{"id":1033,"date":"2012-09-27T01:06:36","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T17:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/?p=1033"},"modified":"2012-09-27T01:09:21","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T17:09:21","slug":"return-to-the-diga-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/?p=1033","title":{"rendered":"Return to the Diga La"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/div><div class=\"flexslider\"><ul class=\"slides\"><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6029-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6030-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6038-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6054-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6056-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6071-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6075-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6080-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6088-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6095-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6106-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6112-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6118-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6133-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6138-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6139-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_6142-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"904\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Cloudy-peak-904x500.jpg\" class=\"slide-image\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"content\">\n<p>Regular readers will remember our last attempt on the Diga La and the tremendously long day we had trying to reach the pass the Pass, from which we hoped to be able to look down on the Nubra Valley and across to the 7000M peaks of the Saser Massif of the opposite range.\u00a0 Anyway, we failed that time and immediately started looking at the logistics of a second attempt.\u00a0 As we wanted to spend some time in the Nubra Valley, we worked a plan for \u2018the boys\u2019 to take off a day early and walk over the Pass, while the \u2018the gals\u2019 would take a car over the Khardung La.\u00a0 The boys and girls would then rendezvous on the other side at the Nubra village of Diga.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\">I was quite keen to avoid the car trip I had taken way back in 1995 \u2026 the Khardung La is trumpeted as the \u2018Highest Motorable Road in the World\u2019 by the Indian spruikers, though across in Tibet there are some slightly higher, but less dangerous roads.\u00a0 The Kardung La is notorious for becoming impassable at very short notice.\u00a0 Just before we arrived in Ladakh over 500 people, mostly tourists, had to be evacuated by the army when a landslide closed the road above 5000M.\u00a0 Unable to go up, or down, many of them succumbed to altitude sickness and the Indian Army was called in to ferry the unhappy vomiters back down the mountain.<\/p>\n<p>I neglected to give Josephine a full and frank briefing on the road, other then to say it was \u2018just like\u2019 the other high passes we had crossed coming from Kashmir \u2026 which was true to a point.<\/p>\n<p>The walkers, Chris, Xavier and Simon, our dear friend and the Landscape Architect from DWLS, intended to walk for a whole day and camp just below the Diga La, then walk it early the next morning.\u00a0 Simon planned to return to Sabbu in the Leh Valley, Chris and Xavier were to walk the 5 hours down to Diga to meet Josie and Mei.\u00a0 Sounded like a good plan?!!!<\/p>\n<p>All went well on the first day, though we ended up walking for longer than we though we would &#8211; about 6 hours with Simon and Chis carrying full packs.\u00a0 Quite frankly we were completely stuffed when we got our tent up right next to a very pretty stream.\u00a0 Our backdrop the whole day was the Stok Range across to the west, toward\u00a0 the Zanskar.\u00a0\u00a0 Through the day we were able to roughly measure our ascent by gazing across to the high peaks opposite, particularly the imposing pyramidal Stok Kangri.\u00a0 As the sun dropped the temperature really plummeted and we needed to get into thermals and layer up so that we could cook dinner.\u00a0 Josie had put together a really nice tomato sauce, which we had with pasta \u2013 one of the most appreciated meals of the last few months and a brilliant job done by Simon getting it just right.\u00a0 After dinner we sat gazing up at the stars that spread across a magnificent cloudless Himalayan sky eating chocolate and reminiscing about falling stars we had witnessed, and then we saw a beauty scratch across the shy above the mountains tops.\u00a0 You can\u2019t beat camping any time,\u00a0 anywhere, but camping out at altitude in the Himalaya takes some beating.\u00a0 Very cool.<\/p>\n<p>Then we went to bed!\u00a0 The temperature dropped and dropped some more, then the stream fell silent as it froze over and then the altitude kept Simon and Chris up all night. \u00a0Simon had to squeeze into the vestibule of my old Wilderness tent, but his new sleeping bag did the job \u2026 mainly!<\/p>\n<p>The next day we set off, knowing it would be a really long and tough day.\u00a0 Some poor guide literature and a map that did not match the terrain immediately challenged our plan.\u00a0 Instead of finding the route and the Pass early we wasted precious time heading up the right side of a boulder strewn valley to about 5200M, never feeling really convinced we were on the right track.\u00a0 Understand that there are quite a few tracks running up the sidewalls of valleys, mostly formed by livestock: mainly goats, zho or yaks.\u00a0 With our morale pretty low and our planning looking a little pear shaped, I scouted ahead without my pack to try to find the elusive Diga La.\u00a0 After about an hour the scouting was abandoned and the team retraced its steps to the junction of two high valleys and elected to head up the alternate one, which seemed to have an impossibly steep northern wall, which would have to be climbed to get to Nubra.\u00a0 Simon did the scouting this time and after about an hour he found it \u2013 thanks to some zho that we sighted lumbering down the track.\u00a0 By this time it was nearly 2PM and we were several hours off schedule.<\/p>\n<p>We gave Xavier three options: return to Sabbu (a 5 hour monster trek back to where we came from \u2026 you never want to retrace your steps if you can help it, bivvy where we were and cross it the next day, or cross it straight away and head for Diga, several hours overdue, but at least in the Nubra Valley.\u00a0 Xavier was already fairly shattered and disconsolate, but to his great credit, he elected to make a push for the Pass.\u00a0 This would mean climbing the rock strewn zig-zagging trail over 300M to the top at 5400M.\u00a0 It is tough at that altitude, particularly when you are exhausted, to get up and exert yourself even more \u2026 and with a solid pack on your back.<\/p>\n<p>We went for it and at times it was a toss up if we would make it.\u00a0 Simon went well ahead, he was lucky enough to have dropped his pack at this stage, as he would need to retrace his steps and he could pick it up on the way back. I kept up the rear to encourage Xavier (which occasionally turned to threats of violence, or offers of new electronic devices etc)<\/p>\n<p>It took a very very long and arduous 90 minutes to get to the top, and often we were down to doing just a few paces and resting.\u00a0 Very tiring!\u00a0 But exhilertating at the to make it.<\/p>\n<p>We spent 30 minutes at the top together (Simon had already descended) taking some nice snaps and enjoying being up high and surrounded by some icy peaks.\u00a0 The view in both directions was tremendous, and close by there was hanging glaciers and snowy peaks to set the atmosphere.\u00a0 We were stoked.<\/p>\n<p>Then we headed off down to the Nubra.\u00a0 Xavier had often lamented that he had never seen snow \u2026 at least never seen it fall \u2026 well fairly soon he got his wish, with snow beginning to fall lightly and the temperature dropping significantly.\u00a0 Soon the atmosphere seemed quite ominous: very dark; cloud coming down off the mountain; sleet and snow falling, and an awful rocky track to negotiate.\u00a0 We were very tired.\u00a0 When the snow started falling harder, and visibility became quite poor I needed to make a call as to where we would stop for the night.<\/p>\n<p>Josephine, I knew, would be waiting (anxiously) down the valley at Digar, so not heading on for 4 or 5 hours to meet up with her (and put her out of her anxiety) was a difficult call to make.\u00a0 The situation was, however, that the safe thing to do was bivvy high up and get out of the weather.\u00a0 We were both exhausted as well, so going on might have resulted in a trip or fall, and it is not a place you would like to be incapacitated.\u00a0 So I elected to camp: problem was, our good friend Simon had half the tent \u2026 we had split the load earlier &#8211; not thinking we would need the tent, this seemed a reasonable thing to do.\u00a0 At this altitude there are often some abandoned stone shelters and I thought there was good chance we might find one for the night \u2013 and we did after about an hour of walking down, with the weather closing in.<\/p>\n<p>We prepared for a cold night \u2013 no door, cramped, snow coming in through gaps in the stone roof.\u00a0 No cooking \u2013 straight to bed!\u00a0 I barely slept \u2013 Xavier did better.\u00a0 We were head to toe with not much space either side.\u00a0 Miserable for me, as several times during the night I had to fortify my defences against the falling snow and sleet.\u00a0 12 hours in a tent unable to sleep is not fun \u2013 but hey, dads and sons need to be closer in this modern age.<\/p>\n<p>Xavier could barely walk the next day, but the weather was even worse so I swore at him (a little, hey \u2013 dads have to do that), a little, and attempted to walk down out of the weather.\u00a0 It took about 2 hours to get free of it, and at one time the snow was horizontal, but we managed.<\/p>\n<p>The rest is history, after about 5 hours we made it down, again completely stuffed, Xavier barely walking.\u00a0 The whole of the Diga village had become swept up in the fate of the \u2018Lost Australians\u2019 \u2026 one told me: \u2018your wife is confused; please quick march to her, please! quick march!\u2019 \u2026 well, I was already marching as quickly as I could and Xavier looked as if he was finished (I was worried he would collapse!). \u00a0Finding a path through the medieval Diga was hard enough.<\/p>\n<p>Anway, finally we made it, Josie and Mei very happy, father and son crawling.<\/p>\n<p>Diga La?\u00a0We will never return.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Regular readers will remember our last attempt on the Diga La and the tremendously long day we had trying to reach the pass the Pass, from which we hoped to be able to look down on the Nubra Valley and across to the 7000M peaks of the Saser Massif of the opposite range.\u00a0 Anyway, we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-chris","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Afwe-gF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1146,"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions\/1146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josephinewilson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}