Introduction

Laddakh is located in the north wet of India, close to the Kashmir border, main city is Leh.

The trek described here was made in July 2003 and was organized directly from Leh by an Hotel owner (Yasmine Hotel, see web site in the related link). This organization was simply perfect with a Laddakhi guide and ecellent cook. Worth to know that during the monsoon in Nepal, guides from Nepal offer to guide tourists in Laddakh without perfect knowledge of the Laddakh topography. We meet with groups of tourists who where lost just because of this. Food may also be a problem, some trekkers have had only cans of lenses and rice to eat during the whole trek. We were 3 trekkers and had one guide, one cook assistant, 2 poney men and 6 horses carrying the cooking material as well as our belongings.

Names in the description below are not guaranteed due to the poor quality of maps (if any was available). Maps are also intentionally wrong for military reasons. Moreover, this trek was a variant of an existing trek recently open, some parts were in common but most of the trek was a bit offtrack, because our goal was to stay in high plateau where nomads are located.

Leh

Arrival by flying over the Himalaya is quite impressive, the landing in Leh is made purely with visual flight rules and the plane has to descent pretty close to the ground for its final turn. Pilots must be certified for the site and only few of them are. It may happen that low clouds prevent landing and force the pilot to go back to his departure point.

View over Leh, the Indus river is flowing on the other side of the valley (green part).

Thikse Monastery [Top of page]

During the first week in Leh, at about 3500 m altitude we only try to get used to the altitude. Doing nothing for about a week before the trek is strongly recommended, even for well trained and experienced trekkers, altitude sickness affects everyone without warning.

View from the Thikse monastery

Alchi monastery [Top of page]

After a visit to the famous Lamayuru monastery, on the way back we stopped at the very nice Alchi monastery.

On the road back to Leh

Day 1: Marsallang [Top of page]

The campground needs to be meadows to provide food for the horses. This trek was in a rather arid region and finding the right place for the horses was not always obvious.

The next campground was at 4700 m, at this altitude the water is pretty cold, even washing the hands was painful.

Day 2 : Chiang 4700 m and Kangmarula pass 5150 m. [Top of page]

After a night at 4700 m , we climbed the Kangmarula (La=pass) and went down on the other side to Nimaling. Trekkers can be seen below along the path, which is well marked. Beautiful view over the Kiangyatse 6400 m.

Below the camp in Zeta (?)

Day 3: Lang Tang Chan valley 4700 m [Top of page]

Many river crossings during this part, which means to remove shoes and to put plastic sandals. The crossing must take place early in the morning because the flow almost doubles during the day due to snow melting. The water coming directly from glaciers was very cold and makes the river crossing a bad experience. The water often reached our knees and the river bed was covered with big stones making the walk difficult.

Day 4: Zelug Kaspo La 5150 m [Top of page]

From the pass, the path goes down at the bottom of the valley, follows the river and turns right. The next camp below was set there.

Sorra Dat (6 hours) [Top of page]

After other river crossings, we arrived to a kind a "village", i.e. a few houses used mainly in summer, only 1 old man was apparently living there in a small monastery. Cold night with -1°C in the morning.

Day 5: Yar La 4820 m and Lungmoche (7 hours) [Top of page]

The visibility is extremely good and makes all mountains to appear very close, actually they are not, we walked for kilometers to reach our next camp.

Day 6-7: Langmoche - Zerra via Zongla (6 hours) [Top of page]

First meeting with a nomad on a high plateau. Walking there is very strange, altitude is high (4600 - 4800 m), it's like a hot desert (>30°C in the sun) with little vegetation and it's almost flat. temperature drops very sudenly as soon as a cloud is in front of the sun. Quirte long distances were covered on this plateau.

Meeting with yaks. The yak is an amazing animal, it can carry 100 kg and walk for hours in rocks being as agile as a goat. Apparently its character is not easy and the horns are very long and sharp...Some yaks are in fact crossbreeds with cows.