Today’s trek would involve a gradual ascent up the valley from our camp at Shang Sumdo to Camp 2 at Shang Phu (4,350m).
We broke camp fairly early in the morning at Sumdo and started up the valley following the rough jeep road. The walking was easy and on a metalled surface for several kilometres. The surrounding landscape was still fairly green at this altitude as we passed by arable fields of vegetables and a small monastery clinging to the mountainside of the steep valley. Continue reading “Stok Kangri Expedition – Day 6 – Shang Sumdo (3,800m) to Shang Phu (4,350m)”
From Leh, we drove along the Indus Valley to the ancient monastery at Thiksey. After that the plan was to continue our journey, turning off the highway to follow a rough road up into the mountains as far as Shang Sumdo (3,800m) where we’d spend our first night under canvas. 
To climb a 6000m peak you need to acclimatise and to do this you need to spend a substantial amount of time at high altitude so another acclimatisation day was required to firstly get used to already being at 3,524m above sea-level and secondly to prepare us for the much harder task ahead. Today it had been scheduled that we were going to take a walking tour around the ancient city of Leh in which we were staying to help with this ongoing process. 
JAMES HANDLON 