Greetings! I recently went on a winter mountaineering expedition in the mighty Himalayas in the Ladakh region of India. The plan was to climb two adjacent peaks standing around 6000 meters, Golep Kangri (5950m) and Stok Kangri (6153m). A successful recorded winter ascent of either of those peaks hadn’t happened yet!
Ever since I climbed Stok Kangri during season time in July 2016, attempting it in winters had been a dream project but due to some or the other reason it didn’t happen for two consecutive years.
People have climbed peaks like Mt. Everest and Nanga Parbat in peak winters but all attempts made to climb Stok Kangri had failed. That seemed very strange considering that hundreds of people summit Stok Kangri every year in summer! I wanted to give it a shot myself and with every passing day, the obsession only grew.
It was October of 2017 and winters were approaching. I was determined to make it happen this year. I put out a message in my circle of mountaineering friends about my plan in the hope that I would gather a good team for the expedition. The next day I got a text message from my role model who is a good friend now, Arjun Vajpai telling me that he is interested in doing the expedition with me. There it was, it was decided! We needed a couple of more people but we decided that even if we don’t get anyone, the both of us would go for it alone and that kind of excitement is needed to do something like this. In a weeks’ time we had two other members join us- Kam kaur, a mountaineer from UK and Kunal Chauhan, Arjun’s photographer and film maker. We were all set with the best possible team!
I started doing all the logistical planning. It was a very difficult task to convince porters and guide to come along with us in winters. No one dared to step in the mountains during winters; not even the locals. One of the local guys went as far as saying that he will not come as he doesn’t want to commit suicide knowingly! That did give us something to think about that how harsh would the conditions actually be? Is the risk worth taking? Is there a genuine reason to why the earlier expeditions failed? Would we survive it? But we were taking a calculated risk and most importantly, we had the right gears to survive the extreme winters.
We were scheduled to leave on the 8th of January. We started with our packing just a couple of days before leaving. Unless there’s that pressure of deadline, I don’t function as efficiently. For an expedition such as this one, logistical planning is of utmost importance. Things as small as a missing matchstick when needed could be the reason for an unsuccessful expedition.
We flew off from Delhi to Leh city in Ladakh on 8th morning. Leh is situated at an altitude of 11,500 feet. Ladakh is a high altitude desert with brown and lifeless mountains spread across for miles.
As it is a rain shadow area, it receives very less of rain and snow. The cold out there is very dry and weird which can get you sick within minutes of arriving. Before landing, the flight passes over some of the most beautiful and remotest mountains of the Himalayas. You can see variety of mountains in all shapes and sizes spread across as far as your eyes can see. Towards the end of the flight, you are flying only a couple of hundred feet away from the mountains. It is undoubtedly one of the most scenic flight routes in the world!
As we landed, the pilot announced the outside temperature as -18 Degree C. We looked at each other and smiled in excitement. Winter expedition had officially begun!
As soon as we landed outside the aircraft, we were greeted with bone numbing cold. Golep Kangri and Stok Kangri are visible from entire Leh city. We took a picture of the whole team with them in the backdrop and headed to our guest house.
As we had flown directly from sea level to 11,500 feet, there was a good chance of being hit by AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) due to high altitude. The first day should be spent keeping yourself warm and hydrated and that’s what we did. It was too cold to venture out anyway.
The next day we went around the market to buy last minute things. A very few shops are open during this time of the year; whole market was lonely, gloomy, dull and lifeless. I have seen these streets full of people, shop vendors, cars etc in season time. It was so strange to see the market without any of these. We met our guide Ali Khan in the market. Ali is a very strong and one of the most experienced mountaineers in Ladakh. With over 80 expeditions under his belt, he has earned a lot of wisdom and understanding of the mountains. He was the perfect guy to have around us. There was only one place open in the market for food. They served some delicious pizzas!
We returned to our hotel in the afternoon after lunch and started packing and sorting out our equipment’s and clothing. We were to leave the next morning. As we knew where everything was and where everything would go, it didn’t take us more than an hour to get done with the final packing. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and resting in our guest house.
The excitement was building up. We were about to attempt something many could not dare to and which I only dreamed of. We had no clue about what was in store for the coming few days. Follow on for upcoming blogs of the expedition. Cheers!