AUG-A-3

LAUNCH THE LINGSHED-03 TREK

ACROSS THE INDUS, BEYOND THE ZANSKAR,

AND INTO THE REMOTE ROADLESS POPULATIONS

OF LADAKHI/TIBETAN VILLAGERS,

ON FOOT WITH MEDICAL AND CAMPING SUPPLIES

PORTERED BY OUR PACKSTOCK

Aug. 4, 2003

And, now, away we go!

I have an untried crew, not the same as the hand-picked one that I had initially envisioned for this repeat trek for me, along with some significant others, a TV Discovery film crew and a few of my hardy and tested GW folk. There are some add-ins in this crew, as well as significant “take-outs” but I have given them the orientation to the rigors of the trek, and the promise of a three-part intensive experience: 1) The rip-snorting adventure trek through staggering scenery along the high Zanskar Range with seven passes between 15,000 and 18,000 feet---which we would be climbing on foot (the horses and kiangs are for a one way emergency evacuation trip of any who falter, and are not for the uphill convenience of those4 who would rather ride; 2) the quality and integrity of the patient care for a remote and unserviced group of fascinating Ladakhi people will not be compromised, or whoever wishes to blow off this part of the trek will be relieved of further participation; 3) a very high intensity and rapid quality medical education program, particularly for those for whom this experience is the first clinical series of encounters under supervisions, in which the pathophysiology will be explained in regular tutorials and the case presentations will be formal and complete as it will be for the rest of their professional lives—but here with a very personal involvement of a very widely experienced professor living through it with them and evaluating their performance.

I will have no access to any electricity, nor the laptop, nor phone nor postal service, so that there will be a complete narrative journal kept up as always, but it will have to be handwritten, and copies will be made available to those who are interested.

There is one “small” detail left undone as we leave. Ravi had contracted as before with Ambassador Travels in Delhi to secure the round trip tickets to Leh from Delhi. I understand that these passages are in high demand during the limited summer time months that they are run to the highest jet port on earth. The Ambassador Travel had written my ticket as a one way passage to Leh with “VOID” written in for my return. I notified them of this and my departure soon after returning on an Alaskan Safari which should not be delayed. They will have the two weeks I am in the Ladakh-03 (but during which nothing has materialized) and now the three weeks I will be remote from any contact in Lingshed-03, and it will not be my task nor should it be my role to correct the deliberate shortfall of their agent. I would not like to come back to Leh with the three week’s need for shower, shave, unpacking, repacking, and find that the first order of business is finding my way out of Leh after being in India over five weeks without the ability to manage any of my rather complex affairs, nor to leave to attend to them. But, we will see.

For now, we will head out past the airport, and over the “Magnetic Hill” toward the “Indus View” and then through the area of Nimu—where the Zanskar River, we will follow late in our trek, empties directly into the “T-intersection” with the Indus to make its way to Pakistan. This is the second time I have done the trek, and the only veterans are the seven Nepali Sherpa and Hem, each of whom did it for the first time with me last year. And, who knows, perhaps, next year?

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