I joined the clubs expedition
to the Zanskar area of India. The original plan was to go along
the Chadar to Padam where there is a ski school that the club supports.
Mike and Jenny Spencer had been out there in the summer and left
a fuel and food dump there. We never managed to do this though as
there had been a land slide above Padam across the river and the
authorities had stopped all access along the Chadar for safety reasons.
As a result of this two of the team pulled out which meant there
was only 5 of us who went out.
We arrived in Leh on
the 11th after an overnight in Delhi, we tried to negotiate with
the authorities if there was any possibility of getting to Padam.
We did not succeed in this. In the end we decided to go round
to Kargil and go in from the north which was to have been our
end point. This failed too, as we were stopped at gun point by
the police as we prepared to set off from the furthest point the
vehicles could go due to the snow, we were then escorted to the
nearest police station. The police were saying we needed a permit,
which we did not, but we tried to negotiate one with the head
of Kargil police and the district commissioner but 24hours later
that failed too.
On our return to Leh
we went up to Kangi which was just off the main highway and the
starting point for a previous expedition. We were welcomed there
and even got indoor accommodation arranged, we returned the following
day, the 16th.
On arrival back at
Kangi we stayed with Norbu and his wife Sonam arranged donkeys
for the following morning to take our gear to camp 1 which was
an area used in the summer for tending live stock it was some
9Km SE of Kangi and up the right hand Valley at Dumbur the camp
was at 4270m. The snow cover was so little up to here that we
walked all the way.
We then started to
explore the area firstly up the first valley to the SE then up
the main valley to the south. The snow was only 25cm deep at our
base camp and totally unconsolidated making laying in a track
really hard work, it is unlikely that the first two days we got
more than 3 km from our camp. The risk of avalanche was really
high also due to the unconsolidated snow being on a base layers
of haw frost.
On day 5 at camp1 we
topped out on our only peak which was actually a subsidiary peak
off the main our high point was 4860m. We had made it there due
to the low depth of snow making it safer than elsewhere. We tried
to get to the col of the first Valley twice but failed both times.
We were nearly there on our second attempt before fatigue and
high avalanche risk made us retreat.
On day 10 we returned
to Kangi from camp 1. We then spent two night there before moving
to camp for 2 nights up the valley to the south west then taking
the first valley west to a summer settlement near to the Lhachutse
Gompa.
We attempted again
to get to a col but retreated in poor weather and high avalanche
conditions,. On our return we did trigger a small avalanche from
the valley side just by skiing along the valley floor.
The following day we
returned to Kangi. With all the snow we had had whilst there the
road in was now blocked so we had to skin out, the gear being
carried by donkyes for the 15Km to where the vehicls were waiting
for us.
We went to the Nagrang
Festival at the Matho Gompa. We were delayed getting our flight
out of Leh meaning we missed our intended flight home. This meant
an unplanned extra night in Delhi and arriving home a day late.
The expedition did
not meet its original objectives but in view of the snow conditions
this might have been a blessing. I think we all found the cultural
experience absolutely amazing.
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