LadakhMarkha valley and ascent of Stok Kangri - August 2006 |
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Day 18 - Return to Stok village and Leh You can return from Stok Kangri base camp to the village of Stok (and on to Leh by car or truck) in one day. As it turned out it was a wet day again and the sky over the mountain looked black. I was glad not to have to climb the summit today. Our last day of walking was nice, a little melancholic because of the weather but also knowing that we were leaving the next day. The landscape was pretty magic, out of a fairytale book....just look at some of the photos on the right. The walk was not so straightforward as the river was still high in places and forced us at times to scramble into the cliffs to avoid having to wade into the stream. Fortunately, the waters were not too high for the horses. Eventually, after about 5 hours Stok came into sight and we arrived, loaded our gear onto a truck and had a final heavy downpour before getting into a car and driving over to Leh.
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Day 19 - Off to Delhi It was still grey and damp on the morning we left for Delhi. Obviously monsoon was not going to stop soon. Strangely enough, we got one last view of the Markha valley from the air. |
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Summit considerations for Stok Kangri Under normal circumstances the summit of Stok Kangri may not even require
crampons in summer. It may just be a walk on rock, a tough walk because
of the altitude (and 6120m IS high) but only a walk. Bear in mind that this "easy" mountain is 1300m higher than Mont Blanc, the highest summit in Europe.
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