“Looking back, it was the hardest trip I have ever undertaken...”     Rod Jackson

Walking on Ice – in the Footsteps of the Snow Leopard

by Rod Jackson

In winter, India’s Zanskar River becomes a pathway made of ice. This frozen gorge is, for the 10,000-odd people who make their homes in the region, the only winter lifeline to the outside world. And then it is only passable for some four to six weeks between mid-January and the end of February.

Zanskar, like its neighbor Ladakh, was once a land of independent kingdoms, but it lies even deeper in the folds of the Trans-Himalaya. Some of Zanskar’s settlements are cut off from one another for months because of snow and avalanche danger. The motorable road out from the district headquarters of Padam is open only from late June through sometime in November. So hardy villagers make the 120-mile round trip trek on the river ice, as they have for centuries. They call the journey the Chaddar. They carry their highly prized yak butter to the market in Leh, Ladakh for much-needed cash or to exchange for essential goods. These they take home on their backs over treacherous ice and cliffs. That is, if the weather cooperates; if the temperature doesn’t suddenly rise, melting the ice and stranding dozens of Zanskaris in Leh until April, when the three 18,000-foot passes clear of snow and the overland route opens up.

I experienced the Chaddar this past winter, along with SLC-India’s director Rinchen Wangchuk and program officers Jigmet Dadul and Tashi Thundup. Except for Tashi, we all were novices to this unique form of trekking, one that requires sound balance, good hearing, the careful probing of ice, a willingness to fall up to one’s chest in frigid water – and maybe a measure of lunacy.

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