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After
one resting day at basecamp, it's time for our summit attempt.
After a
couple of days with poor weather it looks a bit better today.
At first we follow
the route leading towards Stok Kangri, up on a ridge
some 140 meters over
BC. We need half an hour to get there. After that
we follow the ridge up left. |
A look back towards basecamp from the pass at 5125m. |
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As
we slowly climb the technically simple ridge towards the lower summit, the
main summit begins to appear to the right. Slowly yes, because of the altitude
of course. Nothing is easy up here, everything takes time. |
Eventually
we reach the lower summit, at 5430m. Here is BC from the summit.
I have seen several pictures from here on the internet, where people
claim to be
at 5670m. That's totally wrong. The path leading on towards the main summit,
will now be something completely different. |
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Here's
the main summit, seen from the lower summit. This is where the real
climb begins. We climb the least steep sections in the middle of the
picture,
the turning right, following some cliffs towards the
summit. |
Here
we begin to reach the steeper section. From here the hands are used
a
lot. There are a few markers but not much. We try to see the tracks
from
others and follow them to find the best way up. |
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And now we are given a
different form of entertainment. Far up in the north,
there are several
tornadoes forming. We often see more than one at the same
time. Luckily
there is almost nothing but wasteland up there. The one in the
middle
of this picture could have coused real damage. |
Dante
has reached the crest, only the final climb to the summit remains. We
have
felt some dizziness for the last 200m, and it has been difficult to get oxygen to the
muscles. We've had numerous of small brakes to catch our breath. But apart
from that we feel ok. |
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The
final climb to the summit is some 10m of real climbing, that means no
scrambling. But there are good points for hands and feet and we feel quite ok
going up here. Of course, the altitude makes it necessary to take extra care.
So we do move slowly up here, not to make any misstakes because of slow
thinking |
Well, here I am on the quite sharp summit. Behind me are cliffs leading down to
the Stok
Kangri Glacier, with the steep slopes leading up towards Stok Kangri
on the other side.
We
chose the right peak today. We climbed it, even if it was a bit tough towards
the end. Neither one of us would have wanted to go any higher. |
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| Golep Kangri 5950m, to the southeast. | Straight to the south, just to the left of the dark peak in the middle, is Shuku
Kangri 6000m. |
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| And here is Stok Kangri 6120m, almost straight to the west. | Almost
straight north is Leh, looking as a green oasis in the middle of the picture.
Closer, and going from left to right, is the Indus valley.
Towards the horizon, a bit
to the left, are the 7000m peaks Saser
Kangri. But they are hidden behind clouds
and only one, 6435m peak is
visible. |
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| Zooming
in on the 6435m peak, a little to the left in this picture. The Saser
peaks
would be to the left of it, but aren't seen better than this. | Far
away to the east is Tibet. I don't know if the visibility we have
today permits
us to see it, but it's possible that the peaks towards
the horizon actually are in
Tibet. |
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| Far up in the north north west is K2. Unfortunately we don't have the visibility to
see it today. | To the right in this picture isTelthop 6185m. |
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