Stok Kangri expedition
4 nigts - 5 days
Day 1. Arrival Leh
Introduction and Briefing about Trekking with Wandering Wisdom, followed by a complete rest. Flying directly to a high altitude place like Leh (3500+ Mtr) can cause serious issues sometimes if proper care is not taken to combat Acute Mountain Sickness. Hence, one must always be aware of importance of Acclimatization and tips to help acclimatize to some extent before venturing to further high altitude. When you fly to such high altitude place like Leh you must give your body a chance to acclimatize a bit before actually getting started with the trek.
Day 2. Sightseeing and Drive to stok (Acclimatization day)
Day for sightseeing tour to Shey Palace, Thiksey Monestary and Stok. On day 2nd, you can enjoy the cultural and natural beauty of Leh. This can be considered as a day to get familiar with the town and also acclimatize to the weather. Leh is culturally a rich place. There are dozens of monasteries and ancient temples that you can go around. They are located in and around the town. Therefore you would be getting enough time to go around the place in a day. This day is very important for us. Some of these places can be hiked to and its the best for us to do, if we are not feeling exhausted. If we do, we need to take some light walks in the stok village itself. The Stok village lies immediately to the south of Leh and it is well known for a royal palace. The recently crowned king of Ladakh lives here. There is also a small museum inside the palace which has beautiful and religious artifacts.
Day 3. Trek from Stok Village to Mankarmo
Trek to Mankarmo : approximately 4 to 5 hours of walk. At every camps our staff would be waiting for your arrival. Between Stok and Mankarmo we have a camp at Changma chan (13087 ft.) where you can have tea, snacks and rest for an hour. The whole trek passes through the barren grey landscape of Ladakh. This day will show you the real beauty of Ladakh and gives you the answer why Ladakh known as cold desert, while trekking you will cross 2-3 times the small streams, it is a fairly easy trek along with the river and you would love the overnight stay in tents. Although you will be carrying packed lunch but if you want you can also have hot lunch at the camp. After having lunch, you can take rest for sometimes and don’t forget that you are here to attempt Stok Kangri, for that acclimatization is what you have to keep in your mind. Therefore climbing the nearby passes would be a great idea, our guides are not only good by physical but if you want to train your monkey mind, try out some meditation with our guide to train your mind. When you have a good acclimatization and happy mind then you will have a good sleep, which is again important to achieve your goal. (Stok Kangri summit).
Day 4. Mankarmo (14200 ft.) to Base camp (16300 ft.)
After breakfast our guides will give a briefing about the day and start the trek, few hours trek takes you back to the base camp. This exotic base camp is a pleasurable place. It lies in a grassy area. This area has a number of water bodies in the form of lakes and water streams. During the day time, you can walk on the upper areas of the campsite and enjoy the views of the surroundings. There are some beautiful peaks like Golep Kangri, Suku Kangri, Parcha Kangri and many others. You can also take rest in the base camp to make sure that the group is ready for the next day’s trek and touring. You would get time to acclimatize to the weather. This is pretty necessary because in the coming days, you would find a drastic change in the climate and might experience thin air and lack of oxygen. The overnight stay, would again be arranged in tents and make sure that you have enough warm clothes for the lowering temperature.
Day 5. Rest day + training day
One day rest is a must before attempting for the summit, but on this day you can still walk slowly to the nearby passes and get used to the place. This day is an easy day for trekkers. You would enjoy the time for going around and knowing the place to a much better extent. It is essentially a day to train for the upcoming trek and know the possibilities and challenges that are involved in it. Your trek leader and guide would let you know about all the different changes in the terrain.
You need adequate knowledge and experience to go around the mountains. There might be situations where you have to trek in the sinking snow. You would find your legs sinking up to your knees. Therefore it is essential that you know the weather and surrounding conditions. It is also a day when you would to take enough rest so that you are well prepared for the coming excursion. The overnight stay would again be in tents. By now, you should be well familiar to the conditions prevailing during the day and night.
Day 6. Base camp (16300 ft.) to Stok Kangri (20080 ft.) back to base camp
The best way to make your dream come true is to wake up”. On the summit day we will have to wake up early, as it will be much easier if we make it to the summit before noon as the snow starts melting during the noon time. Now that you have had rest for a day i.e. the Stok Kangri trek, you should be well prepared for the big climb. The route goes through glaciers and then comes to steep slopes to the summit ridge. This is a long climb, so you should be mentally strong and prepared psychologically. It would take somewhere between 9 to 10 hours for average climbers. Slow climbers may take another 2 to 3 hours in addition.
At the start of the trek, after a couple of hours, you should reach to the summit of the ridge. The summit offers you great views of the area. The wide and open surroundings give you a royal feeling. Towards the north, you would get a view of the Karakoram Range. The Saser Kangri dominates the sky in the north along with the Karakoram, and the Zansker ranges in the south. The overnight stay, as usual, would be in tents.
Day 7. Base camp to Stok
After early breakfast with guide and all the staff, you will start your hike back to Stok village. Returning back from base camp would not be a problem and does not take much time, so you can take lots of pictures and rest for tea at camps at Mankarmo and Changma. Stok village is the final stopping point of trekking.
