I walked up Chanspa road in Leh towards the Sandwich Bar where a group was meeting to discuss the logistics for a self organized trek to Zanskar.  I had planned on doing the Lamayuru to Darcha trek across the remote region of Zanskar, so when I noticed a flyer asking for people to join a self organized trek from Lamayuru to Padam (the first leg of the across Zanskar trek), I asked if I could join.  I met my fellow “trekkers” at the Sandwich Bar, Tom Lev an Israeli girl stereotypically just out of the army but unstereotypically not traveling in a posse of fellow Israelis, a university student from Toronto named Alex, originally from Kazakhstan he was an ethnically Russian Jew who emigrated to Canada via Israel, and a couple who lived most recently in Washington D.C., the female half Sonia a self described Russian whose family had emigrated to Cleveland from Moscow, while the male half, Pancho, was an Argintinan economist who had most recently been working in D.C.  I have to admit I was a bit surprised at the lack of trekking experience of the others.  None of the others had done any trekking in Ladakh and three of the other four had never trekked in the mountains.  I had to admire their courage.  The Lamayuru to Padam trek was one of the most difficult of the commonly trekked routes in Ladakh.  I had been a little leery of doing it on my own despite my previous trekking experience, so I was happy to find others who were planning on attempting it at the same time.  They were either brave, naïve, or foolish, maybe a combination of all the above.  But given some of my previous adventures the same might have been said of me, I got along with them and I was happy to join them.  They were planning to trek without a tent or stove staying in villages along the way.  This was what I had been intending to do as well, but I did convince them that we should bring a large tarp that we could use for a shelter if we happened to get stuck out in the elements.

Two days later we caught a bus to from Leh to Lamayuru the starting point of the trek and home to an important monastery.  The weather was inauspiciously poor and it began to rain in the early afternoon just after we had checked in to a guesthouse.  The reward for the unusually poor weather was a spectacular rainbow which emerged when the skies began to clear in the late afternoon.  Knowing we would have little choice in our food once we began the trek we decided to make use of the decently stocked market and guesthouse kitchen to cook our own pasta (well actually noodles).  In any case, the sauce did come out well, despite lacking traditional Italian spices such as basil and oregano.

We got off to a bit of a slow start when Tom Lev came down sick but after spending an extra day in the beautiful village of Hanupata, there are far worse fates than this, everyone was ready to continue.  From Hanupata we hiked over 4800 m Sirsir La, the first of many high altitude passes en route to Padam, and reached the most beautiful village on the trek, Photoksar.  Perched at the mouth of a steep sided gorge amidst lush fields and shear rock walls that rise to high snow capped peaks, Photoksar’s location is stunning.  We arranged to stay in the home of a very nice woman in the fields outside of town.  The elderly woman who we negotiated the stay spoke very little English but fortunately when her daughter arrived back from the fields we were able to communicate a little better.  We enjoyed the fresh goat cheese and the roasted barley our gracious host provided, as well as a delicious dinner of Tunkpa (a Tibetan style thick noodle soup).

The next morning we started off towards the 5000 m Sengge La with the intention of staying at the tea tent that was supposed to be on the Photoksar side of the pass.  The only problem, the tea tent wasn’t there.  I kept expecting to see the tent over the next ridge but finally we reached the final series of switch backs just below the pass and I realized there was no tea tent, we were going over the pass today.  After a rest at the top of the pass to enjoy the view, we made our way down the other side of the pass.  We finally reached the base camp tea tent, on the other side of the pass, late in the afternoon.  It was not a particularly good night’s sleep on the hard stone benches but the warm meal was very welcome after the long day’s walk.

The next day was a comparatively easy walk to Lingshed, home to a large gompa (monastery).   My companions hired donkeys to take their bags over the steep 4700 m Hanamul La the following day.  The trek over the Hanamul La, while not the highest pass on the trek, is certainly the most difficult coming from the Lamayuru direction.  After climbing steadily from Lingshed one is faced with a demoralizing decent before a 2 hour climb of continuous switch backs over the pass.  The tea tent at Snertse where we were going to stay was not particularly conducive for accommodating 5 people in addition to the proprietors so we opted to stay in cave shelters nearby using the tarp to extend the cave’s stone ledge.  Fortunately, despite a little rain earlier in the afternoon, the night was relatively warm and without further precipitation. 

One more pass, two homestays and a bus ride with a baby yak later we were in Padum, scarffing down fresh fruit.  Padum could not be described as a pretty town and after hiking through picturesque villages and over high mountain passes on predominately rice and overcooked vegetables, the highlight of Padum was a hot bucket of water and fresh fruit.  The monastic village of Karsha across the valley is a much more picturesque and pleasant locality.  While my companions decided to stay in Padum I headed over to Karsha in the afternoon returning the following morning.  The monks at gompa were very friendly and I ended up having a dinner of Tunkpa with the monks.

I returned to Padam the following day and met up with my trekking companions.  All but Sonia were returning to Leh by bus, while we continued on to Darcha, another 7 days of trekking.  While during the first half of the trek every day was marked by at least one sometimes two high passes offering panoramic views of the surrounding landscape, the trail from Padam to Darcha follows a river valley gradually pushing upwards to the 5080 m Shinkul La crossing the Great Himalaya Range.  While the views may not have been quite as impressive as the first half of the trek what it lacked in high passes it made up for in quaint villages, the dramatically located Phukhal Gompa, and friendly homestays.  Phukhal Gompa is a short day hike off the main trail and is one of the most impressive monasteries in all of Ladakh and Zanskar.  An amazing feat of building, it covers the shear cliff side like a waterfall of white adobe against the golden rock of the cliff.  After spending a day with a friendly monks at Phukhal Gompa we hiked on to the village of Tangzen where we a friendly family took us in.  We decided to do a little more than just had over some money for our room and board by helping them with their harvest, to the amusement of the village.  I’m not sure how much we actually helped but our poor technique surely provided some entertainment.   In the next village of Kargyak we were fortunate enough to stay with another very friendly family, in this case two sisters, one whom was the first in her village to attend college.  Kargyak is the last permanently inhabited settlement before the glaciated slopes of the Shinkul La.  After Kargyak the colorful canyons of Zanskar begin to give way to the gray rock of the Himalayas.  The weather matched the stone.  Icy winds blew down the valleys as the darkened clouds of the monsoon battled the lofty peaks, ending their long journey from the warm waters of the Indian Ocean on the glacier covered rocks of the Himalayas.  As we walked towards those gray peaks shrouded in gray clouds we passed a nomad camp.  One of the women motioned to us and gave us some yak yogurt.  It was delicious.

The tea tent at the base camp of the Shinkul La was cold.  Bone chilling cold.  The wind whipped across the Indian army surplus parachute as the frozen equivalent of mist swirled outside.  I spent most of the afternoon in my sleeping bag hoping for better weather tomorrow on our hike over the pass.  The morning initially gave me hope as large patches of blue sky battled the grayness.  However as we hiked the grayness slowly began to win, and blue patches of sky gave way to an icy onslaught of hail and snow.  Finally, as I waited atop the 5080 m Shinkul La the grayness began to retreat across the peaks reveling glimpses of a view that no doubt would have been spectacular under clear skies but like a subtle strip tease only revealed tantalizing clues of what lay underneath.  The clouds closed in again and we stated down into Lahaul.  Unfortunately the tea tent in Zanskar Sumdo was closed, forcing us to make full use of the tarp for the first time on the trip.  The makeshift tent was small but it worked and fortunately there was no rain or snow.  From Keylong Sonia and I parted ways as she met up with Pancho to continue down towards Manali, while I hopped on a bus back to Leh.