Stok-Kangri

I have to write fast because im still in Leh and the internet is damned expensive. Next trip: im bringing my own computer!

Some places let me write in WORD for cheaper rate and then upload to the computer but I havent found a place like this right now. Thank god I can speed type.

So we were at the base camp at a level of 5100 meters and the time was about 2AM. We started walking. Nagmyal first, then Yoav, then Olik and then me, bringing up the rear. The weather stood still at about freezing, and we were each carrying about 30 kilos in clothing, plus a backpack each with metal spikes to clip onto our shoes and a big ice ax.

The first ascent came quickly, and it was one we knew was coming as we could see it from camp. The first two minutes were fine, I was walking at a brisk pace and breathing normally. After this, however, my breathing began to lag, and I immediately felt that all the food I was encouraged to consume the night before was slowly trying to break free of my body. I walked "slowly...slowly" as Nagmyal had encouraged us, and breathed deeply and rhythmically, but the higher we went, the more nauseaus I felt. I told the group to stop.

I took off my gloves and tried to vomit into the freezing nocturnal low-oxygen air. Nothing. We kept walking. Every so often Olik asked to rest, his cigarette smoke loaded lungs not bearing well with extremely thin air. With flashlights we followed the precarious path higher and higher, and the nausea was only getting worse. I was breathing like a pack mule after a very very long day in the fields. Only the breathing was slower, one breath with each step, each step slower then the one before it.

I tried puking twice more and even tried to take a shit, just to get everything out of me. But nothing came. Nagmyal knew I wasnt going to make to the top, and I knew it to. In a way, I was fine with this, and at certain points I hoped my body would just cave in and fall, and that way I would not need to make the decision to turn back round on my own. The sun started coming up at around 4:30AM, and we were taking more frequent rest stops. Nagmyal, as usual, smoked his cigarettes and remained silent. He knew it was only a matter of time before the first of us dropped. He was also hoping, I think, that if one dropped, we would all need to return to base camp as a group and forfeit the climb. Not so easy.

At 6AM we reached the advanced base camp at 5500 meters and, feeling like 1000 pounds, we managed to squeeze ever fewer steps out of our ravaged bodies. We made it to 5600, or thereabouts. We were walking on slippery ice at this point, a huge glacier approaching us, and I couldnt walk more then five steps without keeling over. I decided I could not go on for I could barely breath and was feeling extreme nauseau. To continue at this point would be risking extreme high altitude sickness and even DEATH.

Olik and I decided to turn back....enough is enough we said. But Yoav wanted to continue, and Nagmyal said we should all go back. A moment of tension between us, Yoav stated firmly that he would continue alone if need be. Nagmyal, irritated, continued upward with Yoav as Olik and I started the descent.

Descending was easier then climbing but still taxing. The walk back to base camp was long and arduous, but the view from this high with the sun rising above us was, and I dont say this lightly, the most spectacular view Ive ever seen in my life. The sun rising slowly over the himalayan range, the clouds parting, ever imaginaeable hew of brown and blue and green merging together and becoming brighter by the minute. By the time we reached the last descent, I decided I wanted to savor the view from this peak. I took a seat and fell asleep on the sand while Olik continued to base camp. I woke up an hour later, stunned by the 360 degree view surrounding me.

I continued on to base camp around 8AM. After saying hello and giving a brief description of our non-successful attempt to climb to 6100 to a group of fellow trekkers, I arrived at our tents. The cook reminded me that the climb was actually a success, as I had reached 5600 meters, and that many many many dont make it the first time. For my first trek I had certainly attained great heights. In fact, we were the only trekkers with no experience who had attempted this trek. We were also the only Israelis. All the other trekkers, and there were about six other groups, were groups from France, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Austria who had all come to India to trek in Ladakh, and brought all the best North Face gear, a wealth of experience garnered through years of trekking in the Alps, and most importantly, they were all on 8-10 day treks that had culminated with the Stok-Kangri peak after making successfull high altitude pass crossings in the week before, allowing for proper acclimatisation. Our problem, I'm quite certain is that we made the limb from 3700 to 6100 way too fast.

Anyways excuses are lame and Ill concur Stok-Kangri some other time. Olik and I both felt good about the trek so far, even though we didnt make it to the top, and while waiting for Nagmyal and Yoav to return, we decided we wanted to concur at least one other shorter peak before returning to Leh. We had the whole day in front of us, and we were to spend the night at the same place. We took a long nap, and, rejuvinated, boworred a set of snow-trekking sticks from an Austrian couple. These sticks are a godsend, and I'm certain that if we had them during Stok-Kangri we would have made it.

We spotted a peak near base camp which was apparently 5700 meters high, and started climbing. We took our metal spikes because we wanted to climb some glaciers, damnit! The climb was hard, obviously, but without our guide, we climbed at our own pace. I quickly developed a strategy: five steps, five seconds rest. This soon grew into shorter steps and longer rests, but we made it. It was insanely difficult, especially since we hadnt rested that much since the previous night's climb. I had wanted to turn back at certain points, not sure why we were making ourselves suffer in such a way, but Olik had the determination to persist and reach the glacier. I was less excited about the thought of climbing ice, but Olik, who grew up in Israel, has seen little snow in his lifetime.

We reached the foot of the glacier and we were mad with joy as we dawned our spikes. We climbed a few meters in the ice, realized the whole thing could just cave in, and having no guide, opted against climbing to the very very top. What if we lost our grip and slid down into the steep jagged rocks below? We took out our Tibetan flag, hung it, took many many pictures and videos in which Olik shouted mad love induce rantings and proposals of marriage to his ex-girlfriend, and ate chocolates we brought with us. Then we ran down, and I mean ran.

Yoav and Nagmyal had come back and were resting in their tents by the time we got back. We conversed with the Austrian couple, Mikael and Nicole, both in their mid 30's and avid trekkers and nature lovers, and gave back the sticks (without which we would not have reached the glacier).

That night we sat and laughed with Nagmyal, Yoav, the cook Tal and the Donkey man as we reminisced about the crazy trek and reassured ourselves that the climb was actually a success and not a failure and we had reached dizzying heights nevertheless. Yoav felt ill at night having suffered milk sun stroke, but was fine. He showed us pictures from the peak and we felt like we had been right up there with him, we were so happy that he made it, and yet surprisingly, not dissapointed that we hadnt. I think the glacier we concured during the day had strengthened our resolve and confidence in our trekking abilities. Next time we would concur Stok-Kangri. Anways hey, we made it to 5700 meters from 3700 meters, not bad for a first trek.

Tapka, the 24 year old guide for the austrian couple came to smoke a victory joint with us in our tent later in the night and told us some seriously funny stories. He's been trekking for years and has a record of climbing Stok-Kangri in three hours; for most trekkers it takes about six. He basically runs up the side of the mountain as if its nothing for him, a joint hanging from his mouth as he does so. He's seen a lot of things during his climbs and he told us a story about the Donkey Man who sleeps with his donkeys, the orgies he's witnessed between trekkers of different nationalities, his own sexual escapades with lonely trekker girls from China and the U.S., and best of all a weird story of how all men god their ding dongs. Sufficiently teary eyed from laughing, we went to sleep that third night in very high spirits.

We woke early and after breakfast, started the long walk back to Stok village. We reached Stok at 1PM and waited for our jeep to arrive for about one hour. We drank a aweful tasting victory beer with some serious Danish trekkers who had also climbed Stok but with great difficulty, and then drove back to Leh. We took some final pics with Namgyal, Tal and Tsewang the agent, and went to find a guesthouse with a really hot shower. This was about ten days ago.

Just so the world knows Im going back to Manali tomorrow or the next day where the internet is a whole lot cheaper and faster, and where I'll probably compose the next post.