Mt Stok Kangri |
| Date: 10/7/08 Submitted by: Andrew Tees Early in July found myself in Manali in northern India hanging out with a load of hippies and Isrealis (both as stoned as each other, but not me, honest dad!), and being so close to the Kashmiri mountain town of Leh, I decided to ditch the Dalai Lama's birthday celebrations in Dharamsala in favour of some more Himalayan scenery! 20 bone-rattling hours ensued in a cramped, rickety jeep with 10 other unfortunates... luckily our driver didn't appear to have any eyelids, or any requirement to pass water, as he managed to drive for 20 solid hours on some really crap roads. Leh is an amazing place with stunning scenery, very Tibetan (so I'm told). Though I'd recommend just flying there instead of jeeping it... Anyway to get to the point, teamed up with an English couple, an American dude, and another English lass, hired a horseman and some gear, and arranged a 4 day trip to attempt to climb Mt Stok Kangri at 6130m. Starting from 3500m we spent the first 2 days walking to Base Camp at 5000m. Only having 4 days meant we had a long summit day, with over 1100m of height gain. Long, long slog up the glacier followed by steep snow fields, finally reaching the rocky summit ridge. Some nice but tiring mixed scrambling to the summit, which we made in about 7 hours from BC. Weather was crap for most of the ascent. Arduous descent to lower camp at 4300m, knackered by time we reached our tents, but thorouly chuffed, all of having bagged our first 20000ft peak! (and the English lass's first mountain!!)... |
 Descending from Stok Kangri 6153m, Ladakh, India 2008 |
