Stok Kangri Trek Blog – I was breathless at @20182 ft

Stok Kangri Trek Blog

Trek Day 5 |   Base Camp – Rest Day & Summit Push | 4900m to 6153m

After on and off dreamy moments through the night, I woke up with this dreamy morning moment

The morning bought some bad news as well. 5 people including the Doctor and the topper decided to go back owing to the bad health. Even i had head ache but i decided to wait for the last moment to take the call. I took resort to the fact that many others also had headache. We bid them good bye with a heavy heart.

For the next few hrs, I tried all the things which i could probably do : lots of water, soup,  ginger, garlic, yoga. Whatever it takes to kill that headache. Quick lunch followed by a quick comeback of headache. Fortunately it didn’t last long
The ritual of drinking lots of water continued and so did that of pee breaks.

An entire day with nothing to do. Some lucky ones slept through the day.

Some discussed

I wondered helter skelter  enjoying the beauty of the nature.

My sniffing around bore fruit as i met these lovely Marmoots not so far away.

Some marmoot action.

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We had a small session about the seat harness and the crampon usage. The light dimmed and the evening seemed to pass at a faster rate in anticipation of the summit. Others had good sleep though the day. Same cannot be said about myself.
We packed our smaller backpacks. Everyone carried a single back. I was carrying two. One for the food / water and other for the camera. This backfired later on.:(

It was probably 2100- 2200 hrs, we had dinner and took a pack food box for the next day summit breakfast. Another soldier falls. Kartik’s health deteriorated. He decided to stay back. 

Out of the initial 21 only 15 started for the summit from the base camp.

We started towards the summit. The elevation difference would be from 4900m to 6120 m. The elevation would be achieved by walking 7 kms. I hoped for one last time that acclimatization wont hit me in the face.

The night trek

Seat harness was on & so were the head lamps. The start itself is a major hiccup, the acclimatisation hill which was a huge pain in the ass ( head ) the previous day, as the first obstacle.

Not thinking about anything, i just concentrated on taking one step at a time. Just looked at the next guy’s footstep and mimicked the same. Within like half an hour we were at the top of the acclimatisation hill, with only a slight headache and not much breathing issues. I felt i was acclimatised enough and hoped for the best.

After that, the route didn’t seemed to be that steep. The path is all gravel and rocks. On one side there seemed to be a valley. I made a conscious decision not to look at that side and just focus on not elevating my heart beat any further.

My breathing motto

• Right step forward, huge breath IN. Left step forward, huge breath OUT
• After ten steps , stop and normalise the breathe by huge inhales

Soon enough 3 more decided to turn back due to physical strain and headaches.
My headache was still there. A quick precautionary oxymeter check revealed my oxygen level at 88, my highest ever. Soon enough we reached the glacier. We took a small pit stop to put the crampons on.

Glacier

A quick glance revealed that we would be gaining height quickly. Headache was my only concern. With the crampons on the walking style didn’t change that much. Only conscious change was to prevent the crampons from tearing apart the other shoe/feet.

Hiraji, our glacier expert, went ahead in search of a secure path over the glacier. We followed. The two backpack thing which i had unwisely followed had started to backfire and back ache was gaining prominence. I asked Rahul to carry my food bag. He graciously obliged. Since he had my supplies, i decided to tag along with him for the rest of the time. The glacier continued.

A quick query got a reply that we would reach the shoulder in another half an hour. Made me feel better.

However the uphill glacier seemed unending as we walked for hours. The inclination of the glacier continued to increase as we moved ahead.

After a few hours, Rahul had vanished out of my sight !!! I was thirsty , hungry and constantly loosing speed. I asked unknown people on the route for water. Thankfully they obliged. I just took few sips not wanting to barge on their generosity. I needed quick energy. All my energy bars, dry fruits, water, ORS was there in the bag with Rahul. Sigh ! Summit seemed like a distant dream now.

I continued to motivate myself ( my strong point ). I was running on a empty fuel tank and the headache continued to follow me as a shadow. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally found Rahul. 

I took the bag and reached out for one of the two bottles i had. The first one which i got hold of was empty. Grrrr..I placed it on the ground and went to reach out for the other one. No sooner did i place it on the ground, the empty bottle immediately started to roll off over the 50-60 degree inclination. Before i could grab hold of it , the bottle gathered speed. People around me, who were spectator to this let out a sigh of disbelief, ”Ohhhh…”. The bottle continued to roll over the slope and soon vanished into the darkness which gulped it without a sound. The bottle could very well be anyone of us rolling down the slope

Took out another bottle, frantically drank some water. Had some dry fruits, stored some in my pockets. Suddenly the world seemed to be a better place. A happy stomach. The sleepless and the gruelling walk climb continued.

And the gossip mill ruthlessly churned out the legendary rumour that the shoulder was another half an hour away. Sigh.

I could see few lights at a height, i hoped the shoulder rumour was true this time around. Our guide Tashi used to go ahead running at full speed in pitch darkness trying to figure out the route ahead running. And i was requiring a break after every 5 steps to calm down my breath.

After a while we reached a rocky patch. I was the last one in my group to reach there. Never in my entire life have i been such a slow walker. Altitude can be a huge eye opener. I found a spot to crash. One look around and I could see a bunch of zombies pondering about nothing. Tired sleepless zombies.

After the short break we started off again. The pack of drt fruits and ORS i had, gave me a surge in energy for a short time.

From this spot the shoulder was to be half an hour away. This better be true this time or the-guy-who-keeps-on-spreading-them-is-getting-his-ass-whooped.

The darkness had reduced partially and the visibility of snow had improved. I guess its around 4am. The rock patch seemed to lead to an ice-wall at about 60-70 degree inclination. Above this wall was the legendary , evasive ,hugely- awaited, king of the rumour-mongers Stok Kangri Shoulder.

Finally seeing the torch lights at the shoulder invigorated everyone. The climb at such an angle would be one hell of a time. But then difficult paths lead to heavenly views. The angle was very risky & the image of my bottle rolling off the slope into the oblivion was still afresh in my mind. I had goose bumps.

I decided not to look around till i completed the ice wall and had reached the shoulder. I was only tracking the guy ahead of me and mirroring his footsteps. The climb definitely had my adrenaline pumping.

After say some 10-15 minutes (felt like eternity) reached the shoulder. The shoulder rumour last time around as indeed true.

I was very happy to have reached the shoulder. Though out of breath I was firmly resolved to reach the summit

At Stok Kangri Shoulder

The visibility had increased. The road we had traversed  was now slightly visible. And thank god for darkness that we couldn’t see what we had already done, else our heartbeats would have been beating 10 times faster. We waited for another 10-15 minutes to get ourselves together for the last push to the summit. Only 10 people decided to go ahead for the summit.

It was probably 5 – 530 am. The visibility had peaked. The clouds however were playing spoilsport with view. 10 people were divided into groups of three, lead by three guides. The seat harness finally came into play, as we were roped in groups of 4.

I was super-tired. Any other day i would have gone crazy clicking pics. Not today. The DSLR was still packed in the bag. I would have gathered some energy if i could see the view. But the clouds were playing a different ball game.

The summit climb was very dicey. Everyone was sleepy and tired to the core. And the coldness in the air did remind you that you were at a great height. I could only walk when i got a pull on the rope i was tagged to. That was the only thing that kept me awake and walking, apart from my motivated mind.

Occasionally the clouds would part to give a glimpse of the height. The climb was getting tiring as we walked further. Tiredness took its toll as Amit decided to retire. Only 9 warriors remained.

Bro Tip

• Carry a flask of coffee if you could, or atleast a redbull so that you are not as sleepy at the summit. Might help.

• Dont step on the rope

• Keep atleast a feet of distance between both your crampons. You don’t want to get entangled in yourself and fall at this height

• And as the great fat panda said,” There is no secret ingredient. Its you”. Believe in yourself and keep walking. You have covered 99% of the trek and you don’t want to give up for the last 1%.The view from the top is unbelievable.

Since the clouds had wreathed the mountain, we could not see the summit. Hence the climb from shoulder to the summit was just a guesswork for me.

Every high point visible looked like a summit. Once we reached that point it would open up the canvas a bit more and we could see a another high peak in front of us. Meaning more frustration.

This happened 3-4 times till we could see the tarchok ( praying flags ) at a height indicating there was just one last surge of energy required to summit.

I garnered all the iota of energy i had to make the last push. We were within sniffing distance of the summit, however every step felt like a mile.

Finally, I summited Stok Kangri with the only prayer flags visible. Everything else was a hidden in the clouds.

I had seen videos of people dancing at the summit. I had planned to do the same, But right now i felt so tired, i just sat down and could not resist dozing of for a while.

A proper group pic with The Indian Flag.

My camera was packed all night and it remained that way. This guy Sunil however showed commendable energy to take some wonderful pics

After savouring the victory moments for a while, we started our way back. As a partying gift the cloud finally decided to give a glimpse of the trophy view. we were awestruck with the view.

The job was half done. Descends are always harder than the climbs

Click HERE to read about the very tiring descend

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