Trip Reports

Mentok Kangri - 19 July – 7 August '15

Descending from Mentok II in 2014
Trip Report

Written by Leader Chris Allewell, September 2015

With the IMF not granting our permit to climb Lungser Kangri, a few months before departure, the Korzok range on the other side of the spectacular high altitude lake Tso Moriri was settled on as a viable alternative.[The Mentok peaks are now being offered as part of a new 23-day trip in 2016 - Ed]

When the full team assembled in the tranquil gardens of Claridges hotel in Delhi after overnight flights from a variety of locations, the focus was firmly on Mentok 1 and or 2 at the south east end of this little visited range. This would be preceded by some spectacular trekking through the Markha valley. Well, that was what we thought at the time, the weather gods however had different plans.

About the time we were relaxing in the garden at Claridges, heavy and highly unseasonal storms were causing mayhem in Ladakh. Roads were being washed out, bridges were vanishing and teams were battling to cross brown torrents of water, which before had only been gentle streams. However as the storms had also taken out the communications to the area we remained blissfully ignorant.

On Tuesday 21st, Duncan, Louisa, Knut, Heming, Paul, John and myself met at 0300 in the hotel lobby and headed to Delhi airport for an early morning flight to Leh. With storms still bouncing around the Indus valley, Leh airport was closed and it was not until just before midday that we eventually departed.

We pottered around Leh in the afternoon and watched the lightening dance around the Stok range as another storm passed through in the evening. The following day, we headed to Sankar Gompa and up the zigzag steps to Tsemo Gompa to gaze over Leh, and then Leh palace as part of our acclimatisation.

On arriving back at the hotel, a worried representative from our trek agency met us. Word was now filtering out of the havoc the storms were causing in the Markha valley, the road N to Chilling was buried under a large landslide and the excavator sent to clear it had fallen in the river. The road south to Manali had collapsed into the river in places, and our horses were stuck somewhere in the Markha valley unable to get out. It had all the ingredients for an exciting few days.

Multiple plans were hatched, discussed with the group, changed as more road closures or downed bridges materialised. We eventually departed on the 23rd on what felt like plan Z23. First to Hemis Gompa for a quick visit and then hopefully to Shang Sumdo where we would trek over the Kongmaru La and onto our original itinerary. Our cunning plan lasted only as far as Shang Sumdo. A small washout was easily bypassed and we settled into camp as another storm moved through the valley. With the storm came further news of horses being washed away in the Markha valley and with the weather forecast now predicting more rain we changed the plan again. By keeping to the East of the Stok range we would minimise river crossings and be able to escape if things became truly horrendous.

Fortunately, the next 5 days provided amazing scenery as we weaved through yellow rape fields, whitewashed villages, traced the jagged outlines of ridges and broad curves of high altitude passes. We marvelled at the sure footedness of wild goats catapulting themselves down cliffs, Ibex magnificently strutting their serrated horns, horned larks serenading our presence and dippers chinking their displeasure at being interrupted as we crossed their streams.

We regularly breakfasted al fresco in the morning sun, and only once had to hunker down as a violent electrical storm prevented our passage across a wide open plain to camp in the early afternoon. Each night a monumental firework show would light up the night sky as the mountains reverberated to the roll of thunder and the stretched canvas sung to the heavy beat of rain.

We emerged at Stok village on the 28th suitably awed, and headed by bus over the Taglang La, which at 5328m is the second highest motorable pass in the world ñ well thatís what the sign said! The journey, whilst slightly longer than expected due to the Army engineers working feverously to restore the washouts and remove landslides was incredible as we passed from the limited horizons of the soaring mountains to the wide-open plains more akin to the Tibetan plateau.

That evening we pitched camp in an idyllic meadow at Nurachan with Hoopoe probing the soft ground in search of food and Kiang (Tibetan wild ass) staring at us from a distance. Camp was pitched only just in time to avoid a soaking by the now predictable evening storm.

A gentle stroll over the Nurachan La the following day created much excitement when the fresh skeleton of a Kiang was discovered. Presumably, the evening meal of a snow leopard, some detective work soon turned up the scat and prints of a large cat, although an actual siting eluded us.

Another breath taking days walk saw us over both the Kyamaru La (5427m) and Gyabarma La camping on grassy plains under the shadow of Rupshu. The following day we crossed the Yalung Nyau La (5395m) gaining our first glimpses of the Mentoks, draped in snow and with summit cornices guarding their flanks.

A slow day navigating huge boulder strewn slopes saw us establishing basecamp at 5300m and after an acclimatisation day where we refreshed rope work and snow and ice skills we were set for our climb.

A 0200 start saw us navigating the boulder slopes, slowly making for a gully, which led to the ridge avoiding the avalanche prone slopes of the normal route. We strapped on crampons and roped up at the base of the gully and ploughed slowly up, grateful for Lhakpa (high altitude Sherpa) and Ridar (Sirdar) breaking trail through the rotten snow. Louisa despite being the lightest, by a very significant margin kept finding the deepest holes, and had to be dug free on several occasions, such was the depth of the snow. After 3 hours of swimming we reached the summit ridge hoping for better snow conditions. Alas, we had to continue our swim upwards negotiating the final steepness of the summit rocks to arrive at the summit at 0830. Louisa, Heming, Knut, myself, Ridar, Lhakpa and Chewang all shook hands on the summit, although with 7 Everest summits behind him, Lhakpa could be forgiven for looking a little nonplussed.

A rapid descent to camp and subsequently to Korzok was easy. Less easy was the return to Leh. Kamikaze drivers, stuck petrol tankers, collapsed roads, falling boulders were all taken in our stride, but it was with frayed nerves that we eventually sank into hotel chairs and toasted our success with just the smallest amount of beer.

None of the above would have been possible without the unending flexibility of the group happily adapting to the panoply of plans, juggled almost daily to match the weather and trail conditions. Thank you. It was a real pleasure to share the hills with you (see you out there next year to bag all those unclimbed peaks we spotted!) A monumental well done to the amazing support team of camp staff who could not do enough for us and regardless of altitude cooked some of the best food I have ever experienced on expeditions ñ its not often you put on weight on an expedition. Lastly but by no means least, a big thank you to the Jagged Globe home team, for making it all possible in the first place.

Chris Allewell

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