Trip to Pangong Tso Lake

If you haven’t read the post on our trip to Agra, please go back and read that now. The trip to Agra and the trip to Pangong Tso lake are about equal in time, but not experience.

If you are going to Ladakh, you must go to Pangong Tso lake, so says every single person to which Sedona mentioned my trip. Pangong Tso Lake is an impressive 83 miles long divided between Chinese and Indian territory, which rests at 14,500 feet. This whole area of India is heavily militarized due to problems with Pakistan and Kashmir, as well as border disputes with China on the other side. This meant that we frequently passed small military posts and needed several permits and our passports with us. When Sedona was setting up the itinerary via email, the hotel manager inquired as to our nationality, as these permits are not issued to the Chinese, which he suspected as my last name is Chinn.

On our third day, we decided to make the journey to Pangong Lake, about 85 miles from Leh where we are staying, via our driver and jeep. We were anticipating a quiet, uneventful, and scenic drive. We left about 7:00am along nicely paved and little used roads.

From this point onwards, we encountered three more categories of road. These became progressively narrower, windier, and bumpier. After the paved area, the road turned to dirt and gravel, winding along mountainsides with cliffs dropping off and few guard rails, which is what Sedona had been anticipating, and had not shared with her mother. Beyond that, we encountered roads of snow and ice as we climbed in altitude. On these roads, conscious effort and abdominal strength needed to be maintained in order to remain upright and seated. This became increasingly difficult as we climbed from 11,000 feet (in Leh) to 17,500 feet, the altitude of Chang-la pass, the second highest motorable road in the world. As the oxygen levels rapidly decreased, the energy required to turn our heads and have a conversation was soon considered extraneous. At the top of Chang-la pass, as Sedona suffered a headache Andrea suffered a disability to walk in a strait line, we were served tea by the Indian army, who seemed appreciative of the five minutes of company.

Coming down the other side of the pass, we next encountered grey sand dunes, which surprisingly and unfortunately were perhaps less comfortable to snowy roads. However we did see yaks, goats, and a marmot. By this point we were already exhausted, with headaches from the altitude changes and carsick from the winding and bumpy roads, as well as in desperate need of a bathroom.

Finally, we arrived at the lake. It was frozen. There were a few birds. Most of the huge length of it was tucked behind mountains. When Sedona explained, laughing hysterically out of exhausted resignation, that we had reached our destination, Andrea, hungry, tired, nauseous, head aching, and needing a bathroom, collapsed onto a rock and announced if she had the strength, she would kill her daughter. Her next thought was that it may be more effective to end her own life in the freezing water. Finally she concluded it would be most fair to force Sedona to make the return trip.

We quickly ate lunch, took a few pictures, were again served tea by the Indian army (possibly the best chai we have had) and told our driver to take us back. We were there for all of half an hour. Already weary from the five hours coming, we mentally prepared for another five hours of climbing, winding, bumping, and jostling.

Despite feeling awful, things had gone relatively well until we got up into the snow. Soon Andrea turned to a nauseous Sedona and asked if she felt like she would throw up and needed to stop. Sedona responded with “not yet, I need to wait until we get to Chang-la pass, that way I can say I’ve thrown up at 17,500 feet.” We both began to laugh uncontrollably. The signs of oxygen deprivation had most definitely begun.

As we winded further up the mountain, we saw ahead a couple of trucks. Andrea thought they were ploughing the roads for us, as it had started to lightly snow. However, as we approached, we realized they were stopped. Our driver left us to see what was the matter. He must have found out, but did not speak enough English to communicate this to us. Meanwhile, Sedona had decided to go to sleep in the back seat of the jeep. Andrea used all of her remaining energies to remain conscious and plan for the inevitable night we were going to spend on the mountain in the jeep.

As we waited longer, the cars lined up behind us, and wind started to pick up, the situation became concerning to Andrea (Sedona was still passed out in the back seat). Unable to find anyone in the caravan of vehicles who spoke English well enough to explain our predicament, Andrea was comforted by the fact that she was accompanied by a daughter with Wilderness First Responder training. However, this relief was dashed quickly as the lack of oxygen rendered Sedona incapable of remembering the symptoms for altitude sickness (these were remembered when no longer needed about four thousand feet lower). As we waited Andrea found it amusing that it could all end in the Indian Himalayas of all places in the world.

What had happened is that a truck was stuck in the snow. It took probably an hour to get it out, but after that it was smooth, well, sort of, sailing back to Leh. As we travelled the remote mountain road, we came upon a scruffy dog trotting up the road with a fresh cow’s leg in its mouth. Not far behind came another, less fortunate dog, without any cow appendages, hoping the first would share.

Our only explanation of all the recommendations for this trip is that there is a secret pact, in which, having suffered the arduous journey to the anticlimactic lake, one must encourage others to make the same trip and suffer the same disappointment and trauma. We however have violated this pact by sharing our experience.