Living the ICE AGE dream | Chadar trek blog

On a cold December night I happened to watch an even colder BBC documentary about the revered Chadar Trek. 1 min into the documentary I had goosebumps.  Another 5 minutes and i had a new entry in my Bucket list. Top Priority.From then onwards started the grind to find more info about this beautiful place, the timings, the cost and all the other info. Have put down all the info in this Chadar trek blog. Have a good read.

More about Chadar Trek

Chadar trek / Frozen river trek as the name suggests is a trek on the frozen river i.e. on the chadar ( blanket ) of ice. The Zanskar river freezes in winter when the temperature in the area falls to almost -35 degrees. During the winter this is the traditional route for the Zanskari people staying on the banks of Zanskar river to reach mainland Leh. The chadar route  stretches from Chilling at one end (Leh side) & ends at Padum some 105 kms away. This has come to be famously known as full Chadar trek stretching over 14 days to & fro. What has captured the world’s imagination is the shorter version from Chilling to Nerak stretching 40kms one side and can be completed with an itinerary of 7 days

I planned to do this shorter version walking 80kms in 7 days. To my extreme delight I ended up doing 100kms in 7 days reaching Lingshed as well ( lingshed is a the next stop after Nerak) . Nerak can be termed as the delicious cake of this cold party & Lingshed as the icing on the cake.  Lingshed enthralled me with snow , frozen delights & vivid colours of nature which you will see at the end of this Chadar Trek blog. This is as good as it gets.

How tough is Chadar trek?

1. The Chadar when completely frozen all over the place end to end means you just have to walk on an almost flat surface. Though its lots of walking. Atleast 10Kms a day in sub-zero temperatures. You get used to the temperatures in a day or two. Hence it all boils down to walking a lot. If you can do that with your backpack on, then its a EASY level Endurance trek. 🙂 
2. When the Chadar is not completely formed its a different ball game altogether. A DIFFICULT level trek. No Chadar means you see just ice cold river in front of you.

• If the depth is not to much at such spots you will need to walk through the cold water and trust the GUMBOOTS ability to not let in any water to freeze your feet. Also while wading through the water one wrong step/slip may get you and your backpack in water. Freezing you & your costly camera.
• At times when there is very little ice available, you cant walk on it. You will need to crawl.
• At times when there is no ice at all & the river is too deep to walk you will need to climb the huge almost vertical faces of rocks besides the river to get through. If the rocks are too difficult to be climbed, the trip ends there itself.
• At times you might crack open a weak spot on the Chadar and go in to test the cold water involuntarily. It happened with me once when I was walking like everyone & the chadar below my feet gave away & all of a sudden I was standing knee deep inside cold river. Socks were wet but my camera was safe.

Am i prepared for chadar trek ?

My mind is a tough vault to be broken into. I was born prepared for the mental strength. Turned out it was not much mentally demanding apart from learning how to glide on the ice. Summitting Stok Kangri was much more demanding both physically & mentally. Physically i didn’t do any special exercises. Continued with daily gym and running. Served me good.

Back to the Chadar trek blog

Since the time I saw that BBC documentary about Chadar trek i was possessed to do this trek asap. On enquiry i found that the Chadar Trek is only possible during January and February. Since it was December when i found this info i still had window of two months to get this short term goal fulfilled. First things first i got hold of my manager for leaves. Since i had not asked for many leaves in the last two years & she had not approved my leave request for Rajasthan trip last year it was easy to get leaves approved for February (project end) .

After approved leaves it was time for flight tickets. The tickets are very costly during winter since all roads to Leh are closed during winter. And booking these tickets so late meant i would be splurging a fortune. They took me back by 26K. #YOLO.

Before i booked the tickets i checked for vacancies with different agencies and compared them vis-a-vis the costs. I went for the least costing agency & hoped for the best. I am ok with zero luxuries & always prefer local agencies over bigger established ones. They tend to sub-contract to the local ones and skim of profits by charging higher. Anyway i booked with an agency called Altitude Adventures( now defunct) which turned out quite a good choice. It costed me another 16K. Again #YOLO

I had never been to such an extremely cold place. Temperatures here run below -35 degrees at night. That meant i had to shop a lot for clothing. ( I bought lots of new stuff. Hence High costs. If you are an established trekker, this should only cost you 10K ish) This costed me another 25K. Super #YOLO.

LINK FOR THINGS TO REALLY CARRY FOR CHADAR – to be added

Should I carry DSLR for Chadar trek ?

With straight forward kharcha of Rs 67000 even before i reached Leh, meant this would be the costliest trek i did till now. I ended up spending total of around 80K for the trip. 12Days 80K. Bas kar #YOLO

With an empty wallet i was all set for a Legen….dary trip.

The trek was scheduled from 07 Feb to 13 Feb 2016. I added a buffer day on 6^th Feb for acclimatisation & another two days after the trek for enjoying winter in Leh. 

05 Feb 2016 Flight was scheduled from Mumbai at 2130 hrs to Delhi. The next flight was after 4-5hrs from Delhi to Mumbai. I met my friend Ganesha at the Mumbai airport. He seemed to have carried a backpack atleast  5 kilos lighter than mine. I have majored the art of NOT packing lightly.

Day ZERO | Towards LEH | Ground level to 11,400 ft

06 Feb 2016 After landing in Delhi i had to wait for almost 5 hrs till the early morning flight. Ganesh slept through all of the airport commotion. Being a light sleeper i couldn’t sleep at all & reached the more important Leh flight with sore red eyes. This morning Leh flight gives you a beautiful sunrise over the snow clad mountains

BRO TIP:

• Select the window seat on the right side of the plane for a better view. Window seat behind the plane wing provides a brilliant reference for photography.
  
• Carry your fleece jacket, Beanie/woollen cap & Gloves in your cabin luggage. It is super cold when you get down at Leh
  

Inspite of the sleepless night i was very happy that my tired eyes spotted Zanskar river. This is Nimmu, the confluence of River Indus & Zanskar. This is the point where you can see the chadar formation. I was happy. Good omen i believe.

After enjoying this beautiful sunrise & the snow clad mountains from the warmth of the flight, it was time to face the cold. After landing in Leh as soon as the doors were opened a puff of cold breeze entered the flight. I quickly reached out for my beanie & my gloves. It was cold.

At the airport I met a lovely French couple JB & Marie who were in India for the Chadar trek & ofcourse Taj Mahal.  We shared the car to our hotel. Once at the hotel we met the remaining team. Complete team included the French Couple,  couple Susan&Prashant , Couple of Drs Ash & Sachin, couple of girls Diivya & Swati with Piyush and myself stuck with my friend Ganesha. All the beautiful captures in this chadar blog are the skilled outcomes of JB, Piyush, Susan , Sachin & The Free Bird.

The Scare / The Optimism

On enquiry with the organisers I found out that till our batch in Feb 2016 not a single batch was able to reach Nerak- the last camp, since the chadar was not formed across the river after Tibb cave. That means the famous frozen waterfall of Naerak had not yet been reached this season & we would be the lucky people to see it for the first time 🙂

After a brief intro & couple of lemon teas later we all felt a bit invigorated & ventured to walk around the city. Just besides our hotel was a ice hockey ground where children were practicing some sleek moves. The game appeared pretty speedy.

I moved towards the old market to find most of the shops closed but the roads were abuzz with lots of people.

Dosmoche

It was then that we realised there was a particular Dosmoche festival going on in Jo Khang temple which is in the middle of market. Little enquiry made me realise that this festival is celebrated for two days every year & I was so lucky to be here. Lamas making a grand entry through a wall of smoke.

This festival started by Ladakh royals have masked Lamas from various monasteries performing sacred dance on the soothing beat of their drums. Dosmoche relieves the society of evils. I would say a good omen for a successful trip 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/IAmTheFreeBird/videos/600291333671867/

The soothing beat coupled with the sleepless night lulled me to sleep. After enjoying Dosmoche we went to Freinds Balcony hotel & hogged a lot. The rest of the day was spent in buying some of the trek items.

Buying Gumboots in Leh

I bought a walking stick for Rs 500 & was in search of gumboots. My large feet meant I required size 11+ gumboots. This was a pain in the ass as such large size boots are very rare. Lower size boots are easily available. I called up our main guide and asked if he could help. He guaranteed that he would have the large size gumboots at the First camp. Till that time i will have to manage with my trek shoes. No problemo.

My search of these gumboots had split me from the group & i was roaming alone in the market. I saw the Leh palace from the market. It was perched atop a small hill. I decided to go there to get a good evening pic of the city. 

Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS)

I started towards the top. As soon as i gained a little height, i started to feel breathless and my body was behaving a bit funny. I had to seat down and calm my breath. Acclimatisation has always been a bitch.

AMS is an issue when trying to cover high altitudes in short distance. Your body needs to be slowly acclimatised to the thinner air. At Higher altitude you may get headaches & feel nauseous. In worse case it may lead to HAPE & HACE.

 I had flown in the previous night from sea level to directly 11500 ft at Leh. The sleepless night was no help at all.

BRO TIP

Drink lots of water, Eat dry fruits, energy bars & sleep properly for better acclimatisation. Keep two days for acclimatisation in Leh

And i had not followed any of these. I sat down and had some water. And slowly went ahead towards the palace. 

I didnt feel like going ahead, I could see Castle Tsemo further ahead and thought may be next time. I came back to Leh In july 2016 for Stok Kangri summit. Then i reached the palace and went further ahead to Castle Tsemo .( Read It Here ).

Back at the hotel, being an extremely cold trek i was still not sure whether i really required a down jacket. I didn’t buy one since i already had the fleece. But due to peer pressure decided to get one late at night when all the shops were closed. I called up my main guide to see if he can arrange a down jacket. He got me two old down jackets to select from. With no other option available i selected a SUPER PUFFED bright orange down jacket making me look like a pumpkin 🙂

Regarding the gumboots the guide promised i will get it at the first camp of Tilad Do. Till then i will have to manage Chadar on my normal trek shoes.

Enough drama for the day. Tomorrow the trek starts. Good night

07 Feb 2016 – Day 1- Let the Games begin

The hotel guy had warned us from splashing water in bathroom cause it immediately forms ice & one may slip over it. Also the pipes tend to burst because of this ice. So let alone bath but we couldn’t even properly wash hands. Anycase no one wants to touch the water in these extra cold sub-zero temperatures. As per the departure time, I was ready with my backpack and layered up for the cold chadar. Took out the fully charged camera batteries , wrapped them in the woollen socks and kept them inside my fleece to reduce discharge due to cold. No charging point for the next 4 days till Nerak

 Jeans, extra clothes & unwanted stuff i had carried excessively found themselves in a polythene bag dumped in an empty hotel corner. The group got together and set up for the once-in-a-lifetime-experience.

We whisked past the lanes of the main city and moved towards the trek start point at Chilling some 70 kms away. The fabled Srinagar- Leh route was beautiful as always.

Enroute we passed the Magnetic hill. We didn’t stop there for much time since we had scheduled stop at the Nimmu – the confluence of Indus & Zanskar river.  I was excited to see the blue water of Zanskar hinting at a beautiful Chadar formation besides the blue water. Picture perfect!

After many pics we started again towards the Chilling – the last stop for the bus ride. From Nimmu Chilling was about 30 kms. Soon enough  we got off from the Srinagar-leh highway and onto the road moving parallel to the Zanskar river. Porters singing Ladakhi songs added a hint of authenticity.  The road is as beautiful as it gets and i was just waiting for the first signs of Chadar.

The turquoise waters of Zanskar flowing amidst the freshly formed chadar was a sight for sore eyes. For someone living in hot & humid Mumbai climates all his life this surreal nature was spell binding.  I could not wait to start penguin walking over the chadar. Few more kms before reaching Chilling. First sighting of Chadar.

We had now left the tar road behind and the raw road flowing beside the Zanskar was the right trailer for things to come. For some of us still not properly acclimatised the bus had to be stopped every now & then to expel the un-acclimatised food. That meant more photo opportunities till we actually reached Chilling.

 

 Day 1 | To Tilad Sumdo | 2kms | < 1hour | 10,390 ft.

Finally reaching Chilling we got off the bus. Backpacks were ON. Touchdown. We descended from the road to the Zanskar river in the valley at a 45 degree descend.  The surreal nature hits you hard as you pause for a moment to appreciate this tremendous beauty.

As Shashi Throor recently tweeted or maybe not

” The turquoise river cascading through the towering walls of the lifeless Zanskar gorge embellished by layers of freshly formed ice & sprinkled with magical snow dust humbles you in ways more than one”

Without gumboots i felt ill equipped than others to take on the mighty chadar. I saw my friends go down to kiss the chadar like a house of cards every now & then. I had decided trying not to fall wearing trek shoes & I stuck to my motive for the next 2 kms till i reached Tilad Do.

As my walking confidence improved out came the camera and i was back with appreciating the nature. Took out the batteries wrapped in the woollen socks kept inside my fleece, took a photograph, removed the batteries & packed it back again deep within the layers.

Besides the rock chadar was very narrow & here we got the first hints of the risk involved.

After this curve, we made way to the first camp quite easily where the tents were already put out by the porters just besides the Chadar & hot tea was waiting for us. Luxury.

I enquired with my guide if i will get my gumboots here. He discussed with another porter who was returning to Leh and handed me his used size 12 gumboots. I asked for the cost. They had another discussion and said Rs 400. With no other option I obliged. On checking the boots i did see a rubber engraved price of Rs 200. Happy commission to them.

We reached by 1700hrs had lots of time to go around. I was still wonder struck by nature. Ice had million styles of freezing up.

We did all the silly things city kids do on reaching such dreamy places. 

Photos Check. Football Check.

Million clicks later & after getting my heart beat racing after football I went to the top of the nearing wall/hill to get a view of the campsite. Took out the batteries wrapped in the woollen socks kept inside my fleece, took a photograph, removed the batteries & packed it back again deep within the layers. Camp site.  Great eh!

After getting cosy in the tents at around 1930 the dinner was served in the dinner tent. All the shivering souls reached the dinner tent for the last recharge of the day. The hot & sweet milk preparation was really adding flavours to this cold night.

After that we just sat on the banks of the river gazing at the billion star sky. The cold had started graduating to freezing-cold. It reaches -35 degrees at night. No wonder.

As the great Urdu shayar Ustad Zakhir Khan puts it,

“ Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota

Hoga.

Maan Liya

.

.

.

.

 Thand Lagti hai B© “

Translation- Its freaking cold at -35 degrees.

I put on all the layers i had bought. Earlier i had only put on a thermal and a trek pant on. Without any movement the legs were feeling the pinch of the extreme cold. I put on an extra middle layer & came out for astro-photgraphy. Took out the batteries wrapped in the woollen socks kept inside my fleece, took a photograph, removed the batteries & packed it back again deep within the layers. Got this after many tries. Could have got a better pic but every one else had retreated to their tents & i couldn’t afford wasting the precious battery life further.

Not wanting to wake up in the cold night i took the final pee-stop & came back to the tent.  I creeped into the double sleeping bag making all sorts of squeaky noises- which only I could hear – in the silent night.

The day ends. Our team of 11 over enthusiastic trekkers had fallen almost 50 times today. I had zero falls. Small feat for me. Happy mind. Good Night.

Chadar trek part 1 ends here.Real Adventure begins as we move to next camps as the trail runs deeper in untouched Zanskar. More about the first frozen waterfall in the next part.

Click here to read about the NEXT Day of Chadar Trek at Tsomo Paldar.A very beautiful day 

PARTS: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8