Part 2 — Rest of the story on how I got addicted to treks — Hampta Pass in July 2016
If you haven’t already, check Part 1 here
Day 3 — The D-day
We were supposed to start early in morning. While on the previous couple of mornings we started by around 10, we were supposed to start by 6 on this day, as this will be longest and relatively tougher than the rest.
The weather had different plans though. While most of us would have been awake even before 6, the rain kept us inside the tents. By 6, the trek leads were running around the tents telling us to stay inside and that we’ll wait for another hour before taking call.
Vishal, the other trek lead for our batch, used to repeat a saying in Hindi which translates to something like this
“Mumbai’s fashion and mountains’ weather are the same. They just can’t be predicted”.
This was the only thing I had in mind, as we were still inside our tents fingers crossed.
Finally it was around 8AM that the trek lead decided it was safe to proceed. Today we were made to form a line with the slowest people starting in the front. That made me start ahead of most of my fellow trekkers. And today, we were supposed to go in the same order till the Hampta Pass.
This day had many highlights. We walked through 3 patches of ice. New lesson learnt — walking in ice is not the same as walking in snow. The grip you get on ice is far less. My hands holding the pole gave me more grip than my legs on these patches.
It was not all about the just the hard work though. In the second ice patch, the trek lead stopped and was digging the ground — or it looked like that to me. When we got near him, he threw the snow at us starting a game of snow fight. Despite the lack of enough snow, the throwing lasted a few good minutes.
The weather was just about fine. The light drizzle when we started was no more there. The sky was not exactly clear. It was too foggy. The day was not as tough as everyone put it, and when we saw the mules carrying the luggage, it was clear we were not turning back. We were going to be lucky enough to cross the Hampta Pass.
We were not supposed to break the line and the slowest people (myself included) were on the front. Not wanting to test the patience of the rest of the group behind us, I refrained from taking too many photo breaks.
The higher we went, the Himalayan canvases started getting more and more brilliant, with the fog giving the perfect backdrop for the artwork.
While towards the Hampta Pass, on the right we had the Peak 5260 — an intriguing peak whose top looks like devil’s horn from one side. The day being foggy and too cloudy, it took sometime before the peak showed itself to us. Recently renamed as Mt.Nalini, this peak, from our side, looked like one giant snow slide or ski slope.
How would it really feel to climb up that and actually slide down. There is no way to know the real scale of things from where I stood. Absolutely no point of reference anywhere in the frame. I did not even know, the peak was 17k feet (5260m) tall.
In the next few minutes, we reached Hampta pass top, (one of) the highest point of the trek at 14,035ft. I wouldn’t have realised it if they had not announced that, as I was still busy awestruck by the Peak 5260.
We quickly had our lunch there and got ready for the photo session. We were really in a festive mood.
The way from the pass to the next campsite was a rapid descent. We just had to be careful. We were able to see the difference between the valleys more clearly. The lush green tone was replaced with brown by the barren valleys of Spiti.
One of the things I read about this day was the snow slide. I was not really a big fan of that, and as the snow was really scarce this season, I just assumed we’ll escape that slide. But just as we were reaching the Spiti valley, it happened.
The instructions were simple. Hold your trek pole above your head. You’ll be nudged a bit from behind, and when they ask you to break, use your heels to slow down. I was so cautious that I was actually applying my brakes even before it was necessary. I feel embarrassed now that I had my fears on this.
Minutes after the slide, it was just a level walk alongside the river. It would have been around 7pm when we reached Shea Goru campsite. “Shea” means cold and the wind made it worse.
It was the night when we had a great view of Milky way. The valley was wider than Balu ka gera and the sky was perfectly clear. Though I was not able to shoot anything, it was super fun staying up till midnight (or may be a little after that as well), observing Milind sir shooting the milky way shots and doing light paintings. Almost entire batch was awake, either outside for Milkyway and posing for photographs or chatting inside the dinner tent.
Day 4 — Trek to Chattru and a visit to the moon lake
The next morning started with the cleaning the campsite. This was most dirty of the campsites so far, and even an entire day would not have been enough to clean it fully. We did our small bit to the Green trails campaign by Indiahikes and started to move.
The Peak 5260 was in sights for at least another hour. And the tiny flowers blossoming on the river banks made the trail beautiful.
And one important thing about Indiahikes and the guides. They are really super nice and super helpful. On the first day, he tried hard to find the sunshades I lost. Today, when a couple of us were behind trying to click pics, he did not hurry us. He encouraged us to enjoy these while we can. He was just way too patient. May be the mountains do teach people on patience. I wish I could have taken a pic with him.
We had one more river crossing today, slightly longer than the one on the first day. It felt even more cold, but we knew what to expect. This time it even took a few minutes to get the feet out of the numbness.
The scenery today was different than the other days. Himalayan ranges were showing their magnificence. We were surrounded by huge mountains in all directions — it was all about the scale and magnitude today.
This day was really not my favorite. We starting moving towards civilisation, the same thing that we were free of, for the last 4 days. Our lunch spot was yet another scenic location. But that was when we started seeing the roads and vehicles.
The closeness to nature and the distance from rest of the humanity which made past 4 days awesome were going to be missed soon.
Shortly after lunch we reached the place where vehicles waiting for us. We were headed to Chandrataal. I was very much looking forward to this. It takes an entire day, if you are visiting this from Manali. The road were bumpy but the scenery was just way too pretty to care about the road conditions.
We were constantly crossing streams, only this time it was the Tata Sumo’s tyres getting wet instead of our feet. Since it was monsoon time, it was advised we start and return early, else the streams flow even heavier and we might be unable to cross them with ease.
If not for Spiti valley, I would not have accepted that stunning landscapes are possible without the lush greenery or snow. The entire drive was one small showcase of the big mountains of Spiti. The bad roads were in a way a blessing to me. We were moving slow enough for me to continue shooting.
In 3 hours or so, we reached Chandrataal. It was still a small hike of around 1km. We were back at >14000ft altitude, and this time chances of AMS would be really low, as we were a little better acclimatised.
We reached the Chattru campsite, where the Milky way was even better. But today, we had a lot of company. The campsite had way too many people apart from us. I went to sleep a lot earlier today, while others were sitting the dinner tent enjoying their final camping day.
Day 5 — Back to Manali via Rohtang Pass
The next day was a fairly simple affair. We were all given trek certificates and a small fridge magnet. Each and every one of us shared our experiences on the trek. For me, the take away was that, I was less introverted than usual. I might not have been talkative person, but at least it never felt like being amidst complete strangers.
Soon we boarded our jeeps to reach Manali via Rohtang pass. Rohtang pass was filled with tourists, but we had seen far better places. We skipped Rohtang and continued to Manali.
Rohtang pass was not particularly impressive, but the scenery was still great as we moved towards. While most others slept on the way to Manali, I was reluctant to miss any of those last moments as we were moving towards civilisation away from nature.
You don’t climb the mountains. The mountains let you climb them.
We were lucky enough to be allowed of that opportunity. And even luckier as we were never caught in the rains. The rains missed us, but the clouds put on a great show for us. Most of the time, we had clouds in dramatic formations, which I think can even be inspiration for war formations. So I end this with one of my favorite shot of the dramatic clouds.
Thanks for reading.
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