Stok Kangri Summit Day 17th August 2011

Written shortly after returning back to camp...

I’m writing this having successfully summitted Stok Kangri.  I’ve managed to climb to an altitude of 6,150m!

My initial feeling is of relief.  It was so tough.  We set off at 12:30am and returned at 2:30pm – a 14 hour trek!

First steps

We were woken at 11:35am by Deepen to get ready.  I had all my stuff with me so felt ready.  However, it’s hard to judge how many layers you’ll need so I was a bit behind setting off at 12:30.  I had to walk quickly to catch up.  By the time I’d caught up I was out of breath!  Not what you need!  To make matters worse, I’d dropped my head torch and hadn’t even realised.  Deepen handed it back to me.

Reaching Advanced Base Camp

We reached ABC in about 2 hours.  Because of the thick snow that had fallen 24 hours earlier, it was made all the more difficult to get there.  From then on, we were split into 2 groups. 

Crossing the glacier

At the foot of Stok Kangri is an enormous glacier.  I’m guessing it took about an hour and a quarter to cross it.

This the furthest we’d walked towards Stok Kangri, having trekked to ABC 2 days earlier.  I remember thinking how unusual (and to be frank intimidating) it was to be walking in the dark.  In fact, it was only light by 6am.  Crossing the glacier was hard work.  The snow was over 3 feet deep in places.

Steep, steep terrain

What followed after the glacier was exhausting.  It was over 2 hours of steep, steep ascent to the ridge through thick, fresh snow.  Our guide was going at quite a pace.

I remember it getting to 4am and realising how hard this was going to be.  I longed for the sun to rise.

Ridge to summit – madness!

At 6am, it was a superb feeling to get to the main ridge at 5,900m.  What followed was unexpected and very difficult, climbing up very steep cliff faces with sheer drops either side.  There were some scary manoeuvres to be made!

The biggest cock-up I made was when our guide told us to put our crampons on.  Had the summit day been 4 days earlier, it might not have required them.  I, with hindsight quite stupidly, put mine on myself.  I should have had the guide look at them.

I got myself into a situation where both crampons had fallen off my boots and it was stuck on my own with no grip whatsoever.  One guy from Israel tried to help me but again the crampons fell off.  It felt utterly hopeless and I was almost prepared to give up.

It wasn’t until our guide came back for me and fixed my crampons with my lying on my stomach in the snow that I was able to contine.

My legs were already burning with lactic acid build-up after battling with non-existent grip for 20 minutes.  The final push to the summit, therefore, left me absolutely exhausted.

The arrival at the summit (at 9am by the way) was an exhausting moment.  There was no big feeling of achievement.  It had felt like hell so I just wanted to sit down.  As I reflect on it now, I wished I could have felt a sense of achievement at summit moment.  But there was so many great moments on the challenge, it didn’t matter.

It wasn’t until the 2^nd party of our group arrived that my emotions started to flow.  One of the group, Alex, had shown amazing character and determination.  We all got photos together and I seized the moment – to get a photo taken with my NAS t-shirt and a photo of Peter.

Back down again to the ridge

As I thought about Peter and my motivation for doing it, I truly wept.  Peter has the most amazing smile and finds enjoyment in the most simple of things.  Right there, at over 6,000m altitude, I was humbled and tears flowed.

What followed was quite an exhausting start of the descent.  Four of us and the guide were roped together and we descended over steep, icy terrain.  You kind of forget you have to get down again!

Ridge to camp

It’s a unique position to be sat on a mountain ridge at 11am, when you’ve already physically been on the go for 11 and a half hours, and you’ve got 4 hours or so still to go.

We descended the mighty drop to the glacier with crampons, anxious for a rest.  We crossed the glacier to advanced base camp, stopped for a refreshments and made it back to camp for soup, chips and hot lemon.

I feel so relieved.  I’m not in a rush to do it again!  I do feel extremely pleased that I’ve been able to climb to that altitude using my own two legs.  I suppose after knowing this day was coming I’m glad it’s done and I can now rest!