Drive to Pangong Tso

[Manfred M]

The longest outing we made during our recent trio to Ladakh, India was a 12 hour return drive to Pangong Tso, from Leh.

1. We had to drive over the Changla Pass, which at 5391m /17,688 ft is one of the highest motorable mountain passes in the world. It was cold, windy and in spite of having spent a few days acclimatizing, it still left me breathless just walking around.





2. A new bridge had been opened last June, but some of the construction structures were still visible.




3. Every landscape photographer is taught that a good landscape image should have an interesting foreground, middle ground and background. The one thing we found in the Himalayas was that it was difficult to find places to shoot with an interesting foreground. This is a shot towards towards Durbuk village.




4. Pangong Tso is at an altitude of 4350 m / 14,270 ft. It is 134 km / 83 mi long with about 40% being in India and 60% in China. A very tough shoot due to altitude, cold temperatures and high winds.





5. Pangong Lake is salt water and will freeze over during the winter. Lots of ice was heaving with the waves on our visit.

[Wavelength]

What a magical place.... Hope you could enjoy Nature in its pristine quality; great image

[madcrow]

Fantastic series and narrative. By the sound of it, they were hard earned. Marfred, this trip is a story in the making by image and word.

[bje07]

Nice reportage, hope your fingers are still OK?