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| Selfie @ Jana Waterfall |
This
is the travelogue for my first Himalayan trek. Being a verbose guy I might post
too long travelogue, but I will try to control myself with least word possible
while explaining my pre trek experiences and post trek experiences with the
people and the proximity.
It
was the Sarpass Trekking Himalayan Expedition spans for an overall 11 days and
10 nights by Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI). The base camp was
located in Kasol, Himachal Pradesh. Our Sarpass Trek trivia in brief:
- It is the second highest trek-able peak in
Himachal Pradesh at height of 13,800 feet
- Sarpass is lying in between Sivalik Range and
Pin Parvati Range (highest trek-able peak in Himachal)
- Grahan is the closest village located at a
distance of 2 hours (you cannot count distance in km here. Thus, our 5 min ki duri pe hu casual reply to a friend
when asked, our expected arrival time is feasible here)
- Winter snowfall was heavy. Precisely heaviest
after 35 years. So, woohoo...Lucky us!!
Remaining
I am leaving it to include in the blog.
31st
July, 2014 – 3rd June, 2014 evening:
 |
| Hidimba Temple, Manali, Himahal Pradesh |
I
left my hometown Shegaon via Maharashta Express. Reached Nagpur by 6 pm. Waited
for my trek companion Mr. Prashant Bonde. Then waited for the train to arrive.
Meanwhile helped a soldier carry his heavy luggage to his destined platform.
Came back. Climbed on the train. Witnessed the Keralites and
impossible-to-even-guess language. I was in the minority, so decided to settle
down ASAP. Bad experience with heavy air conditioning system. Slept. Woke-up.
Reached Delhi. Meet my second companion Mr. Ambarish Gawande. Had lunch.
Travelled via Delhi Metro to ISBT – Inter State Bus Terminus. Booked Volvo.
Purchased goggle. Climbed Vovlo. Evening. Morning reached Manali. Jay, our
booked driver took us to the hotel. Planned to visit Solan Valley. Our booked
vehicle failed. Waited for like 3 hrs. Reached Solan Valley. Did paragliding. Don’t even think of
missing this. Once in a lifetime experience. And if you are planning to record
your flight, do press the right camera button. I pressed the wrong button and
will regret this till my next flight. Visited Hidimba Temple. Then Jawahar
Nehru Waterfall. Then Mall Road, Manali. Came back to the hotel.
Next
day. Ambarish and I went to the post-office for sending a parcel. Realized that
you don’t have left-right in mountains. It’s always up-down. Then went to Jana
Waterfall. This is an awesome place. Here there are many hotels located beside
the waterfall. You have tables placed in ice cool water streams. And we can
order our lunch and have it with your legs hanging in the very chilly ice
water. But be careful this might hamper your digestive system, as most of blood
will flow towards legs instead of the stomach.
I
would insist you to order the local thali.
The thali is just delicious, filled
with vibrant food items. They includes lal
chawal, siddu, kadhi, rajma, lingad curry, corn chapatti, aaru’s pickle, dadhiya (sweet), muli ki chatni. And most awesome is desi cow ghee!!
 |
| Delicious local thali at Jana Waterfall all items |
Day
1: 3rd June, 2014 – REPORTING DAY
After
roaming the whole day in Kullu we reached Kasol Base camp. It is located just
beside Parvati River, which gets its water from two huge glaciers – Pin Parvati
and Dudhon. The gigantic Parvati Range was on one side; with snow-clad
Himalayan mountain. And Kasol town on other side. Numerous tents. And so were
the participants! Freezing breeze of air welcomed three of us. Rancho Chamaldas
Chanchad, Farhan Qureshi and Raju Rastogi; we entered the base camp. Already we
were late for reporting. The expected arrival time was 4:00 pm and we trio
reached around 9:30 pm. The first thing I did after reaching was plugged my
mobile on the public charging port provided by YHAI at Kasol Base camp.
 |
| Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI) Kasol Base Camp photo |
Reaching
on the reporting desk the guy with stiff voice and spinal cord as straight as
Qutub Minar gave us the same look which Raju, Farhan and Rancho gets while
submitting paper late in the movie sequence of 3 Idiots. But here the guy was a
military guy. Couldn’t do the same thing they did in movie of swapping the
forms. So, instead we patiently waited for him to bend his spinal cord from
Qutub Minar to Leaning Tower of Pisa; and give further instructions. While he
was providing us documents I was observing the cultural event that was taking
place in the camp fire.
We
were part of SP34 group. And the guys who were enjoying were SP34, SP33, SP32
and SP31. Singing, dancing, chivalry, babbling, peaching; fun, masti, enjoyment.
Qutub-Minar-spinal-cord
man ordered us to keep the luggage there itself and have dinner first. We did
the same! I am a 24-7-hungry-guy. No doubt I brushed my hands on the food. We
had dinner. And few metres away a worker was playing the gazal - Abhi ghar na jaana.
Ye bikhari si zulfe, ye faila sa kaajal
Ye feeka sa ghazra, ye simta saa aanchal
Tere haal se log pehchaan lege,
Tujhe dekha ke lo mujhe jaan lege,
Mujhe jaan lege!
Abhi ghar na jana Abhi ghar na jana
-
Pankaj Udas (Aman 1994)
Meanwhile
tents were allotted to us. It was number 20. Being the late comer our tent was
all empty. It was just three of us. Yuppie!! And that ‘Yuppie!!’ lasted for few
minutes.
When
you are in Himalaya be prepared to face everything Himalayan. Roads, stroll
paths, buses, ghats, animals, rivers, trees as well as your sleeping floor. The
sleeping floor of tent was not plain. I was expecting Ganges Plain and all we
got was thorny Himalayan surface. We could actually locate Shilla ht. 7025 m,
Solang 5975 m, Pir Panjal 5972, Hanuman ji ka Tibba (that’s a peak’s name)
a.k.a. Dhauladhar ht. 5860 m, Pin Parbati 4800m, and many more on our sleeping
floor itself from Himachal Pradesh.
After
proper study of each and every peak I settled my luggage down and went on to
get my mobile back. I was shocked to find out that the whole charging facility
was reimbursed and was not there. After enquiry I was informed that every night
at 10:00 pm whole settlement is broken and then arranged next morning.
Himalayan
floor, no mobile in hand, Parvati river’s gushing sound, chilled breeze, rats
and cockroaches inside tent, and to its companion Ambarish Da’s thundering
snores echoing in empty tent. This was surely one of the most horrible nights!
Day
2: 4th June, 2014 – ACCLIMATIZATION
 |
| Acclimatization during Sarpass Trek YHAI |
I
was sleep deprived the next morning. The morning temperature was still very
low. That made me wore all the warm clothes I had. And with that I became Neil
Armstrong. I presume he was more comfortable with that tight space suit as
gravity is just 1/6th of that of Earth. My One Step outside the tent
was a HUGE step in my Life!
Believing
myself as Armstrong I went jumping to drink warm water and tea. First thing I
did was to peek into the tent of base camp leader for my mobile. And then we
fall-in for morning exercise. Group captain took us to the ground. And the army
drill began.
Things
in my case are never typical. And if anything is going normal then I can call
it calm before supercell/tornado/hurricane/typhoon/cyclone (My blog has global
readers. I am bound to use all names used for a tropical storm to make
understand everyone).
The
exercise was very exhaustive. Freezing temperature, absence of sunrays, Parvati
River, snowclad Parvati Range Mountains these all natural forces were
insufficient to avoid our sweat bladders to stop. And guys generally have their
way of puking this pressure, best way – humour. The jokes were being cracked
and we were laughing impishly hiding our face as much as possible. But damn
that local-guy; he caught us grinning. Our impish smile turned sheepish. And we
mean me and Sharfaraz Khan. That local-guy came to us and charged us of
talking. To which Sharfaraz retaliated saying we were laughing over the jokes
and wasn’t talking. But then local-guy punished us by ordering a very tough
position. He forced us to bend our legs as if there is an imaginary chair
behind us and hands straight.
Long
45 min exercise was breathtaking. Leg ligaments were by now strained. Now this!
Local-guy was forcing us to name the guy who was cracking jokes. But none of us
came forward with the name. Very soon Abhishek Jha came ahead and took the
blame of cracking jokes. Eventually he actually was. He thereafter became group
leader of SP34 and my nice friend along with Sharfaraz , Ramesh Bhanushali and Sanjay
Pasi.
After
the exercise we were told about the place where we will be carrying our 6 kg
bags for acclimatization process. This is the process in which we carry two
blankets and two water bottles with us on a small trek. Making sure that we are
fit for the trek and our body welcome this drastic change. And YHAI is not conscientious
for any loss of health and wealth.
Reaching
back to base camp we see-off SP32. Standing on one side there was SP33 and
other side were all of us SP34. SP32 were recording our cheering, uproar and
shouting. We were clapping furiously. The sound of claps was captivating
Parvati River’s voluble sound. One after another the unwavering faces were
vanishing and leaving the Kasol base camp.
We
then had our lunch and got up for acclimatization. Packed the bag given by YHAI
with two blankets and two water bottles.
Our
small trey was accompanied my Thakur – a guy just my age and who claims that he
did the Sarpass Trek in just one day; and for which we took 8 days. With him we
went on for a 4 km of mini trek and I made few more friends enroute. Sampath
Satti, Gopalkrishna Hegde, Mahesh Hegde (at first I thought if they both are
brothers) and Phanindra Hegde (this confirmed me that this is a common surname).
By
noon we were on top of the hill and everyone was reaching one after another. A
surprise was waiting for all of us. Rooh Afza..yumm!! We mixed the Rooh Afza
and water that we brought in a bucket. Each of us gulped in an instant and then
we had our introduction session. And there I got to know about the Tadas family
from Akola, city located in vicinity of my hometown. Sanjay Tadas, Vaishnavi
Tadas and Sangita Tadas were those. And very soon I was introduced with four
other people from my vicinity; Mukund Chandak, Bhavana Chandak, Nitesh Brijwasi
and Nayana Parakh.
BASICALLY
it was all basically then!! Bangalore guys BASICALLY introduced themselves.
Abhishek – our group leader and one time Sarpass experienced, Ambarish - die-hard photographer and enthusiastic nature lover with great wisdom and experience of nature cycles, Ashwath - the
hardcore technical geek who has a Kernel in his head, Anil and Himanshu – both
working as teacher in Central Board and adventure hungry, Bhavana, Nayana,
Nitesh team of CAs and Mukund, an engineer. Chandrakanth, the calm guy who
speaks less, but when speak he always makes sense. Chetan – who was given a jadibuti by his manager for avoid muscle
fatigue. Dayanand – married, humorous and extrovert guy, Gautam – resigned his
job in CISCO for this trek (that’s what he claims) and going for MS in USA,
Harisha – the guy I respected most in the whole trek and will keep respecting, Jeet
and Surekha – the HR guys, I am going to forward you my resume soon. Subodh
Kadam and Khushbu Kadam – newly married couple. Kusuma - girl who wanted to enjoy last few days alone
before marrying and was going for Roopkhund Trek just after Sarpass Trek.
#RESPECT! Mallesha, Preetham and Vinay – three musketeers who studied in same
college, joined the same company, working for same project and now surpassing
Sarpass together. Damn lucky guys! Manjunatha – most fashionable guy in our
group; every girl was feeling envy after watching him. Nagarjun – who believes
LOVE THE COMPANY AND not the job; which made him CEO of VOLVO. Prashant - the senior member of our group and mu uncle cum friend who gave me some very important life teachings during the whole trek, Reshma – TCSian
cum Bangalorean. Sagar – master of situational songs and shayaris. Sachin – guy to whom after introduction I asked “From
Mumbai?” and his response “Sachin naam
sunte hi Mumbai?” and we laughed over that. Sampath – IIT-B guy with 90th
AIR rank and I dared to debate with him on thermodynamics principles. Sandeepa
– entrepreneur and guy who sustained a brawny hit from me. Shreenidhi – who
left his job for the sake of writing and now is the most demanded script writer
in Kannada TV shows. Chinmay, Gopal Krishna, Mahesh, Phaneendra, Reshma – all
belonged to Hegde family. Sujata,
Neelam, Sharfaraz, Ramesh, Sanjay and Ujas were other guys.
And
BASICALLY this way we completed our acclimatization process and BASICALLY we were
sliding down to foothill to our base camp in Kasol.
 |
| Random adventure during Sarpass Trek YHAI |
Soon
we had our lunch and following it was orientation session. And then we were
allotted some time for shopping. Purchased some basic amenities and we were
back in den before 6.
Then
we had our dinner and sleep. This time I commit to memory to take my mobile and
charger with me.
Day
3: 5th June – ROCK CLIMBING AND RAPPELLING
 |
| Me during rock climbing in Sarpass Trek YHAI |
Today
as I was in no hurry to get my mobile I woke-up a bit late. This made me stand
in LONGGG queue for bathroom. Glad I have strong expertise as a tenant for such
tasks. Soon we were up for the biggest morning task – exhaustive exercise. Then
breakfast and see-off-ing SP33 to Sarpass Trek.
Time
was for rock climbing and rappelling.
Situational
song can be –
Aaj kal jindagi mujhase hai Keh rahi
Tu Jo Meri Maane Toh Chal Deewaane Sapano Ki Raahon Mein Tu
Saari Khushbuo Saari Roshani Ko Le Le Inn Baahon Mein Tu
Naye Raaste Hai Tere Waaste Panaaho Mein Tu
Tere Liye Nayi Hai Jamin Naya Aasmaan
Likh De Hawaao Pe Koyi Nayi Daastaan
-
Shankar Mahadevan (Wake Up Sid!)
We
reached our destination. Most of us took rock climbing frivolously. But after
watching that 75 degree stiff slope rock I bet most of ours determinations
punctured the same juncture. The rock was so stiff than even Spider Man will
reconsider before giving it a try. Yeah! But Tarzan could have done it easily.
Before
climbing we were given the theoretical knowledge of the rope, its equipments
and all the skills that are required before climbing a rock. Rope has a
breaking strength of 300 kg and caravan 1800 kg. Each of us was attempting
their best to climb. But precisely I would mention one guy – Harisha. This is the
guy you can compare like with Bappi Lehari or Adnan Sami. At first none of us
even gave him seriousness to any extent. But once he started climbing up. We
all below him were breathing heavily. And the local-guy at top was breathing
more hastily; as he was having the task to stretch the rope in case climber
falls. Harisha took his first step. Stretched his right leg to a crack. Then
pressed the rock with his left hand to shift body weight. Then left leg. With
every small step his blood pressure was increasing. And guys standing below was
decreasing. But Harisha attained this feat. And I am proud to call this guy my
tent-mate. :)
 |
| SP34 group during Sarpass Trek YHAI |
Then
came my turn! Watching everyone climb my blood was replaced with adrenaline.
The rock was divided in three stages. After each step we get enough platforms
to take breathe and plan our further itinerary. The people keep shouting to guide
you, but this is disguise. They ask to take your right leg left, left leg
right, right hand left and left leg right. That will simply tangle you and
ultimately lead you to fall. Best practise is to map your path before climbing
and then at each halt plan again. I managed to climb the whole rock
successfully and then visited the river close to the location.
Then
did some experiments with photography before climbing a fallen tree over the
river joining two banks. Again had Rooh Afza and then back to Kasol base camp
and back to same location for rappelling.
I
decided to skip this task as I already had an experience of rappelling in my
previous treks.
Again
theoretical info before practical experiments. Equipments includes deconder
(figure of faith), mittens to avoid our hand from burning due to heated rope
because of friction. It was no hard task. I tried taking a power nap which was
disturbed due to the intense sunrays overhead. After its completion we
submitted our extra luggage to the YHAI base camp.
Imagine
the serene role of Amol Palekar as Ramprasad Dsahrath Sharma in movie Golmaal
(1979); these guys were us. And then imagine the vigorous Spartans from movie
300; that’s guys from Vashi (Mumbai) who arrived surpassing the Sarpass Trek.
Their energy level was vibrating the whole base camp.
Positive
energy that was scattering from their mouth was sufficient enough to cross
Sarpass. They told about many things. Issue, obstacles, barriers, difficulties,
hindrances. Next moment we arranged the meeting. I called up everyone from SP34
with the news that we are organizing a meeting to finalize our slogan for the
trek.
They
were –
Sarpass ke charo aur, SP34!
Machaiye chor, charo aur; SP34!
And
few more. We couldn’t conclude with a single slogan. Instead we decided to use
all of them during the whole tenure of trek.
Today
it was our turn to rock the camp fire. So we guys and girls decided to perform
some dance in common. But eventually it turned out that we guys only were the
performer. And those include me, Mukund, Gautam, Nitesh, Subodh Kadam and
Sampath. We danced on Kolaweri Di. It was a very comic dance which eventually
turned more hilarious with us being the part of it.
Our
lead dancer ditched us very badly or he just fell for stage freight. During our
rehearsal we planned for some other steps and on stage we did something else.
During rehearsal we planned to dance on whole song and eventually half of us
kept dancing and half stopped in the middle. I saw many people laughing on us.
But who cares. We were abusing each other during the steps and each of us
turned out to be an expert choreographer during last 30 sec of dance. Doing
whatever that was coming to mind. Left leg rhymed with right. Lips were singing
the song. To the anxiety this dance was recorded by many people. Am glad no one
uploaded it on YouTube, else it would have become instant hit.
Then
dinner and sleep!! We all were super-duper excited to the trek starting
tomorrow. That night even Ambarish’s snores didn’t stopped me from dreaming the
Sarpass scenarios.
-----
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| Apple juice IN Jana Waterfall |
That’s
it from first three days of Sarpass Trek. Next blog will include the real trek
experience. How we reached from the height of 6,500 feet to 13,800 feet. Almost
twice of where we were. On legs, with 10 kg to 18 kg of weight on back.
Sometimes extra luggage of some other friend. Through the moss. Glaciers. Oak
trees. 1 and half kilometre ice slides.
Mini Switzerland. Snowfall. Holding the tents. And trying to count each star in
the Milky Way Galaxy.
Snow
patches. Some returned. Some cried. Some laughed. Some puked. Some fatigued.
This was certainly the toughest of trek one can ever have.
One
universal fact of the Himalaya to what local-boy says –
Mountain never gives you second chance.
Respect it and then you can surpass any Sarpass like trek.
Stay
tuned for more fun, adventure and thrills!! :)
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keywords: sarpass trek, yhai, kasol base camp, kullu, manali, himachal pradesh, 13800, 2014, beskeri, ratanpani, grahan, padri, nagaru
