Today is kind of a D-day as we had to climb the Konzke La @
4950 m. I trekked up to 5300 m last year in the Markha valley trek. Bt this
time it is not easy like before as we are on a homestay trek. In a homestay
trek one always have to descend to the lower levels whee the village is
situated. Whereas in camping trek, like the one I did in Markha valley, we can
always camp at the base of the passes and start the trek from there. In
homestay trek one has to first trek to the base of the passes which can take
anywhere from 1-2 hrs depending on the nearest village and then ascend from
there. That makes the trek more exhausting than the camping treks. But on the
other hand homestays means the local families will be benefiting from tourism where
as in the camping only few people from the travel company will benefit. So I
preferred to do the homestay trek, though overall, the trek turned out to be
very exhausting. 
In our case the Hinju villages is at an altitude of 3800 m.
That means that we have to climb ~ 1200 m today. We started our trek at 6:40 am
and by the time we reached the village of Sumdo Chenmo it was around 5.30 pm in
the evening. For me it was a terribly exhausting day. We reached the base at
around 8-9 am. It was a slow climb from then onwards. The last 300 m climb was
the most gruelling. I was struggling to keep my breathing steady. I had to stop
every 15-20 m distance for about 2 minutes to normalise my breathing. The
others didn’t had any such problems though except Deep everyone else was
struggling. Bru and Ringchen moved ahead at a constant pace. Deep moved along
with me. Many time I really wondered whether I will make it to the top or not.
I am not sure whether I was struggling due to altitude sickness. I didn’t had
any symptoms of it other than the breathing problems. I think what affected me
the most was the fitness issues, especially at high altitudes, than due to
altitude sickness. It was a long and steep climb. Though the steepness may be
comparable with Kongmaru La @ 5300 m in Markha valley, what made it exhausting
is the zig-zag long distance climb.
We reached the top at 12: 45 pm. We didn’t stay on the top
for long as the cold wind was very chilly.
The descend was also very steep, not so good for the knees. There after
it was long trek. The trek roues where not clear at some places. And we were
walking through river beds on the side of the river for most of the time Where
it was not possible to continue through riverbeds we had to climb up and down
many times. Again a tiring walking adding to the already exhausting day.
Finally we reached the village of Sumdah Chenmo at around
5:30 pm. The village had around 8 houses altogether. In the last village there
where 18 houses. So this one is a pretty small village in a valley. There is no
electricity in the village and the place we stayed was a small Ladakhi house.
We all stayed in a room. Small, but beautiful, in typical Ladakhi style. We
were all completely exhausted.
I told Deep that I do not want to do the Stakspi La (5150 m)
the next day. In that case we should be climbing from the village of Sumdah
Chenmo which is at ~3800 m. i.e., we have to do a 1400 m climb on that day 5. I
may be able to do that also like today. But then for it will be more torture
than trekking. Bru was also not so keen on doing it. So we all decided to
change the plan and go to Sumdah Do next day. And from there take the taxi to
Alchi on day 5. Obviously Ringchen, our porter was the most happiest of all by
the decision.
The adventure didn’t stop there. At night we were all
sleeping in the small room in our homestay after dinner. Our dinner consisted
of soup, dal, vegetables and rice. It was raining outside in the night, which
is not usual in the Ladakhi region was it gets very less rain per year. After
sometime the roof started leaking near where I was sleeping. My sleeping bag
was getting partly wet and all pandemonium broke out. The owner of the house
came in and placed a vessel so that the water
doesn’t wet the carpet anymore. Still it took quite some time for him to
stop the leak from the roof. Finally it was time for the adventure to call it a
day and we all could go back to sleep.
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