Acclimatization Day - Stok Kangri Day 2

The altitude made its presence known last night, as even repositioning myself in my all-too-thin sleeping bag was exhausting. At one point my toes got cold enough that removing my handgloves and adding them to the three layers of socks already covering my toes did not seem at all a peculiar tactic.

Today we did an acclimatization climb to 5315m before our 11:00 p.m. departure for 6-8 hours of predicted climbing tonight/tomorrow. As we wheezed our way up to our target point, the base camp staff pranced around like deer during their daily cricket match. Their fitness level at 5000m evoked considerable jealousy from my co-climbers and I, given that our lungs felt like they were the unfortunate stress balls of Fear Factor contestants. From the apex of the climb we could see Leh, the boheimeth Sasser Peak (7600m), and a portion of Ladakh's many mountain ranges. If successful, tomorrow's climb will over a 360° view of the Ladakh Himalayan region. My excitement is mostly out of fear, for today's prep climb and practice with the cramp-ons was quite difficult.

We descended to base camp for lunch and some sleep before the fateful hour of our attempt to eclipse 6000 meters and become officially recognized as a bit psychotic.Read more