Stok Kangri Expedition

Stok Kangri --- I never heard about something like this and would not have heard at all if Amod would not have told me this :). So what is Stok Kangri??? It is a peak situated at 6153m (20180 ft) in Ladakh region of northwest india. For me the altitude was the attraction, more than 20000 feet....looks thrilling....Trekdi, the organization in Pune had planned this trek....sorry expedition. In 2011 itself me and amod decided that we will go for this next year....I said yes...."abhi haan kehane me kya jata hai.... :)". This trek needed full preparation for trekkers like us who are not professional trekkers and not technically sound in trekking, Also one year was sufficient to do financial planning also as Trekdi charges were around 37000 from Leh to Leh, so other travelling charges (Pune to Leh and back) was also additional burden. As far as physical preparations were concerned, for last 2 years we are going to Sinhgad on most of the weekends for exercise purpose so that was not an issue. Due to Sinhgad our stamina had increased a lot and we used to climb it by keeping in mind some progress in terms of time. From start of Yr2012 we took this trek seriously and as usual I was little concerned and had many many queries in mind. So I met Shridhar Joshi (Trekdi member) who had done this trek in 2011 and asked him lot of questions :). The first thing he told is that this is not a trek, its a expedition. There is difference in trek and expedition. Trek is something where you can do hiking, travelling etc etc, but expedition is different, it needs lot of planning and it can be successful/unsuccessful. So now i too started calling this as expedition rather than trek. It was planned in between 20-30th July. In the month of May I guess we booked air tickets for Pune to Delhi, Delhi to Leh and Leh to Delhi and train reservation for Delhi - Pune to save some money :). In parallel our preparation in terms of regular trek to Sinhgad was going on, also we bought the necessary things that we needed to carry for this expedition(Like Good trekking shoes, good handgloves, jacket, head torch and many more). These things were never needed to us in the treks that we did in Maharashtra but now this addition cost also got added... :(. As usual before going to any trek I did lot of enquiry, talk with some people who had already done this trek and till last moment I was always in 50-50 situation whether to go or not. Many people with whom I talked they said, listen you definitely need to be physically strong but more than that you should be mentally strong enough to do this. I realized why one need to be mentally strong when I was at 18000 feet height which i will tell later :)
There were only 3 people from Pune (Me, Amod and his friend Pravesh) and Trekdi office told us that there will be some more people joining us in Leh, so we thought there must be group of 8-9 people. So with all preparations, with everyone's wishes we headed towards Leh on 19th July evening.

Day 1: 20th July morning we reached Leh airport. Leh city itself is at more than 10000 ft from sea level and it is not advisable to go there directly by air. Many people told us that for first 2-3 days you might have headache and some other high altitude sickness.So all required medicines were there with us. The feeling after landing on Leh was unbelievable, can't imagine there can be an airport at such high altitude. 

On Leh Airport.....

The climate was superrrrbbbbb with cool breeze around. Trekdi driver picked us from airport and then we reached at hotel where one room was booked for us. Our room was on 2nd floor and we needed to climb some steps to reach the room. Here itself we experience what can happen at such altitude and why we need to get acclimatized to this altitude. These first steps really took toll out of us, just after climbing few steps we were feeling very tired (Due to low amount of oxygen may be). Me and Amod were looking at each other and laughing from inside thinking what is now going to happen in coming days... :):) For the full day we took rest and in the evening went to Trekdi office which is newly started in Leh. Here we met Wasim, Iftikhar and Musti. They asked if anyone is having some problems like headache and all. Till now everyone was OK. They told us that there are 2 ways to go to Stok Kangri Base Camp (BC), one way takes us in 2 days to BC which is tiring one (Stok Village-Mankorma-BC) and other way takes us in 4 days (Stok Village-Zingchen-Rumbuk-Mankorma-BC) which is longer route but not much tiring. We thought a lot on this and initially thinking to go by longer route so that we will get used to the conditions and then told them we will decide this in coming days..... 
Then we roam around in the market and then went for a small hike to Shanti Stupa to get acclimatize. 

In Leh market

Shanti Stupa

Lots of foreigners were there and surprisingly very few Indians were there in such nice city :(, most of them came for bike safaris..... Then Musti told us to go back to hotel and take rest, next day we will have a small trek of 3-4 hours for more acclimatization. After reaching to hotel, Pravesh started feeling headache and this was the first sign of symptoms that one can face here. WE decided not to take Diamox and wait till next day morning.




Day 2: We woke up late in the morning and had nice breakfast. Pravesh was feeling better than yesterday so no worries. After lunch we went to trekdi office and here Musti was waiting for us as he was going to take to a small trek. We went till a start point by car and then started for this small trek.

Small trek near Leh

Thats Stok Kangri.....

It was interesting trek and in no time we were tired. But we decided not to stop and just keep walking/climbing with everyone's pace. I was with Musti, then Amod followed by Pravesh. We were taking some snaps on the way. We completed this small trek and reached to other end where Car was waiting for us to pick. Car driver told that you guys are very fast and compared to other people he has seen in the past we reached much earlier. Musti also told that our speed and stamina seems good which was encouraging for us before starting the actual trek. :). We came back to office and shared our experience and then straight a way went to Hotel....We were so tired and hungry that even after deciding that we will not eat non-veg till trek completion, we ate it ;). Next day we had to go to most amazing Pangong lake (A beautiful place where 3 Idiots was shooted)









Day 3: We were ready at sharp 6.30 am and car came to pick us. We had to leave early as Pangong lake was at 150kms from Leh which took 5 hours to reach there. On the way we had some breakfast and headed towards Pangong lake. The route was superrrrb, with slowly going up, with very narrow curved roads. Sometime later we reached Chang La pass which is at 17586 feet...unbelievable....3rd highest motorable road. 

At Chang La

We took some photos here and in no time i started feeling cold as it was very very cold here.After 15-20 mins we decided to leave Chang La pass as it was not advisable to stay there for long time as one is not used to that altitude and climate. After 1.5 hrs we saw first glimpse of Pangong lake and really I was seeing blue greenish colored water for the first time.....amazing....

Pangong Lake...

The scenery was so beautiful that I could not stop myself from taking lots and lots of photos here. There were some small restaurants here, we ate some maggi and then left for Leh. I was having lot of headache while returning back, it was due to sudden cold that I faced at Chang La pass.After reaching to hotel, my headache increased and I got little tensed as our actual trek was going to be start from tomorrow. But after some rest and dinner I felt much better and ready for the challenge.... :)


Day 4 (Stok Village-Mankorma 14650 ft) : We had breakfast in the hotel and reached to trekdi office at around 8.30 am. Here we met with our trek leader Pasang, an Everest summiter and other staff like cook and 2 helpers. One french lady also joined us and we all left for Stok village with everyone's wishes. By the time Musti became our good friend and he told everyone "Sir ji aapaka Submit (They all used to say 'Submit' to 'Summit') ho jayega, don't worry")
In Stok village we put most of our luggage on donkey's backs and started walking towards Mankorma, our first campsite. There was one more group left just before us and after one hour of walk there was a stiff climb where one Indian guy from that other group felt uncomfortable and he was the first casualty and he had to go back..... :( This was the first sign of how difficult this trek can be if you are not acclimatized properly. I was fast enough and was ahead, with Amod and then rest of the people following. When I told french lady that I had visited Paris, she unknowingly started talking with me in French thinking that I know french...;)......Ca Va Ashish??? Then I told her that I know only Bonjour and Merci.... :)
Guide told us to take a break and have some packed lunch. It was about more than 2 hours from Stok Village, here we took lunch and surprisingly there was a small restaurant on the way which was obviously very costly... :) Still we took cold drink here as it we needed it badly..

Small restaurant on the way to Mankorma

After lunch break we started our walk and I was taking lot of snaps of beautiful scenery around, some monasteries were there and lots of big mountains. After 1 hour of walk I saw some small tents and i thought yes we reached Mankorma BC, but later realized that it was not our BC :(. Guide told us that it will take atleast one hour more to reach our camp site....Slowly and slowly we reached our first camp Mankorma, the last 30 mins were really killing. We were so tired that just after walking few steps we had to stop to take some breath. The real feeling of altitude and low oxygen has now started. Pravesh was so tired that he just sat down, took a towel on his head and was in same position almost for 15 mins. I was unable to stop myself from laughing with his action, it was not intentional but it was situational....:):) 

Mankorma camp

From Mankorma camp we can see Stok Kangri summit, wow it was amazing view. In no time, helpers and our guide put up the tents and we immediately went into tents and had some sleep. French lady was so tired that she immediately went inside tent and didn't even come for dinner. We then heard that she had some stomach problem and she needed some rest, but definitely for her age (60) it was tremendous achievement to come here. There was a river flowing besides our camp and the water was very very cold. In the night we had very good dinner (definitely not expected to have such dinner at such place), but the cook (his name Mingma) made our night. They also had nice Kitchen and Dining tents.....With lots of chats and fun we went to sleep, next day we have to proceed to Stok Kangri BC...it was my at-least to do target :) 

Day 5(Mankorma-Stok Kangri BC 16500ft): Next day morning we had famous Black T(Helper serving this tea was literally pronouncing like "Sir B......lack tea" :)), breakfast and headed toward BC. Again with slow climb of almost 2 hours we reached Stok Kangri BC and my first dream achieved. On the way we saw some marmots, very shy small animal like squirrel. 

Stok Kangri BC

I had done so much research on this trek before going for this trek that I almost decided that I will atleast go till base camp and this kind of attitude only spoilt my further journey.... :)
Here surprisingly at one point there was good mobile network and from there I called to my family and some good friends and gave them news that I have reached 16500 ft and all is well....The temperature was really cold here and immediately we rushed in our tents. Guide told us that we will have rest today and next day morning we will go for a hike till Advanced base camp to have some practice. We roam around the place and talked with some people(of course only foreigners :() who had done summit previous night and they told that its not impossible, just be positive and give your best. Again we had good dinner and then went to sleep. Even in the tents, inside much warmer sleeping bag i was feeling cold...:) with wearing thermal wear, tshirt, sweatshirt and good warm jacket on it....;)

Day 6(Stok Kangri BC): In the morning we left toward Advanced base camp(ABC) for practice before actual summit attempt. The first climb itself was so stiff, that we had to stop to take some breath after some climb. 

Stiff Climb...hehehe

Pravesh and that french lady was getting tired very clickly and so we had to wait for them. The climb was not much stiff but it was very tiring and lengthy. In apprx 1.5 hrs we reach to ABC and literally the view here was breathtaking. On one side there was mighty Stok Kangri top was seen and on the other side there was a huge beautiful glacier. I was experiencing something like this for the first time. We took some snaps here and almost everyone was cracking jokes like "this is my stok kangri.... that's it....i will not be able to go ahead next day during actual summit.....etc etc"....Here it was very windy and very cold.....but it was nice.....

Mich aahe..... :)

At ABC, huge glacier behind

Then in another 1 hour we returned to BC and guide told us that this night we will do summit attempt. I was physically not tired but mentally somehow not ready to proceed. Was again and again thinking that ohhh no we have to again go till ABC and don't know how much it will be after that. My negative mindset really killed my positive attitude :( due to which something which I could have done just remained a dream....Anyways everyone was somehow feeling like this only. During dinner time, we just tried to encourage everyone by telling that you will do it.....We went to sleep early at 7 pm itself as we needed to start for summit attempt at 1 am. I was not able to sleep as I was continuously thinking to give up and not to go.... :(. This is something which happened to me for the first time and the reason was as I said previously Base Camp was my only target which i kept from start :(



Day 7(Summit Attempt): We all started for summit attempt at 1.30 am. Everyone was having small sack with some water, some food, juice and crampons to wear later. Again that stiff climb, that entire route till ABC was boring.....

That's me only....in the night :)

In some time we got distributed in 2 groups, with Amod, Mingma and french lady ahead of us and then me, Pravesh and Pasang following them. Don't know what happened to me, but my mind was not ready to go ahead and may be due to less oxygen I started feeling uncomfortable and told Pasang that I want to go back. But he didn't speak at all as they want us to keep walking :) :). Climbing in night was not difficult as I had done it  previously but walking on snow in night was definitely difficult for me. I was doing this for the first time. After ABC we reached till glacier and then I decided to go back as it was becoming difficult for me to proceed. I was not able to breath properly. I came back to BC with one helper and then in some time, Pravesh and french lady also returned unsuccessfully. So we had hopes only on Amod and I know he will do it if he don't face any physical problem like I faced. 

Amod on top

After some time Pasang came and told us Amod did the summit and it was really good news for me as we initially decided that atleast one of us should do it.....Amod returned in some time and he was very tired.....He told his awesome experience of summit which i unfortunately missed :(. 
Everyone was very tired and went to sleep early after having dinner. 












Day 8(BC-Stok Village-Leh): Next day morning we started to return back to Leh with same route. It was again a boring journey from BC to Mankorma to Stok Village. As usual I was much ahead of everyone and guide Pasang asked me "Kal kya hua tha aapako??? :) submit kar lena chahiye tha......" ;)
But he was right, just one bad day and perhaps my attitude spoiled my entire trek.... By afternoon we reached Stok village and car was arranged to pick us. Support staff asked for some 'TIP' and we gave tip to all support staff though we were not happy to give but thats how these people earn some extra money. And personally for me it built good relations with them even it was journey of 4-5 days and definitely it was something very difficult work they are doing at such altitude so I feel for them and so I had no issues in giving some tip to them. 
We reached to trekdi office and then to our hotel. We all had bath after some days.... :) hehehe, but another thing is that in that weather bath was not required....;)
In night we went for a nice dinner in Leh market and ate some momos, speciality of Leh. In Leh there are lots of good restaurants serving all type of food including Indian, Chinese, Korian, Italian, Spanish etc etc as foreigners are their main customers. There are only 3 ATMs in Leh and you will find always long queue outside all these ATMs. 

Day 9/10 (Leh): We had 2 more days in hand as our Leh-Delhi flight ticket was on monday morning. Because as per initial plan we were suppose to go by longer route as I mentioned earlier and so accordingly we had this plan. 

Leh Trekdi office

Me and Amod cancelled our Delhi-Pune train ticket and decided to go by flight only as we wanted to reach home as early as possible ;)
On saturday night another group from Trekdi Pune stayed in same hotel, those people came for bike safari. We had dinner with them and shared our experience. We literally spend these 2 days in hotel just sleeping and watching TV.... :) Amod now started feeling some dizziness for last 2 day but that was manageable. On Sunday we did some shopping in market, took some gifts for friends, relatives and next day returned back to Pune...

May be I should have kept some patience and should have waited till sun rise before taking decision to go back, may be if Amod could have been there with me on summit day to give me some confidence, may be I could have summited it......but its all is now may be..... :)

Nevertheless overall trek experience was awesome...Leh/Ladakh is beautiful, lots of places to roam around. Pangong lake and Chang La pass were other 2 attractions and ofcourse unforgettable trek to Stok Kangri......even though I didn't complete it.... :) 

We had a great party after coming to Pune and then decided to go to Everest base camp next year. This is now new dream to do Everest base camp... Hope you all liked this blog...:)

Rajgad-Torna

Rajgad-Torna, a dream trek of mine. I had heard/read a lot about this trek and so it was always there in back of mind. This trek needs lot of stamina as one need to first climb Rajgad, then from top of Rajgad go to top of Torna (Rajgad and Torna are joined with long ridge having many small hills in between) and descend Torna to go to base village. I was planning for this trek since 2 years but didn't succeed due to some reasons... Once we went with full preparation but then heavy rain spoiled the party...So this trek was always a treat for me.....

So now we decided lets do it during weekend of Ganapati visarjan 29-30th Sept. As usual there was no planning, no preparation as such since all others in our group are bit lazy, on the contrary i like to go with full planning and preparations :)....Even i was thinking it will get cancelled since 2 of our regular trek members backed out at the last moment...still somehow we managed to make a group of 5 (me, Amod, Aniruddha, Dev and his friend Yogesh) and then on Saturday morning finally decided that we will go....this time I want to do it at any cost...;)

We decided to start from Pune at 5 pm but again as usual time was not followed as one member (Dev) came late and finally we started at 8 pm. There was no worry of dinner as we had ordered dinner at one home based hotel in base village of Rajgad - Gunjavane. We reached base village at around 9.30 pm, had our dinner quickly and started to climb Rajgad at 10.30 pm. At base village there were many vehicles parked so we thought there must be lot of people already gone on top so there was less chance for us to get a good place for sleep :(, but we had no option than to go up... :) 

Climbing in the night was not an issue as we had already climbed Rajgad in night many times (Once at 2.30 am too :)). 

Start of climbing Rajgad at around 10.30

We had enough torches with us and as it was full moon the climb was more simpler. We reached the top of Rajgad at around 12.00 am, and then had some chat, fun. Now we went to Padmavati temple to find a place for sleeping, but the temple was already full of people and on top of that it was locked from inside so people like us will not come inside and find some small place for sleeping. There is another room(usually called Guest house - but don't go on its name as its really not a good place to sleep) that was also full :( 

Now we decided to sleep outside the temple in the varanda as we had no option left and we just wanted to sleep for 4-5 hours. The varanda had very less space but somehow we managed to sleep as these things are immaterial when you go to treks. Aniruddha was not so convinced to sleep there as he is not much used to treks and not used to sleep like this :). But again he had no option than to sleep there...I had good sleep till 3 am and then it was little cold which was making uncomfortable. We woke up at 5.30 am. There was person who was making breakfast (Pohe and Tea), we took breakfast from him which we desperately needed before going ahead. 

Must needed T :)

It was 7 am and we targeted to reach top of torna by 1 pm, take some rest and descend torna to reach village Velhe by 4pm, but things don't go by planning each time. We need to traverse Rajgad from one side, go down and take U turn from Alu darwaja to head towards Torna. From here there was stiff descend and it was very slippery so we had to walk very carefully. Here is the snap of the path and our target....

Ridge between Rajgad and Torna, one can see torna at the end

We kept on walking and at around 9 am we reached on one road which we need to cross on the way. Here Aniruddha looked tired and his speed has already gone down, he said he don't want to go ahead as he was getting tired. But somehow we managed to convince him to proceed. As he was very slow we asked him to go ahead with another small group who was also going to Torna. At around 10.30 am we saw small hut on the way and asked for some butter milk and water. Here we decided to take one break as Aniruddha was very tired and was in no position to proceed. We ate some cream roll to get the energy and decided to start. Somehow again we managed to convince him to proceed as there were only 2 options either to go back to Rajgad or go to Torna :). I was still not much tired as such so I told others that now we will stop directly on top of torna because we wanted to reach base village on time and also there was chance of rain too. But it was not that simple because now onwards there was a stiff climb till top of torna. From here the climb was very stiff, Amod and me were fast enough to proceed but there was much gap between us and other 3 guys. At around 12.30 pm, me and Amod climbed the ladder and decided to wait for others as they were much behind. It was very hot and really taking a toll out of us. Here I thought its done so I took some victory snaps but later realize that still we need to walk for more than an hour to reach a temple on torna from where we need to descend ;). 

Celebration time...but still long way to go :)

Aniruddha, Dev and Yogesh too came in sometime and then again we have to wait as these guys were tired. Now we have to go towards other end of fort and from here my speed also gone down and started to feel little tired. I reached the temple at 2 pm and again had to wait for others to come there. Finally all came and we had some food, took some rest (sleep infact :)) as we were really tired and then started to descend at 3.15 pm towards Velhe vilage.

I literally slept in 2 mins...;)

The descend was quick enough and not tiring and so we quickly reached the base by 4.45 pm. Thankfully it didn't rain because if it rained then it would have taken much time to reach base. That is why i was pushing everyone to move quickly :)

From Velhe village we took a jeep and reached Gunjavane village where our car was parked. Finally my dream trek and long waited trek was done :). It took almost 10 hours for us from top of Rajgad to base village of Torna. The feeling after reaching top of Torna was unbelievable when I saw from where we came :);)

Definitely it is not difficult trek but one need to have good stamina to do it. While coming back to home we had lot of fun, shared experience of the trek, did jokes on Aniruddha and decided to do complete trek again during summer in one day (from Rajgad base village to Torna base village :))....Lets see...;)