Explore Ladakh (without leaving your sofa)

For this blog post, I thought I'd use some cool satellite images to make it more interesting and to show you the region we'll be exploring during the expedition.

If you're reading this thinking "what expedition?", take a look at this post: What's this blog all about?

We'll be approaching our base camp from Leh, along the Pensi La. Type 'Pensi La' (La means 'pass' in Tibetan) into Google Earth or Bing Maps and do some exploring of your own from the comfort of your sofa! (A great excuse for procrastination for those of you revising for exams..).

I love maps. Stuff like this makes me very happy indeed. (So does this, but that's not really relevant..)

The overall region we'll be in is Ladakh - as you can see, this region is in the sticky-outy bit (v. technical term) at the top of India, with Pakistan close by to the west, China to the North and the Tibetan Plateau to the east. We'll fly from Delhi to Leh, where we'll spend a few days acclimatising and sourcing food and equipment to take with us to base camp.

We’ll then approach base camp via the Pensi La (the Pensi Pass), which is nicknamed the ‘Gateway to Zanskar’. It connects the Suru valley (NW of Zanskar) to the Zanskar valley region, which is where we'll be exploring. The region is a high altitude desert, with many glaciers and un-summited peaks.

You can see the Durung Drun glacier flowing NNE from the bottom/centre of the image. Hopefully we’ll spend some time on this glacier (and others) measuring melt rates at different points on the glacier, its retreat rate, and take some ice cores. It’ll require technical skill negotiating our way onto and over the glaciers, so by the end of the expedition the whole team will be pretty proficient at ice axe and crampon use (hopefully we won't still be tripping over our own feet every couple of steps and ripping holes in our waterproof trousers!). The TL team will do some recces whilst the rest of the team makes their way up to Basecamp and acclimatises. We’ll explore the area for dangerous places to avoid, good tracks to follow and safe places to cross rivers. We’ll also have a good chance of seeing some of the varied fauna of the Zanskar, before scaring everything away with our presence before the other fires reach them!

The exact final location of our Basecamp is still undecided, as it'll depend on the ground when we arrive and what looks best. Our ~5 day expeditions out from Basecamp will explore the surrounding region - and these will be decided properly once we're out in country.

It's all getting very real and our flights are drawing ever closer... only 11 weeks, 5 exams, 1 half-marathon and a canoe trip across Scotland to go!

More training, more new people, more excitement

I spent last weekend up in the Lake District with the other Trainee Leaders (TLs) and the Leaders, so the people in charge of the science projects, basecamp and the adventure side of things. It was awesome meeting more people and finding out about their experience with expeditions and mountainous environments - lots of inspirational role models.

We stayed at the YMCA National Centre on the western shore of Lake Windermere - a beautiful place for a morning run with everyone, next to the mirror flat lake and surrounded by the rugged Lake District hills.

One of my favourite parts of the weekend was learning about Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), High Altitude Cerebral Oedema (HACE) and High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema (HAPE) (don’t ask me why the acronym ends with an E not an O..). It was slightly depressing learning how I might have a headache for the six weeks I’ll be in India, and terrifying learning how quickly HACE and HAPE can develop, but the medical team who will be part of the team seem really knowledgeable on the subject and will take great care of us all.

It’s important for all of us to know the symptoms and treatments of altitude related illnesses, as it could happen to anyone in the expedition team and we all need to know how to react. We learnt about the Lake Louise scale, which allows a score to be assigned to a person depending on their symptoms, and helps with the monitoring of people’s state. We can all expect some tiredness, headaches and poor sleep, but it’s important to know when people are deteriorating.

We’ll be acclimatising slowly on the way up into the mountains, taking time for rest days and factoring in going slower if anyone is struggling. We’ll be flying from Heathrow to Delhi to Leh, where we (the advanced party; the TLs and some of the Leaders) will then spend time sorting supplies of food, fuel etc. for basecamp and acclimatising - Leh is already pretty high, at 3,524m! ‘High altitude’ is classed as anything above 2,500m, and your breathing get shorter and deeper from only 1,500m, so we’ll definitely be able to feel it.

Our outdoor classroom - where we learnt about ice axes, crampons,
security on steep ground and roping up for glaciers

We also spoke a lot about hygiene and how we’re going to stop illness from happening and spreading. Some of the techniques we’ll be using at basecamp and during our short expeditions are very clever, such as the system we’ll be using for getting clean drinking water. Although the water we’ll be drinking is from glacial meltwater and will look crystal clear and clean, it’ll actually be full of tiny particles of rocks and even tinier bacteria. We’ll be using bags to filter the water through, before then using chlorine tablets, then adding a tiny sliver of vitamin C tablet to make it taste better.

Me, roped up, pretending I'm on a glacier and surrounded by ice
(lots of imagination required..)

We spent some time out on the hill, talking through crampons, ice axes, security on steep ground and how to rope up together when on a glacier. It was very useful revision of the material I covered on my Mountain Leader Training week last summer, and it was great to see how to teach each topic well. As a TL, I might need to teach or remind some of the Young Explorers on the expedition how to use the equipment and stay safe.

Loving life outdoors with Imi, one of the other TLs

One of the highlights of the weekend was drinking wine and playing an old board game - it involved climbing K2 via different routes and answering ridiculous mountaineering and climbing questions as a team. We found out a lot about each other, such as who would cut the rope when their friend was dangling off it, who would happily let their climbing partner pee out the tent door, and who cheats at board games..

I’ve now been set the task of planning a short session on the ‘leave no trace’ principle - it’s something I’m interested in and a big advocate for, so it should be a fun session with lots of discussion. That’ll be at the next training session - the TLs have an expedition first aid week soon, followed straight after by a weekend with the YEs. I can’t wait to meet everyone!