Climbing
A tale of two mountains: Stok Kangri and Dzo Jongo
Our love for the mountains brought us to Ladakh. My fourth visit here and over the years so much has changed. Some for the good and lots for the bad – increased no. of tourists, lot of construction – hotels et. al., air pollution due to bikes and cars, receding glaciers and little snowfall resulting in shortage of water in Leh, villages and trekking routes.
Yet, coming here was refreshing and overwhelming as always amidst these tall Himalayan peaks and stark but beautiful cold desert landscapes. Our quest for climbing the two tall peaks had mixed feelings. The familiar Stok Kangri where I had stood on top in the past two occasions had more busy and crowded climbing route with many inexperienced climbers trying to break the 6000m barrier with more failures than success.
Therefore, climbing Dzo Jongo, a lesser known peak but challenging, beautiful and more importantly deserted was a more of spiritual experience than a strenuous physical endeavour with just us in base camp and climbing it in solitude.
More that achievements and failures it was the entire experience of being with the nature, interactions with fellow travelers and locals, bonding with each other and feeling humbled amidst the vast expanse of tall mountains and endless cold desert landscapes.
Thanks to all for making this happen- Temba Sherpa, our expedition leader who has climbed five 8000m peaks incl. Everest twice, Marco Polo (Tshering) our awesome cook, Nawang and Lobsang, Sweta, Swapnil, Izabela, Nina, fellow trekkers and travellers we met on the way, the villagers we chatted with and many more…and of course the weather gods to give us the window for the summit nights push in the midst of some really bad stormy days.
Some stats behind the mountain and our challenging climb:
Elevation: Stok Kangri: 6,153 m/20,187 ft | Dzo Jongo III: 5,900 m/19,356 ft
Summit: July 2018
Temperature range: 5 to -10 deg Celsius
Wind Speed: 20-30 kmph
Expedition Duration: 12 days
Mountain Range: Himalayas, Ladakh, India
Some pics from the trip 
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