Crossed Chang La today, and although there wasn’t as much snow as I had hoped to see, but it was damn cold and only got colder as we came down.
At a small frozen lake after Chang La my fingers got almost frozen, as I had to shoot without gloves, in order to adjust the CPL.
Something which stayed with me throughout the day.
Right now sitting in Tangste and me GPRS connection is finally working again, though not really fast enough to allow me to upload photos.
Also got the bad news just now that there is frozen stream en route to Chushul, which we need to cross tomorrow…
4 Comments
Yogesh, go, man, go! I hope you’re having a good adventure. But don’t you miss your motorcycle????
Keep up the posts–I’m following them from work in Spain.
Yogesh,
Planned to do the Znaskar Chadar trek during the first fortnight of February 2012 and expecting from you suggestion about winter-gears. Thanks and happy wandering.
Response as above. Also need to know your experience on camera use, battery life, problems faced in photographing during this extreme cold, camera gears you think should be taken etc. Awaiting your reply.
Jónico while traveling in a Scorpio was fun, I really did miss my motorcycle. However, standing outside at around -15 Degree Celsius or so is enough to not want to ride a motorcycle, especially since wind chill factor is tremendous.
Nil I have completed my travelogue and it can be viewed here http://www.bcmtouring.com/forum/travelogues-north-india-f61/tourist-s-tale-winter-ladakh-t40674/
Dressing in layers is the best option with the top most being water and windproof, since it is the wind, which is the real killer. As far as hands are concerned, they are a big problem while shooting, since with the gloves on, one can’t adjust CPL and with the gloves off, hands become so cold so soon, that it becomes tough to get them warm again. However at the end of the day, food is the real killer, since most of the time it is pretty bland in Ladakh and that makes you want to eat less and that in turn leads to the body producing less warmth.
Didn’t really face any issue at all with the battery, though to be fair, majority of the time we were in the car, which despite not using heater, was a lot hotter than outside. Just make sure you carry a spare battery or two and keep them inside your cloths and you should be fine.
Oh yes, after a day of trekking, if you move inside any hot place eg. room etc. then make sure to put the camera and lenses in a zip lock bag to avoid condensation. Which in your case would be a higher probability due to hopefully more moisture content. In our case, it wasn’t an issue, heck humidity at Hanle was only 6%!