My name is KakaSang La.
I stand tall.
Quite tall.
Taller than most others, and taller than the one who claims to be the tallest.
My signboard is pretty modest. for I am young.
I was cut by BRO, and my signboard, accurately mentions my height. 5446m, or 17868 feet.
This is true for all of us new passes. The older ones were cut before the age of GPS, so often their height claims are very overestimated.
Not for us new ones.
I may be higher than the Khardung, but if you want to cross 18000 feet in reality, you have to go to Photi La, or the Marsimik La.
I was not cut on a whim.
I was not cut just because there was a pass to be cut.
I was cut due to a special need.
Along the LOC, our troops man the long border with China. To get there, a very common access route has always been the Chang La.
But Chang La is wild.
He is one who cannot be tamed.
And he loves to call the snow gods.
So often, there are avalanches, road blocks, and many lives are lost.
So I am the alternate.
I am dry.
The clouds rarely come here, and I see sun througout the year. Even when I am graced with snow, its just a few inches.
The road over me is still being made. Its a pile of rocks now, but hopefully, within a year a black top will grace me, and then I will be a proper motorable road, open for all those who care or dare.
I may not be the highest in the region, but I am the most beautiful.
Standing on me, you look east, you will see the lovely Mirpal Tso. Look west, and you will see the marks of a long dead glacier.
If you are truly adventrous, few hours of mountaineering will take you to the top of the mountains around me, which offer views which only a handful have seen.
Come visit me, you will visit two jewel like lakes, and if you dare, you will see two more
In early october, I got a visitor. And here she poses with me, and my jewel lake
Yes, we were at Kakasang La, our 11th pass, the highest, the toughest.
We just stood there, watching, and I let the white elephant cool down. Such a climb deserved rest.
It had taken us less than two hours from Chushul, but these two hours had been full of wonder and pain.
I inspected the tires, their were nicks and cuts all around, but the sidewalls had held up. The contis had not given up. They had lived up to the A/T tag in their name.
From here the going was easier
It was downhill, and the going was not rocky now. There was also a sense of security, as down below we saw 124RCC making the road. Our first sign of civilazation.
I looked northwards, and saw this
What do you see? Imagine it in white. Yes, its a dead glacier. See the lines on the mountain, Once upon a time a huge glacier adorned this mountain.
Now its gone. In a few years, the ones who still defy the warming will be gone too, and we will be left with bare mountainsides.
The road ahead is smooth, and we can make good speed. Snow still clings defiantly to the mountain tops, waiting the winter
And then its down, down and down. Its barren and brown
We trudge on. If only we had started two hours earlier, I would have loved to park here, and climb the mountains, to go higher and higher, but the days are short in october, and we wanted to make haste
But this is ladakh. Here you do not decide what you do. the road decides. The terrain is king here. The mountains rule. you go when the mountain wants you to go.
Its little over minutes since we left Kakasang La, and then, its time to stop. The road is gone....