My friend and I live on the west coast of India at sea level. So the severe change in altitude messed us up pretty bad. The rule of high altitude riding is to ride high and sleep low. But all that got messed up when our bikes showed up in bad state in Chandigarh and we spent two days fixing them.
By the time we reached the Tso Kar lake, we were properly messed up as we didn't get enough time to acclimatize. We woke up in the morning moving slow and talking funny. I remember we used to pant after speaking a sentence. Thankfully, we managed to packed our motorcycles and head out reaching Leh without incident.
At Marsimik La the situation was even worse. At 18,953 feet there wasn't enough oxygen for my motorcycle, let alone myself. I was a riding a old school carburetor Royal Enfield 350 and my friend had a year old KTM Duke 390 with all the electronics. His ECM thought that the air filter was blocked or something and made the necessary adjustments. He barely felt the drop in power and was riding normally. But my Enfield just couldn't cope with the lack of oxygen. The drop in power was significant and I had to keep the accelerator twisted to keep the engine alive. The sound from the motorcycle was very very weird. Seemed like the engine would give up any moment.
I have no idea how I managed to get the Enfield to haul my ass up to 19,953 feet. The roads were utter crap as well. Just sharp pieces of rock laid out on a path of least resistance. I cut my boots and tyres negotiating the rocks. They say its a "motorable" road and technically they may be right because the huge Army trucks rumble over these roads. But for people riding motorcycles, the work "motorable" takes a whole new meaning at Marsimik La. But I've never put my Enfield to so much abuse in one day. It was quite an experience.
I don't have GoPro footage of that section because the Army folks asked us to deposit all our cameras at the last ITBP post in Phobrang. Marsimik La is a stone throw's away from the disputed and volatile border with China and we constantly have problems in this region. I did manage to smuggle my digital camera though and I used it to click the pictures at Marsimik La. I took care not to take pictures of any Army posts and publish them on my blog, Facebook, etc.
IMHO, you need a proper Enduro motorcycle to conquer Marsimik La easily. The terrain in unforgiving and the oxygen levels wreck havoc with motorcycles with carburetors, let alone your own body. This is not an easy ride.
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