. . . & a year later, Stok the trek that was

After the previous year's heroics & theatrics , we were geared up once  again to try our luck at climbing Stok Kangri ,in the Zanskar range at Ladakh.Introducing the main characters , there was Savitha - someone who had started trekking around a year and a half ago & who had cried her heart out when denied the chance to climb Stok last year .Then came Rohit - another new trekker , who had agonisingly cancelled his trek last year due to a last minute illness. Third in line was Sameer - a dedicated family man, who though the eldest of us all , had the best fitness .Lastly was me , with a very hectic schedule leaving no time for preparation & the protagonist of last years drama.

Learning from previous experience on matters of acclimatisation , we decided to drive to Leh from Srinagar .It was a classic case of man proposes & God disposes , the protestors at Srinagar were least interested in our acclimatisation schedule & there were clashes galore in

the erstwhile paradise on earth. Having no option but to fly directly to Leh , we reluctantly modified our bookings.

Given the travails of last year , the buzz word for us was' judiciousness',  and we followed all the instructions given by all authorities to prevent altitude related issues.Day 1 in Leh passed off uneventfully with old acquaintances renewed & mild headaches tolerated.

Day 2 was spent in the Leh market stocking up on trek essentials .On our way back , we spotted a government run 'Oxygen bar' for tourists, and decided to give it a visit .Our main objective was to reassure ourselves that everyone was in good shape , and secondarily to calibrate our now famous  portable pulse oxy meter with the more robust & reliable model at the bar . Savitha was as usual at a heady reading of 90 , Rohit in the high 80s & me languishing in the 70s .Sameer had decided to rest in the hotel.The nurse in the facility felt that it would be judicious to take a 15 minute swig of the life giving gas & then proceed.Not ones to argue with judiciousness , we immediately agreed.With O2 sats raised & shopping completed we headed back to Palace View & rested .The oxygen bar also confirmed that our oxymeter gave a higher reading as compared to the actual picture.

Evening drew closer & with headaches still not completely eliminated, we decided to check O2 levels .My reading was not very comforting , though not very alarming .Keeping in line with our philosophy of a stitch in time , we decided that it would be better to let the specialists come up with a diagnosis, rather than speculate .We trooped into a cab and drove to the now familiar Sonam Norboo hospital .The doctor was of the opinion that a shot of steroids , tab diamox and an hour of O2 should do me good .The nurse in the tourist ward recognised us & roundly admonished me for coming back to her ward , not learning any lessons from the previous year . The hour of O2 still didn't push up the oxygen in my blood to desired levels & the sister felt that an overnight stay would do me good. Agreeing to this & the fact that there was nothing else overtly wrong with me  , the gang decided to go back to the hotel.

Morning dawned and carried with it the promise of happy RBCs sloshing about in a saturated pool of O2.With an uneventful discharge , we proceeded to the hotel to face a different kind of emergency .Sameer , it seems ,still had a bad headache & absolutely , positively and immediately wanted to go home to Mumbai .The fact that his daughter has been distraught as he had prepared to leave ,helped strengthen his resolve further. All our attempts at explaining to him that it was a transient state of suffering were futile & we resigned ourselves to find a travel agent & book his return tickets .Fortunately or unfortunately for him , we failed in our attempts to find an agent and reassured him that by tomorrow morning he would have the ticket in hand .Sameer was one of our fittest members and to lose him so early in the day was disheartening to say the least .

Day 3 woke us up with brilliant sunshine & wonder of wonders ,Sameer, not only cheerful but also actively and vigorously practicing all sorts of exercises .When asked as to what we should do with his tickets , he looked at us in a genuinely puzzled way and asked ,What tickets ? So much for that ! Leh Palace even though just a stones throw from our hotel had still not been visited & we set about to rectify this .The climb up to the palace would also do us some good by way of practice.With all plans finalised and welcoming Sameer back to the fold , we decided to set off .

A small problem prevented all four of us from setting off , and it turned out that after the lack of oxygen , it was the turn of my stomach to have its say .Confined to the hotel room and, by now, too stoic to be affected by the turn of events,wishing the others luck , I curled up in bed with my Kindle . The gang returned after a few hours and were enthused by the speed and progress of their ascent , that augured well for us and we were pretty sure that the stomach upset would just be a momentary blip in our plans .

Thus we spent a few more days exploring Leh & shopping to our hearts content for the trek & otherwise .The day of the briefing arrived and we were introduced to our trek mates for the first time .It was a truly mixed , multinational crowd with participants from Austria , Malaysia,Netherlands ,the US ,Singapore ,Dubai & of course India. There was a wide range in the ages too, right from 20 years to 50 years and above .The fitness levels too varied from people who were football coaches to people who had completed numerous Himalayan treks to people who led sedentary lifestyles in front of computers ( guess who ) .We were already forming opinions as to who would reach the summit & who would fall short .As compared to us ,excluding Sameer, the majority of the lot looked much more fitter than us .We decided to stop speculating and to tackle events as they came, to the best of our abilities .

Day 1 of the trek : The bus deposited us at Stok village , about 15 kms away from Leh and this was to be our starting point for the Stok Kangri expedition.To say that Stok village was picturesque would be an understatement , there were clear Himalayan streams gushing through green meadows , a variety of trees adding to the beauty , the Stok palace  ,regal, at a height above the village, robins flitting around from field to field & most of all the backdrop .We had the mighty Himalayan ranges forming a fitting backdrop to Nature's bounty , and into these mountains we were to head .Our Sherpa guide was Dhanbahadur , who was on his fifth trip to the Stok summit and he set off at a slow deliberate pace , making sure that we progressed as a cohesive group. The landscape was simultaneously awe inspiring , ruggedly beautiful and harsh .It showcased the formation of the young mountains beautifully , there were entire river beds which had been pushed skywards by the relentless tectonic activity, inclined scarps hinting that they were horizontal about 50 million years ago and vast moraines reminiscent of ancient glacial activity. The bare mountains though lacking in vegetation had  myriad green , purple & red hues owing to the various mineral deposits .The sheer scale of the mountains did full justice to the term Himalayan !

The meandering path led us to an ascent which culminated in a pass .This was defended by a stone watch tower , an outpost of the fort at Chang Ma, incidentally our first camp. We were to have 3 camps before our final summit attempt - Chang Ma at 13,087 feet,Mankarmo at 14,200 feet , and the base camp at 16,300 feet. It was difficult to imagine  warriors actually fighting at these heights , where even walking was a task ,but then they must have been born here and would be one with  the local conditions. The initial part of the climb to Chang Ma was a pleasure , but as the incline became steeper I was hyperventilating as though in a 100 metre sprint .Usually there is a bit of panting as the body warms up but once in its groove further progress is a pleasure .But this just was not happening & every 2 steps were accomplished as though I was climbing the last few steps to the Everest summit,with superlative effort.This didn't bode well and my only goal was to reach ChangMa by whatever means possible .

ChangMa was a small camping site with a permanent tent providing all sorts of snacks , bottled water and coke even ( the drinking variety , not the snorting one ) .We had the river for company on one side & were surrounded by the mountains on three sides .We were issued tents & taught how to pitch them & very soon we had a small camp of blue tents  dotting the ChangMa landscape .Our team was doing well , with all three members, save me ,making good time.I was pretty disheartened by the dismal show & the effort needed to reach just the first camp , if things proceeded in this way , reaching Mankarmo would be a  herculean task , leave alone attempting the summit .To add to  the merry mix , my left ankle tendon and right knee had excruciating pain , Rohit had to pull me up every time I sat down , with the tented accommodation, problems were only compounded . Our schedule at each camp was fixed - food & liquids at designated times & an acclimatisation walk to a higher place , keeping with the adage of climb high & sleep low .

I dug in deep and tried to bring to the fore all the accumulated experience, wisdom and what have you, to carry on & not quit at that instance itself .What had happened to me ? Agreed that I hadn't been able to put in the requisite hours of training , but I was pretty sure of myself when it came to the mountains & this most definitely wasn't my first Himalayan experience .I was unravelling and it wasn't a pretty sight .

I was a pathetic caricature of the normally self assured nay even overconfident self which I was used to . This manifested in my outward behaviour & Savitha nicknamed me not only Radu but also Chidu !

First things first , just hang in there ! I made a deal with myself that as long as my O2 sats were within limits , I would go as far as I could .That could have been the next camp or even to the summit ,and I didn't care how long I took or how much I hyperventilated .

The night's rest did me good & from the foggy recesses of my brain I tried recollecting how Diamox worked. It plays around with your acid base balance & to re establish it , the body has a higher frequency as well as depth of breathing , which probably is  good if you are static at one place but if you add a continuous climb then continuous hyperventilation it was & not a very pretty sight I assure you.It was a catch 22 , couldn't stop diamox & couldn't climb with it .

O2 sats were good so no excuses & off to Mankarmo it was .It was a 3-4 hour trek and surprisingly I was feeling good .Etoshine had taken care of the tendon & the knee and since I was acclimatised to that height there was no panting just smooth,swift progress to the next camp .This lifted my spirits & it was with a happy heart that I set about pitching our tent.My tent mate was a Singaporean of Indian origin ,who too was finding the going tough .Emboldened by my recent climb I proceeded to give him a pep talk & promised him that however long it took , we would do it together! 

Mankarmo's acclimatisation walk was special , there had been a light rain & a seven coloured arch spread across the sky .Since we were at an elevation we were treated to an almost 270 degrees of the rainbow.The view from our elevated perch was stunning to say the least , the mountains had acquired a lunar feel with closely spaced crags & stunning colours .The valley on the other side was cut across by the river & the prayer flags fluttering in the evening breeze imparted an other worldly feel to the already surreal landscape .

This was turning to be a roller coaster of a trek , yesterday I was fully convinced to turn back , today I was raring to go & as if afraid of losing momentum was even ready to go to the next camp today itself .

We wound up camp from Mankarmo the next morning & proceeded towards base camp .It was smooth sailing till the final ascent when the hyperventilation hit again , somehow managing to reach the clearing of the base camp,the first thing to strike us was the extreme cold , coupled with a persistent ,bone chilling wind .Pitching a tent here was no mean task ,given the cold , the wind & the lowered oxygen levels - we were at 16,000 feet ,no less.But pitching the tent was the urgent need of the moment as that would protect us from the elements as well as help us change into the various layers needed to stave off the numbing cold .

At base camp the climate had changed drastically and it was difficult to get people out of their tents .It was here that the full purport of a Himalayan expedition hit us & there were reactions ranging from a dogged determination to outright despair .We went for our customary acclimatisation walk and saw part of the route which we were going to take for the summit .My tent mate had decided that he was not going to continue any further and conveyed his decision to the trek leader .The night was chilling with a fierce wind and occasional rain .The typical layers which we wore consisted of a thermal , a t shirt , a fleece jacket and a down jacket , but the cold made a mockery of this and cut straight through it all .Thus we spent the night trying to get the best possible position in the sleeping bag , which would afford us maximum protection from the cold .You could prepare for everything else in a place like Mumbai , but where would you get this cold ?

The less than optimal conditions of the base camp prompted varied responses from all the participants .The fact that the summit was shrouded in thick fog and clouds didn't help matters any further.Sameer had once again made up his mind that the cold was not his forte and he would prefer staying at base camp itself else go back down .Once he had vocalised this, he found sympathy with other group members notably 2 senior trekkers from Sangli who reasserted that it was not worth risking life and limb and they too decided to go back .Incidentally these 3 were among the fittest of the group.Rohit who had mentioned his aversion to the cold many a times earlier ,appeared to be swayed by these concerns ,but then made up his mind and decided to give it his all , come hell or high water.The confined quarters of the tent , the rain and the long absence from home had taken its toll on Savitha too & she was all set to go back home , but that was at 2 am in the night .Now she had stabilised and was raring to tackle the summit . I too couldn't see the point in carrying on , given the extreme cold , the demanding climb and my less than optimal physical condition.Not wanting to act as a dampener for Rohit and Savitha , I kept these thoughts to myself and reasserted my deal that I would go on till it was impossible to go on further.

Today was a rest day and we would be attempting the climb at night .Since the summit attempt would need anything from 12 - 16 hours , we were advised rest in the day time .By evening we were allotted our equipment like crampons , harnesses and carabiners apart from instructions on how to use them .The plan was to start off at 9 pm & target the summit by 5 am , 15 minutes on the summit followed by the descent .The climb would involve crossing a glacier , climbing an incline till a shoulder was reached , from where the final summit ridge would be climbed . From 21 our group had shrunk to 16 now , another of our forerunners was down with altitude sickness and our football coach was also showing signs of being affected by the height .Our cooks had prepared a lavish spread to boost our spirits as well as provide the requisite energy, creditable given the adverse conditions .It was a nervous gathering of 16 which assembled outside the mess tent , ready to summit Stok Kangri at a height of 20,080 feet .The night was still , with the stars visible , and without further ado we set off .

Our fears of the cold and the rain seemed to be unfounded , but with the mountains you never know when everything can change .We made good pace up yesterday's acclimatisation slope & were actually feeling quite warm after the physical exertion .From the slope the path took a horizontal route to the left & continued over a lot of rocks carelessly strewn by ancient glacial activity.This was taxing to the shoes as well as to the ankles , one had to be alert so as not to slip and fall over the loose rocks .This continued for about an hour & we passed a small clearing ,charmingly called as the advanced base camp , this was no more than a 10 x 10 foot space where a tent could be pitched . By this time I was hyperventilating but not to the point of collapsing and decided to trudge on .One of the participants who was always in the lead was just behind me & she was too was hyperventilating like crazy , she too was on Diamox .At the advanced base camp , she expressed her inability to proceed further , all of us were very surprised and shocked , as she had been among the leaders for all 3 days .After a little coaxing by the trek leader and redistribution of her sack contents, she agreed to continue .

With this minor scare behind us , we continued for some more time over the unforgiving terrain and reached the glacier.By this time one of the participants who had completed 7 Himalayan treks was in a bad shape , constantly bending over & attempting to throw up , classic signs of altitude sickness.In spite of this she wanted to continue and the trek leader relented .Our football coach was not so lucky though , his O2 sats were very low ,coupled with a nagging headache ,his summit attempt met a sad end there .The distressed face said it all , but life being more precious than the summit he reluctantly turned back .One of the Malaysians was also in a bad shape , constantly stopping and throwing up .

Now the weather had changed and there was a numbing wind, followed by snow fall , visibility had dropped too .The glacier, though ,was fun to negotiate with our crampons.I had promised Rohit that come what may I would make it to the glacier ,and was glad to make it thus far .Our guides expertly negotiated us through the vast icefield ,pointing out crevasses & nonchalantly avoiding other pitfalls .The sound of the water furiously  rushing below the ice was at once awe inspiring as well as a bit scary. Imagine taking a tumble into that ice cold water in this chilly night  ! As the glacier climbed upwards , the air grew thinner and everyone was labouring to put their best foot forward .Our guide had thankfully built in rest stops into the route and we gratefully dropped our loads , sipping energy drinks ,trying to get our strength back .The problem with the rest stops was that as soon as your body stopped moving it was subject to the icy winds and the lack of locomotion led to a sudden drop in body temperature.During one of these stops I felt a sudden chill & felt a physical presence of a cold ice slab bearing down on my chest , no I wasn’t hallucinating , it was actually that cold !

The glacial ice gave way to a steep incline of a vast randomly strewn rock field .Apart from the hyperventilation , I was now coughing violently , with each effort draining whatever residual energy I had .It became hard to maintain my pace & I progressively dropped behind in the file of climbers .The cough was alarming as it was very frequent and at the same time very intense , going by previous experience , it could be a precursor to HAPE i.e. pulmonary oedema & neither the mountain slope nor base camp was geared to handle a medical emergency of that scale .

Having troubled people enough with a string of problems till now , I was reluctant to further bother them. The final straw was when the trek leader announced that this particular climb would last for another 4 hours followed by a steeper one of 2 hours . My body had given up & I could have still carried on on sheer will power but at the cost of a collapse sooner than later .With mixed feelings I informed the trek leader about the decision to return , there was relief that the physical torture was to end , resignation that if the mountain doesn't want then you can't ,a wistful longing to carry on with Rohit & Savitha and admiration that both of them were still soldiering on .These thoughts were rudely interrupted by a fresh bout of coughing and my feet, in a final adieu to Stok, turned valley wards .

Continuing with our determined duo , they clambered up the rocky incline , each rest stop proving colder than the previous one , the compounding factor being the drowsiness induced by the lack of sleep . The mind screaming out that this was it , no further , but a dogged determination overruling these thoughts with a simple agenda to just keep walking.There was no turning back now , come what may, the summit had to be reached .And Nature to test their resolve unleashed a fresh bout of snow with further reduction in visibility , unfazed, our climbers climbed on and were rewarded by reaching the shoulder .

Beyond the shoulder it was risky business , hence everyone was roped up into groups of 5 each .The idea was that if one of the climbers fell the others would collectively arrest the fall .Once beyond the shoulder ,one was confronted with the summit ridge , a narrow band of ice and rock barely a foot wide with dizzying falls all the way to the valley floor .Once on the ridge the summit was visible and that put renewed vigour into all the climbers , but it was a false alarm , the so called summit turned out to be one in a series of elevations which was obscuring the actual summit. An agonising hour later , the actual summit embellished with wildly fluttering prayer flags came into view .And that was that , no more steps , no more climbing ,just a blessed relief that it was all over .The preparation , the heartache , the determination all had culminated in this moment of wind & ice , a triumph of the human spirit where mental toughness mattered much more than physical .The ghosts of last year were silenced at last & Rohit & Savitha could breathe easy now .Their daily vigil of the Stok summit could now be relaxed .

Epilogue :

 I reached camp and to everyone's relief the cough was secondary to infection , deduced by the normal O2 levels .Our guide Dhanbahadur got 2 clients & he went up the mountain , blizzards , fatigue not withstanding .Would he / we have undertaken this perilous journey so soon had it not been for financial considerations .The young veteran of 7 Himalayan treks went on a bit further and unfortunately had to return as her health was just not coping up .13  people summited from our batch of 21. Rohit & Savitha staggered into camp at 1 pm and it was our privilege to provide them a guard of honour .