before lunch, it suddenly stopped and we almost managed to get completely dry before eating.

The views were astonishing; sharp teeth-like cliffs cutting through the landscape, green surfaces all over the place and a cloud layer that gave it all a bit of magical touch. Often you just couldn’t help but stop and look around trying to convince yourself that it actually was real.

After the break we continued ascending up to 4400m at Mankarmo camp where we ended the day’s walk at around 1400. From there on the rain was occasional and unpredictable, but (as of this writing) never of the amounts that we encountered during the day’s walk.

Tomorrow is base camp at 4900m!

I must confess that I have been using my previous Elbrus trip as mental preparation. This trip has been physically easier than I had expected (summit day will remember that comment and kick my ass). This was the first tough day, and yet we arrived at camp at 1400. Compared to Elbrus that would have been a relatively short and easy day. Most of our afternoons have been quite lazy and inactive and part of me feel that we could have spent them on something. Don’t get me wrong; I love being lazy and doing nothing (especially with those views!), but as those having planned this trip have done it before and know what works I guess the comparison is unfair as the two treks/climbs are of different constructions. Also, on Elbrus we had to be built up from 1000m to 5600m, whereas we here start at 3500m (Leh) before ascending to the summit at 6153m. Maybe I should just stop worrying so much and enjoy the downtimes and views.

I love my Haglöf G-1000 pants; they were completely soaked and one point today, but within half an hour without rain they were back to being nice and dry!

I am less impressed with my North Face shell. The surface treatment given to prevent water from soaking through works as well as a gas cooker without gas. I have washed it several times with special surface treatment and sealant but it seems to wear off after a couple of weeks. Luckily the Gore-Tex membrane prevents the water from reaching all the way through to me, but I can’t say I am fully satisfied. Especially not considering what you have to shell (….) out for these things.

View from second pass. We came from the left side.

Looking towards one of the previous passes.

View from the last pass in the direction where we are going.

Reached the camp site and looking back at where we came from.

16th – Cloudy with a hint of marmots

The day started as usual with the exception of the weather being overcast with some heavy clouds here and there. We started gently ascending some 100 meters to Rumbak village where we got the chance to see how a normal house here looks from the inside. We visited the guide’s sister’s husband’s father where we got to taste butter tea and chang. Chang is basically home brewn beer and it is never know how strong it is so some caution is usually necessary when having a drink. The butter tea didn’t win any prizes and the chang, well… I’m not a fan of that, either. Smelling the contents in a small glass I was reminded of a yeast/water mix you start off with when baking.

There are 9 families in the village and three sources of income; guesthouses, camping sites (like the places we were staying at) and farming. The families are split into groups of three and each group gets the income for one of the three sources. Every year the groups rotate so that the split of money coming into the community is as fair as possible.

We continued our walk and after ascending to 4260m we reached the next camp, but to do some acclimatization we kept going on tomorrow’s route towards the Stok La pass, but stopped and had our lunch break when we reached 4400m. After the break we turned around and went back down to our camp where we arrived at around 1300 and had the rest of the day off.

Up to late afternoon the overcast held its grip which meant we had the occasional drizzle. Coming back to camp we had some actual showers but they were only short-lived which made them relatively easy to avoid. Late afternoon the sun managed to cut through the clouds, but it wasn’t long after it set behind the mountains.

Sitting in the dining tent during the afternoon we were able to see marmots in the distance, and by the looks of it it seemed to be a whole family/group.

Our host.

15th – Lord of the Flies

This is becoming a luxurious trip – you know, apart from the high altitude and walking by ourselves. At 0630 we were woken up with cups of tea, at 0700 we were given hot water for washing and at 0730 breakfast was served. At a bit past 0800 everything was packed and we were ready to depart. The staff packed the camp and followed later with everything loaded on the horses.

The day’s walk was relatively short – only 2-3 hours – but we ascended up to Rumbak at 3750m. The walk itself wasn’t too hard, but with several water crossings with only the occasional bridge there was plenty of chances to get wet feet.

Arriving at Rumbak we had our lunch break before having a 3 hour acclimatization walk up to 4100m.

Apart from that we had another relaxing afternoon.

While the camp is nicely located, we are seeing quite a large population of flies. I had thought/hoped that bugs wouldn’t have been an issue at this altitude, but it seems as if we have to cope with them some more yet. Either that or we are already more rank than we are aware of.

The acclimatization walk to the one house village.

Location of our camp.

14th – The Walk Begins

With an early start from the hotel we were picked up at 0730 with all our luggage and daypacks and were driven to Spituk just outside Leh. The girl who was sick yesterday felt much better this morning but to avoid overexertion she got a ride to today’s campsite together with our luggage.

The rest of us had a relatively short day ahead of us. We were to walk app. 5 hours along the road before reaching our destination which was Zinchen camp at 3200m. While it at the beginning didn’t feel as charming as one might have hoped to just walk along the paved road through the landscape we soon put villages and constructions sites behind us and found ourselves walking on the road with tall cliffs surrounding us, following the river Indus.

We had been picked up at the hotel early to avoid the high temperatures of the day, but when arriving at around 1300 at the camp we could still agree that it had been very hot already. Luckily most of the time breezes were able to decrease the temperatures to a tolerable level, but at soon as be made a turn or somehow came out of the wind it was obviously it suddenly got noticeable warmer.

The afternoon was spent relaxing. The camp site is an established one so a few groups arrived during the day. No problems whatsoever, but the amount of pack animals (horses and donkeys, and probably the occasional mule) was surprisingly high. But we are a group of 11, 12 (!) helpers (2 guides, cooks, kitchen staff, animal handlers etc.) and 23 animals, so if the other groups are similar the numbers of animals quickly increase. The interesting thing was that we saw a lot of animals but not near enough tourists to justify them, so it seems that the site is used for parking while tourists camp somewhere else.

Funny thing; before dinner we were all handed a brand new roll of toilet paper. I wonder if it is because they don’t have faith in their own cooking, but I hope it’s just to make sure we have the necessary remedies for when we have the need/urge. Always prepared!

The river Indus.

Freaky rock formations.

13th – Bikers gone wild

Waking up early we had a quick breakfast before being picked up at 0730 to go to the Khardung La pass for the day’s planned activities. As Leh is at around 3500m and our destination was at 5600m it meant that we would be getting some pretty aggressive acclimatization done.

Starting the ascent we came onto a new asphalted road, still having that fresh smell of asphalt. The road was quite narrow at times with barely room for two small cars to pass each other. Combine this with sharp turns (and plenty of hairpin bends along the cliff side) you had very low visibility on several of the stretches during the drive. Not being able to see very far on a narrow road with a fall on one side and cliffs on the other a drive down on bike could potentially become quite exciting.

After having ascended about half way we reached a military checkpoint, and from there on after the road turned into gravel, albeit the width of the road increased slightly.

Reaching the top Bo’s GPS said we were at 5250m, not the announced 5600m. The following was found on Wikipedia after coming home:

The 5,359 m (17,582 ft) elevation measure was taken from a modern GPS survey by a team of researchers.

And

Khardung La is widely, but incorrectly, believed to be the highest vehicle-accessible pass in the world. A well-graded Indian military road […] reaches 5,610 metres (18,406 ft) 250 meters west of the 5,545 metres (18,192 ft) Mana Pass on the India - Tibet border. […] There are also higher motorable passes at Suge La, west of Lhasa, 5,430 m (17,815 feet), and Semo La 5,565 m (18,258 feet), between Raka and Coqen in Central Tibet. […] Vehicles have been driven over the 5,582 metres (18,314 ft) Marsimik La, in the Indian Karakoram to the north-east of Khardung La, but it is debatable whether this pass should be considered to be motorable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khardung_la

Walking around and taking in the views we soon fond our bikes which were then distributed among us and soon we were on our way down. It is to be said that I have not had much experience in cycling in rough terrain (as in: none) and with the blind spots at the sharp turns I took it slow. It didn’t feel very slow, but it didn’t take long for me to end up in the back. No worries – no pressure and it felt nice enjoying the views bumbling down the gravel road. The three cars that brought us up split up in two teams; one went into the front and the two others stayed behind making sure that all made it down. Most in the group seemed to have done similar things before, considering the speed they went ahead. Now and then we were met by others in the group who had turned around and driven up to keep tabs on us in the back and a quick chat before turning around and racing back to the font.

Despite my lack of speed I realized I hadn’t been far behind when we had a short break at the check point. I could feel my palms getting quite sore from all the bumping around on the road. Continuing after the checkpoint and onto the paved road the speeds naturally increased, still with me in the back trying to keep up, but still a bit from the highest recorded speed that day; 62-ish km/h. But despite the constant blind spots around some of the bends I ended up feeling more relaxed – probably because of getting into the rhythm but also because there was no bumping around anymore. The road might have been narrow, but it was smooth!

We were back at the hotel around lunch, slightly dusty and polluted by the constant black smoke that had been bellowing out from the large trucks on the road, but very happy overall. My right hand/wrist was pretty sore, and I wonder when it will pass.

Lunch was had and the planned trip to the Kalachakra was approaching. Unfortunately we were informed the schedule for the afternoon had been moved to the morning in an attempt to avoid the worst heat of the day. Bummer, no Dalai Lama for us. The afternoon was therefore spent on relaxing and walking in Leh to let people get the last things needed before leaving tomorrow.

In the evening we had a short briefing on the following week where the actual trek/climb starts. At dinner we found out that one of the girls in the group had fallen ill, but it seems as if it will be an easy day tomorrow, and as it is road all the way to camp (5-ish hours walk down to 3200m) she will be able to get a lift all the way if necessary. Poor girl, let’s hope she gets better fast!

Not all places are equally hospitable.

A lot of signs are standing around promoting the non-truth. But apart from that the views are not bad. At all.

12th – The monasteries

Woke up with no headaches. Success!

This day was spent on a relaxing tour in the area where we drive around to see three major monasteries; Hemis, Thiksay and Shey. They were beautiful but otherwise classical in their appearance. Imagine an average Buddhist temple in the Himalayas, how it’s either perched on a top somewhere or almost molded into the side of a mountain, and you’re pretty much spot on with how these looked.

The interiors were beautifully painted with the usual Buddhist images. Some of the paintings were so detailed that you could keep looking at them for an extended time and keep seeing new small details popping up in the images.

On the way home from the monasteries we came through the area of the Kalachakra. People were now on their way home/back to their camps, and seeing most of 150.000 people leaving in one go was utter chaos. Massive traffic on small roads (apparently they had diverted the “wrong” direction traffic around and away so they could utilize the entire road for the one necessary direction), several close encounters, large amounts of honking, dust and heat (long live AC!) made it an interesting – or maybe even fun – experience to have had. But thank god it was only that one time we had such chaotic traffic to navigate.

Coming back we spent the rest of the afternoon in Leh before going to the hotel for dinner.

Tomorrow we will be leaving early to go to Khardung La at 5600m, which is the highest drivable pass in the world, to force some acclimatization. We will be going by cars up, but bikes will be brought with us which we will drive down back to the hotel. We will likely be back around lunch time, so hopefully that means we will have time to go out in the afternoon to see the last of the Kalachakra.

Hemis monastery.

Check out the details of the image!

This friendly fella (and his twin) was found at Thiksay monastery.

9 stupas with Thiksay monastery in the background.

Shey monastery.

11th – Going to Leh

Despite being on a flight at 0650 we arrived at the airport and starting checking in at around 0430. According to our papers and reservation confirmations we would have a weight limit of 23 kg on the flight to Leh. When checking in the employees – for some of us – insisted the limit was 15kg and we therefore had to pay for the excess luggage. Bo and I were two of the affected so we were referred to another booth to handle the payment. We managed to convince them that our reservations said 23kg but they insisted on seeing our boarding passes for our previous flight to prove that we had just arrived and therefore didn’t know any better. Bo had his handled immediately, whereas I, for the first time ever, had cleaned out the paperwork for the now (I assumed) non-relevant flight to Delhi. With long talks back and forth we managed to convince them that we (Bo, I and the others) had been on the same flight and both our fees were waivered. That was much more stupid than it had to be.

Going through security my bag was stopped and I was told that they had to confiscate my scissors. I informed them that there were none in in my bag, and they emptied the bag and brought the things through the scanner separately again. Yup – they could still see the scissors. They then came over and began a thorough search of my bag. A couple of years ago I received a small first aid kit from my the travel insurance I usually use; as I already had/have a larger kit I decided to keep this one as a spare in the bag I use as a carry-on and day-pack. Because I already had one with what I needed I never took a thorough look at what the small kit contained. See where this is going? Yes, security found a small pair of scissors. I apologized profusely that I had completely forgotten about it and therefore constantly insisting I didn’t have any, they apologized for confiscating it, and that was it.

2 years I have had the small first aid kit. All that time it was in my carry-on bag. I have been travelling quite a lot the previous years, but not until now the scissors were found. Yeah…

The rest of the stay at the airport and the flight to Leh was uneventful and at around 1000 we arrived at the hotel where we met the last participant of the group.

After a short rest and check-in we took a walk through the town to get our bearings. Apparently the Dalai Lama is nearby doing his teachings these days so some of us are discussing trying to get a chance to go and see him if we have the time at some point when in Leh. This is something he does regularly in different places in the world; it’s called the Kalachakra and apparently the first time in more than 20 years it is done near Leh. We had lunch at the hotel, a couple of hours rest before we had a walk up to Shanti Stupa, a stupa just outside the town. In the evening we met up with out guides for the next couple of days while situated in Leh. Dinner at 2000 and afterwards everyone pretty much just went to bed.

I can easily feel that we've come directly from New Delhi to Leh at 3500m. After having been drinking plenty of water I expect tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep, to be much better (and less headache-ish).

A cup of tea was had at the hotel upon arrival. Stok Kangri can be seen in the distance.

Leh.

Shanti Stupa.