Stok Kangri

Somewhere on the trail from Stok to Changma

I am trudging along quietly. Down a mountain trail that is often getting lost as it passes through a wide stream through a relatively broad, flattish valley. It’s getting dark. Sun had set long ago. This is what is called dusk. It will get dark very soon. Perhaps in ten minutes. Dark enough for me to need a flash light. My Black Diamond is in my pocket (at least I hope so and I am too scared to check) but the batteries are weak. I had used them non-stop for about 5 hours last night when I was attempting to summit Stok Kangri.

Outside Stok Village

Right now I am trying to reach Mankorma (a temporary camp site where you get basic food and shelter – there is no village or permanent settlement anywhere in the vicinity. Human beings don’t live at this altitude) which should be round the corner but that corner is coming forever. I don’t know how far it is. I am not even sure if I have already left it behind. In that case my next destination is Changma. 

My legs are weak. I don’t know where the feet are falling. I have been walking for the last 19 hours or so. We had started for the summit from Base Camp at 12 mid-night. We reached what is locally known as the “shoulder” (basically the Col below the peak) at around 8 am through heavy snow and no trail. We decided not to attempt to summit and return from the Col as we were too late and two of our friends (Shiva and Tanvi) needed to go down right up to Leh that very night (they eventually walked for 24 hours to reach Leh well past midnight). They have to leave for Sri Nagar the next day to catch a flight. I have no such compulsions.

Right now I am completely alone on this trail. No human beings anywhere in sight.

We crossed the Stok Kangri Base Camp a couple of hours or so ago, having lunched and taken a little rest there. My larger back pack with my tent and sleeping bag has been sent by mule to Leh. Three of us who attempted summit are now going back.

At base camp

Now, my two friends have gone ahead of me (they are stronger than me on the down trail as opposed to being way slower than me on the way up). So has my guide Tashi, who has my backpack with the rain coat. And it has been drizzling for the last hour or so. Although it does not normally rain in cats and dogs in the mountains, I am soaked to the bone having been walking in the drizzle for a long time now without a rain coat. My head and feet are dry though. Thank God for these small mercies. I have a down jacket with a parka to keep me warm and dry. This rain is probably ruining the jacket for good but I can’t help it.

If my legs were strong enough I should have reached Mankorma long ago. But they are not. They feel like jelly. They were strong on the tail up to the summit. But now on the way down, they are feeling weak. My worst fear is, if it gets dark on the trail I will find it impossible to find my way even with a strong flash light. Because when your trail is down a wide shallow stream (the valley is wide here), you often don’t have the trail right under your feet but you look for it a little distance away. And then somehow reach there when you see a discernable trail. That’s impossible to do with a flash light. On these trails you have to know your way or you are going to need to be rescued.

Suddenly I hear footsteps behind me. A couple is coming. They are Western tourists. A couple. I ask them if they could help me with informing my guide, who I was sure was waiting for me at Mankorma, that I needed to be rescued and he should come back looking for me. They said sure and walked ahead. At least now I was sure that I had not left Mankorma behind. That fear was also lurking behind my head.

Tashi Skalzang at Stok Palace

Just when I was mentally debating whether to pull the headlamp out of my pocket and started saying a prayer, I saw Tashi. All the anger that was welling up inside me vanished in a flash. I had made up my mind about all the insults I wanted to hurl at him. But all that I managed to say is, “why did you go ahead leaving me without my rain coat”. Obviously he didn’t remember that my rain coat was with him (though he himself made me take it off earlier and pack it in the back pack). He also thought I was just a few minutes behind him.

These simple mountain people live in the now. They do not think. He didn’t have the mental faculty to think that Sudipto’s rain jacket is in my backpack. I must go back. He must be getting drenched.

To them this trail is a very natural path to walk on and you make do with what you have. They cannot imagine that a person walking down this trail might need to be rescued.

Tashi told me that my friends had gone ahead and were possibly waiting at Changma before going further down. I told him there was no way I could move any further and must retire for the night at Mankarmo. Tashi agreed and organized  for my stay for the night and went ahead.

The Western tourists, Tashi told me, never bothered to look for him let alone ask him to come back. It just occurred to Tashi that I wasn’t coming for a long time and he had just come out to look for me.

I was allotted a tent and told that the tent would be shared by another person – a Bengali I had befriended in Base Camp (in the morning I realized that no one had come to my tent). I took all my wet clothes off. Luckily I had a pair of unused pants of a rain coat. I wore that for the night. From my upper body I took off the rain coat that Tashi made me wear for the last ten minutes or so, the down jacket, the inner shirt. The thermal inside was luckily dry.

I could hardly touch the rice that they gave me. I had absolutely no appetite. These tents offer you food and shelter as a package deal. Here they charged me Rs 1500 for a night with two meals and a breakfast. In the morning I found my wet clothes had somewhat dried up. The final drying was done by spreading them over the tent.

Somehow, I had slept like a log throughout the night despite the bad, thin, narrow and wet sleeping bag. Tashi had spoilt us rotten with his fantastic luxury sleeping bags. Normally I cannot sleep too well when I am very tired. But here I slept pretty well despite all the odds. 

The sun was somewhat better behaved this morning. Generally playing hide and seek but it was more out than hidden. I took the opportunity to get the wet clothes dried out by spreading them on small stones and the tent top. Eventually I would forget my favourite brown belt. I had a basic breakfast of milk and corn flakes. I bought a double omlet for Rs 50. Nothing very unreasonable. I started waiting for Tashi. He had promised to come by 10. The clock started going past 10 am and I started to get worried. I know the trail from Mankarmo to Stok is nothing very difficult. I should be able to make it in 4 hours or so if my legs were strong enough. 

Prelude

In September 2018 I had gone to Stok Kangri in Ladakh near Leh. Stok Kangri is the highest poin where a non-technical hiker can reach in India. It is above 20,000 feet and you don't need any special mountaineering skill to go there.

This is going to be an account of the trek and how we did it. It is written in such a way that you can do the trek on your own. If you want to know anything, please ask.

From Calcutta I first reached Delhi where I stayed at Pankaj Jain's house for the night. Next morning we (eight of us) took the Delhi Leh flight and reached Leh by 10 o clock or so. Our plan was to proceed directly to Stok. Tashi, our tour operator cum guide was waiting for us outside the airport. He had hired a Tempo Traveller for us which we boarded after all the customary selfies. Off we went for Stok village.

Outskirts of Stok village

It's about 15/20 km from Leh airport and didn't take us too long to reach. On the way, we crossed a full flowing Indus that looked very muddy. I have seen Indus in winter when it looks very serene and clean. Stok is more or less at the same altitude as Leh. We arrived in good spirit and unloaded our stuff inside the camp site, just next to the small stream that flows through Stok.

Stok is the last inhabited village on the trail to Stok Kangri (it literally means the ice peak above Stok village). It's a very well spread out village (very reminiscent of Bhutan) and as you come from Leh you first come across the Stok Palace (it has a lovely little museum that's worth a visit). After a couple of kilometers is the small taxi stand and camping area from where the actual trek to Stok Kangri starts. There is a restaurant and a small store here that stocks basic things like toilet paper and small this and that. I bought a Tarshok from here for the summit for Rs 100. 

It was very sunny on the morning we reached Stok and it felt almost hot there that forenoon. Soon our tents were set up in a camping ground that was exclusively for us. There was kitchen tent (green in the pic below) where the main cooking would be done, a dining tent complete with two plastic dining tables with a table cloth and eight folding chairs (the blue tent in the pic below). There was even a toilet tent exclusively for us. I have never trekked in so much luxury. For us, three tents were set up. One white 4-men's tent and two 2-men's tents. While one 2-men's would be taken by the two ladies Tanvi and Anamika, the six men would sleep in a 4+2 way. We soon realised that perhaps the 4-men's tent would be a little cramped. I proposed that I set up my own tent and my trek mates readily agreed. I later learnt that I would have to pay the local authorities Rs 200 for each day that I pitched the tent during the trek. I didn't mind the premium. Sleeping in your own tent has a charm and thrill of its own.

Pitching the tent for the first in the field (I had done it a few times at home before) proved to be very easy. Tashi and his cook Rowdy Rathore helped me put the stakes in. They were very impressed by the tent and its accessories. They told me that the extra stakes for the rain fly would not be necessary as the area was not very windy. I was very happy to have my own exclusive room. Friends were also happy that they got more room in their tents. 

Amdo restaurant, Leh

In the evening we decided to go to Leh just for a short evening out. There was a musical show in the Central Bazaar area and Tashi wanted to go and see it (his pocket was full with cash from us and it was probably itching). Off we went in a taxi and an army truck (the driver was kind with us). I got a chance to taste some chicken momo at my favourite Tibetan restaurant Amdo Food (there are many restaurants now with the name Amdo but this is the most authentic). I also bought a tin of Nivea cold cream for the trek. We came back to Stok well after sun set. We had our dinner in the dining tent and off we went to bed in our respective tents. Tashi's boys had spread the wonderfully fat and warm sleeping bag. Two in fact. One inside another. I did not want to take out my own and decided to sleep in the bag provided. It was a wonderful experience. Tashi really gave us very good quality stuff. Even the foam mattress was of very high quality. And can you imagine he had dining tables for us, complete with small folding stools? He had actually hired eight ponies for all the stuff that had to be carried for the eight of us. No other commercial trekking agency would do this.

Chortens near Stok Palace

We stayed in Stok the next day as well basically doing nothing. During the day we went hiking a bit. For about half an hour on the way to where we would go tomorrow. We sighted a few bharals on top of the hill under which we were standing. I was sad that I had chosen not to bring the long lens. Tashi later told me that I would see many of them on the way - particularly in Mankarmo. Though eventually we didn't see any there, we did get to see a large flock on the way from Changma to Mankarmo. 

In the afternoon we went to see Stok Palace on foot. As I said earlier - it is a palace worth visiting for its small museum. I believe members of the erstwhile royal family was in residence there at the time we were visiting. I quite liked the walk to the palace and the palace itself. You get a nice vantage view of Leh city from the palace and also the valley as a whole. 

Bharals on the slope 

The walk to Changma the next day after the day of acclimatisation in Stok was very uneventful, except that I took a completely needless difficult path above the river which was very steep. This was avoided while coming back. In retrospect, if I went to Stok Kangri again I would go straight for Mankarmo from Stok. It is not necessary to stop at Changma. Because the trail from Changma to Mankarmo is almost level along the river bed. 

I got a Chukar Partridge in Changma itself the next morning (distant shot across the stream) and on the way to Mankarmo saw a large flock of bharals - the Himalayan Blue Sheep. It was lovely to watch them. Because of the strong sun on the hill side across the river, it was difficult to spot the bharals though it was relatively pretty close. They meshed so well with the colour of the environment. 

Before reaching Changma I met a young boy who asked me if this was my first trek. I said Stok Kangri should not be any one's first trek. Then I realised it must be the boy's first trek. And yes. The stupid youngster was not only out in the mountains the first time, he was completely on his own with two sacks. One on the back and another in the front. He said he was a marathoner. I told him often being too fit is a dangerous thing because you then tend to go up too fast without acclimatisation and get sick soon. I don't know how much he understood. But I also saw him in the base camp area later. I don't know if he made to the summit. He might well have. Being a total chutia is often an advantage. 

It is possible to do Stok Kangri without a guide or porter. These places like Changma or Mankarmo or Base Camp have one tent shop where they serve you food. They also offer smaller tents for you to spend the night and give you basic sleeping bag etc like I took in Mankarmo on the way back. But it is advisable that you take a guide from Base Camp to do the summit. Going for the summit completely alone is perhaps inviting danger. A. It is very high altitude. B. The ridge from the shoulder up to the peak is not very safe. C. The glacier can be slightly risky. You might step into thin ice and sink a few feet in soft snow, which may not kill you but can lead to frost bite. There are guides who live in the base camp area and offer their expertise at a cost.