● JAPANESE ALPINE NEWS 2013

KIMIKAZUTATSUO (TIM) SAKAMOTO INOUE EThexplo Firstratio nAscent 2012 o off H Lopchinidden Vi rFenggin P e(KG-2)aks in 6,805m AutumnTemasa 2009 Nala Expedition, Gompe To tokp othe an Kangrid Hapt aGarpol Tokp Easto of IMountains,ndian Hima lTibetaya

South Zanskar, the north west of Indian Himalaya is the very exciting mountain area with many unknown and untrodden peaks. In 2009, we explored Reru Valley and in 2011, we went to Lenak Nala and Giabul Nala, to explore the unknown virgin peaks. As a next project, we decided to explore Temasa Nala and Gompe Tokpo, northern valleys close to Reru Valley during June 27 ~ August 2, 2012.

Our exploration team consisted of four senior members, Mr. Mitsuhiko Okabe (71), Mr. Masaki Shibata (66), Mr. Toshihiro Katsumata (64) and me Mr. Kimikazu Sakamoto (72) as the leader. We requested Mr. Tsewang Yangphel of Hidden Himalaya in to support our expedition same as 2009 and 2011, and he arranged three kitchen staffs, two horsemen and ten horses.

1. Approach to Zanskar

We left Japan for Delhi on June 27, and arrived at Leh in by air on June 28, 2012. We enjoyed Gompa Tsechu which was the most famous biggest festival in Ladakh on June 29. We left Leh on June 30 by chartered cars and arrived at Padam via on July 2. On July 3, we had the rest at Padam for acclimatization and visited Thonde Gompa and Chomo Gompa. We were pleased to see the beautiful pink wild roses near Thonde and Zangla. At Thonde, we could have the exciting panoramic view of many peaks surrounding Gompe Tokpo. On July 4, after visiting Karsha Gompa and Tsewang's mother at Hongche village, we drove to Bardan and set up our camping tents at Bardan Gompa School.

[Remark」 Map-1 Climbing route to Lopchin Feng There is no official mountain name given to the peaks in Southern Zanskar. In order to avoid any confusion in identifying the mountains, we put our tentative mountain names like T1, T2, T3 to the peaks in Temasa Nala and Gompe Tokpo, H1, H2, H3 to the peaks in Haptal Tokpo and M1, M2, M3 to the peaks in Mulung Tokpo. The outline maps drawn by myself are showing the tentative names.

2. Exploration of Temasa Nala

July 5 (Thursday): Cloudy, 6:55 / Bardan Gompa School (3,635 m) – 8:20/Col of traverse hill – 12:40 / Meadow before Korlomshe Tokpo (3,945 m). Today is the first day of our exploration to Temasa Nala. From Bardan Gompa School, we could see the exciting east face of P6071 (R1) glittering in the morning sunrise. We walked up the gentle green pasture hillside and crossed three small hills. Then we walked down to the right side bank of Temasa Nala. Temasa Nala was open and wide valley with about 200 ~ 300m width. Both side banks of the river were the very wide and flat meadow suitable for grazing yaks. But, the stream of Temasa Nala was so rapid and strong and seemed to be impossible for our crossing even by riding on horse. Temasa Nala welcomed us with many beautiful flowers, like pink wild rose, blue poppy, yellow Hichu and etc. We could see the rock mountain P6028 (T12) on the right side and the north face of P6071 (R1) on the 68 JAPANESE ALPINE NEWS 2013 ● left side. We came to the nice grassy meadow before the junction with Korlomshe Tokpo and decided to use this place for our camping site as we could get pure water.

July 6 (Friday): Fair, 7:00/CS before Kolromshe Tokpo (3,945 m) – 11:50 / Kanjur (Junction with Chhuralpachan Nala) – 12:30 / Near junction with Kangla Glacier (4,200 m). In the beautiful fair weather, we enjoyed the pleasant walking on the right bank of Temasa Nala looking up the north face of P6071 (R1) and P6028 (T12), P6294 (T4) on Tidu Glacier appeared behind the junction with Kangla Glacier. Google Earth 3D photo showed this mountain as the white snow mountain. But, the actual peak of P6294 (T4) which we saw from Temasa Nala was the pyramidal sharp peak mixed with rock and snow. We pitched our tents at the wonderful green pasture just after passing Kanjur which was located at the junction with Kangla Glacier, as we could have the pure spring water. Many yaks were enjoying in eating grasses and walking around near our camp site.

July 7 (Saturday): Fair and Cloudy, 7:30 / CS near junction with Kangla Glacier (4,200 m) – 9:15/ Junction with Kangla Glacier - 10:30 / Glacier tongue of Tidu Glacier – 14:10/Near Junction with Tsewang Tokpo (4,400 m) –18:00 / CS near junction with Kangla Glacier (4,200 m). We had one day hiking to Tidu Glacier. The glacier tongue looked not so far from our camp site, but actually it took three hours for us to reach there. We climbed up to the center of the moraine from the glacier tongue and walked around on the moraine avoiding many crevasses. It took a lot of time in maze of moraine until we reached near the junction with Tsewang Tokpo which went up to the North Glacier where P6107 (T9) and P6022 (T7) were located. On the left side of Tidu Glacier, there were the attractive peaks P6294 (T4) and P5995 (T6). But both mountains looked difficult to be climbed. Originally, we planned to go up Tsewang Tokpo to see P6107 (T9) and P6022 (T7) in three days trekking, carrying up camping equipments and foods by horses. However, we found that it was impossible to carry up the heavy baggages by horses into the Tsewang Tokpo, because it was steep with several water falls and the side slopes was also so steep and dangerous with unstable stones for horses. Therefore, we gave up this exploration program into Tsewang Tokpo. It took us long time to go down on the unstable moraine to the glacier tongue. We came back to our camp site at 18:00, being fatigued.

July 8 (Sunday): Cloudy and fine, rest day. We decided to take rest for full day, as Mr. Katsumata was not in good condition with heavy cough and phlegm and his face was swollen. On the other side from our camp site, there was Chhuralpachan Nala, the big branch of Temasa Nala which goes up South to P6177 (R6). There was the big rock castle on the left side of Chhuralpachan Nala. It was the junction peak which was located on the main ridge between P5947 (R2) and P6036 (R3). This peak has no height on the Indian Official Map but seemed to be around 5,800 ~ 5,900 m. I wondered any young climbers will try to challenge this rock castle peak in the near future.

July 9 (Monday): Fair, 8:00 / CS near junction with Kangla Glacier (4,200 m) – 9:30 / Junction with Kangla Glacier – 10:30 / Right side mountain – 12:20 / CS (4,200 m). As Mr. Katsumata had the high fever with 38.6 Celsius, other three members had the short hiking to the right side mountain in Temasa Nala to see the inside of Kangla Glacier. We climbed up grassy slope with faint yak trail. We saw the other side of Temasa Nala and recognized that Kangla Glacier was big and long.

July 10 (Tuesday): Cloudy and then fair, 5:00 / CS (4,200 m) - 6:00 / Junction with Kangla Glacier – 8:05 / Kangla Glacier 4530m – 10:45 / Kangla Glacier 5,000 m – 12:40 / Junction with Kangla Glacier – 15:40 / CS (4,200 m). Three members and Tsewang, our guide, left the camp site at 5:00 am to have one day hiking to Kangla Glacier, as Mr. Katsumata still had heavy cough and phlegm. Two 69 ● JAPANESE ALPINE NEWS 2013 horsemen came with us to the junction to assist us to cross Temasa Nala on horses. Even in the early morning, the stream was very strong and rapid. There was the yak trail on the left side gentle slope of Kangla Glacier, with several cairns up to about 4,500 m where the glacier started. Mr. Okabe and Mr. Shibata went ahead as they were fast walkers, and Tsewang and I enjoyed the slow walk. When we looked back the other side of Temasa Nala, we could see P6107 (T9) in Tsewang Tokpo and P5957 (T10). When we walked up on the glacier over 4,500 m, we could see the beautiful snow and rock mountain P5995 (T3) on the right side and the top of Kangla Glacier. I took several photographs of the mountains on the left side of Kangla Glacier, but unfortunately we could not identify which peak was P5935 (T2). I and Tsewang turned back from about 5,000 m where the glacier became flat, and Mr. Okabe and Mr. Shibata went up to about 5,100 m. When we went down to the junction, Temasa Nala had so much water with melted glacier and became so rapid and strong. We went up near the glacier tongue of Tidu Glacier and crossed the rather shallow spot on horse. After we came back to the camp site, the rock castle on theleft side of Chhurapachan Nala was glittering in the sunset.

July 11 (Wednesday): Fair and then cloudy 7:50 / CS (4200m) – 9:40 / Nyusri Yonga – 11:00 / Korlomshe Tokpo (4,020 m). We moved down to the junction with Korlomshe Tokpo for our exploration into Korlomshe Tokpo. We pitched our tents at the nice beautiful place with pure water on the left side of Korlomshe Tokpo.

July 12 (Thursday): Cloudy, 7:05 / CS at junction with Korlomshe Tokpo (4,020 m) – 8:20 / Korlomshe Tokpo 4,195 m – 11:00 / Korlomshe Tokpo 4,525 m. We walked up from our camp site on the left side of Korlomshe Tokpo and crossed over the stream to the right side after walking up about 500 meters. We climbed up the rather unstable slope with many rocks on the right side of the stream. The two branches came down from the rock mountain P6028 (T12) at the turning corner (4,195 m) of Korlomshe Tokpo. Our horseman carried up our equipments and three days foods on horses and refused to go upfurther, unloading all baggages at about 4,500 m. The horsemen excused that the rough slope with many stones was dangerous for their horses and went down to the junction with Temasa Nala.

July 13 (Friday): Fair and then cloudy and rainy, 6:10 / CS (Korlomshe Topko 4,525 m) – 9:00 / 4925m at bottom of P5908 (T11) – 10:10 / 5,100 m – 13:45 / CS (4,525 m). We went up Korlomshe Tokpo all together. The steep slope from our camp site was not so bad. We felt that all horses could go up surely safely. At the corner of Korlomshe Tokpo which turns to right, P5908 (T11) was located on the right side. On the left side, the sharp rocky peak P5957 (T10) stood up overwhelming us. The wide and big Korlomshe Glacier turned to the right. The fair weather suddenly changed to cloudy and the mountains started to be covered with thick mist. Mr. Okabe and Mr. Shibata rushed to the upper glacier to take photographs of P6436 (T13) which is the highest mountain in this area. At around 5,100 m, they could take only one photograph to show the whole figure of P6436 (T13) which was the big rock face mountain.

July 14 (Saturday): Cloudy, 8:20 / CS (4,525 m) – 11:40 / CS at junction with Korlomshe Tokpo (4,020 m). We walked down on the left side of Korlomshe Tokpo, enjoying many beautiful wild flowers including many blue poppies.

July 15 (Sunday): Cloudy, 7:45 / CS (4,020 m at junction with Korlomshe Tokpo) – 13:30 / Bardan Gompa School (3,635 m). We walked down to Bardan Gompa School, saying good-by to Temasa Nala. In the afternoon, we visited Bardan Gompa where the big black Tibetan dog welcomed us at the entrance. 70 JAPANESE ALPINE NEWS 2013 ●

July 16 (Mon): Fine, 7:30 / Bardan Gompa School – by car – 8:20 / Chaming Karsha Hotel And Restaurant at Padam. We moved back to Padam by chartered cars. Mr. Katsumata went to Padam Clinic Center as he was still suffering cough and phlegm. The doctor examined him carefully, and said that there was nothing serious on him and that he could continue trekking.

3．Exploration to Gompe Tokpo

July 17 (Tuesday): Fair, 7:00 / Hotel at Padam – 8:00 / Junction with Gompe Toko – 9:00 / Ubarak village – 15:30 / Gompe Tokpo 4,510 m. We walked up the gentle slope from the town of Padam to the entrance of Gompe Tokpo. P6157 (T20) which is the symbolic mountain of Padam stood up on the right side of Gompe Tokpo. We turned to right at the entrance of Gompe Tokpo to Ubarak. The traverse road to Ubarak village was very beautiful, decorated with many colorful wild flowers. We took yak trail on the grassy slopes from Ubarak village and traversed to the left side until we reached the col on the ridge with the cairn, where we could look down Gompe Tokpo. We went down the steep gully 40 ~50 meters from the col and then traversed the tricky unstable pile of big rocks to the right side for about 30 minutes. Then we entered into the branch of Gompe Tokpo. It was exhausted work. We climbed up the steep gully. After crossing over several small hills, finally we reached the flat spot where the upper Gompe Tokpo started. We set up our camp site on the grassy flat meadow with the blue poppies.

July 18 (Wednesday): Fair, 7:00 / Gompe Tokpo 4,510 m – 7:55 / Col with big cairn – 9:07 / Gompe Tokpo 4,720 m – 12:10 / Gompe Tokpo 4,920 m – 17:15 / Gompe Tokpo CS 4,510 m. We walked up on the gentle moraine from our camp site and reached the col with the big cairn which might be built by village people pasturing yaks. After crossing over the col, Gompe Tokpo became wider and the glacier started being surrounded with the overwhelming peaks. It was the amphitheater of Gompe Glacier. On the left side of the glacier, there was the big twin rock peak P6431 (T16). At the top of Gompe Glacier, the slender rock pinnacle peak P6184 (T18) stood. There was P6162 (T19) on the right side. We could not see P6157 (T20) from the inside of Gompe Glacier. To the left of P6431 (T16), T15 which has no official altitude on the map stood like Matterhorn in Zanskar. We wondered why no climber came up to this sanctuary of Gompe Tokpo to climb such attractive peaks which could be seen easily from Padam and Thonde.

July 19 (Thursday): Fair, 7:45 / Gompe Tokpo CS (4,510 m) – 9:32 / Col to Ubarak – 12:10 / Ubarak village (3,800 m). Our kitchen staff found the short cut route to Ubarak village. We traversed rather steep slope with many piled rocks. We had to be careful not to fall into the hole of piled rocks and then walked up the unstable slope to the col where we could see Ubarak village. On our way down to the village, we met Nepal man pasturing goats. Our camp site was on the grassy meadow near Ubarak village, with many beautiful wild flowers.

4. Exploration of Haptal Tokpo

July 20 (Friday):Fair, 7:15 / Ubarak CS (3,800 m) – 9:55 / Junction with Haptal Tokpo – 12:30 / Haptal Tokpo (3,655 m). As we could not explore into Tsewang Tokpo and we used only one day in Kangla Glacier instead of three days, six free days were left for us before our leaving for Leh. We decided to move to Chhogo Tokpo, the branch of Haptal Tokpo, to see the west side of P6157 (T20), P6162 (T19), P6184 (T18), P6436 (T13) and P6107 (T9). 71 ● JAPANESE ALPINE NEWS 2013

We traversed several pastures of the other villages, Razan, Trachhumik, Gomba and Taran, and went to Hapatal Tokpo. We crossed the strong big bridge on the main traffic road between Kargil and Padam to the right side of the valley. There was the small hydroelectric power station on the right side hill. Haptal Tokpo was the wide and open valley with the big grassy flat banks on the both sides, where many yaks were grazing. We saw the big rock peak P5845 (H17) standing firmly at the junction with Chhogo Tokpo. The water canal was built to supply the valley water to the hydroelectric power station. There was the big flat place like a football ground with a small refuge hut. Our guide Tsewang said that this hut might be built for trekkers just as propaganda for tourism by Indian Government, even though the trekking route from Haptal Tokpo to Kishtwar via Omasi La was seldom used. We walked along the water canal and climbed up the right side bank at the starting point of the water canal. There was the green flat meadow with many stone yak huts. We decided to pitch our tents, as there was pure spring water.

July 21 (Saturday): Fair, 7:20 / CS (Haptal Tokpo yak huts 3,665 m) – 9:15 / Tepuk Bhu (Junction with Chhogo Tokpo) – 12:20 / Junction with Satachan Tokpo (3,850 m). As the stream of Haptal Tokpo was so strong with much water, it seemed to be so dangerous for us to cross the stream from the right side to the left side to get into Chhogo Tokpo, even by using horse. Therefore, we decided to give up our plan to explore Chhogo Tokpo and to go up the main valley to Haptal Glacier. After passing Tepuk Bhu, the junction with Chhogo Tokpo, the mountains with sharp rock pinnacle appeared on the both sides of Haptal Tokpo. At the bottom of Haptal Tokpo, we could see P5740 (H14) and P5840 (H15) at the junction with Haptal Glacier and Yurachuk Glacier. We camped at the junction with Satachan Tokpo.

July 22 (Sunday): Fair, 6:30 / CS at junction with Satachan Tokpo (3,850 m) – 8:05 / Junction of Haptal Glacier and Yurachuk Glacier – 12:20 / Haptal Glacier 4,500 m – 14:50 / CS at junction with Satachan Tokpo. Four members and our guide Tsewang left our camp site at 6:20am to the junction of Haptal Glacier and Yurachuk Glacier. We judged it was dangerous for us to cross Haptal Tokpo from the right side to the left side in order to get into Yurachuk Glacier, because the stream was too rapid. The glacier tongue ofYurachuk Glacier was located near the valley junction, and Yurachuk Glacier seemed to be very rough with many crevasses. Therefore, we gave up exploring Yurachuk Glacier and decided to go up Haptal Glacier. We climbed up the steep grassy slope on the right side, escaping several water falls to reach the plateau. We could find the faint yak trail on the right side of the Haptal Glacier. At the corner of Haptal Glacier which turned to left, there was the rocky peak P5775 (H13). Though there should be P6042 (H3) in the right side branch, it was hidden by the front mountain. Haptal Glacier became wide and open after it turned to left. We could see P5730 (H20) and P5878 (H21) at the top of Haptal Glacier. When we looked back to Yurachuk Glacier, we could see the beautiful white peak P5849 (H16) on the left side of Yurachuk Glacier. We turned back from around 4500m and went down to the junction. Many yaks were gathering at the junction and enjoying in grazing on the both side banks of Haptal Tokpo. We came back to our camp site, looking the challenging rock pinnacles on the both side of the valley.

July 23 (Monday): Cloudy, 6:45 / CS at junction with Satachan Tokpo (3,850 m) – Satachan Tokpo – 9:35 / CS (3850m). We tried to explore Satachan Tokpo to see P6085 (H2) and P6042 (H3). As I was not in good condition, I gave up to go farther at the water fall. Three members and Tsewang continued to climb up the left side slope. But, they encountered the gorge and were obliged to retreat without seeing P6085 (H2) and P6042 (H3). They came back to our Camp Site at 9:35 am.

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July 24 (Tuesday): Cloudy, 7:35 / CS at junction with Satachan Tokpo (3,850 m) – 11:30 / yak huts CS (3,655 m). It was possible for us to go down to Sani village in one day, but we preferred to spend another night in the quiet mountains because the camping site at Sani village might be noisy. All of us including our kitchen staffs and horsemen were busy in the afternoon for washing, as we don't want to wear the dirty and sweaty clothes in the town. We had the farewell party in the evening, as two horsemen and one kitchen staff would be going back to their village soon after arrival at Sani village on June 25.

July 25 (Wednesday): Cloudy then fine, 7:35 / CS at junction with Satachan Tokpo (3,850 m) – 9:30/ Camping site at Sani village (3,500 m). We went down to Sani village and pitched our tent at the camping site on Sani Lake. Two horsemen and one kitchen staff left for their home village, saying good-by to us. We visited Sani Gompa which would have festival soon. As village people continued training of drums for the festival until midnight around 2:00 am, we could not have enough sleep.

5. After exploration

We spent three days during July 26 ~28 to return to Leh via Kargil. On July 29, we enjoyed attending at Daktok Gompa Tsechu (festival) and visiting Chemrey Gompa and Spitok Gompa. On July 30, we left Leh for Delhi and visited IMF Head Office in the afternoon. We had the nice meeting with the Director Mr. J P Bhagatjee. He appreciated our exploration in Zanskar and expressed his thanks for our effort to introduce the hidden peaks in Zanskar to the climbers over the world through The Himalayan Journal, Japanese Alpine News and etc.

In our 2012 exploration to Temasa Nala, Gompe Tokpo and Haptal Tokpo, we could see and identify the twenty-one virgin peaks as below.

P6071 (R1) Non Open Peak P5935 (T3) Non Open Peak P6294 (T4) Open Peak P5995 (T6) " P6107 (T9) " P5957 (T10) " P6028 (T12) " P5908 (T11) " P6436 (T13) " P5845 (H17) " P6431 (T16) " P5740 (H14) " P6184 (T18) " P5860 (H15) " P6162 (T19) " P5840 (H16) " P6157 (T20) " P5775 (H13) " P5730 (H20) " P5878 (H21) "

The above peaks have no climbing record on IMF book. But it is a real headache for IMF that recently illegal climbing without official IMF Permit has been increasing in Indian Himalaya. We were very happy to have the successful exploration in the good team harmony and under the best support from our agent Hidden Himalaya. We hope somebody will try to climb the virgin peaks which we discovered in this area.

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P6071 (R1) East Face from Bardan Gompa School P6071 (R1) North Face from Temasa Nala

P6294 (T4) = center and P5995 (T6) = right P6107 (T9) and P5957 (T10) photographed from Kangla Glacier

Junction rock peak, P6036 (R3) and P6089 (R4) in P5935 (T3) in Kangla Glacier Chuurapachan Nala

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Top of Kangla Glacier Junction Big Rock Peak in Chuuraoacgan Nala

P6028 (T12) from Korlomshe Topko P5957 (T10) Kolromshe Nala photographed by Mr. Okabe

P5908 (T11) in Korlomshe Tokpo P6436 (T13) in Korlomshe Tokpo photographed by Mr. Okabe

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Google Earth photo – Temasa Nala

Unknown peaks in Gompe Tokpo photographed near Thonde Gompa

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P6157 (T20) photographed from Padam Veiled virgin peaks in Gompe Tokpo

P6431 (T16) in Gompe Tokpo T15 = left, P6431 (T16) = right in Gompe Tokpo

P5845 (H17) in Chhogo Tokpo of Haptai Topko P5740 (H14) = right, P5860 = left in Hapatal Tokpo

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P5840 (H16) in Yurachku Glacier 0f Haptal Tokpo P5775 (H13) in Haptal Glacier

P5878 (H21) and P5730 (H20) in Haptal Glacier Pinnacle rocks in Haptal Tokpo

Rock mountains in Haptal Tokpo

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