Day 5 – AMS Day – Sarchu – Pang
25 Oct 2014We forgot to take Diamox in Sarchu. It was so cold that we could only think about eating and snuggling inside our beds.
Woke up to here 🙂
We had initially planned to reach Leh. We started around 8:30 am. Right after we left the tent we were greeted by some of the beautiful sights.
The roads are good for around 15 kms, after that there is only gravel for till Pang (~50km). Once you start ascending Gata Loops, you will ascend by 1500ft in a matter of 45 minutes. We were greeted by a company of military trucks. They must be in 100s. Since the roads are mostly single lane, so you have to stop and let them pass. Once we descended we could still see lots of trucks coming.
One of the guys started to feel severe headache and problems in breathing. There was a small tent there which offered some food. We had breakfast and my friend just lied down. We were really worried. We stopped there for more than 1 hour to let him relax. Since the place we were at had only a couple of tents we decided to move on and find a better place to stay. Pang was roughly 25 km from there. It took us another 2 hours to reach there. We took a couple of breaks. This is where we started to doubt our decision to come to Leh altogether. It was not a good sight.
Paji trying to bear with the headache. The guy is a body builder and is in really good shape, works out for 2 hours every day without fail. So AMS can happen to anyone.
During a break.
Bluest and cleanest water I have ever seen, was cold too.
We reached Pang at around 2pm and decided to call it a day. We got a tent and asked Paji to lie down. He could not sleep. Pang is essentially a military camp with couple of tents. We took Paji to the doctors there and the prescribed Diamox. He was also given oxygen to breathe. There were so many AMS patients, mostly bikers. I really feel for the military folks, they must be so annoyed with so many travelers coming in, still they were really patient and kind.
Paji was okay till he was on oxygen supply. After 6-7 hours diamox kicked in and he felt better. Pang is at nearly 15000 ft. Please avoid staying there.