The support team:
The group of four trekkers was accompanied by a French guide of the selected tour operator. From Chiling, the local crew is composed of a guide, a Lama of the Karsha monastery, and seven Zanskar-Pa as porters of the group luggage, of food for the duration of the trek and pharmacy.
 

Chiling, village 3,550m high, was the starting point of the trek after a three-hour transfer by bus. This village produces the brass and copper utensils sold at the market of Leh. We will find there, on eighteen days later, the bus for the return to Leh.

After a snack close to the three Chortens, we went down on the river to take our first steps on the ice. This first initiation walk was short, four hours. This three-day phase was marked by a blocking of the group progression due to the thawing river that meant no walking on the ice, Levitation was not possible in spite of our guide, Lama of Karsha monastery.

The following day, in the early morning to benefit from the freezing of the night, we were able to cross the passage of the day before. However, freezing was not sufficient, it was necessary to take off shoes to walk in partially frozen water. The effect on the group was biting!
I fell into the water with my camera which was covered with a fine layer of ice. Indeed under water there was a second layer of ice.

The collective material:
The collective material was reduced to its minimum, it did not have anything, except food, kitchen utensils, a pharmacy.
The nights passed in caves, more precisely under a kind of hood, or under the stars. The night temperature was on average of -20°C close to the campfire.

Lingshed, +3,800 m high, built on the hillside in the 15th century. The monks of the monastery welcomed us with tea salted with yak butter. We met young monks chanting psalms read on paper strips. The temperature was sepulchral, but very fortunately the classroom giving on the due south valley was heated by the sun.

About 1,000 inhabitants live isolated in autarky all the winter in this pretty valley. The night was spent in a very beautiful farm, well heated, which enabled me to finish the drying of the camera which started again without problem.

Individual material:
It was adapted to the specific conditions of this trek beyond norms. Canadian Boots with overbots equipped with small tungsten crampons, clothing system of three layers, gloves and hat for low temperatures, sleeping bag for extreme temperatures and a pair of slippers for the bivouac evening during the drying of the boots.
I never was cold. On the other hand, one should not hesitate to cover oneself at the time of the passages in the shade. The amplitude of diurnal temperatures is very important between sunny parts, of 0°C with +5°C and the parts in the shade, of -5°C with -10°C.
 

Pidmo, a village 3,500 m high, was reached after two days and a half of walk on the river,  we left the gorges. From there we were in the Zanskar valley, we progressed on the mainland and slept in splendid farms.

Zangla, the capital 3,500 m high, was at the junction of a river with Zanskar. A very beautiful ruin of the royal fortress of the 15th century is visible on a rock peak.

Tongde, a village and monastery 3,500 m high. The monastery is perched on a hill dominating the plain of Padum. It is said to have been built by the Tibetan Master Marpa in the 11th century, paintings testify.

Monastic life:
The Karsha monastery was the occasion to get exposed to monastic life in winter and to share the meal of the monks, rice, vegetables, salted tea mixed with tsampa.
We stayed two nights in the house of the Lama who was our guide. The rooms were built in the house belonging to the family of the Lama. Let us recall that the Tibetan society is polyandric, the elder son gets married, the other brothers settle abroad, become monks, or remain on the farm and marry the wife of their elder brother. The family provides for maintenance of its members in the monastery.

Karsha, built in the 15th century with buildings of the 11th, dominates the Zanskar valley with its imposing mass on mountainside.
During our stay we attended several meetings of the monks in prayer under their heavy greatcoat of red wool regularly drinking bowls of salted tea with yak butter mixed with roasted barley flour, Tsampa.
In the cell of the Lama our guide we attended a concert of Tibetan horns and conches. The Lama is served by a young monk who carries out domestic tasks.
We were invited the day before of our departure by a cousin we listened to Tibetan songs  interpreted by the girls of the house wearing splendid Perak covered with turquoises.

The photographic material:>
I left with me usual material, a reflex camera with two zooms, covering with 20 to 70 mm, a compact one of 35 mm, with the usual equipment in films
The reflex camera fell into water with me und was covered by a fine layer instantaneously from ice. Two days of drying at the campfire allowed it to work again.

Pischu, 3,470 m high, the village is announced by a long wall of mani and chortens. We spent the night in a house belonging to the nunnery of the village. Nunneries are very rare with very few nuns.

Pidmo, 3,420 m high, we remained at the village to drink a salted tea with butter and to take again the bags left on leaving. Then we went down on the frozen river.

Physical preparation, psyche:
It was the flattest trek which we made. The unevenness is between 300 and 400m on the trek from Chiling to the village of Karsha.
No specific physical preparation for this journey, but a mental preparation for living an exceptional trial under conditions at least sometimes difficult.

Chiling, the return to the starting point was reached with a feeling relief physical tiredness as well as mental tiredness almost unbearable. Indeed the return appeared long to us with gloomy weather on most of the way except at the end after the junction with the Markha valley.
One day of transition was programmed in Chiling as we waited for the bus. It enabled us to look at the copper, brass utensils makers at work, to take the last photographs of the frozen river and to go on a last walk in this delightful place in the shade of large poplars and mountains covered with snow under a radiant sun.