In the days of booming trek industry, it is quite difficult to write and get noticed about a unsucessful trekking expedition. But Stok Kangri has some exception to offer, upto 2022 no permission will be issued to climb this mighty western Himalayan peak due to environmental issues. So, people will defineitly going to talk less about it and hence I am. Internet offers a huge information about Stok Kangri, as this is one of the most popular peak climb among the trek enthuasts all over the world. I don’t have an idea about the highest trekable peak in the world, but in India, Stok Kangri is the one with its stunning elevation of 6153 meters.
The day I felt comfortable passing Borasu (5300 meters roughly), I kept planning to climb a higher one. I was searching for interested people. In December 2018, I trekked Brahma Tal with our WeTrek group. Brahma Tal is quite a familiar winter trek in Chamoli, Uttarakhand. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any snow there, but I found a lead to a interested group for Stok Kangri – Aindril Da.
Beacuse of some Bollywood interfarence, Leh – Ladakh became a hugely popupar tourist destination. That is why one need to book the airtickets much before than usual to get a cheaper deal. We planned the trek in August, which is considered as a peak tourist season. So, by the end of April almost all of us were all set with the airtickets. Due to lack of rain, Leh – Ladakh attracts crowd in August-September, when most of the hill stations used to be empty. We were 10 interested men, out of them I only knew Aindril Da before this expedition. The idea was to be on the top of Stok Kangri at the dawn of Indepence Day.
All the possible preparations were going on full swing. I was feeling confident physically and mentally. Then came the bombshell from the Govt. Of India, on 5th August. They removed the special status of Jammu-Kashmir and seperated Ladakh from it. I was about to fly on 9th and the situation was turmoil. Many confusing news and videos were getting circulated on social media. Then fortunately, just on 7th night an official broadcast came in that Ladakh was totally safe to travel. More than me, my family was relived.
I started from Hyderabad on 9th night with my 50 liter backpack. After a half-sleepy night in the Delhi airport I boarded the flight to Leh at 6 in the morning. The dreamy ranges of Himalaya started passing below within 40 minutes. I had seen this in social media may be a thousand times, but it took 10 minutes before I bring out my camera and take the first photograph. That feeling couldn’t be expressed in words for sure.
The whole group reached Leh one day before me. So, they had gone for a two day-one night trip to Nubra Valley. Only Aindril Da was there in the hotel acclimatizing with the Leh elevation. From the hotel full Stok Kangri range was visible.
After a small nap and a stomatch full of lunch, me and Aindril Da set out for Shanti Stupa. It was a decent climb after inadequate rest. We spent the dusk up there. The resturant over there, served super delicious apricot juice and pan cake. Later, Aindril Da was ready to climb Shanti Stupa once more, only to have that meal again.
We got togather at dinner after the team came back from Nubra and came to know that we couldn’t start trekking the next day (11th August). The guide was pushing the team to be in Leh atleast for couple of days to be acclaimatized, as Leh is already 3500 meters. This made the itinerary a little tentetive. If we watned to be on Stok top on 15th dawn then we needed to skip the first camp of Chang Ma or we could postpone entire journey for one day. We went to bed with lot of tension. Everything was depending on the trek lead and main guide’s call, and the meeting was the next day morning.
The meeting with the lead staffs was quite fun with all our introductions and experiences. Though the end result was a little depressing, we needed to push for the summit on 15th night. That means, no possble glory on independence day dawn. We decided to have self cooked lunch that afternoon. Amit took all the responsibilities, all other helped. After a delicious lunch me, Aindril Da and Sandy set out for Leh palace. This was easier incline than Shanti Stupa. We trekked Namgyal Tsemo Gompha too. The weather on the Stok range was clearer than the last day, we captured some clear photographs. The day ended with a grand dinner. The exitement was on its way.
It was the first time I was trekking with a hundred percent Bengali group. Beside me and Aindril Da; Amit Mallick, Deb Chattaraj, Aniskumar Maiti, Arghya Pal, Abhishek Dey, Sandeep Das(Sandy), Souvik Mondal and Sayan Sekhar Mondal were the part of the team. Out of all of us Sandy is a Karate black belt and Sayan is a first class cricketer of Bengal team. Rest of us are Govt. or privet employees in non-sporting jobs. I was counting very high on those two because of there fitness. So, here we go…
12th August, 2019 (Stok Village, 3500 mt to ChangMa, 3950 mt; 6 km trek)
The day started with a perfect clear and sunny weather. We reached the Stok village (the start point of the trek) by two Maruti Omnis at about 10:30am. It was quite a crowd over there beacuse of a very popular trekking week of the year. One would certainly feel like, how could atleast a quater of the crowd can fit on the summit. But it dosen’t work like that.
We were waiting for our guides, support stuffs and mules to arrive. They reached quite late and we almost started as the last group at 12:30pm. It was quite a prominant trail except the riverbed crossings. Almost all of us except Amit and me, offloaded backpacks to the mules. Because of the friendly altitude gradiant, mules were functional till the base camp. I always liked to carry my own backpack myself in the mountains, as it given me confidence.
One can’t see the Stok Kangri or any other peaks on the way till the base camp. So, you can focus on the beauty of the other aspects of the landscape, snow capped peaks are quite distracting. It was a rocky vally we were approaching through. The river was by our left or right side always. This river is running down to meet the main Indus river near Leh and enriched with the melted glaciers of Stok range. The lack of trees and greens clearly suggest that the amount of rain this area receives is very less. There were small trees but the desity were very less compared to the mountains of east Himalayan ranges. The shape of the mountains around were very different too. Small and sharp hunched shapes were all over main dome. The elevation of the mountains around the valley were very steep. This area used to be under snow for maximum time of the year, the dry mosses on the rocks suggest that clearly. We were very lucky that also after starting very late from Stok village we didn’t face much difficulty to cross the river. Rivers like these normally expands in daytime beacuse the glaciers tend to melt more under direct sunlight.
I was going on my own rythem, Sandy joined me afterwards. The trail passed through several curves and bends between the mountains and by the river. Though the riverbed was very wide but because of the sharp and straight mountains, the landscapes were not much vast. Often mountains were obstructing the vastness.
Me and Sandy reached our campsite of Chang Ma by 2:30 pm. Others joined us within 30 minutes. The camping site was crowded by other groups and we were sitting worried. Our guides and support stuffs were behind us, as they have stated more late. We managed to find a lower ground by the river to pitch our tents.
After resting for an hour or so we set out for an acclaimatization walk with one of our guide Archu. It was a small but decently steep incline beside our campsite. All of us struggled to climb it, as it was only the first day of the trek and this was the most difficult climb of that day. The view from the top was quite satisfactory. We could see the valley proceed towards our destinatation on one side and Leh on the other. The river progressed through a small gap and this incline stands as a barrier between the valley. Skeleton of a mule’s head with some prayer flags around, stand as a landmark of this place.
In the evening we sat for another introduction session with our main guide Nitesh, from Uttarkashi. Another group of 10 men attached with us here. Nitesh told us that the meaning of “Chang Ma” is Tree. In the whole trail of Stok Kangri, this is the only place where one can find naturally grown trees, that was the significance of the name. Chatter was going on with hot soups and onion pakodas. Some guys from the other group was in Africa for few years, they have trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro. One elderly person from Pune was sharing his experience of doing Kailash circuit couple of times. These types of gatherings are always very tasty, one can update their bucket list meanwhile.
Dinner was served by 8:30pm with the luxory of both roti and rice. All of us had our stomatch full after a very happening first day’s trek.
Because of the popularity of Stok, toilet tents are very common practice there. But I never used it in my life. So, when I saw the support stuffs were putting up those, I got a little tensed. Let’s hope for best experience for the next morning.
13th August, 2019 (ChangMa, 3950 mt to Mankarmo, 4350 mt; 2.5 km trek)
The walk that day was very short. Normally trekkers used to pitch their first camp in Mankarmo, but we had to move according to our guide. We rolled our tents after breakfast and started walking around 10 am. We climbed the same ridge where we acclimatized last afternoon. Then the trail continued declining towards the riverbed. After walking about a kilometer through well-defined trail by the river on our left-hand side, we stepped into the riverbed. Though I am calling this a river, it was actually a vast moraine full of medium sized rocks and very thin streams flowing under them. So, there was not much interaction with the water while crossing the river here. We reached a Y-junction on the other side of the river. We needed to follow the left-hand side route to reach Mankarmo and the right-hand trail connects with Markha Valley. I offloaded my backpack there and waited for the whole group to arrive. We took a stroll toward the Markha gateway.
Our trek lead told us that there was no space for new tents in the actual Mankarmo campsite because of huge traffic. So, we needed to pitch our tents about a kilometer before the actual campsite. The campsite we supposed to land was only a kilometer away from the junction. Basically, the day ended with just a two and half kilometer’s trek, no wonder that people stretch their first day till Mankarmo.
Being a non-regular campsite, it was a pleasure to pitch our tents there. Clean and fresh. A long shepherd hut was in a distance and there was an unnamed snow-capped peak in more distance. A thin stream was flowing beside our campsite and only source of water in reach. The landscape was a blended shape of mountains. The unusual sharp shaped hilltops were blending with the smooth, regular looking ones. In a distance the glacial moraines started to come up toward the actual Mankarmo campsite. We reached here within 2 hours from Chang Ma. We all helped the kitchen staffs to come up with the lunch quickly. Then spent some time strolling around and clicking photographs. We were assuming our acclimatization spot. The air started getting cold as the time progressed. We saw some Tibetan Ibex on a slope for a moment but failed to photograph.
After the lunch was well digested, Archu and Nitesh took us for the acclimatization walk. It was about a 300-meter steep climb, the steepest one we climbed so far in this trek. All of us were surprised after reaching the top, some people were talking with their cellphones. We never expected mobile network in this trek. I called my wife, of course she was not expecting my call. We could see our miniature tents from there on one side, the glacial moraine which was connecting toward right to the Stok moraine on the other side. While declining, Nitesh taught us a technique to handle the loose rocks and decline quickly. The technique came up quite handy later. The weather was getting a bit cloudy. We had our dinner at 8 and get into our tents. By the way, the experience with the toilet tent that morning was nothing extraordinary.
I wish that it was the end of the day, but not. A strange feeling engulfed me once I tried to sleep. It was a state of mind, but it was something new for me. The height of Mankarmo is almost 600 meters less than Borasu advanced base camp, where I had a sound sleep a year back. I was continuously thinking about my family. Negative thoughts were roaming around and I was changing side inside my sleeping bag continuously. I got afraid that it might be disturbing for Aindril Da. After struggling till 3am, I came out of my tent for some fresh air and roamed around for 15 minutes. The cool breeze and lonely Himalaya settled the mind calm. At about 4 am, I got into my sleeping bag and this time I’m feeling relaxed.
14th August, 2019 (Mankarmo, 4350 mt to Base Camp, 4950 mt; 5.5 km trek)
I woke up late, at about 8am. It was not a full fresh start of the day for me because of the disturbed sleep last night. The stretch that day was about 7 kilometers plus we had to cover one more kilometer to reach the actual Mankarmo campsite. After having breakfast, Nitesh demonstrated us few mountaineering and trekking tricks. Meanwhile we packed our rucksacks and tents. We started for the base camp at 9am.
The trail continued toward Mankarmo through the glacial moraines. Usually clear trail doesn’t exist in moraine area because of its uncertain nature, but that trail was an exception. One can easily find out the path he needs to follow, no wonder that Stok Kangri is a hugely popular solo trekking destination. But it can be a completely different scenario after three years of banned traffic. Nature has its tremendous healing power; this trail can be completely vanished. After walking for about a kilometer through flat moraines, we encountered a sudden incline of 50meters. On the other side of the incline, the actual Mankarmo campsite was situated. We took a sharp right turn there and invited by a 30-degree gradient. Keeping the Mankarmo campsite on our left-hand side, we approached toward the base camp. There used to be a temporary Dhaba in Mankarmo and base camp. But from 2018 onward, Govt. banned them. This Dhaba used to be quite big, like a circus tent. Trekker’s tents were accommodating in that place. We approached through the well-defined trail. The river was going far and down toward the left side. Weather in the morning was a bit gloomy but it brightened up by the time passed.
To reach the base camp one have to climb seven small ridges starting from Mankarmo and they gradually get stipper. Six of them came after we crossed the Stok glacial moraine. At the time when we crossed the 4th one, the sky suddenly got cloudy and started drizzeling. I got into my raincover poncho with the backpack, piped the right hand out with the trekking pole and started walking. I am writing this as walking but it was actually more of a struggling. Because of the vastness of the valley, the air was effective and walking in air with the poncho on is like walking with a parachute stuck on your back. I had the similar experience before, when it was snowing after crossing Borasu. That experience helped me a lot. I took very small steps and walked very slowly. The last ridge, on which the base camp is situated, is the most inclined one, almost 50 degree. Fortunately the drizzle stopped before that climb. One can’t see the base camp before climbing this ridge. I reached the base camp at about 1pm. The scene over there was surprising and disapointing at the same time. It was a full house, at least 60 tents were somehow accomodating in the base camp.
On our right side, it was visible upto Leh and behind the tents on the left side the mighty Golep Kangri (5950 meters) was standing tall. On the other side of the tents a trail was going up with a staggering gradiant toward Stok Kangri. This place is also cosidered as the Golep Kangri base camp. We could not see the Stok Kangri yet as this high ridge was standing inbetween us. Five of us reached the base camp togather and waited for the rest to come. I sat on a big rock over the ridge and offloaded my backpack. The big relief was that I would not have to carry my backpack up anymore. It would be only a light daypack for the summit night. Meanwhile, the rain came back and that time it was a heavier one. I brought out my poncho once again and sat covered with my belongings on that rock. The rain got heavier by the time. Rest of the team ran for shelter and got some roof under several kitchen tents. My poncho have given me a personal cover up. Because of steeper gradiant and rain, the mules who were carring our tents, other stuffs got delayed. The rain continued for almost an hour. Meanwhile the mules arrived with all the stuffs. As the rain dissolved, we all gathered and pitched our tents. It was quite tough to pitch the tents on the wet ground. The guys who had offloaded their backpacks to mules, got them half-wet. We all got into our tents and tried to settle down.
We had our packed lunch on the way. So, after an hour of disaster management inside our tents, we headed the kitchen tent for a sip of hot drink. Coffee and hot onion pakoda was privilege to have on an altitude of 5000 meters. We all were happy to make it upto the base camp, the chatter continued for quite long inside the kitchen tent.At about 4:30pm Nitesh told us that it was time for the acclimatization walk. I took my water bottle, camera and started walking. That day we trekked that staggering ridge as an acclimatization walk, keeping our tents and the Golep Kangri on our left side. The climb was highly challenging with 45-degree steep gradient and very less grip on the ground but the excitement of seeing the mighty Stok Kangri for the first time was higher. Surprisingly the whole area of the base camp and that ridge was lacking the usual loose rocks beneath our feet.
The first closer look of Stok Kangri from the top of that ridge was jaw dropping. We could see both Stok and Golep Kangri from the top of that ridge. From that ridge the trail went down towards the advanced base camp of Stok Kangri. The advanced base camp has a helipad for recues operation. Trekkers were permitted to put up their camps in the advanced base camp till 2016, after that it was limited up to the base camp only. We spent almost an hour on the ridge. Fortunately, mobile network was also available there, so we called our beloved ones keeping the huge Stok Kangri in front of us. The clouds were playing hide’n’seek with us over the ridge. Nitesh gave us some valuable tips for the summit night. On the way down some of us used the same old trick of descending quickly. The long day ended with some delicious dinner. The river, which was moving far on the way up to the base camp, came very near again. We filled up our bottles with the ice-chilled water of the river. The main jacket came out for everyone as the temperature dropped down to sub-zero. After a relaxed chat, we all get into our tents by 9pm. It was a good night sleep after that.
15th August, 2019 Day
The Independence day morning started a bit late for almost all of us as the day belonged to complete relaxation. The big event was waiting for us. Three guys from our other group had carried a 365 feet long Indian flag. They carried the flag in a separate ruksack which weighted 25 kilograms. Too heavy, isn’t it? Their plan was to hoist the longest Indian flag on the highest altitude and create a world record. The process of unrolling the long flag took almost an hour itself. Then 40 people from almost all available groups hold the flag straight. We all sang the Indian National Anthem togather. It was a mervelous feeling of togatherness and gave all of us an extra bit of motivation. For their records, we recorded videos and still photographs from all angles possible to make submission to the Guniess authority. After the grand event we had our breakfast and kept strolling around the base camp. Abhishek was the only one feeling a bit dizzy in our twin group. Our guides had decided to send him back to Leh accompanied by Emit Negi, our organizing member. Last night it was raining and snowing with interruption, the groups who atttempted summit last night was yet to come back. But the weather in the morning was pretty good. The persentage of summitter hugely depends on the weather en-route. It is very difficult to predict weather on the mountains. We were sitting on the same big rock like yesterday. Sandy discovered that not only mobile network but also 4g network was available from that spot. I called Sayan and Raktim to let them know what they had missed. Aftrewards, we took a relaxed walk toward the Golep Kangri, but not far. After all we didn’t want to stress our legs out with the big night coming up. On the way back we met a trekker who sumitted Stok that morning. The weather up there last night was not at all good, so there was a very few number of sucessful summit that morning. The guy was looking extremely exhausted but the happiness of a sucessful summit was still expressive.
We had our lunch at 1pm and got into our tents for some more sleep. At 4pm Archu called us out. He was sitting with 25 pairs of climbing boots. This was very much necessery as crampons can be fitted on this. Normal hiking shoes can be fitted with a micro-spike but not crampon, they are tougher. The higher than normal snow level have forced the agencies to choose the climbing boot and crampon combination. We have given our foot size to the guides in Leh. We picked our boots according to size and wore them. Everyone, who wear a climbing boot for the first time will definitely feel some dicomfort in walking with it. The outer shell of these boots are designed such a way that the ankle can barely rotate, which gives the climber a zero chance to twist his or her ankle. The inner layer of the boot is very comfortable and compact. Archu taught us the technique to attach the crampon on the boot, it was quite simple. We all were worried about the discomfort of the boot with a huge challenge coming up that night.
We have been taken to a nearby incline to practice walking with the boots on. A harness was also been attached to our weist. Archu and Nitesh taught us how to rope in various mountain conditions. After a few inclines and declines, the boots felt more complimentary than complaining to me. After the training session, Debabrata, Anis and two other from the second group were not feeling confident. They decided not to move forward that night. I won’t say that Nitesh and Archu were the best guides in the business but they respected their decision. The weather was getting clear by the time. We arranged our daypacks with all necessery equipments, food and adequate water. There is no possible water source after the base camp, so you need to carry enough water to keep yourself hydrated. The guy we met that morning who was returning from the summit, told us the effective temperature after the glacier was around -20 degree celcius last night. So, I got ready with enough layering under my jackets. My daypack not weighted more than 3 kilograms. The arrangement took almost 45 minutes. We had our dinner at 6:30pm and tried to sleep as much as possible. But for me untimely sleep was lot tougher than solving a functional equation. Aindril Da might have been got some.
15th August, 2019 Night and 16th August (Base Camp, 4950 mt to Stok Kangri Summit, 6153 mt and back to Base Camp; 15 km trek)
The big night was in front of us, locals call it as Kaal-Ratri (the cursed night). I have done all the dressings and came out of our tent with my daypack. It was 10pm and was a full moon night. The headlamp was hardly required. The Golep Kangri was literally shining in moonlight. Aindril Da was feeling a bit dizzy because of the untimely sleep. Me too, was not in my hundred percent sharpness, as I spent the last hour inside tent in half sleepy mode. We got together in front of the kitchen tent. Our guides gave us some boost up talks and some cautionary words. The support stuffs handed us some eggs, chocolates, biscuits, fruits etc. We fiiled our bottles and hydreation pouches with sufficient water. I was carrying a two-liter hydration pouch which I filled up with some luke warm water and a 600ml bottle with some ORS mixed up. The sipper pipe of the hydration pouch was a matter of concern, if the water get iced up inside the pipe then there was a possiblity of the pipe getting teared. To, avoid that I needed to sip the water in short intervals. The summit night of Stok Kangri said to be longer and steeper than the Everest. I came through a story which said that an Everest summiter failed to summit Stok, I have no idea it is a rumour or not. But it was easier to summit Stok, when the Advanced base was campable.
The first step is always the most important one. I took it with all the cofidence I had. We climbed the same ridge which was standing standing tall between us and Stok. This was the first hurdle towards the summit. It took little more effort than the last day to climb that one with the climbing boots on. We were 15 members attempting the summit. Most of us felt the discomfort beacause of the pair of boots we were wearing. But the discomfort evened out for most of us as we kept walking with it. The full moon night and the trail of headlamps created a mixture of nervousness and exitement. The first thing I did after reaching above the spur was to call my wife, she wished me luck and told me to be cautious. After the whole team reached the top I got to know that Aindril Da have given up and reurned to the tent. It was bit of depressing as I got included to that trek because of him. The main reason behind his giving up was the climbing shoes. Later, in the next morning Archu told him that his own boots were crampon-ready, he just missed the chance because of Archu’s negligence.
After a 10 minutes of break we started our journey toward the Advanced Base Camp. The trail was very narrow and progressed through a steep slope. We were following a single line. The usual high altitude loose rocks appeared again, hence the trail was not too steady either. Some small groups with higher speed were overtaking us somehow. Some of us were too slow on that rough trail which made our whole group moving slower than expected. We crossed the Advanced Base Camp near midnight. The space over there was not enough to pitch more than six three-preson tents. We didn’t stop there as the gradient was not very challanging. The rocks and stones under our feet was slowly taken over by snow. The first look of the glacier was simply breathtaking. The full moon completely poured all its glory on the snow. We all switched off our headlamps and stand still to induldge into the heavenly lanscape. The east face of Stok Kangri was standing tall on our right hand side. This face is very steep and flat, hence it dosen’t allow to settle much snow. That’s why the dark east face had given a contrast to the bright and beautiful glacier. After some realisation time, we started walking again. Archu told us that we were very lucky to get a cristal clear weather like that. The trail was going through complete snow then. The combined footmarks of the early trekkers had created a shallow U-shaped trail towards the glacier. We reached the glacier crossing point from Advanced Base Camp in 40 minutes.
Till then we were heading south and turned toward west to cross the glacier. Scary vibrations was happening under our feet. We followed our guides and continued walking. Around the middle of the glacier there was a small stream flowing toward north-west, dividing the glacier into two. I jumped to cross the stream and got scared again due to the extra pressure I put on the glacier by landing. The glacier was hardly half a kilometer in width, but felt like very long walk. After the stream, it was just about 250 steps to reach the foot of the south-east face of Stok Kangri. After a small incline throuth the glacial moraines, we sat on some naked rocks. We ate some of our foods and take a small halt for 10 minutes. The full moon was still on and was making the whole environment magical. It was about 1:30am. We all were silent and preparing ourselvs for the next big climb. Gradiant till that point from the top of the ridge, was very decent and comfortable. The main climb was about to come. We were only 7 people left with 3 guides on that point, rest of the people gave up in the middle and returned to the base camp. Sandy, Sayan and me were the three from our group still continuing to test our spirits. Temperature was already near -9 degree celcius.
We started for the big incline. After a 10 minutes of climbing through the mixture of rock and snow, we reached where from the hard snow started coming under our feet. Archu told us to stop there. We removed the hand gloves and put on the crampons with naked hand. There is always a chance of getting frost bite on naked hand, so you need to be fast. After Archu got satified with my crampon fitting, I started climbing again with Nitesh and Dorje. Nitesh told me to take a few number of step at a time and then stand and breath for a while. On the go I realised that 15 steps at a streatch was comfortable for me. So, I started taking 15 steps, took 30 second of rest and repeat the same. I never felt the deadly cold while climbing up. Dorje was the most fittest among our guides, though it was his first time on Stok Kangri. He was climbing higher than me and waiting till I reach him. This process went on for almost an hour. There was no big rock in that stretch which can perhaps gave us a space to sit for a while. The moon was about to set. We could see the trail of headlamps going up in front of us as the ambient light was going down. The struggle of climbing that continuous 50-55 degree incline made me forgot to look down. Meanwhile Archu whistled from far down and asked Dorje to come down in their sign language. I suddenly noticed that none except Dorje was nowhere near and some gathering of lights were moving from where the wistle sound came in. I asked Dorje about the situation, He told me that someone down might not be feeling well and needed to taken back to base. He guided me further up and after ten minutes of climbing we reached near a big rock which was a adjustable place to sit for sometime. A trekker was lying on that rock as he was senseless. We got worried about that guy and started calling him. The guy suddenly wake up and told that he had fallen asleep when he tried to get some rest and immidiately started climbing. It was strange. I got myself settled on that big rock. Dorje told me that Nitesh would come up and he hurried down. I was praying for Sandy and Sayan to come up and join me. It was 3:30am. I took out my thermometer, it showed -22 degree celcius. The sky was still dark. The headlamps were moving far down. I was sitting alone in the dark with not even a stranger around.
The rock I was sitting on was slightly slanted toward the decline. The cold weather made me dizzy and I was feeling sleepy. I slapped myself couple of times to avoid the sleep and the possible slip down. The sky had started getting bright. A whistle blown from down, but it was still barely visible to identify anyone. I was already sitting there for 30 minutes. After sometime I realised that the headlamps were coming closer. That exitement was undescribeable. Few more minutes passed and I heard Nitesh’s voice. He was shouting that they were 3 people coming towards me, I gave him a headlamp dipper signal and waved my hand. After a 30 minutes they reach and me and sat down on the rock. Sai and Praveen from our second group were the other two, kept continuing with Nitesh. I was truely counting on Sayan and Sandy but they gave up just above the glacier. It was 4:30am and the sky got quite fair.
P.C: Arpan Sarkar
After a more 15 minutes of rest, we started for the shoulder. By then, sun was coming up behind the ranges towards Leh. It was a truly remarkable scene with the light beams spreading wide through the clouds. First 80 meters or so was the same as before. Then came the next climb, which was steepest in my life so far. It was almost a 75 meter bottle neck before the shoulder. We used all our limbs to tackle the 60 degree incline. Because of the steepness, the snow was missing in patches, leaving the sharp medium sized rocks open naked. I was not at my best and panting heavily. Somhow I managed to climb and partly crawled toward the shoulder. The last few steps before the shoulder was easier to got through.
The shoulder is at the knife-edge of the east and west face. There was no snow at all and it was a horizontal saddle after a long climb. But the big boulders were uneven. It was morning already, the morning for which I was waiting and planning for so long. But I was not feeling right. Firstly I thought that I had been hit by AMS as it was 6000 meters already. But later on I realised that the 1 hour and 15 minutes I spent on that rock in -20 degree celcius temperature, sucked all the energy out of me. I was actually feeling sleepy. Praveen and Sai was walking in medium speed and never stopped for so long in one place. I was not even confident to take the next step. We left the unnecessery things on the shoulder and roped ourselves up. Just before taking the first step towards the summit, I told Nitesh that I Would be stopping there itself. Nitesh didn’t try to motivate me as we were already above 6000-meter mark. I told them that I would be waiting for them on the shoulder and we would decent togather. Nitesh, Praveen and Sai started their final ascent. The way from shoulder to summit went upon that knife-edge. I couldn’t see the summit from there but it was only 650 meters away and 150 meters elevated from there. This „only“ here is just an expression, please don’t compare it with the plains. It was tough to say „I stop“ being that close from the summit but it was for the greater good. If Dorje would have continued with me that day, I could have been on the summit by that time. They say, only 10% trekker do not continue after the shoulder, I was one of them.
I waited there for those three to come back for more than three hours. The sunshine heated me up but I was still feeling sleepy. Many groups ascented and descented meanwhile. I could see a part of the mighty Karakoram range on the back of the knife-edge, but K2 was not visible from there. On the other side sun was shining hard on Golep Kangri. I had given my Indian Flag to Praveen, he hoisted that on the summit. They came back to shoulder at around 9am.
Sai was not looking in great touch, he was completely exhausted. We started descending after half an hour. The sun was not so hard on the south east face as the weather got partly couldy. Hence, the descent was not too tough with the snow not melting much. After we got down to the foot of the south-east face, we removed the crampons. The small stream between the glacier got widen up. We anticipated for a bigger jump. Me and praveen were going togather. Sai and Nitesh rushed toward the base. Praveen was sharing his summiting experience. The summit was far from the point where I could see from the shoulder. We got back to the base at around 1pm. Our group was counting on me to summit, but they were happy that I could made it upto the shoulder. I was feeling exhausted and was dying for a long sleep. After some refreshment I called my wife from that big rock and had some lunch. Meanwhile I saw that Nitesh rushed for some rescue operation with one oxygen cylinder toward the Stok glacier, What a spirit! Deep sleep came over me after that.
In the evening we all were sitting togather with our coffee mugs and some pakodas. The weather got very cloudy meanwhile. It was looking really impossible for the summit attempters that night. Nitesh had recued one trekker near by the Advanced Base Camp. The trekker was showing symptoms of HAPE, kudos to Nitesh. That night, rain was very heavy and later we got to know that there was no summit possible on the next morning due to bad weather throughout the route.
17th August, 2019 (Base Camp, 4950 mt to Stok Village, 3500 mt; 14 km trek)
We got up early to start the long walk as soon as possible. Almost all of us had packed our bags last night to be ready to move down in the morning. Last night it rained throughout and in the morning it was starting to snow. All twenty members of our twin groups somehow managed to fit in the kitchen tent and finished the breakfast while standing. We started walking down at 8am with the rain gears on. I was walking inside my poncho. Fortunately there was no strong air in the whole route. I always become little more conscious while descending, hence I was the last one to reach stok village at 12:30pm. Near Stok village I witnessed a very rare phenomenon of water flowing upward. Later I realised that it was happening because of huge pressure and force of water behind. The snow continued till Mankarmo and thereafter rain continued throughout the trail. We waited about 20 minutes in the Stok village for the Tempo Traveller to arrive, which dropped us near the hotel in Leh. We all bathed after five long days in the hotel.
In the evening rain gave us a window of couple of hours. I shopped some gifts for my family from the Leh market. The celebration was not a grand one that night as everyone had to leave early next morning for home. We had been informed that maximum flights from Leh got cancelled that morning due to bad weather. Me, Aindril Da and Arghya were about to leave next morning on our respective flights. The rest seven people were about to travell by road through Manali to Delhi.
18th August, 2019
No flight took off that morning due to bad weather. We had no other option but reschedule our flights. The earliest booking I got was of 21st. Me, Aindril Da and Arghya were returning toward the hotel and Amit called us and informed that due to heavy rain for last few days, Leh-Manali highway became non-operational. They also returned to the hotel within an hour. There were no option open for us to got out of Leh, as the Kashmir route was very much uncertain due to political issue. We went to Leh bus stand and kept asking the drivers about the actual Kashmir situation. Majority of them gave us green light about Kashmir. They told us that there was no problem for the tourists with a airticket from Srinagar. We all except Aindril Da planned to move through Kashmir and booked airtickets from Srinagar. Aindril Da anyway got a chance to fly from leh on 20th. I got my booking from Leh cancelled and got full refund. The air tickets from Srinagar was comparatively cheaper. All our families were worried about our entry to Kashmir in that turmoil situation. We started from Leh with two Mahindra Scropios at 8pm. Aindril Da stayed back in the hotel.
Though the sky was cloudy, we got some glimpses of the heavenly road we were going through. I might have mistakenly saw some snow capped peaks on far horizon. We all were awake almost all the night to make sure we don’t miss anything spectaculer. I wish, we could have made that journey in daylight. We passed through Lamayeru, Magnetic hill, Zanskar valley, Kargil, Sonmarg, Gulmarg but all passed through in the dark.
We passed through very tight security in Srinagar. Our bags had been checked several times before entering the airport. The outside of the Srinagar airport was crowded with defence personels.We all boarded our respective afternoon flights. I reached Mumbai in the evening to catch my connecting flight to Hyderabad.
Though I was not successful to summit the mighty Stok Kangri but it was a huge learning curve for me. Later on I realised that I might have summitted that day with a partner keeping up with me. The loudest mistake I commited that night was moving ahead of everyone else. It could have been possible also, if I would have maintained the pace with Praveen and Sai. Sitting for so long near 6000 meters on that tremendous chill made me cold and my energy got drained very fast. But I was not afraid at all. I can still feel the extraordinary silence of Himalaya, what I experienced that night during the long one hour. In my opinion, the faliure made me telling the story in such details, where success can be summerised very easily.
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