Kang Yatse is a beautiful looking Mountain Massif that dominates the entire Markha Valley. It is the highest peak of the valley and has a very high prominence. However, its the beauty of this peak that attracts climbers to it. Its a massif of 4 summits, all of which are above 6000 meters. Kang Yatse 1 is the highest peak of this massif and requires technical skills to climb to its summit.
While the second peak is a trekking peak, Kang Yatse 1 is categorized as a technical peak and the summit climb involves some good ice and snow climbing skills. The route is very steep and demands excellent physical stamina and powerful thigh muscles to walk through, especially the ultra-soft and dry snow conditions of Ladakh. The usual route we take to the summit camp of this peak is via the scree zone climbing up straight from below the mountain. There is an alternate route following the glacier, however, that's long and has a crevasse below the dome.
There is a very very difficult route from the summit of Kang Yatse 2 to the summit of Kang Yatse 1 via the rocky knife-edge ridge which looks very challenging. In 2018, a team from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute successfully traversed the difficult knife-edge ridge to reach the summit of KY1 from KY2.
Since this route is very technical and challenging, we do not take this route and left it for alpinism. We follow the route which climbs steeply and straight to the summit from the South-East ridge.
The summit climb to Kang Yatse 1 starts from its Camp 1 before the dawn at around 2 AM. Straight away you are on a steep snow slope of gradient over 65 degrees. Depending on the snow condition, rope may be fixed on the previous night or after covering some distance in the morning. The climb to the summit involves negotiating a broken ridge with good exposure and drop on both sides. After that, it's a steep climb on hard ice/ soft snow beneath the summit cornice, to cover the last 400 meters to the summit of the dome. Hard ice make it easy rather than soft snow. While early June/ July has good amount of snow cover, comparatively, it is much easier to achieve success on this peak during August/ September.
The views start to open up as you approach Camp 1 and the ranges of East Karakoram are visible towards your back. It's very important to have a focused head to achieve success on this summit. It will be an enriching experience as an aspiring mountaineer to take up other difficult peaks in the future.
Important Information For International Guests:
We require to get climbing permits from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation for this peak and support with a liaison officer. While we can arrange everything for you being affiliates of IMF, the permit clearance process takes time and its good if you give us time for that. While getting permits in short notice is possible as well, but not always guaranteed. So to be safe, its better you connect with us at least 4 months in advance. Permit fees are charged separately on an actual basis.
Alternate Itinerary, without Markha Valley, if you are well acclimatized and spent quite a few days wandering in Ladakh (8 Days, Leh to Leh )
- Day 1: Drive from Leh to Shang Sumdo, Trek to Chuskirmo ( 4140m, 3 hours ).
- Day 2: Trek to Lartsa ( 4600m, 4 hrs )
- Day 3: Cross Kongmaru La ( 5130m ) to Nimaling ( 4895m, 4 hrs )
- Day 4: Acclimatization Day.
- Day 5: Trek to Base Camp by Evening ( 5000m, 2 hr )
- Day 6: Approach Camp 1
- Day 7: Summit Day. Back to Base Camp
- Day 8: Reserved Day
- Day 9: Reserved Contingency Day
- Day 10: Trek From Base Camp to Leh, via Chuskirmo
WHY SHOULD YOU CLIMB WITH US?
Unlike the mass-trekking and hand-held trekking groups in our country, we, on all of our treks, inspire and motivate to boost more of the Intrinsic and Inherent Adventure Sense of a human being when it comes to our work ethics. We human beings are born to Survive. It is just about letting yourself free to get back your intrinsic senses to adapt, survive and then excel.
Having said that, we take safety as a first matter of concern on any of our treks, and hence provide the Guides and Leaders who are tremendously experienced, knowledgeable, responsible and capable of handling such treks. We keep our group size limited to 12 people on challenging treks like this as smaller groups have more summit success rate since the team is more focused on their objectives, share common physical abilities, are safer and friendlier. Most importantly, our filtration and selective process ensures that the team, unlike that of the mass-trekking groups, is not limited by the weaknesses of the unfiltered, incompetent and unmanageable flock joining the team. Smaller group also helps to create an ambient Himalayan experience of Solitude, giving priority to Safety, Easy Management, Maximum Attention, Utmost care, Friendly attitude, and a Learning experience to make you a better and a humble trekker.
Our forced efforts to keep the group size small have given us a very nice success rate on the summits of these trekking peaks in the Himalayas. Our itinerary and meal plan is very well planned and with further orientation and planning, we move closer to the summit with each of these carefully decided actions.
The equipment that we provide on the treks are some of the best in the industry. Few of those are designed and custom-made just to suit our purpose of a safe and comfortable trek experience. We provide you with all the gears required to be better equipped for the trek. The quality of local resources, cooks and porters are not neglected and we make sure that we hire responsible local resources for your group accompanied by one of our leaders who further ensures that the quality of services are delivered as promised and forms a liaison between the group and the local hires. Right from the food that we serve on the trek to the toilet tents and camping toilet seat that we provide, dining tents to a separate camping stools, pre-trek orientation to proper coordination, SOS arrangements, etc - Everything is taken care of with utmost professionalism and expertise of the field.
We have until now worked across the Himalayas of India, Nepal, and Bhutan with tremendous client satisfaction and reviews. From beginner’s trek to that of highly challenging treks and expedition, we have handled it all very efficiently with excellent success rate. We have always kept and delivered our promise of keeping the team small, like-minded, tidy by proper selection and filtration through discussion and with utmost safety and no incidences of mishaps so far due to our proper planning by experts of the field.
We are a transparent and flexible organization and have kept our reviews online. You may read our reviews on our Google Business Page: https://goo.gl/ezyw13
