Kang Yatze II June 2022: A narrative experience

Coming up with the idea to do this

My dreams of being in the mountains kept getting bigger. On a flight to San Francisco in 2019, heading to Yosemite and Tahoe, I found myself thinking about the Himalayas. I hadn’t spent more than three days out at a time and barely had any glacier experience, but the idea of a 6000m peak that was not too technical but still a push felt doable.

I knew I’d graduate in 2020 and could take a long trip to India. It had to be India only because of visa stuff. Kang Yatze II in Ladakh stood out. David was in. Things were coming together.

What it took to make it happen

2020 came and went. No trip home. But I got more technically experienced, stronger, and more comfortable outside. By 2022, I was heading to India for my friend Anish’s wedding, between postdoc projects and brainstorming new ideas. I was torn between time off, time with my mother, and going to the mountains.

Nitisha, my then girlfriend (now wife), encouraged a middle path: bring my mother to Ladakh. She wouldn’t come up the mountain, but we’d share part of the trip. I couldn’t get friends to join at the last minute, but Meenakshi and Shaswat introduced me to Gaurav, a mountain guide.

He said we could try Kang Yatze II alpine style, and it was on!

Time in and around Leh

We flew into Leh and spent the next two days going around. I’d been there once before on my 15th birthday, and it felt familiar. We visited the Leh Palace and Thiksey Monastery, where we were planning for my mother to stay. We had booked her a room at a hotel near the base, but it turned out to be a steep one-kilometer walk up to the monastery. Thankfully, the monastery had its own rooms, and we got her a spot right there.

Gaurav and I had decided I would bring a tent and glacier gear, and he would handle food. We met up, went through our gear, and packed up. We were ready to head out.

Walking from village to village

The first three days followed the Markha Valley trek. We didn’t see anyone else on the trail. We bought one meal a day from homestays in Sara, Markha, and Hankar, and pitched our tent in their yards. In the heat of the sun and tiredness of carrying a 25 kg pack, I would sometimes forget where I was. But a moment of looking around would snap me out of the tiredness and help me enjoy being present there.

Afternoons were slow and restful. I’d sit around with music and read Marcus Aurelius. We had tea and dinner with other trekkers at the homestays. A few peaceful days.

Lunch at Hankar on day 3 was the last time on this trip where we would see any resemblance of a village, and from here on out, we were fully remote in the mountain wilderness. Hankar was also one of the more developed villages out of the three we were at and had some wifi. I texted Nitisha and my mother that I was doing well while I had a chance, until another 4–5 days.

Best mountain food

Gaurav completely changed my view on food in the mountains. Instead of dry protein bars, we had hash browns, cereal, coffee, and pancakes for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, we cooked dal, vegetables, pasta, and even roti and rajma. One afternoon, we made pizza dough and let it rise in our sun-heated tent.

Food was a big highlight of this trip and made the time there so much more enjoyable. From then on, I’ve found ways to make amazing food in the mountains. It generally takes only a little more weight but makes a significant experience change.

Feeling the altitude and fear

The hike to Thachungtse from Hankar was steep. I started feeling the altitude by evening. Light-headed but still functional, I filtered water and helped set up camp. But something about the emptiness of the place hit me. Old stone walls everywhere, like ruins, and not a single person in sight. I felt a level of fear I had never had before. I knew that if I continued to feel unwell, there was no other resource outside the two of us to deal with it. Even though I’ve been in remote settings a fair amount before, this felt much more real.

We were at 4100m, the highest I’d slept till then. I woke up feeling much better, which was reassuring. That day, we pushed to base camp. A few hours in, Gaurav said we were close, maybe an hour away. An hour passed and the base camp location was nowhere in sight. Gaurav then realized that he had miscalculated and we were still another hour away. I was so mentally prepared to be reaching, and knowing that there was still all this distance left threw me very off. But I continued pushing along at a slow pace, making progress one step at a time. Altitude was really hitting me again and I was once again feeling the lightheadedness like the previous night.

My oxygen reading was under 80. In any city, I’d be in a hospital. I waited before taking Diamox because we were short on water and I didn’t want to dehydrate. The weather had been unusually warm for late June and the glacier runoff was quite turbulent. We would normally boil water but now there was so much silt that we had to use my Sawyer Squeeze filter. Another random emergency item that came in handy. Slowly, I started feeling better. That evening, I walked a little and helped make dinner. The next morning, my oxygen was over 90. I was coming back.

Summit day

After two hours we reached the glacier and roped up. At this point, I knew I needed to manage my exertion if I wanted to remain in good mental capacity for emergencies. I put all my snacks and first aid in my jacket, gear on the harness, gave my water bottle to Gaurav and I continued the rest of the way without a backpack. As dawn came about, the massif stood towering above us, making me feel both intimidated and surreal to be on it. Slowly, the valley and the peaks further out started becoming visible, which was just beautiful. A few crevasses showed up. I was both scared and wholly absorbed in the surroundings.

Higher up, I had to stop every few minutes just to breathe. The slope was relentless, and I took it literally step by step. By the time we reached the summit at 6250m around 8:30 am, I was spent. We stayed there for 30 minutes, firstly enjoying just making it out there, but also admiring the ridgeline to Kang Yatze I, which was sharp and stunning.

Mules to save our knees

Nimaling was busy. A big guided group had set up camp with dining tents, bathrooms, and mules. Gaurav asked if we could use one of their mules to carry our gear down the next day. It worked.

I felt fresh that morning, maybe from being lower or from just summiting. We stripped our packs down, taking out all the camping and technical gear, and started hiking. There was a small ascent to Kongmaru La, where we got a phone signal for the first time in days. We called the driver and told him we’d be out by afternoon.

We were so pumped that we ran the rest of the way. We reached two hours early. Then we waited for a long time. The sun was brutal, and we were out of water. Eventually, we hitched a ride in the back of a truck with the big group. On that narrow road, we finally passed our driver coming up. We were out.