Ladakh and
Jammu & Kashmir, India (August-September 2022):
Trek south
of Pangong Tso; visit of Srinagar and gompas around Leh
|
|
Return to my mountaineering/trekking/travel webpage
Situation map (northwest
India).
[Note: I did not outline the boundaries
between countries, because almost all them are
disputed by India, Pakistan, and China.]
The main purpose of my trip
to Ladakh in August-September 2022 was to do a trek in a portion of the Ladakh
Range, south of Pangong Tso (in the ˝Trek Area˝ outlined in the map
above). The trek I had planned consists of two distinct sections:
- The first and longest
one (shown in red dotted line in the map below) crosses three passes: Yogma La (5600m), Steansi La
(5600m), and Gun La (5650m). It starts at the hamlet of Chibra
(marked 1) and ends at the village of Kherapdu
(marked 5).
- The second section (in
purple dotted line) crosses a double pass (5720m and 5930m with a small gap
in-between). It starts at the un-named location marked 6 and ends in the
village of Kumdak (marked 7). However, bad weather at
the start of this second section led me to cancel it.
[Source: 1:150,000 map of Ladakh &
Zanskar, Editions Olizane, Switzerland.]
[Note: The itinerary in red (first
section of the trek) is not exactly the one that I had planned, but the one
that was actually done. The main difference between
the two itineraries is the ascent path to reach Steansi
La, as will be explained later. The green triangles indicate the locations of
our successive campsites.]
I used the days that I
had planned for the second section of the trek to travel to Srinagar in Jammu
& Kashmir, which I had wanted to visit on previous trips to Ladakh but had
not found time to do.
In addition, I had
planned acclimatization days prior to the trek and reserve days after the trek.
I eventually used these days to visit (or re-visit) several Tibetan Buddhist
monasteries (gompas) around Leh.
Like in 2016,
2018,
and 2019,
the logistics for this trip (support team, transportation, accommodation, food
supplies...) was expertly arranged by Sonam Dawa, the
owner and manager of Adventure
Travel Mark. Over the years, Sonam Dawa has
become a very good friend and I greatly enjoy staying at his home in Choglamsar, next to Leh. During
the 2020-2021 peak of the Covid crisis, rather than giving up, he further
developed his
cheese-making facility in the village of Shagar,
near Padum (Zanskar). He produces tommes
made out from milk of dzomo (female hybrid between
yak and domestic cattle), which have reached perfection. Their sales now help
supporting the dwindling Zanskari yak-breeding
economy. In 2022 Sonam Dawa opened a new, beautiful homestay
(the Zanskar Courtyard) near Padum in Zanskar: see here.
Click on the links (or
photos) below to see pictures of the various parts of this trip.
|
Trek
1/3: Crossing of Yogma La |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
