Our Himalayan Adventure

Day 3

On the morning of the third day we were faced with a long and steep climb along a zigzagging route up to the Konze La (4950m). There was some time pressure, as we were concerned about crossing the streams on the other side of the pass, which rise during the course of each day. Thanks partly to the high altitude, and partly just to being out of shape, we were gasping for breath, until finally Minette begged for some distracting conversation. David obliged with an impromptu lecture on the abstract mathematical subject of Category Theory; with our minds thus elevated to lofty heights, we soon forgot our earthly weight.

On the way up we saw a herd of Himalayan deer, and an amusing and amazing sight of cows negotiating apparently vertical slopes. Once up, the view from the Konze La was absolutely spectacular. We had views of the Ladakh range and the Karakoram and the Stok ranges.

Matt next to some sort of shrine, with a yak-head and many sheep's horns




How do they keep from falling down?




Looking back at the Hinju Valley from the Konze La




David and Minette on top of Konze La




The view on the other side of the Konze La (note the tiny Matt and Minette at the bottom left). We would spend the next two days hiking up the valley at the center to the Dung Dung La, which is visible as a notch under the distant white-capped peak. That peak is on the other side of the Zanskar Valley, in the Stok range. (Scroll right to see the whole thing.)

While descending we finally had to face the stream crossings we had been fearing--and for good reason, it turned out! We would remove our shoes while crossing the streams (we learnt later that one must never remove shoes while crossing streams--for more reasons than the ones stated). So David stuffed his shoes into his day pack, but only half closed the bag. While crossing, the shoes fell out of the bag, and as he lunged after them his (our!) precious digital camera fell out of the bag too. Obviously more concerned about the camera than his own life, David dived wildly after it, but failed and lost balance and fell into the stream. At this point Matt turned around and saw David gesticulating and pointing to the camera that was floating away, and quickly picked it up. Luckily it was safe inside its Zip-loc bag. While we all breathed a sigh of relief over the camera, our guide was running downstream after David's missing shoe! He followed the stream for probably half a mile, but in vain. Just as we were giving up and moving on, our guide proved his superior intelligence by checking upstream--where David must have flung the shoe in the confusion. So all was saved in the end.

Minette gets a hand from our guide at a stream crossing, while Matt watches

After around 9 hours of total walk time, we reached camp only around mid-afternoon and collapsed. This was the hardest day of the trek.

Camp




One of the peaks towering over our campsite

Extra photos from Day 3

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