University of Southampton Himalayan Expedition 1977

This expedition followed on directly from the Ladakh expedition of 1976. The destination on this occasion was the remote trans-Himalayan region of India known as the Frontier District of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir state. The expedition set out with three objectives: geographical research; ornithological research; and exploratory mountaineering.

The team left England in June 1977 and divided into two independent units. The two ornithologists travelled to Kargil via Srinagar and spent four weeks making a survey of the breeding birds of the Suru Valley. They then
moved to a site at Tikse in the Indus Valley and undertook a netting and ringing programme for nine weeks, gaining valuable data on the breeding birds in the valley and on trans-Himalayan bird migration.

The other three members crossed the Himalaya on foot from Himachal Pradesh and during a two month period in Zangskar and Ladakh, explored two separate mountain groups in the Zangskar range, and climbed a number of peaks of 20,000 - 21,000 ft and crossed almost twenty passes. One member of the team stayed on during October and November to complete a study of the villages of the Markha Valley. This isolated valley lies between Ladakh proper and Zangskar and was an ideal area to study settlement.patterns, production and economy and the social system of communities as yet unaffected by modern external influences.