Out of the mountains and into Leh…

We finally made it back to a city, and oh, how I missed it!  Just looking around at cars and people and even cows felt good.  I laid down in my bed in my hotel and savored it.  Of course, that could only last a few minutes, since I had to go see Leh!  You’re only in India once, right? 

The town was cool, but Leh is very touristy.  We hit it at the end of tourist season, but we still had to pay tourist prices!  I really enjoyed shopping there.  Unlike stores back home, these shops would offer you tea, sit you down and pull every single thing off the shelf to see if you are interested.  The tea is good, and I bought two beautiful scarves to take home. 

On top of that, I got to visit a beautiful monastery, and see the biggest Buddha I’ve ever seen! 

It was really good to see the cultural aspect of the country, as well as the geological.  All in all, I had an amazing time, but by the end, I was ready to go home to see my family.  It was a journey I’ll never forget.

The cow and I were good buddies.

Roughing it...

Enough of the hotels.  After a few days, we began our 7 day camping stint.  This was the real mountain exploring experience.  We have been steadily increasing in altitude, and people seemed to be doing well.  The side effects I felt were trouble sleeping, strange dreams, and an occasional headache. 

We got to see some marine fossils at 4,400 meters altitude.  Remnants of creatures that lived in a warm, shallow ocean millions of years ago, now at the top of the world.  If that isn't evidence for some serious uplift, I don't know what is.     

Not only have we seen serious uplift, we're seeing crazy downcutting too.  The landslides on the trip have been bigger than any I've imagined.  Landsliding is such a scary problem in the Himalaya mountains, and many have lost their lives because of them.

The most powerful “downcutter” however, is not landslide erosion, but glaciers.  Before this trip, I had never seen a glacier (except on TV), and I’m sure that I’m not alone in that.  Well let me tell you, I was really eager to see one (but that’s probably just the nerd in me).  The hike was intense: a gain in altitude of about 1,500 feet, and a 15 kilometer round trip.  The terrain was not nice either, it was mainly rocks and boulders perfect for stumbling over, or catching a foot on. The air is thin, so even if you are in good shape, you have to move slow.   

View of the Glacier

I think the climb to the glacier may have been the physically toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life. 

I also think the dinner I ate that night was the best food I’ve ever had in my life.

Our campsite at the time was next to Kaiger Lake, a glacial lake near Tso Moriri, and one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in my lifetime.  The water was ice cold, but it was clean and I wasn’t, so I jumped in.  WOW, was it cold.  You’d be surprised what you’ll do to wash up.  I love camping!

And we're off...

The plane ride wasn't bad, it was 14 hours, but I mainly slept.  It was a polar flight, which was really cool, I got to see the ocean completely frozen over!  We arrived in New Dehli in the evening (I was so jet lagged, I have no idea what time it was) and the first thing I noticed was the heat.  The air was heavy and hard to breathe, and smelled stale.  We went from a plane to a bus, and the traffic was terrible.  I remained in relatively good spirits for the drive (although my snoring might have dampered the spirits of my classmates). 

View from the plane.  This was taken at 12AM local time!

I woke up the next morning, sleepy but pumped to really begin this trip.  We left our hotel in Havali Kunta, Panipat, and began the long drive across the Indo-gangetic plain.  It's a large, flat floodplain directly south of the Himalaya range.  It is made up of 10 kilometers of sediment, all the soil that runs off the mountain range.  I was amazed to see the vast flat area.  There were macaques running all over the place.  We spent a lot of time driving.

Menali 9/4/11

We arrived in Menali  around 1 AM, after finishing our 17 hour bus ride that day.  I never wanted to see another bus again.  Ever.  The view I woke up to was incredible.   Our first  geological stop was the Beas River bed.  The main thing that hit me about this place was the incredible size of things.  The scale of everything was huge!  Just huge!  Boulders the size of elephants were scattered haphazardly through the area.  It took some seriously fast, strong water to move those things around.  I was seeing some of the affects of the glaciers on the landscape. 

Menali was a cool town.  It was kind of hip and a little bit touristy, there was a main square for shopping and a lot of places to eat (I told you, I talk about food a lot).  I went out with a friend of mine, and sitting alone at the restaurant earned us a few strange looks.  I got a delicious vegetable and rice dish.  We found a slug the size of a cucumber.  There were other exotic animals walking the streets, mainly stray dogs and a few donkeys.  It was hard getting used to not drinking out of the faucet, and this was the first night I remembered not to run my toothbrush under the water.

Jispa 9/6/11

I saw as I traveled through India how different it was from one town to the next.  Jispa is a good example; it was a world away from Menali.  It was a simple, quiet town.  If you could even call it a town.  It was more like a cluster of buildings along one road.  My favorite part about Jispa was the prayer wall.  It was a long, stone fence along the road, but on each stone a mantra was carefully carved.  This town was also the first one we gave water filters to.

One of the people that came with us on our trip raised money to bring water filters and donate them at schools and monasteries that we pass through.  Another student brought water testing supplies and ran experiments on the presence  of fecal ecoliform in the water.  And yes, based on Julia's tests, the filters were MUCH needed. 

Several of our group went over to Jispa's monastery and school. It was opened by the Dahlai Lama in 1994.  The concept of personal property is somewhat different in India, and no one cared if we walked in and looked around.  It was not the building, but the children in it that captivated me.  They were absolutely darling (as children often are).  It felt really good to be a part of providing these kids clean drinking water.

Getting ready...

It's the highest mountain range in the world.  For a girl who studies rocks, there could be nothing better.  I am a UC geology student, and I love everything from mountains to soil particles.  My trip to the Himalaya was seriously incredible, which is why I want to share it with everyone. 

When I first found out I was going to India, I decided to prepare the way I know best: eat.  I went straight to Dushmesh, a local Indian restaurant, to celebrate.  I finished my saag paneer (spinach, cheese and curry, best dish ever!) and thought about what it would be like.   I didn't know what to expect.  I was really excited, until I went to the doctor and they gave me four shots and two prescriptions to take with me.  Then I was scared.  Really scared.  With malaria on the table, each mosquito bite could be my last mosquito bite, ever!  Not only that, but there was altitude sickness, frostbite, even the elusive Yedi to worry about.  But I had to get out there and see those mountains.

The thing that really interested me about this trip was the environmental aspect of it.  As a student of geology, I have learned a lot about global climate change.  I have also learned about economic geology, using knowledge of the earth to find petroleum, oil and gas, or precious minerals.  I have seen the detrimental affect that people with that knowledge have on the environment, and on the people who were unlucky enough to live near deposits.

There are many scientists that are interested in global climate change, especially in terms of human influence on the earth.  There are also many people (even some scientists) who claim it doesn't exist.  My personal theory is that it's in their best interest (or, their wallets' best interest) for global warming to remain innocuous.  I would love to hear comments.

Anyways, glaciers in the Himalaya range have been advancing, leading to an argument against global warming: If the earth was warming up, wouldn't the ice be melting?  Of course, the issue is more complex.  The "monsoon effect" causes them to advance.  This is because climate change is causing more precipitation.  More precipitation at high altitude, however, means more snow.  More snow, in turn, means larger glaciers.  These glaciers will eventually melt, and it doesn't happen this way everywhere.  That's why our trip is important.  We are studying and reconstruction the glaciation patterns of the past, and trying to find links to the present.