xi. 28 May 2022 - Nimaling - Summit (Kongmaru La) - Chokdo.............

Today was probably the longest stretch of walk which we did during the course of the entire trek. It seemed that we were just walking and walking without seeing any destination at the end of the mountains!

Tea at 6 AM, breakfast at 7 AM, left the camp site and started walking at 730 AM. It seems, before leaving for Nimaling the earlier night, Wangtok had handed over charge jointly to Mayank & a kitchen staff. Mayank had handed over charge to Akhil Munjampalli for the first part of the trek, i.e. the ascent till Kongmaru la, the summit of our trek, at a height of 17100 feet. Effectively we were to ascend another 1300 feet to reach the summit. For the first time since we started the trek about 6 days ago, I decided to have my full sized down jacket on, atleast till we reached the summit, which I was told would be very windy and cold. Dr Swamy & myself formed a sort of buddy system for the last day. For a major portion of the ascent we were together, encouraging each other to keep going for one more day!

As I analysed it later, the ascent was in 3 parts - (1) a huge mountain to climb, (2) a fairly level stretch and (3) another mountain, atop which we could see tiny flags fluttering. Each of these 3 parts had taken equal time to negotiate, approximately an hour each with 10 minutes rest after the first and second stretch.

Within an hour of starting our walk, from atop the mountain (1st part) we could make out the camping site as tiny specks. 

 Zoom and see the foto below - the camp site has been circled in red.

After a small break we started the part 2, this was a level stretch with a nominal ascend lasting about an hour's walk. This stretch afforded some good scope for photography, with ice capped mountains appearing almost at eye levels.

The final stretch - part 3 - The atmosphere was more windy and the climb more steep, one could feel the remarkable drop in the oxygen level. More because of difficulty in walking & less due to the distance, this stretch took us almost an hour. On the way up we could actually see several mountain tops at a level lower than we were walking!

It was around 1055 AM when we completed the climb & reached the top.  I could not try the often heard statement "The best view comes after The hardest climb". Everything happened in a tizzy.  Mayank immediately gathered the group for a foto. It was too windy at this level. We found that a couple of trekkers from our group had already begun their descent. So the following group foto is incomplete and included only part of the group.

Left to right - Mayank (sitting - holding the banner), Anil (blue jacket), John, Dr Swamy (holding the trek pole high), myself Srinivasan (floppy hat) & Akhil (sitting - orange jacket)

My first Himalayan trek............

Even before the photography session could get over Mayank had already given instructions for us to begin the descent. Probably he did not want to spend too much time at the top, probably he wanted to reach lower altitudes ASAP. The reason he stated was that the mules carrying our bags would be on their way and would have to take the same way down the mountains as we were to take. In the regular course it is very difficult to negotaite a descent with  half a dozen mules breathing down your neck with heavy load on their back. Sounded logical. We started our descent. Mayank gave these couple of instructions before we started our descent (1) when walking down with a trek pole the pole should be on the mountain side, not on the valley side (2) when you are crossing a mule always step towards the mountain side & let the mule pass through the valley side.

In terms of speed, after spending the past 6 days trudging up the mountains at a slow pace, I felt that for the next 90 minutes the descent was happening at a scorching pace.

After 90 to 120 minutes of sheer descent the terrain changed gradually. We took a break at this point and lunched on the kichdi packed by the kitchen team. The time must have been around 1 PM.

After lunch we had long stretches of walk between 2 mountains, sometimes on dry river beds, sometimes crossing streams, sometimes rivers frozen into solid ice, sometimes a combination of water & ice. We must have covered about 8 - 10 such crossings. This pattern lasted till around 230 PM.

The next stretch was even more interesting :
(a) climb down a mountain, (b) cross a stream and (c) climb another mountain.
Repeat - climb down that mountain, cross a stream and climb another mountain, repeat again. I distinctly remember doing this atleast 5 times. Some of the descent was quite steep, and I am thankful to Mayank for his encouraging words & his offer to hold my hand and assure that you may skid but will not fall. This pattern lasted till 330 PM and the landscape changed to level terrain with small hills on the sides & tall mountains at a distance.

At this point the following welcome signage met our eyes! The time stamp on this foto reads IMG_20220528_154252.

 

I was sure that the trek will soon come to an end and we will be able to see the pick up vehicle round the corner. But this was not to be. Little did we realise that the above sign board was on one end of the Chokdho village & our vehicles were parked on the other end of the village. We had to endure a long walk of over an hour before we could see the vehicles.
 

At around 5 PM we boarded the mini bus. It is quite possible that the other trekkers must have reached the bus before us. It was then we realised that we were a group of 50 years + and were agewise the oldest in the group! 

After a drive of around 90 minutes the mini bus dropped us at the Hotel around 630 PM.  What a day it was. Started walking at 730 AM & boarded the mini bus at 5 PM.

Later at the hotel Mayank handed over this certificate to all the trekkers..

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