Round 2 – After Kang Yatse

Tso Moriri, as seen from the Guest House

Sridharan caught up with me in Leh after his hike in the Beas Kund area. He had been in Leh a couple of days while I was away attempting Kang Yatse. I was exhausted after skiing down Kang Yatse in five days. So I decided to stay at Leh for two or three days. Sridharan was OK with it. We agreed to climb a 6600+ mountain in the Tso Moriri area. I thought, since the mountain was not technical and I had my ski’s with me, what the heck, why not use ’em. :p

Initially we had a lot of time to climb the mountain (almost two weeks) but had to make do with just 5 days from Leh to the mountain and back to Leh; one of those days was used up in reaching the Lake and one to drive back.

Since I have resolved to keep this post brief, I’ll spare the details. In a nutshell, on a side excursion I managed to fracture my little finger (there were three stitches too to spice things up ;)). So I needed about eight days to kind of recover. Sridharan and I still decided to go through with the adventure but at a much swifter pace because we needed atleast a day or two in Leh before returning to our respective homes. Ill try to depict the rest of the trip in pictures ….. :p 

We rode with this cute couple to Tso Moriri. We halted at the army guest house; courtesy special permit managed by Sridharan. We hosted the couple for a few hours. They spent the night on the Korzok side of the Lake. 

My Pack – Super heavy, as was the trend for me this year. Day 1 on the trail.

After a long steep hike. The campsite is about half an hour behind me.

The Lake as seen from the camp. I reached the site around 1330, looked around for water points and then pitched the tent. Sridharan was there soon enough. 

Day 2 @ High camp. Since the weather was bad, we didn’t have much time or opportunity to snap pictures enroute. Coffee at 6000+ m is Oh So …. Coffee like. :p

Day 3 – Since the weather was bad again, we decided to hike back to the lake. But not before I ski’d down from about 6400m. Shreedharan stayed behind due to the foul weather. After the ski run, we packed up and began the descent in a jiffy.

It was such an anticlimactic end to such an anticlimactic trip. With some more time, we could have made so much of this outing, but for the little accident I had. Perhaps another time.