Hi Sir! Came up on my phone. (Must be Finbarr, maybe Sean?) Further investigation revealed the rest of the message. Hi Sir Julley Anal. Julley means welcome in Ladakhi, so “Welcome arsehole”. One has to presume that predictive text was responsible for anal rather than Alan, and so I did, and Paddy and I were royally welcomed by the lovely Anu to the El Castello Hotel Leh. The manager was Arnab, a long time friend of Raja’s. Raja was tied up for some days with training 11 Lady Indian army officers in the mountains about 2 hours away. Sounds great, I know, but Raja was less than impressed.
In the meantime we had Ashish, who introduced us to our local guide, the rather serious Ang-Mo. She would be our town, and acclimatization, guide for the next few days along the Sham valley. Paddy was having some problems sleeping from almost day 1, when he would doze off, he woke immediately, gasping for breath. It didn’t happen all the time, but was very debilitating for him. After a couple of cloudy, occasionally wet days, in Leh, the weather cleared for our 3 day hike through the Sham valley. We used homestays, shared with assorted Israeli Hikers, and all went to plan.
On return to Leh, we would move to Lhato, but as Paddy’s breathing was still a cause for concern, he would stop at the hospital in Leh, and get it checked out. The service was quick and efficient at this dedicated tourist clinic, His oxygen saturation was excellent, no fluid in the lungs, so he was good to go. This was short lived, as he had a bad night at the Lhato homestay 4000m, so the newly arrived (and much stressed Raja) decided to get oxygen sent from Leh. We had a 400m ascent up the lower Staryuk under our belt, so we headed up to BC. Raja, who was waiting for delivery of the oxygen, would follow.
It was probably the worst 800m of ascent, up endless, featureless, stoney hillsides, I have ever done, and Paddy and I were totally wasted by the time we got there. Even our guide Ashish, was sick on the way up. The horses had passed us, en route, and Lakpa was busy erecting the tents when we arrived. I recovered quickly, but Paddy did not, and it became clear that he was in a pretty bad way, declaring the if the Oxygen did not arrive before nightfall, he doubted that he would survive. The oxygen had been delayed, and Raja was unaware of the urgency of the situation, as there was no phone coverage at BC, (and Raja’s phone had disappeared down a crevasse while working with the army group). Cometh the hour, ……….(6.00PM).the heroic Lakpa abandoned his saucepans and volunteered to run down in the gathering darkness, collect the cylinder and apparatus, and bring it back up. He got back just before midnight with Rivu, and Paddy got 6 hours of oxygen to get him through the night.
He descended in the morning, meeting Raja on the way up. Raja persuaded Paddy to go back to the hospital in Leh for further tests, which he did.
Back at base camp, we (Rivu, Ashish, Lakpa and self) started to carry loads to Advance BC, an idyllic spot 1.5-2 hours further up the valley, that we shared with about 100 wild Yak. On the fourth day, we would vacate BC leaving the Mess tent and two bigger tents in situ. It became clear that Paddy would not be rejoining our group.
I looked through Paddys tent at BC before we moved, to ensure that nothing of value was left, and found his tickets and passport. I had thought that, in the circumstances, Paddy might decide to fly home early, having been Dumped ( in his own words) from the trip, but this meant that he couldn’t go anywhere. When I mentioned this to Raja, he just said Paddy is safe in Leh, and Arnab ill look after him. When we moved to ABC, I reluctantly took Paddy’s Passport with me.
Raja and Rivu went back to BC to lift more food and a better functioning stove, but when they came back up, Raja was unwell with a recurrence of an old lung condition. He said he would go back to BC until he recovered. I said that I felt that I had done enough, and was happy to descend to Lhato/Leh to return Paddy’s documents. Raja initial plan was that we would all stay at high camp and climb at least 3x 6000s, but a compromise was reached, that Lakpa and I would attempt one peak only, and descend to ABC, then BC, terminating the trip 4 or 5 days early. I was going well, having been up to the glacial lake for a swim, and even to high camp for a recce. The glacier was in great condition, unlike many, but seriously foreshortened, so the trudge to high camp carrying everything was exhausting. Two small dark tents were put up to accommodate Lakpa, myself and Ashish, the translator. It’s always cold, camping on ice, little sleep was had, but I was in good form starting up the rocky ridge to this unclimbed 6000m peak at 5.00AM in the bitter cold. The climbing was mixed rock and hard snow, the best. About half way up , Lakpa started pulling ahead, then the wheels came off the wagon for me, I just couldn’t get enough oxygen. Being staggery isn’t a great idea on an exposed ridge, so I turned back, followed by Lakpa, we lifted High camp and Ashish, and eventually made it all the way down to BC, despite having been charged by some of the yaks at one stage.
The next morning I went down towards Lhato, guided by Ashish. On arrival at the homestay we were astonished to hear the Paddy had just gone up with two female guides to get his passport, and the stuff that I had just brought down. Ash had taken us a different route, so we had not seen them. (You couldn’t make it up). I left his stuff with Ashish, and took a lift to Leh, to the usual welcome at our hotel. The Leh festival was in full swing, and the place was alive and vibrant. Paddy got back later that day and we arranged to meet next morning. Paddy was incensed, as he felt that Raja had abandoned him, he had no clothes, couldn’t change money as he had no passport( I hadn’t thought of that) and to compound things, he had fallen out with Arnab, and left his hotel, so had no support.
Things didn’t get any better for him, as the next day, when we walked into town everything was closed due to a civic protest, and his cash cards didn’t work either. “Should be open again tomorrow”, but it wasn’t, and things were taking a serious downward turn. Curfews, hunger strikes, riots, shootings etc made us decide to get the hell out, and we got a good flight deal through Sharon of Premier Travel in Derry. The problem was that my big bag had not made it down before the army closed off the roads, so it may have to be abandoned.
Arnab to the rescue this time. He drove to Lhato overnight, and my big smelly bag was there at reception when I got up in the morning. Ashish Lakpa and Rivu came to say goodbye, at my hotel, picked up Paddy from his, and we were on the 12 oclock flight to Delhi, (along almost every other tourist in Leh). Delhi was difficult, but we got home to Dublin by 1.30 PM on Saturday, and I made McGrorys for 7.15 thanks to a bus driver in a hurry, and Anthony and PJ.