The mystery of Dzo Jongo

The mystery of Dzo Jongo

The route taken during descent from the Summit

 

A few years back, I was discussing some trip ideas with Ralf Griesbaum, a friend and mountain guide from Germany, who had been leading trips in the Himalaya for almost 20 years. Ralf mentioned about this peak called “Dzo-Jongo” at the head of the Markha valley in Ladakh and said that it is getting popular with Germans. That was the first time I had heard about this mountain. We looked at the maps and it seemed like a good climb - easily accessible with a fairly straightforward approach. I planned to have a good look at it whenever I would go up the Markha valley next. It turned out that I never visited Markha valley again till I came with a group to climb this mountain, much later. In the summer of 2014, me with 4 others were all set to climb Chamser Kangri (6634m) in the Tsomoriri area of Ladakh and we had planned to do the Markha Valley trek as an acclimatization trek before heading up towards Changthang. Our entire trip was about 3 weeks long and we were all geared up for the exciting experience in Ladakh when a sudden notification from the IMF office in Leh disrupted our well laid out plan. Chamsher Kangri would be shut for climbing throughout the season.

Notice from IMF barring permission to climb peaks in Tsomoriri Area

 

Scouting other possible options, I ruled out Mentok, since 2 out of the 4 climbers had climbed it with me the previous year. Since we were already trekking in the Markha Valley I decided on the twin summits of Kang Yatse shoulder & Dzo-Jongo. None of these mountains promised us the height which Chamser did but attempting twin summits on 6000m+ mountains offered a different kind of challenge. It was not going to be easy. Kang Yatse II was a well known mountain, but I wasn't sure how Dzo Jongo would turn out to be. I started doing my research about the climbing route – looking for pictures, trip reports, etc and unfortunately there was not much. I started reaching out to all guide friends who would have possibly been up on this mountain or would know more about it. As luck would have it, Ralf Griesbaum called up; he was on his way back from Ladakh and had made an attempt up on Dzo-Jongo. We decided to meet up in Delhi… I went to see Ralf with a couple of maps & some images. Ralf finished a trek for some of his German clients in Ladakh & then went up with one of his friends’ to make an attempt on Dzo-Jongo. Unfortunately they could not get to the summit as they approached the mountain through a wrong route. They ended up being on the North ridge & realized that they would need to climb a smaller summit first & then traverse a rocky ridge to get to the true summit of Dzo-Jongo. Ralf shared a lot of photos from his trip with me & explained what would possibly be the best route on the mountain. We spent a considerable amount of time studying the maps, Google earth & images of Dzo-Jongo. This meeting with Ralf put me at ease and I was quite sure what our route on this mountain was going to be.

Dzo Jongo marked on the Ladakh Map

 

However the guide in me was still not fully satisfied, I wanted to meet that one person who would have reached the summit & could tell me what lay ahead. Adventure at its best – you are venturing into the unknown, you want to do as much research as possible, plan as best as you can and then arrive at the scene – to do it …and as mountain guides we’ve got to look very professional when we are doing it. I reached Leh and was still gathering more info about the mountain as I wanted to be sure that we carry the right amount of gear with us. I was still not sure if we should carry any snow/ ice anchors and think about fixing ropes etc. Every other guide/ Sherpa who I met said that it is an easy mountain, straight forward, completely non-technical and so we left for our 18 day trip into Markha valley with very little gear (2 lengths of rope, a couple of ice pitons, and our personal climbing gear). Everything panned out well until we reached Dzo Jongo’s Base Camp. We had an amazing climb up KYII and descended and hiked to Dzo Jongo Base Camp. We heard from our horseman that another team was on their way to climb Dzo Jongo. We would be meeting them soon. Dzo Jongo BC is much higher than KY BC and to make a summit bid from the BC and back would be a long haul. We decided to set up an Advance Base Camp (ABC) about 2.5 hrs above Base Camp at an altitude of 5700m on the glacier. We moved up to high camp with heavy backpacks & the plan was to make an attempt up to the summit the same night. Since it was a short walking day I decided to go further up on the mountain with Mohan Rawat and Bishnu Gurung, the two Sherpas on the trip. We went up to the base of the summit ridge/ face & from there it seemed that it would be about a couple of hours on steep slope up to the summit. We decided to turn back. While descending to ABC, we noticed a high point on the north ridge which had many prayer flags fluttering at the top. It seemed that people attempting Dzo Jongo might possibly be coming up to that high point, definitely not the actual Summit! We did not see any evidence of anyone having gone up on the route we were on. In Ladakh, we expect some cairns marking the route and we were surprised to see none leading to this summit, so Mohan decided to erect one at the base of the face marking the true Summit. Gurdeep & Rahul did not feel great after sleeping on the glacier and were not really up for the climb in bad weather past midnight. Mohan wisely decided to stay back with these people and we set off around 3.30am. The summit team included Sherpa Bishnu Gurung, Sanjiv Rastogi, Zakir, an enthusiastic lad from Bodhkarbu who works with us as a kitchen helper/porter in the Ladakh season and myself. It took us a couple of hours to get to that point at the base of the steep west face. It was overcast, with low clouds & was very cold & windy. Day broke & we stopped to hydrate & eat a bit before we would attempt the steep face. There was a crevasse (Actually a bergshrund somewhere on the middle of the face) but it seemed like it could be handled without difficulty. Minutes after setting off on the steep section we realized that it is not going to be as easy as we thought. There was hard, blue ice underneath & it had just about an inch or two of some soft snow which made the conditions even harder. We really had to dig our crampons in & it was important to maintain good body position throughout. Sanjeev mentioned that he wasn’t feeling safe and would not be able to climb on running belays and he would appreciate if we could fix the rope. We also felt that it would be safer to do it that way but since we did not have a lot of rope with us we could only fix about 80 m at one go. We would get everyone up, anchor them & then fix another 80m and repeat the process. After repeating this a couple of times both Sanjeev & Zakir understood the whole process very well and showed a lot of patience & courage to not give up even while they stood frozen, precariously anchored on the slopes.

Avilash and Sanjiv on the summit of Dzo Jongo(6280m)

 

This made our progress very slow and everyone was quite cold on the slopes. It took us almost 4 hrs to get up to the summit and the weather had gotten worse. It was very windy on the summit, we could not see much & we all knew that we had a seriously steep descent to do without fixed ropes. Some quick photos for the records, a GPS reading and we were all ready to turn back. This was also the first time when I experienced multiple electric shocks on the summit. I had certainly experienced it earlier but not something continuously, the shocks were light but it was really irritating. At the end of the climb I checked about it with the others and they all said they experienced it too. We left a small piece of red sling up on the summit which we used as an anchor around the rock.

Clicking pics from the Summit. The GPS showing the height at the summit of Dzo Jongo

 

  Most climbers would know that descents are tougher than ascents & it was absolutely true this time. We were fixing ropes again, people would descend on them – we would create an anchor point and then get everyone to that point and then fix the rope again & descend – however, since we did not have enough anchors the last man to come down would release the anchor & the rope & then descend free. For the majority of the descent I did the last man’s job – I was a bit nervous & very careful on the first couple of pitches but then later on I started enjoying it.. It took us another 2-3 hrs to descend to safe ground and to see the smile back on people’s faces – People at High Camp were worried as it had taken us much longer than we had expected. We reached High Camp, had some food & then wrapped up to descend to the comforts of Base Camp. It snowed a lot that night & next morning we all woke up with thick snow all around us. Dorje, our horseman was supposed to arrive with the horses and we all felt that it would be impossible for him to reach Base Camp in those conditions. Dorje, is one of our most trusted horseman in Ladakh and there has never been an instance when he has not showed up as per schedule (despite the conditions) & he proved himself again this time. He arrived only about half an hour late with his pack of horses singing, shouting & laughing like he always does We dropped down to Nimaling Chu, crossed the Kongmaru La pass & came down till Chuskirmo where we could enjoy the warmer temperatures, higher levels of oxygen & a few bottles of beer! A great trip was coming to an end. We never met the other group which was expected to reach the Base Camp. Dorje told us that they had come; they climbed the mountain & went back. He pointed out to the peak they climbed & it was the same mountain atop which we had seen the prayer flags on our descent from the face of Dzo Jongo….the wrong Summit! We realized that most groups climb the same mountain & call it Dzo Jongo and state the climb to be easy. The truth is completely different.

DZO JONGO
Dzo Jongo - Mystery Solved. Now you know which mountain to Climb when you decide on attempting it someday. Goodluck! 

 

For me the mystery of Dzo Jongo was solved – it is much more than a trekking peak, lies due east of KY III and offers an exciting route– 300 m of steep ice climb leading up to the summit.         Photo Courtesy: Avilash Bisht  

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