MyHimalayas

impressions from

Pictures Nepal

Gallery Ladakh - Hemis to Tso Moriri

Ads

Leh and Indus Valley

Shang Sumdo over Kangmara La

Hankar - Zalung Karpo La - Dat

Dat - Yar La - Pang

Pang - Lachung Kora La - Sharma

Sharma - Tso Moriri - Leh

Ads


Flight from Delhi to Leh.


The old fort and monastery on Namgyal peak overlook the bazaar and old part of Leh.



The fertile side valley of Changspa with Namgyal peak.


Ladakhi house with garden.


Monastery below the palace.


View from Namgyal peak towards Sankar, Nubra valley lies behind the snow mountains.


The ancient fort in the morning sun.

yara
Village north of Leh.


The Indus Valley with the Stok range and its heighest peak.


Tikse monastery is in easy reach of Leh and worth a visit.

 


Silhouette of Tikse and the monks' houses below.


From the roof the views over the fertile valley and the arid desert are stunning, Stagnak gompa on the hill in the middle.


Tikse


The large statue of Maitreya in Tikse.


Mathok gompa stands on a ridge overlooking the village, the Stok range rises behind it.


Afternoon picture taken from Stagnak. Tikse monastery stands on a hill in the right, Indus river flows towards Leh.

 

group.jpg (121882 bytes)
Crew, happy trekkers and two of the horses.

shang_sumdo.jpg (126364 bytes)
Starting in the village of Shang Sumdo we walk towards the snow peaks and our first pass, Gongmara La.

shang_sumdo_2.jpg (121819 bytes)
In a barren, colourful world of rocks we follow the the little creek, the bushes in the dried out bed add even more colours.

shang_sumdo_valley.jpg (106026 bytes)
Shang Sumdo valley features brilliant colours and sharp contrast.

shang_sumdo_harvest.jpg (70757 bytes)
Harvesting season needs to be finished before winter will arrive soon, therefore people work well into the night.

school_chukirmo.jpg (68655 bytes)
School and kindergarden in Chukirmo

bob_chukirmo.jpg (133237 bytes)
The creek is a little rivulet in autumn, making progress easy.

chukirmo_gorge.jpg (189374 bytes)
Enormous gorges in beautiful colours leave lasting impressions on the first days.

blue_sheep_3.jpg (82914 bytes)
Blue sheep were as surprised as we when we met; the rare animals let us come surprisingly close.

blue_sheep_4.jpg (87786 bytes)

chukirmo_gorge_top.jpg (171974 bytes)
On top of the gorge we sat up camp and headed up the snow-covered pass the next day.

horses_lhatse.jpg (92917 bytes)
Tenba leads the horses to our third camp at the foot of a pass.

way_to_kangmara_la.jpg (95462 bytes)
Way up to Kangmara La through hard-frozen snow, the Ladakh range that forms the border to Tibet lies in right background.

gongmaru_la_kang_yaze.jpg (128419 bytes)
View from Kangmara La towards Kang Yaze and the Zanskar range to the right.

prayerflags_kangmara_la.jpg (100072 bytes)
Prayerflags mark our first 5'000 meter pass, many more will follow in the next two weeks.

nimaling_joel.jpg (110786 bytes)
Joel descends to Nimaling, a grazing area during summer. The canyons of Zanskar in the background.

nimaling.jpg (83371 bytes)
Wide alpine valley of Nimaling serves as grazing area in the summer, but we don't meet anybody except the only two trekkers we'll see during the entire trek.

hankar_gorge.jpg (113954 bytes)
Walking through narrow canyons to Hankar.

 

camp_tahungtse.jpg (136192 bytes)
Morning in Tahungtse, horses are being loaded for a long day.

hankar_valley.jpg (139019 bytes)
Valley of Hankar, a beautiful hamlet. The old fort is dilapidated but the tower on top of the natural rock pillar still watches over the town and the terraced fields.

hankar_harvest.jpg (151243 bytes)
Women are finishing harvesting, their traditional whistling can be heard from a long distance.

hankar_dzong_2.jpg (123489 bytes)
Houses and fortress in Hankar.

hankar_dzong.jpg (145066 bytes)
From the monastery at the town's end we see the remains of the old fortress.

hankar_dzong_tower.jpg (104288 bytes)
The tower of Hankar dzong is still in good condition and the prayerflag on top is exchanged every year.

hankar_from_dzong.jpg (110422 bytes)
View from the foot of the tower down to the village

hankar_village_1.jpg (130778 bytes)
Kang Yaze forms the background, people in the village have collected the barley.

valley_zalung_karpo_la.jpg (209233 bytes)
We continue to follow the river xxx to reach the base of our second pass. The evening sun illuminates and increases the natural play of colours.

valley_zalung_karpo_la_snow.jpg (119084 bytes)
Fairytale scenery on our way to the pass.

zalung_karpo_la_sky.jpg (105254 bytes)
Approaching the prayerflags that mark the top of the pass Zalung Karpo La.

zalung_karpo_la.jpg (72465 bytes)
Lance arrives at the pass.

zalung_karpo_la_sorra_view2.jpg (97532 bytes)
The view from the pass southwards to Sorra and the ancient fort of Karnak.

zalung_karpo_la_horses.jpg (144448 bytes)
The southern slope of the Zalung Karpo La is completely free of snow

zalung_sorra_horses.jpg (95462 bytes)
Sorra valley is quite a different world than the valley to the north of the pass.

sorra_valley_1.jpg (134932 bytes)

sorra_valley_2.jpg (127867 bytes)
Colourfull valley of Sorra in the afternoon sun.

weasel.jpg (81232 bytes)

lhatso_and_seat_of_deity.jpg (107476 bytes)
Lhatso, a solemn spot where villagers from Dat make offerings to the local mountain deity. The goddess lives on the pyramid shaped summit.

lhatso_1.jpg (102191 bytes)
A huge number of mani stones with inscribed mantras are piled around the lhatso.

lhatso_carving_1.jpg (85475 bytes)
Unique carving with an almost three dimensional appearance.

lhatso_carving_2.jpg (116938 bytes)
Yama, the god of death, symbolizing victory over ignorance.

 

dat_village.jpg (82215 bytes)
Swampy plain near Dat, the village below the organ pipes is only visible because of the red bushes drying on the roofs.

dat_gompa.jpg (115392 bytes)
Monastery of Dat

plain_dat.jpg (92088 bytes)
Nomad riding from Lungmoche to Dat.

dat_rider.jpg (101646 bytes)
High altitude plain on the way from Dat to Yar La. The rider on the right is riding to Dat.

dat_yarla.jpg (90807 bytes)
View back towards the Zalung Karpo La which we crossd two days ago.

 

yar_la.jpg (85132 bytes)
Descending from Yar La, another 5'000 pass. Bad weather is moving in but once more we escape the downpour and only suffer cold temperatures.

lungmoche_cattle.jpg (184762 bytes)
The summer settlement of Lungmoche consists of a dozen simple stone huts and tents. Ladakhi keep yaks and sheep that are driven down from the grazing areas at night and kept in stone walls to protect them from wolves and snow leopards.

shepherd_lungmoche.jpg (77444 bytes)
Shepherd watching his goat and sheep.

lungmoche_nomad.jpg (157393 bytes)
Yaks are rarely slaughtered, goat is available in abundance.

lungmoche_sangtha.jpg (101552 bytes)
Another small pass between Lungmoche and Sangtha. At the horizon is Yar La which we crossed the day before.

sangtha_gorge.jpg (135164 bytes)
Descending to Sangtha in a fantastic canyon.

pogmar.jpg (105089 bytes)
Pogmar is a Tibetan settlement and not inhabited in summer. At the lowest point on the ridge on the left lies Yar La, the pass which separates this valley from Dat.

 

pang_1.jpg (100470 bytes)
From Pang we follow the river upstream.

pang_stone_figures.jpg (101911 bytes)
Bizare stone figures rise out of the riverbed and watch us as we follow the river and take a sidevalley to the east.

pika.jpg (75120 bytes)
Pika, a common small rodent in the high land deserts.

pass_pang_sharma_2.jpg (87705 bytes)
Our caravan steadily gains altitude, horses and people slow down even before reaching the difficult scree slope

pass_pang_sharma_1.jpg (101501 bytes)
The most difficult obstacle on our journey is a less-known pass - almost 6'000 meters high - that is covered by snow.

pass_pang_sharma_3.jpg (95176 bytes)
Finally on top of Lachung Kora La, the highest pass we've crossed on our way and almost 6'000 meters high.

pass_pang_sharma_4.jpg (91184 bytes)
Well deserved break for the horses that broke trail for us.

pass_pang_sharma_5.jpg (137220 bytes)
View from the pass to Sharma where we camped for three nights.

sharma_camp.jpg (113181 bytes)
Our camp in Sharma, a grazing area during summer but when we arrived in October nobody was there anymore. The little creek froze at night.

kitchen_tenba.jpg (76093 bytes)
Tenba and Lobsang prepare another tasty dinner in the kitchen tent.

camp_sharma_1.jpg (93647 bytes)
Dimensions are incredible - our little camp at the right, two trekkers making their way up to this 5'000 m pass.

 

storm_tso_kar.jpg (93384 bytes)
Storm looms over Tso Kar, a brackish lake from - until some years ago - nomads collected salt and traded it against other goods.

 

mountain_sharma.jpg (69721 bytes)
Unnamed, unclimbed (???) peak near Sharma camp, an attempt to climb had to be abandoned due to bad weather.

yarlang_nyam_la.jpg (112045 bytes)
The caravan descending from Yalung Nyam Lao towards to Tso Moriri.

peak6666.jpg (62103 bytes)
Sunset on a peak across the lake. The summer before two trekkers died during the ascent of the 6'666 m peak; they froze to death when bad weather moved in.

mentok_range_2.jpg (93959 bytes)
Near Karzok I experienced one of the few classical sunrise scenes during the trek. The sun rises over the distance mountain range that forms the  horizon and puts the Mentok range into a orange light.

mentok_range_3.jpg (103535 bytes)
Another peak of the Mentok range.

nomad_tent.jpg (98778 bytes)
Traditional yak wool tent of the nomads.

karzok_portrait_2.jpg (63275 bytes)
The nomad kids near Karzok have not been spoiled by tourists offering pens or sweets.

karzok_portrait_3.jpg (44547 bytes)
Wild young nomad daughter, nevertheless she ran off when our jeep arrived.

karzok_nomad_1.jpg (101228 bytes)
Yaks are being loaded with goods that are sold or traded in a nearby settlement.

nomad_caravan.jpg (114054 bytes)
Nomad with his yaks sets out for trading wool.

nomad_caravan_mentok.jpg (117374 bytes)

nomad_desert.jpg (93603 bytes)

school_sumdo.jpg (105172 bytes)
Tibetan Children Village school in Sumdo.

school_sumdo_2.jpg (93863 bytes)

mani_stone_karzok.jpg (142237 bytes)
On the way from the nomads' tents to Karzok we pass wonderfully carved mani stones.