Ladakh in Winter A Snow Filled Landscape

We will venture out into the cold winter of Ladakh today, visiting a few monasteries not faraway from Leh. The outing will familiarize you with winter landscapes and weather. Expect to see a beautiful blue Indus River, partially frozen on either side, flowing through mountains covered with snow. This is just a glimpse of more beautiful things to come.

An evening visit to Shanti Stupa high up the town will give you panoramic views of Leh and some breathtaking views of Tsemo Gompa with the mountains around it as the sun goes down.

Sit back and be prepared for the drive of your lifetime. We leave Leh in the morning hours and start the journey towards the frozen Pangong Lake. The drive is as awesome as seeing the lake itself, if not, even better. Once you cross the high pass of Chang La, you will go past streams that are partially frozen and flowing gently through beautiful ice fields. The patterns and forms made by the ice will make you want to sit there forever and watch them. Further ahead, we may see local shepherds herding their Pashmeena Goats in the valley we are travelling through. Where is grass for them to graze on, you will wonder. But these survivor sheep can live on little leftover dried grass from last summer. We drive along, photographing all these, until we arrive at the famous Pangong Tso, now solid with a layer of ice on top. It is a beauty that you will never forget, but there is more to come.

We make the slow drive towards Chumathang today, retracing a part of the way we took yesterday and then travelling upstream Indus. We will stop often, photographing the partially frozen Indus River reflecting the mountains around us. At places where the river surface is solid ice, we will once again see beautiful patterns and trapped air bubbles creating interesting formations. The night will be at the hot springs of Chumathang Village.

Today, we will drive deep into the high altitude plateau of Changthang on our way to Tso Moriri. Expect to see an incredible amount of snow this one day, which may be much more than what you would have seen in all of your lifetime. We will be driving on a narrow road that bisects the ocean of snow. The place is so covered with snow that we will not even be able to tell where exactly some of the smaller lakes along the way are located. We arrive at the frozen Tso Moriri in a couple of hour’s drive. At Korzok Village, life is normal despite the challenging weather conditions. We will see kids busy playing on the streets and adults occasionally running up and down with no specific purpose whatsoever. With all the agricultural activities coming to a halt with winter, the people of the village have an easy time.

Today, we explore another side to the famous Changthang plateaut as we drive first to the hot springs at Puga. It is funny to see hot spurts of water rising from a place that is unbelievably cold. Sometimes, there is a miniature mountain of ice that forms around that gushing and steaming hot water, making it look like a tiny volcano.

Puga is a place normally inhabited by semi-nomadic Changpa shepherds in the winter. The settlement is surprisingly lively in the below-freezing temperatures – kids showing off their flashy bicycles and their newly discovered tricks while elders go about their daily chores. Expect to see big herds of Pashmina goats along with some horses and cows – a delight to photograph in the snowy background. Around sunset, the sight of hundreds of sheep being herded back to the settlement in that mountainous landscape is a sight to behold.

We drive back to Leh after breakfast, photographing along the way. We will have a free evening for some shopping and to reminisce about the days we spent in the icy mountain landscapes.

Checkout after an early breakfast.