Discover Himalaya arranged the most perfect trek for us. Kaushal and Rajesh bhaiyya, who managed the trek for us, ensured that we had an unforgettable experience. They were very professional while friendly and helpful at the same time. They weren’t afraid of pointing out to us the risks of endeavouring to do a certain thing, while at other times constantly pushing us to achieve more on the trek.
Our first day we started off late morning from the village Bran, about 10 kilometres short of Manali on the Kullu-Manali highway. The trek started right from the highway, so it was upfront established that it’s not going to be an easy ride. We started with a trek through a dense forest with a rich canopy of pine trees. After about 2 hours, we reached a village where we rested our legs for a bit and had some food, before carrying forward. We would have started off at about 1,500 metres altitude on the highway and our base camp was at about 2,500 metres above sea level. As we walked, the ground opened up with trees being more sparse – and deodars giving way to chir trees, a variety of pine with larger needles and more majestic pine cones. The lighter green of their needles also lent a brighter atmosphere to our trek from here onwards, as compared to the darker hue of the deodars. The weather was mostly clear and the sun smiled bright. Towards the end, the climb was quite steep and tiring. When we approached our camp from the side, it was a beautiful sight perched at the edge of the mountain. Our guides didn’t forget to mention that the hut is buffeted with cold winds during the night, so it would get quite chilly up here. But as soon as we entered the hut, our fears disappeared – it was a cozy little mud hut with wooden roof, but quite sturdy at the same time, with a tandoor inside which would keep us warm in the night. We chatted into the night in our sleeping bags provided by the team, but couldn’t keep sleep away for long because of the fatigue.
We woke up refreshed the next morning. I have to mention here that all the preparations regarding food and other arrangements were excellently done – we especially loved the wonderful food that was served to us, and each meal was different. It is a huge effort and kudos to the Discover Himalaya team to manage to get these provisions at such a remote location just so that we could have the best experience. We were provided gaiters which we tied to our lower legs so that the snow which we expected to encounter this day would not wet our shoes from the inside. Finally, we started off at around 9:50 am. The initial climb was steep and then we entered the jungle terrain once more. But here we started encountering snow as well which was not fresh but from about 2 weeks ago. The depth of this snow kept increasing till we reached a point where the surrounding landscape opened up and there was fresh snow falling. It was a beautiful sight and I remember looking at everyone else’s faces and realising that their fatigue, just like mine, had disappeared in an instant. We all stood, mesmerized, looked around at the flakes slowly falling, creating an eerie yet fabulous landscape, and took it all in. It was at this moment that we felt really alive, shocked back to our senses from the drudgery of constant walking. From here on, the amount of snow on the ground kept increasing and our feet started getting steeped into over a feet of snow. Although the going started getting more difficult because of this reason, Kaushal and Rajesh bhaiyya were leading us and we were trying to walk in the foot-deep impressions their feet made in the snow. The incline also became a lot steeper and at one point we were wondering if we would really be able to keep going. However, the constant encouragement of our guides helped us overcome the mental barrier. Ultimately, we realised that it’s all in our minds. Our bodies are willing and able to push much beyond what we believe capable, as long as our minds believe it. We kept climbing and now the snow was reaching our upper thighs with every step, with fresh snow falling thick and fast. After a final steep push, we were able to reach the ridge. As advised by our guides, it was very windy up here with the snow flakes creating an envelop of wind around the ridge, coming in from one side close to the mountain, flowing over the ridge while staying close to the mountain on the other side, creating a U around the ridge. It was extremely chilly up here and the snow flakes in the extremely windy conditions felt like cold pins on our face. It was scary, it was frigid and it was beautiful and the best moment for me on the trek.
Slowly we trudged forward, with each step feeling heavier because of the relative sparseness of oxygen at this altitude, but also because of the crazy wind. We walked a bit further but then the going got even tougher. We had gained another kilometre of altitude on this day and were at around 3,500 metres above sea level. Our guides told us that this is the best we can hope to do because from here it was another hour’s walk to the lake during the summer time when there’s no snow – in this weather it could well mean another 3 hours, and there’s very little altitude to be gained from here as the walk from here was entirely on the ridge, and there wouldn’t be any lake left to see anyhow. It was already 2:30pm so we decided to turn back (after a few pictures from the DSLR for which I had to take out my hand from the glove, which within a minute started turning red and blue from the extreme cold which was several degrees below freezing at this windy juncture, so I was shit scared and quickly put back my glove). However, as soon as we turned back, the wind suddenly became a sort of a blizzard and the visibility quickly dropped to about 3-4 metres, and even lower if we looked into the wind. This was a quite scary but thrilling at the same time – we just tried to follow the footsteps of the person in front of us and in a few minutes reached the point from where we began our descent from the ridge. We had to dig our heels with every step so as to avoid slipping down the steep slope, just as we had dug in our toes while climbing up in the snow. There came a point when it was so steep that we couldn’t keep our balance and kept slipping – so we figured we better slip down a good part of the slope which seemed easier. We were back to being kids for that moment and we slid down a good 30 metres of the slope which was inevitably a lot of fun. We took a break for some food and reached our hut at the last light, and just then the rain started falling. Luck had favoured us throughout our trek so far and we couldn’t believe how perfectly things worked out for us just then. We chatted late into the night in our hut with both Kaushal and Rajesh bhaiiya where they narrated tales of their thrilling encounters and of the various village customs in the mountains.
The third day we started down at around 10:30 am and the descent, though especially hard on the tired knees by now, was alright. We reached down and had our packed lunch, after which we started for Manali. One day later it snowed about 8 inches around the place we were staying in Old Manali. We couldn’t help but wonder how much it would have snowed at our base camp and how we would have managed if the snowstorm had been a couple of days early. It turned out to be an unearthly experience, which none of us had expected or experienced before. We all had done some treks in the past, but this one turned out to be very special. To anyone who’s willing to let himself be guided into the wild mountains for an authentic experience, I would strongly urge to check out the experienced and dependable team of Discover Himalaya, with the wonderful Kaushal bhaiyya.