Alpinedrome: 2018

IAF Stok Kangri Base Camp Cleanup in progress

Stok Kangri (6135m) highest mountain in the Stok range of Indian Himalaya in Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir is often suggested as an easy peak, a trekking peak and one of the most accessible 6000er which can be climbed within a short period of time-although most of the hurried ones end up being a casualty of different level of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) due to lack of acclimatization.

‘Despite its high altitude, Stok Kangri is a popular trekking peak and is often climbed as an initial non-technical foray into high altitude mountaineering. However, the difficulty of Stok Kangri is often underestimated and the need to acclimatise before and during the ascent makes Stok Kangri an enduring challenge’ says Wiki and rightly so.

The lure of a 6000er, such encouraging tags added with the peak’s location, a modest 12km hike from the trailhead at Stok Village just 15km away from the capital Leh, one can only wonder the numbers of hikers and climbers it attract during season which becomes crowded with the added benefit of availability of almost all facilities/services at Base Camp, availed by many who hike up to the BC with bare rucksacks, quite a luxury considering the altitude.

“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility” once said... who? Spiderman? Voltaire? Churchill? Lord Melbourne? John Cumming? Hercules G. R. Robinson? Henry W. Haynes? Well, whoever said it definitely got it wrong! Therefore “With Great Numbers come Volumes of Garbage” being the present dictum of our collective (and also individual) behavior to go by, Stok Kangri Base Camp is no exception to the recent pollution issues associated with many popular places in Himalaya that are being similarly violated by our lack of basic sensitivity towards our environment, the highest example probably being that of Everest Base Camp being turned into a garbage/poo dump highlighted by mostly O-T-T internet scribes saving a few factual and informative ones.

Without devoting any further words on the need for cleanup, saving environment… … … rhetoric, i.e. cutting the long story short, here is a photo essay representation of the IAF Stok Kangri Base Camp Cleanup Expedition conducted by members from the Indian Air Force, jointly with Advanced Mountaineering Course (AMC) Trainees of Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports, (JIM&WS) during September, 2017.

With I-A-F proving the gears like gloves, masks, collection sacks, bleaching powder for toilets etc, a substantial volume of garbage was collected as members got down and dirty into the cache pits, even cleaning up and disinfecting the permanent tin barricade used as toilets. All collected garbage was to be ferried by I-A-F choppers at a later date; else it would have been a muleteer’s nightmare to bring the load down… even for those who know the art of convincing their mules!

The sincere and commendable effort from the young guns of JIM&WS was highly appreciated by the I-A-F Expedition leader alongwith their members and is evident from the photographs or so I believe/hope.

AMC trainees coming from all across India and therefore the idea/notion/metaphor of a cohesive, pan-India cleanup in today’s ever-polluting world perhaps made the activity more profound in a personal way.

However I am quite certain these few photographs does not do justice to their humble act and commendable effort of which I was grateful to be a miniscule and behind-the-scene part of, and therefore cannot take any credit whatsoever, saving documenting with some photographs.