15 Nov - Lachung to Zero Point

Zero point. It's something you might expect to find in a modern version of a Jules Vernes story. The destination and end of an epic journey and yet perhaps the start of something monumental.

'Zero point' for us today really wasn't far off the mark. From our starting point in Lachung, deep in North Sikkimese Himalaya, what the local guides call 'zero point' was our target for the day: the end of the road north towards Tibet at a quite literally breath-taking 16000 feet. You cannot go any further due to tensions at the Tibet-India border.

To get there requires no less than 3 permits and as many check points at the various army bases positioned along the route. The trip up there is an official tourist trail, but the fact that we had to put so much effort into getting there, so few people do it, and the mystery of what might lie beyond, made this much more of an adventure.

We set off, leaving civilisation behind us, and climbed hard. Benum, our guide, hadn't disappointed in his managing of our expectations the day before; it was only what seemed like a few minutes later that Sarah and I grinned at each other, harmoniously mouthed 'amazing', and took in the simply extraordinary scenery unfolding before us. After tree lined valleys, topped by jagged peaks, we ran into the first obstacle to really challenge both driver and jeep. A massive moraine field at 13000 feet, further disturbed by last year's quake, looked from the bottom to be impregnable. But the bulldozers had done a grand job; we bumped and eased our way around the worst up a winding track which took us into a wide Alpine wilderness. From the top of the mess of boulders we were treated to a magical view of the vast valley floor and its immense walls which climbed into snow capped giants. Down the middle the oh-so-blue river rushed downhill, while ahead lay a taste of the true Goliaths awaiting us further up. It was almost visual overload.

From this point we left the valley floor to climb up a surprisingly well maintained ribbon of asphalt draped in endless hairpin loops up the mountainside towards the tundra above. Either side now, granite, snow and elegant ice falls to keep us company as the oxygen got thinner. The views ahead and behind simply became more and more superlative until on rounding the final bend, with the Tibetan plateau in sight, we reached a shabby open area where a couple of ladies, wrapped in all the clothes they owned, sat brewing tea in the open air. The punctuation of the road ending was as abrupt as the name Zero Point might suggest; beyond, a track strewn with sump destroying boulders and ice. But the views... I'm not even going to try to put them into words. Enjoy the below, but believe me, these pictures don't even start to do it justice. Almost certainly the most stunning part of the planet we have seen to date, partly because of the scenes, but an awful lot because of the remoteness and secrecy which surrounds it.