I thought this diary might be interesting/useful to someone who was thinking of a high-altitude mountain challenge. Stok Kangri is in Ladakh, the Himalayan region in Northern India. It's 6,153 metres high, which definitely brings on the effects of altitude sickness.
3/8/11 – Train to
London
I’m writing this as
the flight to Leh for Delhi
Delhi
Leh is beautiful Today we have visited 3 ‘gompas’
(monastries). It’s awe-inspiring to see
the dedication and diligence the Buddhists have to their religion.
11/8/11 – Trek Day 2 - Skiu to Shingo
Today we set off from
Rumbak and climbed the 3 hour ascent to Stok La pass which was at 4,980m,
similar to yesterday’s pass. It was a
real slog but the difference today was my headache wasn’t as bad. At the top, I felt cold but ok.
So this is it. I’m sat on a train to Euston with a huge bag
to my right! The last two days have been
tiring, making sure I have everything while worrying about homesickness, my dog
Honey and they physical challenge ahead.
I left home at 1:30pm
with my mum driving me to the station. I
keep having this nagging feeling I’ve forgotten something which is a pain.
This is the first time
I’ve ever left the country alone.
In 2009 I went on a
camping trip for four nights on my own to Aviemore. I remember it being scary and unnerving to be
far away on my own.
There’s a part of me
that just wants to get going now. I want
to be on the trek, on the challenge, but it’s a whole 6/7 days away yet so I
have to be patient.
There’s real ‘pluses’
of doing this that I can’t yet visualise.
All of these will happen over the next few days. There’s sightseeing in Delhi ,
the capital of India
It’s quite peaceful to
be sat here on the train to London London
4/8/11 – Flight from
London to India
I’m writing this on
the flight to Delhi
After a drink in Café
Nero I walked to Embankment station and had a sit on a bench for peace and
quiet. Finding peace and quiet anywhere
in London
Sitting there on the
bench, 90 minutes before I needed to be at Heathrow, I really searched my
soul. Why was I doing this? The homesickness and the cost is only all
worth it if it’s for a reason. I know
that raising money for charity is worthwhile.
But still, I came to a crux in my thought process.
It came down to a
quote by Eddie Izzard which I often come back to,
‘Sometimes you just
gotta go for it.’
It’s like, sometimes
you don’t know why you’ve got to do something.
Sometimes you just have to be bold even when you’re not sure.
Since then, I’ve
checked in and met the team. It’s great
to meet them and to get to know each other.
I am excited about it! Looking
forward to landing in Delhi
6/8/11 – Flight from
Delhi to Leh
I’m writing this as
the flight to Leh for - so many many people
- the first time I’ve been somewhere out of
Western society
- so much traffic! Scary and dangerous!
- So much diverse culture!
When we land in about
an hour’s time, we’ll be at 3,500m.
That’s double Ben Nevis and a bit
more. That’ll be the highest I’ve been
at by far. I’m excited about that!
Last night I was so
tired. I think I feel better in the
mornings – more purposeful – more alive.
At night I need my rest.
7/8/11 – Arrived in
Leh
Leh is beautiful Today we have visited 3 ‘gompas’
(monastries). It’s awe-inspiring to see
the dedication and diligence the Buddhists have to their religion.
I see what is meant by
altitude acclimatisation. Last night I
had a banging, thumping headache. Also,
it is far easier to get out of breath. I
wish I’d paid more attention to the high-altitude advice given on the charity
challenge website!
9/8/11 – First camp
We have just set up
camp one in Chilling. I’ve just
completed two firsts: I’ve washed my hair and brushed my teeth in a
stream! That feels pretty cool and it’s
made me feel at home!
We have a group to
look after us: a cook and 3 helpers.
It’s extremely humbling to have someone cook for us throughout the
trip. There’s now a kind of home-comfort
feel to this.
10/8/11 – Trek Day 1 - Chilling to Skiu
Today we trekked from
Chilling to Skiu. Day one done! We are now at camp in Skiu. It’s extremely hot. Must be close to 30 degrees Celsius. I’ve just washed in the stream and it really
helps to feel ‘human’ again.
We have an amazing
team of porters to look after us. All
we’ve had to do is trek for 3 hours. The
porters have had to carry all of our stuff and tend to the ponies.
It wasn’t easy today
but it was over quite quickly. To say
it’s 3pm now and I can chill, relax, not have to do anything and all of my
meals are taken care of is humbling.
These porters work so hard for us!
(I’m not doing a good job of emphasising the challenge aspect of this
yet am I?)
We were up at 6am with
a wake up call and a cup of black tea.
We had to be up, have our bags packed and dressed for 7am. After an amzing breakfast of cereal,
omelette, toast, tomato ketchup, peanut butter and jam on toast and all the tea
I could drink, we were off at 8am.
By 9am we reached the
crossing of the Zanskar river. We
crossed using a cable car which was for one person at a time. It was already 11am by the time we were off
again. After only 2 hours, we were at
Skiu. The first day’s hike was done in 3
hours and by 1pm!
It was short but it
was hard as well. It got so, so
hot. Throughout the whole time it was sun
cream, hat, sun glasses and balaclava to escape from the heat.
We now have a couple
of hours to chill out before dinner at 5pm and visiting a monastery at
5:30pm. Time to chill…
We have made it passed
Shingo to the bottom of Ganda La pass.
Today has been a much
tougher day. I have a banging headache
because of the altitude. We are at
4,200m. I’m looking forward to
tomorrow’s trek but not after a good rest.
It has all been
gradual ascent of about 800m. The first
3 hours felt good. We stopped at Shingo
for lunch and my headache started. The
last hour I found quite hard because my head was throbbing. It was a real pressure headache. I ran out of water as well and it was all
overwhelming.
As we got to camp, it
was still scorching. The rain came and
now everyone is chilling out in their tents.
Luckily, tomorrow will
be a cooler day. On the other hand,
altitude will be a bigger factor as at one point we’ll be at 4,900m. Yikes!
I’ve ran many
marathons and climbed a UK
12/8/11 – Trek Day 3 - Shingo to Rumbak
Today we trekked for 2
and a half hours to reach Ganda
La.
What’s good is that
tomorrow is the last long day before summit day. Bring it on!
13/8/11 – Trek Day 4 - Rumbak to Markeno
I am writing this
while sat around the tea tent with Deepen and the team. We are in Markeno which is a 2 and a half
hour walk from Low Base Camp.
We climbed down for
half an hour and the headache set in.
I’ve not really felt out of breath or had heavy tired legs but the
headaches have been bad.
It was a great feeling
of relief to reach camp 3 hours from the pass.
On the way there, it was still tiring and the headaches were still
there.
Now we’re here, I’m
excited to be so close to summit day.
Tomorrow is only a 2 and a half hour trek to base camp, then the day
after is a rest day.
In the run up to this,
I kept thinking ‘Just go for it.’ After
all the thing I’ve already done this year, it’s not like this is what I’d
completely set my sights on this year.
For myself, I’m already really pleased within myself that I’ve
challenged myself this year to the hilt.
In a belief that I have, that it doesn’t matter whether you’ve ran that
half marathon or not, it’s about whether you’ve dared to dare or not. I’m already content.
“We don’t dare because
life is difficult. Life is difficult
because we don’t dare.”
However, today I
realised that I have a chance, an opportunity, to climb a 6,000m peak. I don’t know anyone who’s done that. It’s a chance to do it for myself, to tick it
off the life list.
14/8/11 – Trek Day 5 - Markeno to Base Camp
Made it to Stok Kangri
Low Base Camp. All of my entries seem to
have a ‘trekked a long way, got a
headache’ structure to them! I can assure
you the headaches are rough!
I felt okay today but
again head was pounding. Marathons may
be hard you don’t get headaches!
15/8/11 – Rest Day
It’s snowing! It’s
chucking it down with snow. The base
camp, which was green and lake district-esque yesterday when we got here, is
now covered in a white blanket. This
will make the summit day, if it is still tomorrow and not the day after, even
more challenging!
This morning we went
on an acclimatisation walk to where advanced base camp should be (except no-one
is allowed to camp there now because of previous littering). I put on all of my summit day kit so felt a
bit too warm at times. It was hard going
but felt pretty good as we had trekked to 5,300m. Not bad going!
After lunch it started
to get pretty cold. We were all a bit
delirious from the cold. We had our
crampons fitted.
17/8/11 – Summit Day
I’m writing this
having successfully summitted Stok Kangri.
I’ve managed to climb to an altitude of 6,150m!
My initial feeling is
of relief. It was so tough. We set off at 12:30am and returned at 2:30pm
– a 14 hour trek!
First steps
We were woken at
11:35am by Deepen to get ready. I had
all my stuff with me so felt ready.
However, it’s hard to judge how many layers you’ll need so I was a bit
behind setting off at 12:30. I had to
walk quickly to catch up. By the time
I’d caught up I was out of breath! Not
what you need! To make matters worse,
I’d dropped my head torch and hadn’t even realised. Deepen handed it back to me.
Reaching Advanced Base Camp
We reached ABC in about
2 hours. Because of the thick snow that
had fallen 24 hours earlier, it was made all the more difficult to get
there. From then on, we were split into
2 groups.
Crossing the glacier
At the foot of Stok
Kangri is an enormous glacier. I’m
guessing it took about an hour and a quarter to cross it.
This the furthest we’d
walked towards Stok Kangri, having trekked to ABC 2 days earlier. I remember thinking how unusual (and to be
frank intimidating) it was to be walking in the dark. In fact, it was only light by 6am. Crossing the glacier was hard work. The snow was over 3 feet deep in places.
Steep, steep terrain
What followed after
the glacier was exhausting. It was over
2 hours of steep, steep ascent to the ridge through thick, fresh snow. Our guide was going at quite a pace.
I remember it getting
to 4am and realising how hard this was going to be. I longed for the sun to rise.
Ridge to summit – madness!
At 6am, it was a
superb feeling to get to the main ridge at 5,900m. What followed was unexpected and very
difficult, climbing up very steep cliff faces with sheer drops either
side. There were some scary manoeuvres
to be made!
The biggest cock-up I
made was when our guide told us to put our crampons on. Had the summit day been 4 days earlier, it
might not have required them. I, with
hindsight quite stupidly, put mine on myself.
I should have had the guide look at them.
I got myself into a
situation where both crampons had fallen off my boots and it was stuck on my
own with no grip whatsoever. One guy
from Israel
It wasn’t until our
guide came back for me and fixed my crampons with my lying on my stomach in the
snow that I was able to continue.
My legs were already
burning with lactic acid build-up after battling with non-existent grip for 20
minutes. The final push to the summit,
therefore, left me absolutely exhausted.
The arrival at the
summit (at 9am by the way) was an exhausting moment. There was no big feeling of achievement. It had felt like hell so I just wanted to sit
down. As I reflect on it now, I wished I
could have felt a sense of achievement at summit moment. But there was so many great moments on the
challenge, it didn’t matter.
It wasn’t until the 2nd
party of our group arrived that my emotions started to flow. One of the group, Alex, had shown amazing
character and determination. We all got
photos together and I seized the moment – to get a photo taken with my NAS
t-shirt and a photo of Peter.
Back down again to the ridge
As I thought about
Peter and my motivation for doing it, I truly wept. Peter has the most amazing smile and finds
enjoyment in the most simple of things.
Right there, at over 6,000m altitude, I was humbled and tears flowed.
What followed was
quite an exhausting start of the descent.
Four of us and the guide were roped together and we descended over
steep, icy terrain. You kind of forget
you have to get down again!
Ridge to camp
It’s a unique position
to be sat on a mountain ridge at 11am, when you’ve already physically been on
the go for 11 and a half hours, and you’ve got 4 hours or so still to go.
We descended the
mighty drop to the glacier with crampons, anxious for a rest. We crossed the glacier to advanced base camp,
stopped for a refreshments and made it back to camp for soup, chips and hot
lemon.
I feel so
relieved. I’m not in a rush to do it
again! I do feel extremely pleased that
I’ve been able to climb to that altitude using my own two legs. I suppose after knowing this day was coming
I’m glad it’s done and I can now rest!
