A small article in the Daily Excelsior claims that J&K Police have recently summited on Nun, one of Zangskar's two 7000m peaks. The team summited several days before the IMF (Indian Mountaineering Foundation) announced the opening of a branch office in Leh. Reported in Magpie, the office is arriving in Leh to make it easier for local agencies to apply for permissions for Stok Kangri (although personally I think the office is designed to capture revenue as the majority of foreigners that climb Stok Kangri usually do so without permission). However, the IMF have made the refreshing move (that's the second one documented on these news pages) to reduce the fee for Stok Kangri to Rs2000 per head. Perhaps of more interest for budding mountaineers who do not want to queue, is that the IMF has also announced the opening of 100 new peaks for mountaineering expeditions in Ladakh. I suspect however the red-tape will be the usual turn-off for all but the most determined and wealthy teams, although I would love to be proved wrong.

After a drought in communication I received a snippet of information yesterday. Good news for most of Zanskar's farmers! There are reports that the locust infestation in Zanskar is nowhere near as severe as last year. Many farmers are expecting to have a good harvest having benefited from favourable conditions this summer. The only village where the harvest is expected to be poor is Kumi, which in recent years has also suffered from unreliable irrigation water. It is not clear whether Kumi's expected poor crop is due to locust or poor water. Many Zanskaris are attributing the decline of the locust to the pujas carried out last year by monasteries and prominent religious figures.