Clambering up ridgelines and wondering why on the way up.

After the bumpy ride to the Gayk valley in Rong and after setting up the tent and supplies on the flat patch of land just below the mountain we were about to scale, we started the scaling. It was my first experience out on the rocky terrain of Ladakh and I wasn't sure how nice it was going to be to me. The huge rocks that had shuffled down the mountain side some days, years or eons ago were our only support system. Finding a foothold and trying to figure which rock to trust with your entire body weight was only part of the challenge going up. It was the sudden and jarring drop in oxygen levels on the way up that was really difficult to cope with. My legs, body and stamina were fine- but it was a lung struggle on that first day. But every now and again when we had a flat-ish piece of rock to stand on and look around- the most ridiculously breathtaking landscape met our eyes. Many people have told me that they're unimpressed by barren landscapes. After setting eyes on these beauties, I beg to differ.

On the way up, I experienced all kinds of conditions. I was already in a thermal and a t-shirt. Each step made me feel hot and sweaty and as a result- sticky and icky. But half way up, the breeze began to build up. It would whoosh by unexpectedly at times and hang around at others. This made the sweaty thermal cool and strangely- warmer. So I had to put on the wind jacket. This made me warm and relieved me of the biting wind, but it made me sweat even more. I thought of unzipping the jacket but that just lead to more hot-and-cold-ness. Going up up upper, we finally reached the top of the ridgeline where even the wind-cutting jacket was defenceless against the sharp, whizzing air. An extra layer was added and so was a cap with ear flaps. Using the experienced and wise words of Tamsin (a supremely fit, agile and fun woman)- we must have looked like pregnant cows and it was worth it. 

Atop the ridgeline (that was beginning to seem ever far away) the view was, again, gorgeous. It felt go-od to know I just climbed up that baby. We had reached the camera site. 

Now a brief description of what we were doing with ourselves. From Snow Leopard Conservancy, we were conducting a remote camera trapping analysis in order to get an estimate of the number of snow leopards out there in the mountains and valleys of Ladakh. This year, the survey is being conducted in the Rong region of Ladakh. The sites we visited already had a cameras installed there. Our trip was to visit them and check on how they were doing (battery and power wise). 

So, up at the site, I watched Tamsin and Jigmetle (the snow leopard expert here) do the checking and re-installation. It was very interesting to observe. 

The descent was a whole lot easier on the lungs and breathing wasn’t an issue at all. What was an issue was the scree. So much scree and so many loose rocks. It was much quicker getting down, but it wasn’t as easy as climbing up. 

I took this picture as the light was starting to fail. 

 

Also, we saw a golden eagle fly by and go perch itself on the mountain opposite us. It’s the little brown fellow in the photo.

By the end of the day, I was quite tired. But I had climbed a testing mountain and reached nearly 4500meters above the ground that I’m used to being on. It was wonderful.