Stok Kangri : Himalayas Calling Again!

I was very much interested in the visit to Himalayas right from my childhood. I could remember still, the article i read when i was at the age of 10 years about Kailash Manas Sarovar in "Tharanga" - A Kannada weekly. May be for about a weeks time i had dreamt about it day & night by then (I am a day dreamer you know). Even for today, if i read a book or an article about the Himalayas, i feel very serene, & i will recollect the sentence from my favorite book Godfather - "Life is beautiful" from the corners of my memory. With such a strong urge, interest ringing in my ears for a long time, i could full fill my child hood dream at my age of 27. Last year, i trekked Sarpass in Himachal Pradesh scaling 14,000 feet in the month of May. Wow! What an experience! Difficult to put in words though (but i will try to post it some other day). After visiting Sarpass, i realised that i had fallen in love with her, Chomolungma, not in 2010, but way back when i was at 5th standard. I decided to meet her again this year in July, 2011, off from my routine software techie job for about 2 weeks.

Indian Himalaya is broadly categorised as Ladakh, Kashmir, Zanskar, Lahaul & Spiti, Chamba, Kinnaur, Kumaon, Garhwal, Sikkim, Arunachal regions. We can add Karakoram range too in the list, if we go by the map, but it is not under Indian Line of Control. So i am skipping that region. Each region is totally different and has its own significance in terms weather, beauty, landscape, soil, texture, rainfall, snowfall and in many aspects.

Indian Himalaya Divisions

After doing Sarpass trek last year, i wanted to do something big in 2011 and i was constantly exploring about some good trekking spots totally different compared to the last year yet achievable for non technical climbers like me. Obviously the regions classified above are different worlds altogether with one common factor being they are part of Himalayas. Ladakh being the tourist paradise in the recent years, i was exploring a lot in these regions and marked it as a must visit place in one's life time. In India, when ever there is a promotion of tourism of a good place, heavy number of tourists enter the place and disturb the ecological balance altogether. The local people will become more greedier and in turn destroy the beauty and peacefulness; the best examples being Shimla, Ooty and Kerala (promotional quote of Kerala tourism, i.e., "God's own country" has become a big joke). Recent statistics shows that, after the movie 3 Idiots, the number of tourists going to Ladakh has increased in many folds. I decided to explore Ladakh right in this year before it becomes Shimla.

I started exploring Ladakh in various websites and blogs and finally could figure out a mammoth peak of Stok mountain demanding no technical climbing skills, but only good healthy physical conditions. Stok Kangri (elevation 6137 m (20,135 feet) is the highest mountain in the Stok Range of the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of northwest India. It drew my attention and as i started reading the Stok trek reports in different blogs, my urge to trek kept on increasing. Stok Kangri falls under Hemis National Park, which is the highest altitude national park in India, home to a lot of endangered mammals including Snow Leopard. Below are the few photographs taken at different time of the year and also some interesting links about Stok.

Stok seen during summer

The panoramic view from the Stok peak is beautifully captured in the link below. Its a must see photograph! - Panoramic View from Stok Summit

The climbing of Stok is very well composed in the video - Stok Climbing

Get the weather forecast at different altitudes - Mid & Top

Trek route from Base Camp

Down from the ridge

View from Summit

Climbing just before the ridge

Stok Kangri : Highest peak in Hemis National Park

I have decided to climb Stok and experience the thin air at 20100 feet. If you too want to join me, let us meet at Stok trek from July 16th onwards! See you at Stok! Hopefully i will be at the Stok summit on 23rd or 24th of July 2011...


(Photos taken from the web)