Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top
Disclaimer: If you are expecting an expedition report of Stok Kangri then this post is not for you. There are hundreds of other posts on the internet for same. This post is my account of Stok, related experiences & challenges.
Stok Kangri was my first expedition as a team leader. The expedition was my second 6000m expedition, the previous one was a failure (Mt Kedar Dome). This was part of our step by step strategy to conquer the Everest (https://tinyurl.com/y5h9zhda).
Stok Kangri is a beautiful peak and is considered to be a step up from normal trek to Mountaineering. Infact, many times people call it a trekking peak. I have been an endurance runner and cyclist before, having participated in Duathlons and Triathlons too. With this as a background it was decided to do Stok before going for Basic Mountaineering Course. Being from an endurance background and because of all these comments (Stok being a trekking peak) I made the mistake of taking it too lightly….
On D day reached Stok Road head, which is 30 mins drive from Leh. The team unloaded all our rations, heavy equipments, generators, fuel and other administrative stores and started our move to Mankorma. We left a small communication team at road head to communicate with leh. As we started our trek carrying our rucksacks and heavy equipment on Pony we realized it was going to be warm. So we started removing layers of clothes one by one. Soon we reached Changma (3900m), this is the place where most of the teams halt for day 1. From leh (3000m) to Mankorma (4350m) on a single day such elevation is highly NOT recommended, but when you are eyeing Everest we need to be prepared accordingly. We established our camp at Mankorma and half the team returned to Leh for the night.
D+1 morning the team at Mankorma did load ferry by going to Road head in order to acclimatize the body. So all of us carried decent amount of load and trekked. By now early signs of high altitude were being felt by most of the team members. D+2 was rest at mankorma and we conducted classes on wearing of heavy snow boots and crampons. We had a short stroll in them. This was followed by class on use of radio sets, handling and charging.
D+3 the team moved from Mankorma to Stok Base Camp. We stayed for some time and returned. This was again an acclimatization trek. D+4 we moved to Stok Base camp and rested the whole day. The day was pleasant but as happens in most expeditions the higher you go worse the weather gets. D+5 we went for height gain enroute to stok and returned after some time. On D+6 the weather was not in favour and snowing. Notheless we performed the pooja and miraculously things started improving. At 10 pm we started moving towards our final destination…my first expedition as a team leader. Initially things were not easy since I was not used to wearing in heavy boots. Then things went worse as it started snowing and we realised that weather would pack up soon. All this meant less rest breaks and more ascent to the summit. As we reached shoulder (the place where most of the people give up) things started getting horrible, fatigue set in hunger and worst was fear of unkown having not done any expedition before was surely pulling me down. Amidst all this one thing was pretty clear if i had to return it would be only after reaching the summit…..We realized that the conditions and our inexperience was pulling us down. Slowly dragging and struggling I reached the top of Stok. The final part was indeed a big pain. Somehow on reaching the top inexperience costed me dearly as i removed the cap. In no time the hell broke loose…. effects of high altitude started showing its effects. Started developing headache, dizziness and nausea. I told my team members i need to descend asap as i was unwell. We started moving down after taking the pics and then after short descend had biscuits and liquids. After this was feeling much better and we glissade our way back and then trekked our way to the base camp. All the team members successfully reached the summit except the doctor.
D+7 we returned from Stok BC to Mankorma and D+8 we headed back to Road head followed by Leh. The feeling on return to base camp was indeed great and satisfying.
Conclusion: Don’t underestimate the mountain. Never measure the height of mountain until you reach the top. Then you will see how low it was.
IIT-kgp to Everest 