The unpredictable Chadar trek

Prologue:
On the last day of the Hampta pass trek, we thought of attempting the chadar trek. But we didn't have any plans of doing it soon. Suddenly one day my friend shubhag told me that let's attempt the trek after a few months that is Feb 2020. So after a few discussion, we all decided to do this trek. Let me introduce my friends/trek mates

Day zero,
On Jan 31st 2020 Bangalore, we had our flight to Delhi. We all reached the airport way ahead of our schedule. I met KD, Rk and Sunil for the first time. Little did we know about each other, after finishing our dinner we all decided to chill for some time at the airport. We got so busy talking we almost missed the flight. Funny but true.

Feb 1st 2020, We had booked different flights to Leh. I boarded my flight and a few minutes after the takeoff, the pilot announced about the altitude, speed and temperature outside. The moment he said we will be entering Leh, all of us stuck our head towards the window. I have to say the views outside my window was on another level. It just got better and better. Before we all could sink in it was time to land.

It was too cold outside. The temperature was around -15°c. All of us rushed towards the airport to escape from the cold. After collecting my luggage I was picked up by Jigmet and he dropped me at the hostel. I was chatting with the locals and with a freelance photographer who was in Leh for the past one month. He had shared so many of his experiences in Zanskar and other villages. While I was busy talking all my other friends joined in. The whole day went on chatting and taking rest since we hadn't slept the whole night.

Feb 2nd 2020, we all woke up around 7 in the morning. The sunrise was just magical. All the tips of the mountains were glowing like gold. After some time we all had our breakfast and got ready for some local sightseeing.

The moment we crossed the Leh city the views just got better and better. All the street's and roads were almost empty. We visited the Thikse monastery. While we were in the monastery we decided to do Perform meditation for 10 mins. Meditation is slowly becoming part of our life all thanks to our boy Shubhag. The feeling was on a different level

After this, we decide to visit Stok village for some traditional ladakhi lunch. The food and drink were delicious. After our lunch, we visited a traditional ladakhi home. We were told about the practices and the crockery used in the house during the old times. Later we went to see Ice stupa. On our way, we got to know that we can attend the Ladakh Ice climbing festival for free. The next moment we were near the Ice climbing festival. We reached there around 3 in the evening. It was very cold. We all registered for Ice climbing. We had to wait for a while to get our ice climbing gear. During this time KD started feeling too cold and she decided to return back to the bus. Rest of us waited for a while. All of us got all the required equipment and we moved towards the Ice climbing wall. Reaching this wall was one hell of a climb. On reaching the Ice climbing wall we were instructed about the technique. We all attempted but to our surprise, only RK was able to do it. He climbed till the centre of the Wall and later he was asked to return since it was already dark. We all started getting down and returned to the base. Later we returned to our hostel and had our dinner and hit our bed.

Feb 3rd 2020, we took all the required documents and photographs for the registration of chadar trek. We went to the registration desk we filled all the documents to our surprise we were greeted in Kannada. The guy at the registration desk had visited Karnataka sometime back. It is always a good idea to keep the boarding pass handy for the registration process. I had the boarding pass with me in my pocket. So it became easy for us. We then went for the medical checkup all 6 of us cleared the required tests without any issues. We collected our Registration ID's and went to the Leh market for lunch. Soon after our lunch, we visited the Leh market to buy gumboots and some other stuff to survive the harsh weather. We later went to the Shanti stupa. it was during the golden hour. It was just magical. After some time we all returned to the hostel. We had dinner and all of us packed our bags. We were now ready for the adventure.

Feb 4th 2020, we had our breakfast early in the morning. We took our stuff and boarded the bus. We stopped at a point where all the porters boarded the bus with all the required stuff. Our bus was completely full. We took another stop to fill out our details and we were good to go. The drive itself was so serene. After crossing nimmu we saw the frozen Zanskar and Indus river. We finally reached our destination. We deboarded our stuff and moved towards the famous Zanskar river.
It was crowded since there were too many people who had completed or attempting for the chadar trek.

We had tea and lunch and the base before we were briefed about the trek. After finishing our lunch we started our walk towards our first campsite Shingra gompa. We were walking carefully so that we don't fall. But slowly one after another we started falling. Every time someone falls they had to put on the crampons. After walking for  3 hours we reached the campsite. We all dropped off our rucksack and took some rest. We regathered for soup and snacks. Later we all Participated in anthakshari. Later we had dinner and ended our evening.

Feb 5th 2020. We all woke up and started preparing for day 2 of the trek. We were told that they were not allowed to trek beyond Tibb cave. There was no proper information regarding the current status. It was already 9 in the morning. We all had our breakfast until we got proper information regarding the trek but sadly there wasn't any. We all decided that we would be returning the next day. It was disheartening since we were very excited about the trek but nothing comes above law and safety. We decided to sham valley trek since we had enough time. But suede Sunil overheard someone that the trek is completely open. We quickly reconfirmed the information. It was already 11.30 in the morning. So our trek guide decided to camp at Tsomo which was at a distance of more than an hour from our campsite. We started moving towards our next campsite. The views were mesmerizing. We thought we were on some other planet. We stopped at the spring waterfalls took some pictures and continued our trek. To our surprise, we reached the next campsite within an hour.

As per our plan we had to stay here for the whole night. We had more than half a day to enjoy the valley. The drill repeated we had snacks, then anthakshari and then dinner. The guys had arranged enough wood for the campfire. This time anthakshari was with the locals. We had sung in Hindi and they would sing in ladakhi. After a fun evening, we all decided to take some rest since we had a good distance to be covered the next day

Feb 6th 2020, we all woke up got ready for the long walk. We had decided to start early in the morning but by the time we started it was already 9 am in the morning. We started our trek by putting the crampons. We all were walking at a very good pace. The places where there is no sun used to be very cold. We would try to cross this section as fast as possible. After a while, we reached a section where the chadar had formed recently. While we were crossing the chadar literally broke. We all could hear the noise in 3D, I would say in all xD's. We quickly took long steps and crossed this section. After some time we stopped for a quick water break. Shubhag started feeling little uneasy KD stepped in helped him feel better by doing whatever she could. We were about to continue our trek, the guide (Tundup)saw one of porter(Zakir) struggling with the stuff that he had to carry. We quickly went towards him and gave him some water and snickers. Once he felt better we all continued together towards Tibb cave. After an hour we reached the Tibb cave. Our crew was preparing lunch. We all had khichdi under the sun.

After a while, we started moving towards our next campsite. It was beautiful and we were warned about the conditions that were ahead of us. Before we could reach our final destination for the day we had to cross the river but the ice had broken so we didn't risk and decided to camp at the same spot. It was a nice spot to camp. We had covered the distance so quickly that we had to wait for the porters to set up our campsite. While we waited the cold started hitting us hard. As soon as our dining tent was pitched in we all moved in. Later the drill continued with evening tea and snacks, dinner and anthakshari. We decided to start the trek early in the morning towards nerak and return back to the same campsite.

Feb 7th 2020, we woke up 6.30 in the morning packed our day pack had our breakfast and started our trek. The moment we started our trek shubhag by mistake took a wrong step and the ice broke. We all saw water entering his shoes. Earlier I had told Bobby to carry extra socks and dry fit towel in case any mishap. We quickly took off his shoes and socks emptied the boots wiped off the water. Finally, KD gave her socks and he was all good for the trek. It started snowing. Our faces were completely covered with snow. We had no choice other than of moving forward. It was magical. We were the only group in the valley. We continued walking towards the final destination nerak waterfalls. Within two hours I.e at around 10 in the morning we had reached the nerak waterfalls. We had some tea and noodles near The nerak waterfalls.

The nerak village was celebrating their first-ever chadar festival. We were the only one to be present at the festival. We were greeted like guests. We spent 3hours at the festival and decided to return to our camp. We took 2 hours to return the campsite. All of them took good rest, repeated the drill and went back to sleep.

The nerak village was celebrating their first-ever chadar festival. We were the only one to be present at the festival. We were greeted like guests. We spent 3hours at the festival and decided to return to our camp. We took 2 hours to return the campsite. All of them took good rest, repeated the drill and went back to sleep.

Feb 8th 2020, we woke up around 7.30 in the morning since it was going to be a long day. We all had our breakfast and started our trek towards Tibb cave around 9 in the morning. We reached Tibb cave in less than 30 mins. All were surprised by the pace we were maintaining. We were stopped near Tibb cave for security checks. After that, we continued our trek. We were just 15 mins from our first destination our guide decided to take a break since none of the porters had crossed us. We all took a very long break so that they could cross us and prepare our lunch. He went off to sleep and we were just chilling under the sun. After 45 mins we continued our trek towards our first destination (Tsomo). We had macaroni for lunch.

Again after our lunch, we continued our trek towards shingra gompa. We had to communicate judgment regarding our arrival. After making the phone call and finishing all the formalities we continued our trek, on the way the Chadar had broken at a place,so we had to take a detour and reached our final destination for the day.

It was an almost full moon that night. It was something that I haven't seen earlier. The moon had lit the chadar to the next level. I took some pictures. We had our dinner and sang with the locals one last time. We latter went off to our camps

Feb 9th 2020, we woke up around 8 in the morning packed our rucksack. We started our trek towards our final destination where the vehicles were waiting. We thought our trek is over and it is going to be an easy walk. But we were wrong. The chadar had broken so we had to walk in the water. The water was around ankle level. Luckily all had gumboots so we had nothing to worry about.

Within an hour we reached the destination. All were very happy since everyone had completed the trek. We boarded the bus and continued our journey toward Leh. All we wanted was a decent room with hot water. Since none of us had bathed in the last nine days. To our surprise, Jigmet had booked a boutique hotel room. We all cleaned off all the dirt first. Later we had a crazy party the same night and ended the night.

Feb 10th 2020, we all woke up, got ready by 6.30 and boarded our flight to Delhi. We all met together once again in Delhi airport and it was the end of our trip.

I would like thank all the porters and guides for taking care of us at all times. They never gave us a chance to complain.

Thing's to keep in my mind before you plan this trip
1. Proper layering of the clothes is the key to this trek
2. The walk is pretty Easy.
3. Proper Acclimatization is very helpful
4. Keep buffer days since you never know what can happen during the trek
5. Choose a good tour operator

A special thanks to Jigmet for arranging everything on time. He made sure everything is in place.

Jigmet runs an travel agency in Ladakh called Golden Age Ladakh. Do contact for treks/sight seeing. His contact information is given below
Jigmet stanzin- +91 88035 75575, +91-9797531234

That's all for now,
Signing off
Kiran