After seven summer field seasons working in the north-western Himalaya in India, I had heard of a winter trade route that must rank as one of the most outlandish journeys in the Himalaya. The largely Buddhist Kingdoms of Ladakh and Zanskar are high, arid, mountainous lands to the north of the Greater Himalayan Range and in the rain shadow of the summer monsoon. Whereas the southern slopes of the Himalaya range from dense sub-tropical jungles and bamboo forests to rhododendron woods and magnificent alpine pastures carpeted in spring flowers, the barren icy lands to the north are the realm of the snow leopard, the yak, and the golden eagles and lammergeier vultures that soar overhead. The Zanskar Valley lies immediately north-east of the 6–7,000-metre-high peaks of the Himalayan crest and has about thirty permanent settlements, including about ten Buddhist monasteries. I had seen the Zanskar Ranges from the summit of White Sail in Kulu and later spent four summer seasons mapping the geology along the main trekking routes. In summer, trekking routes cross the Himalaya westwards to Kashmir, southwards to Himachal Pradesh, and northwards to Leh, the ancient capital of Ladakh. Winter snows close the Zanskar Valley from the outside world for up to six months a year when temperatures plummet to minus 38oC. Central Zanskar is a large blank on the map, virtually inaccessible, with steepsided jagged limestone mountains and deep canyons. The Zanskar River carves a fantastic gorge through this mountain range and for only a few weeks in the middle of winter the river freezes. The Chaddur, the walk along the frozen Zanskar River, takes about ten to twelve days from Zanskar to the Indus Valley and, in winter time, was the only way in or out before the road to Kargil was constructed. I mentioned this winter trek to Ben Stephenson during our summer fieldwork in Kishtwar and he stopped suddenly, turned around, and said ‘Mike we just have to do this trek!’ So the idea of a winter journey into Zanskar was born, and four of us set off from Oxford in January 1995.
Soft sediment deformation structures in the Late Quaternary sediments of Ladakh: evidence of multiple phases of palaeoearthquakes in the North western Himalayan Region