climbing

What remained in Ladakh? Lots, of course, but one of the items still on our list was climbing Stok Kangri, a nice looking peak across the Indus Valley from Leh. Poor weather on the mountain kept us homebound, wandering the city streets, watching cafes and shops close for the winter season.

Janne and I left Kashgar on August 27th, leaving me with about three weeks on my visa. (An aside here: Hong Kong agencies can issue six month visas to just about anyone, but since the beginning of 2007, US passport holders can no longer get six month visas. Again, I carry the cross...) Our plan had been to cycle from Tashkurgan east towards Mazar, but Steve had just been in the area with horses and camels, and had run into major washouts along this road, ending near the settlement of Pilu with an uncrossable river that had eaten the entire road along its bank.

We left for Muztagh Ata in a truck I arranged in a lot with a Uighur driver named Turghan. He was timely - much more so than the four of us who were to be taken the 3 hours to Subashi - and Steffan and Janne crawled sleepily into the cab and fell asleep. We were off on a fresh morning, clear skies lending views towards the Pamir Mountains and the massifs of Kongur and Muztagh Ata, which tower more than 7500m above sea level, and nearly 6000m above the desert oasis of Kashgar.