Another one: Stok Kangri:  Ladakh, Jul 99. I would like to say I soloed it but a dog followed me up

Also we hear from the locals mountain guides boast of doing this peak 10-20-30 times!! Perhaps they are true and perhaps not at all, this year 2008, Ladakh has an unusual snow fall. Blame it to climate imbalance due to the Global Warming? The much easy peak of Stok Kangri (6,150) was again in a virgin state and many cleaver climbers who did it 6 times and had experience of other summits numbered to 60 peaks silently retreated back.

Also we witnessed many others retreat back and the recorded temperature at the base camp was minus 37 Degree Celsius. The main reason was that the heavy snowfall of the winter let the mountain conceive two major avalanches much visible to the experienced climbers and not at all to the dog that followed him!

Thus a major factor of mountaineering not lies only in the courage, strength and vertical limits but a horizontal level of mind and understanding of the Mother Nature.

The Stok Kangri which is the most frequented has seen many legends and has many stories like the Speed Climber Alan Burgess of the famous Burgess brothers climbing it in a day and trying to ski down it!! Like the big team of British Expedition group turned back in the 1980s just like this year and all set drinking the local Chang brew at the roof of their hotel, looking at the peak! And to add fire to their sadness, the locals swearing to go to have witnessed westerner climbing the Golaib Khangri (5,900 mtrs.) in full gears to find barefoot local women collecting animal dung for fire near the summit! What ever the truth but the good news is that the Stok Kangri now can be booked locally with a minimal fee without the long waiting and procedure to apply to IMF.

Adjacent to Stok is Matho west (5,950 mtrs.) and many unnamed peaks in the same range. On the summit of Stok Khangri.

The Kangyatse peak (6,400 meters.) lies south east of Leh and is reached via the famous Markha Valley trek of 9 days. There are many other peaks around Kangyatse on the altitude range of 5,500 meters and 6,400 meters, which are also available for climbing in the Nimaling plateau.

The Nun-Kun massif in the greater Himalayan range is easily accessible from Kargil-Padum road. The shortest possible approach is to march to the base camp makes this massif the most attractive climbing destination in the great Himalayas. Among its six known peaks accessible from Suru Valley is Nun (7,135 meters) and Kun (23,213 feet.) is the highest.

Welcome to the high altitude climbing experience, welcome when the snow is hard and weather is soft!