Winter trip to Ladakh

After a long long wait, finally that anxious night came, when all my stuff was packed and i was ready to be teleported to my kind of desert. I had to get up at 3 in the morning to catch the flight, so it was hard getting a nap that night. Seconds, minutes, hours passed like a breeze and the alarm pealed.

I called up Farhan bhai, with a hope that he is awake and ready to arrive. He was the first step to get close to Leh, as he was my toter to airport. He picked up the phone on a second ring and i asked, awake Farhan bhai? He replied don't worry bhai jaan, you will be at the airport on time. I just smiled and said ok, as he understood my concern.

I did a final reconciliation with the checklist of items to carry. To overcome the fear of forgetting something, i said myself, don't worry, you can get things at Leh too.

Farhan came and as soon as i settled in the cab, i got a call from Air India informing about a delay in the flight by an hour. I thanked him for the information and thanked God too, that it's just an hour's delay, otherwise flights were getting canceled due to fog.

After spending the lengthy waiting time at the airport, i finally heard the call for starting the boarding process. As i entered the aircraft and grabbed my window seat, it was that astonishing feeling, that nobody is going to stop me now.

After about half way, the mountains began to appear. I was already feeling the heat of going in the chill. Just before reaching Leh, the captain notified that the temperature outside is 5 degrees below zero.

I was not fully prepared to land in subzero temperatures as i was wearing just a denim and a fleece jacket. The denim turned into an ice sheet as soon as i de-boarded the flight. The first thing i did after entering the airport building was dialing up Thinle. He picked up the call right away and said, come on Adil bhai, i am waiting outside.. I had a big smile on my face, and that childhood feeling of, Yesssssss, i reached finally...

Thinle gave a welcome hug to me and asked, where are your warm clothes, these will not work here.. I said i have them, lets have a cup of tea first.

As Scorpio picked up, I was engulfed by the feeling of chill and fragrance in the air, blue skies, snow on the mountains, familiar military movements, known markets, and recognized ethnicity.

As we reached Thinle's house, he said, Adil bhai, change the clothes and come over, lets have tea. I took out my armor and got ready to battle against the gelidity. Thinle's family gave a very warm welcome and I had a couple of cups of tea with them. Thinle said, Adil bhai have the breakfast here and then we will go to Karzu zing. I asked what is that? He replied, its small pong which gets frozen in winters and Regzin (Thinle's son) goes there for learning ice skating. I said, ok, that sounds fun.

It was much more than i anticipated, lots of cute little kids, wearing colorful clothes and trying to balance themselves on the blades. Regzin was a champion tho, gliding around on a pair of metal blades is not as easy as it seems.

Thinle on the rocks!

Yea i know, without the ice skates :p

The champion around, Regzin

Scratches on ice by the blades

Kids trying to get some hold

That was much for the first day at Leh as i was already sleep deprived, so i went back to my shelter to have some rest, acclimatize and compose myself for steering up to the high altitude frozen panorama of Tso Moriri.

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Drive to Tso Moriri

There was fresh snowfall in the Leh city that night. The roads were deserted in the morning and covered with snow. I had a Ladakhi mutton soup in the breakfast with Thinle and started our journey without wasting any time.

View from Thinle's house

Thinle's car

Leh bus stand road

Deserted streets

We encountered some military trucks with their engines covered with blankets to prevent their engines from catching cold.

At Chumatang, i said Thinle to relax at the restaurant and i went to adore the beautiful frozen Indus. It was an amazing feeling, walking alone, out in the wilderness, with not a single human or a beast around.. Just the voice of your breath and soul chilling winds, trying to get into your body by any possible fault in your armor and freeze you to death..
With every step towards the river's core, the sound of ice cracking under the feet got louder, and the fear back in the mind, deep inside my subconscious, got stronger, that what if the ice breaks and the river pulls me with her into the dourly depths.
But the exhilaration and fervor was so high that it over ruled all the fears and gave me the strength to relish one of the most stunningly crafted landscapes on planet Earth.

Walking on the frozen Indus

Godzilla trying to break out :p

Don't they need some woolen stuff :O

Icicles

Slabs of ice

Frozen Indus

Ice formations

Ice volcano, about to burst ;)

Frozen in time

Patterns on the ice

Chumatang hot springs. Ice on one side and boiling water on the other...Sublime nature

View from Chumatang restaurant

Frozen stream en route

After the outlay of four swift hours on the frozen Indus, an active combat with the winds and saving myself from a deadly skid on the ice, i decided to head back to the eatery where me and Thinle disunited.

I had a sight of thinle from a distance, i waved my hands, as i saw the first human in last 4 hrs, that too my buddy.. Thinle waved his hands in disagreement, and asked me to stay where i am..

I was baffled by thinle's act and could not make out, what might have possibly happened. After arriving:

Thinle: Adil, rasta band he Tso moriri ka, nhi ja sakte.
Me: i was popeyed, bhai was missing in the sentence, unable to figure out the situation, i said, yar chal ke to dekhte he, jaha tak ja pae.
Thinle: arey jane ka baad me sochna, pehle military checkpost pe jana he report likhwane, apka bag chori ho gya he.

In a split second, my eyes turned at the back seat to catch my bag, it was not there.
I was appalled by the situation, and short on words. I boarded the Scorpio with a blank face.
Thinle laughed and said, Adil bhai, tune mera galaa sukhaya, isliye mene bhi tera galaa sukhaya..
I vacuously asked, matlab?
He said, kaha gaya tha bay 4 ghante se? Yaha sab ki jaan atak gai thi.. Me aur hotel wale darr rhe the ki kahi barf toot gya aur nadi me gir to nhi gaya ladka..
I loosened up, smiled and said.. Yaar kya karte ho thinle bhai..

Scorpio again got rolling and we reached the Mahe bridge. There was an army checkpost and thinle asked for a copy of the inner line permit. I popped out one from my camera bag, and gave him.
I also thought of taking a couple of snaps while thinle does the entry at the checkpost.

I stepped out of the Scorpio, only to realize that winds were fully loaded with chill and determined to freeze every possible thing that it encounters. I took some quick snaps and ran back into our black bunker to hide from the invisible enemy.

Thinle came, and we took the right turn towards 'T' so moriri, as one of my friend calls it.. The Valley leading to Sumdo village was narrow and dark. The mountains had kept the valley away from sun's eyes.. Any form of liquid was barely visible in the valley, entire rivers, streams and waterfalls were dead frozen.
Thinle cautiously maneuvered our bunker, as the roads were cloaked with solid and lubricious ice.
He said, Adil bhai, ispe rukne ko mat bolna photo ke lie, ruk gya to yahi beth jaega.
I said, ok, don't worry.
We were moving slowly and reached an ice crossing, which should be a water stream in the summer days. As we were crossing it, a loud cracking noise came bustling out from below the moving bunker, and i squalled, shit!!!!
But it was just the crust that broke and we successfully got thru.
My heart beat was gushing like i had just did a cross Atlantic swim.
It was easing to see the Sumdo village and the fact that we have crossed the dim, dusky and tenebrous Valley.
After passing over the Sumdo village, we headed towards the Namchang la. It was a relatively lower altitude mountain pass, as we were already at 4300 mtrs and the pass was at 4800 mtrs.
It was an easy ascent and thinle drove up like we were gliding on a plain Highway.
Once the descent from Namchang la commenced, things became intriguing. God had mixed some 3D effects in the landscape.
Thinle: Adil bhai wo dekho, Tso Kiager lake..
Me: kaha he bhaiya, yaha kaun sa lake he.
Thinle: (teasing me) arey aaj lens nahi pehni kya, samney to he.
Me: out of aghastness, i thought, have my number increased. I again asked, kaha he yar? Kyu maze le rhe ho?.
Thinle: arey kasam se, samne he. Wo dekho pahad pe white color ka, frozen, Tso Kiager he.
I was astonished and dumbstruck to realize that the icey slop visible on the mountain in front was actually the lake. As we got closer the lake came into shape slowly, from the icey slope on the mountain, it turned into a circular plain lake.
I said out of amazement, thinle bhai, ultimate he ye, waha se to slope dikh rha tha, pura change ho gya. Ladakh is truly a depiction of God's creativity.
After Tso kiager, there were humongous quantities of snow on the invisible roads. Thinle said, Adil bhai, gadi uth nahi rahi. Shockingly i asked, matlab!!?
He said, band padh rhi he, suno ye dug dug ki awaz. He was right, our bunker was behaving like there is a power cut in the main line and it was running on a couple of AA batteries.
At a point, Scorpio denied to move further. Horror-stricken, i asked, kya hua. He said, fas gae Adil bhai.
This was not an adventure anymore, as there was zilch vehicular movement there. We were the only sapiens who can be spotted there. Thinle said, kuch karte he ruko, re ran from there in search of something, i had no knowledge, what he was searching for. What he brought was an age old, torn jute bag.
I asked out of curiosity, isse kya karoge?
He said aag lagaunga.
He opened the bonnet and took out the diesel filters. What i saw and believed was something like a cotton filter inside, as i had never seen an open diesel filter before. But in reality, it was frozen diesel inside the filter.
He fired up the jute bag by his cigarette lighter, and placed the filters in the fire, to melt the diesel. Once the filters were done, he layed the burning bag below the fuel tank of the Scorpio. I was not able to digest what i was seeing.
Thinle said, tanki me diesel jam gya he, isse pighal jaega.

Thinle heating up the filters

Heating up the fuel tank

Diesel out of the filters. Again frozen in a matter of seconds.

After this super lesson on winter driving, we were again back on the snow laden road to Tso moriri.
There was a titanic white colored land mass, frozen water, quilted with snow.
We halted at the ITBP (Indo Tibet Border Police) camp and the same dialog from thinle, Adil bhai permit ki copy nikalo. He went to the camp and i erred again and stepped out of the bunker. The winds of the Indus trek looked like a monsoon breeze in front of the wind currents that were streaming at Tso moriri. I walked across the frozen white color, hoping that it will not spill the color on me. I tried capturing myself using a tripod, set the timer, and ran in front of the lens.
Just after the click, the wind demonstrated its power and tried to pull away me lousy tripod. I jumped and grabbed one of its leg, and saved my camera. Otherwise, my Frozen tears would have added weight to the Tso moriri's ice mass.
Thinle returned and we headed right towards Korzok, a small village adjacent to the lake. Thinle managed to find a homestay there and we ran inside in search of some warmth. It took me 2 quilts to arrange some warmth inside. We had a patchy sleep that night, as it was equivalent to sleeping inside a liquid nitrogen cooled chamber at a height of 4500mtrs.

The night was super bad for poor thinle. He had to get up 3 times in the gelid night and start the engine for some time, so that the fuel doesn't get rock frozen in the morning.

We got up and had two cups of tea each and went to the ITBP camp for the time out entry.
They invited us in, offered us breakfast and juice. It was a grand luxury, the room was heated by an active bukhari and a music channel was playing on the tv. They were very pleased to see us, one of the jawan said, yaha is time koi nahi aata, aap log aae ho to hame bhi acha lag rha he, kuch alag hota he din me, warna to bore ho jate he.
The army men serving there deserve an extra bow, in such high altitudes, extreme weather, deadly winds, far far away from home, from family, from their children and protecting our borders.
The lake would not be ours, if they were not guarding it.
Thinle also requested for a kerosene stove and kept the burning stove beneath the fuel tank for a couple of minutes to melt the diesel.

We said many many thanks to them, and returned back to the frozen vista.
I pulled out my buddy with a quite capable eye having a 24 mega pixels retina, and jumped on the white floor to capture some moments in time. Before leaving, i promised thinle, ek baar garmi me bhi zarur aaenge Tso moriri, abhi iska time he, tab hamara hoga.