Stok Kangri - July 2012
Reporting from Shang
@ 12000ft
We started from
the Shanti Guest House after a nice brea kfast
and another briefing by Brahma. There are 2 routes to go to Stok Kan gri. One via Stok Village
which is shorter one and the other via Shang village which is longer one. Ind ia Hikes
had chosen this longer route so that it would
help us acclimatize better and of course, show us some beauty of Ladakh’s
landscape.
We took the
Manali highway and went upto Karu (abt 35 kms from Leh). Road bifurcates here
or trifurcate if that is a correct word. You take left and it goes to Chang La,
the 3rd highest motorable pass and then to Pangong Tso & China
border, you go straight and you reach Tanglang La the 2nd highest
motorable pass and then onwards to Manali, you take right and the road goes to
Hemis monastery. We chose the right one (literally too J) and
went furth er.
Here too there is a bifurcation, the left road goes to Hemis and the right one
takes you to Shang village. We got down about 2.5 kms earlier and started our
walk towards the campsite.
This was more of
an acclimatization walk. And it was badly needed. But I don’t know why,
everybody was in a rush and were walking faster. Nobody stopped to click any
photographs and soon I was the last guy walking, stopping in between and
clicking merrily. But then I started wondering whether I was that slow. Anyhow,
the walk was for about 30 min or so and we reached a stream where on the other
bank was our camp. I crossed the stream barefoot and OM G…..
the water was chilled….!!
On our way to Shang village |
Door Gagan ki chhaon mein |
The camp was
located at a lovely place. We had beautiful, yellow “Sarso” field right in
front. It was looking majestic on that barren background. And to the left, on
the mountain was Shang monastery in the distance.
The ideal setting..... light should have been better though.... |
After our lunch, Daal-Roti
& Chawal, we took a quiet nap and then set off for our acclimatization
climb. The Mons atery
looked good and Kamal & gang had already started. Raghav, Hrishikesh & I followed them, crossed the stream and slowly we climbed the hillock. From the
top, the view was amazing. It was so quiet there. No wonder all these
monasteries are located at such isolated places. The calmness there makes the
mind stay still.
The Shang Monastery |
Our Camp site - View from the top |
Returning back,
we decided to walk through the river bed. We walked a while and then realized
that the stream was quite wide and the flow was faster than when we crossed it
first. So we had to abandon that way, we did not want to exert on the very 1st
day. We came back, had a nice cup of tea and then whiled away our time getting
to know more about our new acquaintances. We also had a formal intro session
with the Ind ia Hikes
staff as well as among us once again.
As soon as the
sun set, the tempe rature
began to dip and it was pretty cold out there. But Brahma was to issue our
sleeping bags only after dinner. Brahma had also advised us not to wear warm
clothes as far as possible so that we get used to the cold. So we stayed out,
getting used to the cold. That was a good idea and I found that out later on
the summit day.
1 Comments:
Nicely written Amogh..It took almost an hour and a half to go through all in one go but it was worth..Is there still more blogs coming on stok Kangri??
By
वाटलं म्हणून…, at 3:22 pm
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