Heaven on earth

Hello..............

Finally got time to sit and update my blog.... In here am trying to pen down my experiences of the trek which I went for in May 2009. This post is about my trek to SARPASS- aptly called as the Heaven on Earth ... Lets begin the journey :)

My journey started on 30th April ’09 at 4:40 pm from Mumbai Central…Unlike other trains, Rajdhani started right on time. Very soon I got acquainted with my fellow passengers – 2 south Indian families of which one family had a small kid and one marathi family with a kid. All were going for vacation so we started talking about the places to visit and all….. Both the kids Shruti and Surabhi were very friendly and soon all three of us started playing games…..When it was time to sleep both the girls came on my upper berth to play until there parents called them to sleep….. Atleast my start was great…. :)

Next day i.e. on 1st May '09, I reached New Delhi station at 10:00 am. My grandfather came to recieve me and he then dropped me to YHAI - Youth hostel, Chanakyapuri, Delhi. There i met Banglore group of which i knew 3 guys as they were with me for the Dalhousie Winter trek. After breakfast we went to Pallika Bazaar as some of the people wanted to do some last minute shopping. After having collected our bags from the youth hostel, we went to New Delhi station to board 5 pm Kalka Shatabdi train to Kalka. Delhi – Kalka journey is about 303 kms and about four an a half hr. We reached Kalka at around 9:30 pm where we stayed at Hotel Amber overnight. The hotel was about 5 min walking distance from the station and the rent was very nominal.

On 2nd May ’09, we boarded Shivalik Deluxe Express Toy train at 6:30 am to reach Simla. It was very cute red colored fairy tale like train….. I loved the train and the train journey…..Train started its journey uphill in a serpentine manner around the mountains and passed 103 tunnels…. am not kidding we counted the tunnels!!! A peaceful journey with music, pen & paper to write down the experience, camera to capture the moments and a hot cup of coffee….. a perfect way to enjoy the journey. I somehow kept on humming this particular song ‘Hum Kis Galli Jaa Rahe Hai’ by Atif Aslam…am not sure whether u all have heard this song or not but it was very apt for the journey... The peaceful scenario was interrupted by a small cute little baby Bat causing complete chaos and screaming in the compartment. The poor thing could not find its way out coz of the daylight. Finally it did manage to find its way out. And the best part was the petite white and blue stations just like fairy tale stations….station surrounded with trees and small flower shrubs. How cute was that!!!!!
We reached Simla station around 11:30 and then we went to Mall road. Nothing special about the place and truly speaking I didn’t like it. After lunch we started towards Mandi where we were to halt for the night. We stayed at hotel Paras.

From Mandi, we left for Kasol on 3rd May ’09. On our way we passed through 2 km long tunnel which was kinda fun. Just before reaching the Kasol base camp we had lunch at Sanjha Chullah…. A beautiful Chinese cum Simla construction with bridges and lawns. It was beautiful place to eat and relax. The place is 20 min away from the Kasol base camp. We reached base camp around 5pm and I was happy to see my college friend Kushal there. Base camp is at 6,500 ft. We could see Pin Parvati range from the base camp. The camp is situated along the turbulent river, Parvati and is surrounded by is surrounded by mountains of tall pine trees.The camp had a huge ground in the centre, on right was the guys tent and on left was the girls tent. The green roof one can see is the bathroom and the tent is for eating and orientation. After checking in the camp we left for a little walk in the Kasol village. Kasol is a small village and is Israeli dominated area. After returning back to the camp, we had dinner and then a small camp fire where members of different batches performed songs or skits or anything they felt like. We were the 6th batch. At 9:30 we were in our tent which was shared by 10 other girls. At 10pm the lights were out. It was a bit uncomfortable sleeping on uneven ground but I made it. Hehehehe :D

On 4th May ’09, I woke up at 4:30am and got ready for the hot cup of tea by 5am. The thing u might be willing to die for is TEA. At around 6am we were taken to a small ground nearby for our morning exercise. After half an hour we returned back to our tents, bid goodbye to the previous batch i.e. 4th batch, cleaned our tents and finally had our breakfast. Afterwards we went for acclimatization walk. After coming back to the camp and after lunch we were made to sit for orientation. We were explained the do’s and don’ts to be followed during the trek. After that we went to hot water springs situated around 10 minutes away from the base camp.

On the 5th, after morning exercise, we were supposed to go for rock climbing and rappelling. But coz of rains that couldn’t happen so we went for walk to ‘Lalgaon’. We had to cross a hanging bridge which was in poor condition. Some planks were missing, the railings were not proper. I was not really comfortable crossing it, and the worst was that one of our batch member ran across the bridge when I was on it. That time I got really scared. After a while we came across a small school and the kids were having there recess. We clicked their pics, some of them were bold and some were really shy. We had great fun frolicking with them. After coming back we packed our bags for the trek and deposited rest of the stuff in YHAI store room.

On 6th finally we were off for our trek. After getting our pack lunch we were asked to gather for final instructions. Then we were off for Unch Dhar by bus. Since it was a local bus we got up on the roof top and enjoyed it very much. Whenever a tree branch used to come near us we would all get down to save our head from getting hurt. The journey to Unch-dhar lasted for 45 minutes or so. Unch-Dhar is 10kms away from the base camp. From Unch Dhar we started our trek to the first camp – GUNA PANI, which is 5 kms from here via Shila village. Trek was a bit difficult but much more tiring after the lunch point which was at Dhati Seri village. We reached Guna pani at around 2:30 pm. Guna pani camp is situated at 8000 ft and is in a grassy field surrounded by snow-claded mountains. After getting settled in our tents we played Dumb-charades and sang some songs and then returned back to our tents after dinner.

On 7th May ’09, we started for FUAL PANI which is at 9,500 ft and 5kms from Guna pani. From what we heard from the locals fual means shepherd and pani means water. The camp is placed on the slope and our tents were in the slope too. So sleeping proved to be a big problem…..Here we couldn’t have the camp fire but nothing better than getting into your sleeping bags. So we went off to sleep after playing cards and singing some songs.


The next day we headed towards our 3rd camp – ZIRMI THATCH. Thatch is a meadow. For me this trek was a bit difficult than the previous 2 days. Zirmi is 6 kms from Fual Pani and is at 11,000 ft. After few hrs I just kept on thinking when we will reach the camp. But I must say all the tiredness was worth experiencing after reaching the camp. Wow what a site!!! From the camp u can see snow-covered mountains on all the sides and we could also site SARPASS-the place which we were supposed to cross on 10th May ’09. It was quite cold so we couldn’t stay out for long. So we retired to our tents early.

On 9th May we were off to next camp – TILA LOTNI situated at a height of 12,500 ft. It’s 6 kms from the previous camp. During this stretch I could get the feeling of snow trekking. Though the first few kms were on grassy land but once you start walking on the snow you forget your tiredness and I really got overwhelmed by it. Everywhere you turn and see………its just snow. Here I remember one incidence where one of the guys slipped and was hanging with his stick firmly in the snow. No one could help him but one of the guys went and helped him up the slope. Seeing this, my confidence level went way down……..luckily I had friends who helped me gain my confidence. Tila lotni is the highest camp amongst all the camps and you can enjoy magnificent and spectacular view. I won’t be wrong if I say that it was heaven on earth. You can see colors playing in the sky around these mountains. Every time you can see different hues in the sky.
As soon as we reached the camp, it started snowing…….my first snow fall……..and I loved it. It was just drizzling andt I was out the whole time till the camp leader asked us to get inside our tents. We were to get up at 4:00 am the next day so we went off to sleep early.

On D day i.e. on the day we were to cross the Sarpass………there came a twist. We were all ready at 5:30 for the trek when it started snowing heavily. So it was decided that we will wait till 7 am before moving ahead. Our tents were covered with snow and so did the surrounding area. Flaps of the tents could not be kept open since the snow started entering our tents. Finally me and few of the batch mates decided to get out and enjoy the snow. We had a small snow fight as well but couldn’t stay out for long as our shoes started getting wet. Finally at 9 am it was told to us that we were to return back to the base camp. We were all pretty disappointed as we could see Sarpass in fronts of us but couldn’t go there……. I was really upset about it. But the snowfall increased and turned into a snow storm and hence the decision of returning back.
We started going downhill but believe me it was very difficult…….especially for me since I was the first one in line. So it was my job to make footholds for others who followed. The guide kept on disappearing and kept asking me to go ahead. But where was I supposed to go…….I couldn’t see the way but he kept on telling me to go ahead. But it was kinda adventurous since you don’t know how deep the snow is. I used to poke the stick in the snow and it was not deep…….but when u keep our foot there it used to go right in till the knee or thigh. That scared me a bit but the guide showed me the proper way to walk on the snow. There was one time where the visibility was zero coz of storm so we stopped walking till the visibility returned. After walking for an hour the guys decided to slide on the snow. I was very skeptical about doing it but my friends didn’t give me any option and pushed me down…….I went down with great speed and who all were already down helped me to stop. But after doing it once I didn’t leave a chance to slide on the snow. I took about 6 slides one of which was pretty big. All the way we encountered snow fall. The place where we saw grass while coming up, now disappeared below the snow. We couldn’t recollect whether we had been here on our way up to tila lotni…..but it was the same way.
Till Zirmi camp, the way was the same but after that we took other route which was a short cut to the base camp…..way more difficult than the actual route. What made it more difficult was hails and rain which made the road extremely slippery. We were not able to stop to take a breath since we were on constant move. I kept on slipping so I started counting how many times did I fall……but eventually I fell too many times to count :D. My blue jeans turned brown because of mud. In the last leg I started slipping just because of exhaustion.
It took us 9 hours to reach the road from where we were to go by open tempos to the base camp. In 9 hours we climbed down 6000 ft with no food and very little water…..wet and muddy clothes….soggy socks and shoes…..and blisters on my soles. I never thought I could do this but extreme conditions push you to your limits.
At base camp we were welcomed with open arms since it was the most difficult trek which we did while coming down. After collecting our bags we went to hotel Sandhya which was nearby. I finally had a hot water bath but I had fever that night and was shivering quite a lot. But finally I managed to fall asleep.

On 11th we went to base camp to collect our certificates. After that we returned back to our hotel where we stayed for the night. On 12th we took a bus to Bhuntar and from there we got onto Dharamshala bus where we had decided to stay for 2 days. Me, kushal, Vineeth and Allen had decided to go there.


On 13th at 4am we reached Mcleodganj, also known as upper dharamshala. Around 6 am we were able to find rooms in an hotel ‘Morning Sun’…..decent hotel with a lovely view. After having bath I decided to find the place where priyu mama used to stay 14 yrs back. But I couldn’t find it so I came back to see that others were ready to roam about. First we had to have lunch since we were hungry so we had steamed momos and thukpa. After that we went to Monastry and then to Dal lake. On the next day we went St John church and the guys shopped a bit. In the evening we boarded bus to Delhi. Won’t describe all this in details because this is nothing in front of wat I experienced during the trek……

Couldn’t write in more detailed manner so I hope you enjoy whatever I have tried to write…………

Cheerio……………………..