Hampta Diaries!!

My reasons for choosing Hampta were quite straight. A short trek ensured lesser leaves (which was later neutralised by one of my friends Shiva who didn’t even join us in the end). It would also work well for me as a warm-up and acclimatisation base for higher altitudes and hence start my preparations for my upcoming Stok Kangri trek in August.

The plan to go for Hampta Pass trek was made on a much shorter notice than most of my other similar plans. It was me, Shalabh and Shiva who were going to scale the mountains this time. Sanju hell-bent on his euro trip plan decided to miss it (and would later also miss Stok and then still be in a pickle with no plans of euro trip still in picture). Shiva unfortunately backed out precisely a month before the scheduled date. Yeah his job life sucks big-time.

We had a very tight schedule with me and Shalabh reaching Manali at 9pm (which was our reporting time as well) on 14th of June after a 15 hour bus ride. Thankfully there were others who were even late and this gave us enough time to settle down. We had an intro with the trek lead Neeraj (from Indiahikes team) who like everyone else would soon turn into a real good friend over the next 5 days. We started off quite late at around 11 pm and there was another brief and official round of intro for everyone. It was clear that a handful of us were inspired by Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani to come to this trek and sadly few of them would soon be getting a taste of reality and the fact that treks are not all that rosy and need not only physical but mental toughness as well.

Day 1 trek starts from Jobra at about 9800ft and is a normal 2-3 hour walk at not so high altitude. We moved into the dense pine forest at Jobra and continued to walk through them for about an hour after which we enter the meadows crossing a stream. We reached Cheeka in around 2-2.5 hours. The campsite was out on an uneven meadow just next to Rani ka Nala. It’s a usual trend that people start mixing up by the time day1 trek ends and same started happening with a cup of tea and some snacks in our hands. The worst part of any trek is washing the dishes in the damn cold water. I would prefer carrying 2kg extra on my backpack throughout the trek if there was an option to swap it with cleaning the dishes.

I usually prefer to find a nice location a little away from the campsite where I can sit and just absorb everything that’s around me. It gives me the time to be allured by nature while contemplating various thoughts bubbling within me. It’s an important “me” time. At Roopkund trek, it was the star gazing with Mitra dada at Didina; star gazing again alone in the middle of the night at Bedni when the grazing mules ensured all night long to pound our ears with the bells hanging in their necks; and the big rock piece at Bhagwa Basa campsite (my favourite among all 3 treks that I have done so far). Shalabh and Rohin joined me and we walked a little distance up along the slope and placed ourselves on the big rock. We sat there for half an hour mostly in silence (although it can never be complete silence when Shalabh is around you). The day would end with a nice dinner and little further interaction with Siddharth, Karan, Vaaruni, Ankit and Darren.

Ronak had still not started losing balance and falling at every nook and corner but that was to change soon. He would soon start behaving like a catapult throwing himself around on people close to him. Day 2 begins with a change of terrain as soon as we cross the small glacier stream and we come across a small stretch of snow. Now whoever has assigned Hampta trek under an easy trek should have had a '*' mark with the additional information saying “subjected to perfect weather and seasonal conditions”. This trek has its share of tricky patches and rain only makes it worse (after all no one loves to wear a damned Poncho while walking on rocky and snowy slopes). But the worst was yet to come. We had to cross a stream that had knee to thigh high running chilled water coming down on an incline from a glacier. Now that’s damn awesome I thought. Personally I felt that it was tough but when it ended I loved it. But the fact that it did hamper the morale of many of my team mates was not a positive thing. The horses of ‘Rohan’ lost their balance too and fell while crossing the stream (Just to add, that’s what we referred to Rohin as and with many more similar names which did irritate him) and yes this was where Ronak started what would be his roller coaster ride (minus any rails).

There would be two more slopes with patches of snow and Vaaruni and Karan would slip over to the bottom on one of them. Thankfully it was the one which was very short and also did not end directly into Rani ka Nala. This indeed gave them both the time to make fun of it and enjoy their climb back to the trail. I was smiling looking at them but in my mind I was like “Damn, that’s risky. The other two slopes that we had crossed earlier were real dangerous and had almost the same incline”.

To our relief we finally reach Balu ka Gera after about 5 hours of walk (a huge part of it with our Ponchos on). This campsite is a beauty and as the name suggests is made up of sand bed with streams of Rani ka Nala flowing all around the campsite. The unusual weather had taken its toll and Lavanya, Prathyusha and Shravani would call off further ascend by morning. Ronak too was looking sceptical and at times almost sure of not going for the final climb to Hampta top. Crossing the pass was already out of question as it had snowed more than usual this year and the pass was surprisingly still closed. I and few others tried to boost Ronak’s morale in as constructive manner as possible without pushing him too much and by morning he was all set to go for the final round. The garma garam pakode were the speciality of the day that I had in plenty after encroaching into the kitchen tent. Me, Shalabh and Poddo (He spells his name as Poddonabho but writes it as Padmanav but then that's a different story altogether) found our spot on the steep slope next to the camp which gave us a much better view of every frame around us. The day ended with more discussions and bonds growing stronger among the fellow trekkers. Aashish, the ATL for the trek had lots of stories and experiences to share and gave lots of advice to me w.r.t. Stok Kangri. His stories would go on till the last night and the amazing bonfire.

Day 3 started early and it was the day we would use the micro spikes and make our walk on the snow much easier. We leave the camp and snow cover starts just within ten minutes. For the next 1-2 hours we move in a single file over the glacier and then we started ascending and it started feeling as if the incline is increasing with every step. I guess it was the mental fatigue from the previous day that was making it tougher than it actually was. Finally we reached a point where Roshan had a discussion with Neeraj whether to take the steep ascend (roughly 70 degrees or so) or if it would be possible to take another route even if it's a longer one. Nothing materialised and it was decided the tough ascend was our only way up. Roshan had made rough footmarks to follow and he would then be making at least 10 more trips up and down helping out others. I followed Darren and at every step ensured to make the footmark deeper so that the next person finds it easier to climb. It took about 10-15 mins but we were completely out of breath. Me and Darren started taking snaps while others were still struggling to move up. After a brief break, 17 of us moved ahead for the final stretch. We would encounter two more steep climbs and tens of “Ronak falls” (no these are not waterfalls) before 11 of us finally reach the Hampta top. Darren, me, Ashish, Shalabh and KV were the first to reach. Since our return time was nearing Shalabh, Darren and myself continued further to get hold of the view of the pass. It was snowing already and had been snowing steadily with small breaks since an hour now.

The view at the top was majestic. Yes it wasn’t able to beat the Trishuli view at Junargali but let’s stop comparing at this point. The pass between the snow covered peaks on both sides looked surreal. And then you had even higher peaks mounting over you on the other side and you start feeling small and inconsequential and then proud that you could at least do something you would not only cherish but will have stories to tell all your life.

Ronak and Shubham were the last to arrive and got the minimum time to spend with the mind boggling view. But then it was time to descend which was going to be tricky as it was quite slippery at places on the snow trail. Thankfully with Roshan’s assistance we covered large distances by sliding. It was a real fun activity but you got to have a poncho for it or you would surely regret it later. Ronak had his shares of dangerous stunts here as well. At every slide he would make, he would continue hitting or freaking the hell out of one or the other person. For my own safety I tried to keep a safe distance from him. 

Haahhhh but then we forgot that the 70 degree ascend had to be descended too. It was tricky but doable in zigzag trails. Me, Shalabh, Darren, Karan and Vaaruni had already reached down when Ronak got involved in another unintentional accident but this time it was something that’s going to stay in my mind as a real life version of a reel life like scene. Ronak slipped and hit Ankit who was one loop down the slope. Ankit got disbalanced and started slipping freely downwards towards the rocky surface with his head facing the rocks. For a brief moment I was like “Ye to gaya aaj” and then in the next moment Superman Roshan jumped into the scene, grabbed hold of Ankit’s leg just in time and put his ice axe into the ice. Damn!! In a hurry he had put the wrong side into the ice and they continued to slide down although their pace had slowed down considerably now. Ankit’s head still banged into the rocks but turned out to be fine, thankfully with no blood and only little pain. Thanks to Roshan. A life got saved.

It’s only when you descend in mountains that you realise how much you had climbed. It felt like a never ending walk back to the camp. Darren was way ahead of us and the distance kept increasing while the same was true for others behind us. Me and Shalabh were walking together. We were sceptical about certain routes and trails that we took and every time we missed the trail we felt bit lost. Also we had to take care of where we put our next step as we were walking on a glacier. Finally around 5pm we reached the camp with a song that we both sung out loudly at our entry into the camp “Imlee ka boota beri ka ped…..”. We were exhausted and I literally had no energy left to do anything including dinner. I even felt little feverish late in the evening but it happens to me when I am too tired. All I needed was some sound sleep (which you never get in mountains).

Day 4 begun with little fatigue from last day’s exertion but it was only going to be a gradual descend. But wait here was the twist. Not everyone was interested to take the same route and cross the same thigh high water stream and after a long discussion an alternate longer route was taken for which we had to climb again. We would take more alternate routes which were quite tricky and not everyone was happy with this decision. For me, I was happy that I could see another route, another trail and get a new view from the meadows up in the mountain. We rested after a steep climb with the view of our 1^st basecamp Cheeka from high above. After a long long time (roughly 5-6 hours which should have been about four) we reached the last campsite. It was a surprise to meet Mr. Hari Singh (I work with him during subjective test evaluation on test tracks) who was camping at the lower altitude with his family.

The day ended with endless tails, songs and dances around the bonfire. Roshan and Ravi’s songs and also others that were sung by the kitchen staff shall always bring a smile on my face as they are doing right now. Neeraj is a fabulous singer is what we came to know too. And Ashish is the biggest story teller I have ever met in my life and I hope I meet him sometime again to hear more stories. 

So here The Hampta Story ends and gives way for another story kyuki picture abhi baaki hai mere dost

Stay Tuned!!

Why Do I Travel?

I thought of writing about my travels and here I am doing the same contemplating what my crazy brain is going to force my fingers to type next. And in the whole world out of the "n" number of combinations of letter and words I had to choose something like "Why do I travel?" as my 1st title. It is something that has been posted by many and in different ways of one's own perspective. So before I started writing about my travels individually I thought it to be necessary to share my own perspective on the need to travel. 

Everyone has their own way of expressing their deepest thought processes. Great orators speak, some use art forms like music and dance and then you have this beautiful craft of writing (in our current world "typing"). I have always believed it to be the most expressive and effective one of all.

So why do I travel? I do so as it brings me peace, compassion, flexibility, love, understanding, desire to learn the unknown, a need to connect and communicate with an unknown person and still create a bond with him even if temporary (not always though). It also helps me in understanding that it's a basic human flaw to premeditate things as something that is bound to happen will happen anyway. All you can do is speculate and then wait for the end result. In the end it all comes down to your happiness and the outcomes should never affect it.

The concept of solo travel has emerged in the recent years in India. I have been fortunate enough to go on a handful of such trips on various terrains and they all have been good enough to promote them as well as encourage others to try them out. It provides you the ultimate freedom. It makes you open up to new cultures, people and traditions and try out new cuisines as well. Moving around solo gives you the space, time and atmosphere to interpret the true essence of your presence in this universe and understand on what you truly crave for. 

“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” – Gustave Flaubert

Mountains. They teach the need to stay humble. "Mountains have a way of dealing with overconfidence." All your arrogance, ego, power and money stands to nothing. Each visit brings a new lesson and a new perception to Life. Every time I descend from the mountains there is this feeling, a gap, a void, which just doesn't fill in until the bullshit that surrounds me finally makes me surrender to it and fill it in, within me, inside out. I then try to break free again as early as I can. I fail sometimes and then there are times when I succeed.

Forest. Just like mountains they make you feel small. I had loved the movie Avatar and kept growing fond of it with time. It left a mark on me and the reason was simple. I have always been fond of nature and wildlife. The love that was portrayed of the locals for their forests and everything that had life in it had moved me. For days I felt like “only if I could live in a place like that”. They teach us that although we are nothing considering the larger picture but we are all still inter-connected and so are our actions and their end results. A forest is never silent and same holds true for each one of us and there lies the bond between the both. 

Ocean. Endless. Deep. There's something in those waves approaching you that brings a sense of calm and peace in your mind. The crushing noise of the thunderous waves hitting the shores has the absolute silence hidden within them. They may sometime symbolize your inner turmoil which keeps pinging you time and again in moments of silence and yet it dies out too momentarily as you get on with the general chores, just like the waves. Just an hour on the beach brings me to peace with so many of my internal fights. 

Food. And yes I am foodie. People who know me well also know about my inquisitive taste buds. Travelling gives me the freedom of trying not only the local cuisines but also some hidden delicacies of each region which are not sometimes freely available to all. Amritsar, Indore and Surat have been my favourite cities in this regards so far in India. 

In brief, I have developed these wheels on my leg that crave to keep moving around. All they want is to keep rolling. If not the mountains, then the beaches. If not the beaches, then the desert. If not the desert, then the forests. I am not sure what I am searching for. Maybe it's just the fondness of the unknown.

The more I travel the more my wings feel enlivened with a desire to fly further. I am not sure where I am heading but I am going to keep trying for more, much more and hope that this flame doesn't die out ever.