#2- Winter Expedition to Golep Kangri (5950m) and Stok Kangri (6153m) - A Himalayan expedition.

I woke up in excitement at the first strike of my alarm. Today was the day! I was leaving for an expedition that had been a dream project since a couple of years. I had some of the finest mountaineers of the world in my team. Coming few days was surely going to be a learning experience of a lifetime.

Our pick up had arrived. We loaded the vehicle and off we went!

The vehicle would drop us to Stok Village (11,900 feet) and from there the trek would begin. On our way we picked up a few porters who were joining us on the expedition. They were all friends of our guide, Ali. No porters were agreeing to come with us but these few men agreed because they too shared the same motivated passion as we did. Even they wanted to experience the Stok valley in peak winters. Stok village is a 30 minute scenic drive from Leh city.

Upon arriving at the Stok village, we unloaded the luggage and distributed it amongst the porters.

Every time I have been to this place, I could hear the massive Stok River gushing just around the corner but it was all so silent now. I went a little ahead to get a glimpse of the river and I saw a spectacular sight I will never forget. The entire Stok River had frozen solid and I understood how cold the valleys are going to be!

We put on our rucksacks and started with the trek. Our destination for today was Chang ma camp (12,500 feet). There was less snow than we had expected. The valley had completely changed since the last time I was here. It was all dried up, frozen and lifeless but it was extremely beautiful at the same time.

We were walking at a very slow pace, taking pictures, admiring the beauty, taking videos at times and chatting. We were all so happy and energetic from within. The valley had a very beautiful vibe to it. We came across our first river patch to cross. During the season time we have to remove our shoes and step into the ice cold water to cross the river but it was all frozen now. We just had to walk over it. As soon as Kunal, our team member stepped over it, he slipped on it and fell. Luckily he wasn’t hurt much and we laughed it off. There were many patches of frozen rivers to be crossed today. We had to be very careful as we could not risk being injured in the first hour itself.

We figured out techniques to cross the extremely slippery frozen river patches. It was all about maintaining the center of gravity and position of your feet. As we got closer to Chang Ma, our campsite for the day, we began to come across dried up trees. ‘Chang Ma’ literally translates into ‘Land of trees’.

Two hours into the trek, we could see our campsite from a distance. Team members Arjun and Kam had already reached the campsite. The sun rays had stopped falling in the valley now and the temperature was suddenly plummeting now. We started walking faster and within no time, we arrived at our campsite. I removed my warm down jacket and put it on. It was surprising to see how much the temperature had dropped in just a few minutes since the sun rays had gone. All we wanted was some sun rays which wouldn’t fall on us until the next morning.

Our campsite was right beside the frozen Stok River and that would have to be our water source for cooking and drinking purposes. Getting out actual water from this was going to be a task by itself.

We took our ice axes and galloons and went on the frozen river. We started hitting on the river, trying to pierce it enough so that we could find flowing water underneath it. We dug almost one feet but we could not find any water. It was all frozen. We collected some ice from it and came back to our camp. This ice was to be our water source for today. We started melting the ice on the stove and meanwhile pitched our tents. It was getting really cold now and all I could think of was to curl inside my warm sleeping bag and sleep till the sun rays hit our camp the next day but a lot of work had to be done before I could sleep.

In the evening, all 4 of us got into one tent to warm it up and opened up all the sleeping bags. We took out namkeen and some sweets that we were carrying in our rucksacks. They tasted so good! It was one beautiful evening with right people, some awesome conversations, and good food and in such a beautiful and a peaceful surrounding. Ah, little pleasures in life!

A lot more adventure await as we get up high into the valley and closer to the mountains that we hope to climb. Follow on for upcoming blogs on our expedition. Cheers!

Check out the part 1 of the expedition blog if you haven't seen it
https://steemit.com/travel/@its.parth.hey/1-winter-expedition-to-golep-kangri-5950m-and-stok-kangri-6153m-a-himalayan-expedition