Hampta Pass Trek - A tryst with the Himalayas

The call from the gigantic mountains has been there for few years now. Sometimes its the fear , sometimes its the natural calamities that didn't let me go....finally this time all things fell in place and I was going to the Hamta Pass trek organized by KMA.

Preparations started by booking flight tickets, exercising, shopping trekking essentials and anxious packing.

On  May 16th, flew to Delhi.  From airport we went to Himachal Bhavan, where we were supposed to alight a bus to Manali in the evening. Very close to Himachal Bhavan there is a Bengali place where we had awesome food and some sweetest sweets :) little did I know that this sweet hogging extravaganza would continue for the next ten days.

I realized I had missed to get lens cover for my camera, bought  it in Delh and alighted the bus to Manali. Delhi traffic didn't help me much in forgetting the ORR of Bangalore :)

Bus stopped at a place called “Karnal Haveli” - Great ambiance, folk songs being played outside, brilliant lighting , had the time permitted we would have stayed longer. But since it was the dinner break, had to wind up quickly.

Day-2:

Next morning we arrived at Manali bus stand, from there went to Prini base camp . A simple cosy place, where I got introduced  to all my fellow trekkers.

We were told we wouldn't be getting the luxury of 
hot water bath , mobile charging points and mobile signal for the next 6 days, so we spent most of the energy in charging phones here :D 

Evening was an acclimatisation trek, now thinking of it...I wouldn't even call it a trek. we went to sharvari temple, i didn’t visit the temple, for me gods were outside, in the beautiful peaks and mountains. It rained heavily and we all got a sense of how the days going forward would be.

Day -3 : Prini to Hamta village
Started by 8:00 am in the morning, climbing the huge steps and crossing the villages. Initially started clicking a lot of pictures, of streams, flowers, people, after a while my energy level started dropping.  The back pack seemed  heavy owing to my Big Picture Machine :) 

By 11:30 we had reached our destination  - the Hamta village. The camp site was simple. Very nice view of snow capped mountains from my tent, I was eager to go there and be amidst the white beauty. We had gained an altitude of 650 mts , by  traveling about 3 kms.
After reaching the camp site, had yummy food, and thought it was time to rest. But NO! it was time for some adventure [ Net climbing ] activity. I was like …are you crazy!!!!!. All the kids did it with so much of ease, I felt even I could do it, only to be proven otherwise when i tried later.
Tried two times, but couldn't reach the top. All of us had lot of fun shaking the nets when others were climbing!

Day-4 : Hamta Village to Karimidyri 

Day started with hot tea and warm up session. We were told that this would be the most beautiful path as we will be crossing forests and meadows.  Indeed it was . Crossed meadows, pine trees, all seemed like a scene from some old Bollywood song :) …one of our leads ..must be a great SRK fan, posed and clicked few like him.
It was a bright sunny day, perfect for my photography. Thoroughly enjoyed shooting the landscapes and macros of colorful flowers.

Reached campsite after about 4.5 hrs of trek. We had gained an altitude of 550 mts and the camp site had a nice cliff…perfect for portraits  and silhouettes. Here is one of my favorite:

After lunch, it was time for rappelling….oooo!! it was great fun. Waited for my turn to go on top of the rock, once I was there, I was damn scared. Of course, why wont I be, if I am asked to lie horizontal in the air , at a height of 20-30 ft at the edge of a rock…..thanks to Gangaram and his team…I did it !! glad I did it !

Back from rappelling, evening it was getting cloudy, by the time we were done with dinner, it started pouring heavily.  Heavy rains, freezing temperature, all the romantic ideas about sleeping bag I had…vanished !!
Came out of my tent late in the night, the dark sky with distant stars…i stood there gazing at the sky for quite some time. Pitch dark , rustic silence and freezing cold ! must say a great combination….felt only SRK and shooting stars were missing for a perfect KKHH scene :)

Day - 5: Karimidiyri to Jobri Behli


Day 5 morning ah ah…I woke up with sore throat, It later manifested to cough and high fever. I was put on antibiotics..and spared  from few warm up sessions.
Trek was quite easy one. It was mostly a descend. So I was lucky, had got fever on the right day..I could manage :)
During the descend we did cross many streams and bridges and reached the camp site by 1 pm. Waited for the mules to arrive, had lunch and I was asked to rest. Entire team went for river crossing activity. Everyone was given a holy dip in ultra cold water…I missed it entirely ..courtesy Fever :(

Day 6: Jobri Behli to Chikka

The actual destination was “Juara ” but we stopped at “Chikka” - This place was beside a river, the view from the tent was fantastic, gigantic rocks right in front of the tents. Most of them went for rock climbing, I rested in my tent, and enjoyed reading. Beautiful mountains, sound of a river ..an interesting book….Bliss!
Hadn’t called home for 2 days now, and I was missing my dad.  The two dad-daughter combo present in the trek group was another reason for missing my dad. 

Day 7: The Day
 This was the toughest day. When i woke up, i was still feeling feverish and weak. We were informed that the route to Hapta Pass was blocked, so new plans were made. Plan was to go till a place called “Maggie Point” [ are they going to ban this place too ????? Pleeeeeez no!!!] and then go to another peak called “Madi”….route was supposed to be tough after Maggie point. When i woke up, i thought I would stay back in the camp and not go, but once i went out, I changed my mind. I decided to go till Maggie point and then come back.
We started early around 6:00 am and started ascending towards the Maggie point. In my imagination maggie point was like small bajji shop at an altitude with a view. We walked for about Hour and a Half and yayyyy we were at the Maggie point. It was no way near to my imagination. It was yet another tent, where they prepared Maggie..There was lot of snow around this part and we clicked few group pictures here. Now came the decision making part…should I go up or stay back. By now my enthusiasm had shot up and decided to trek further. Our group lead  had told we could descend back in the same path, if we decided to quit in the middle. So I thought, i would go as far as possible and then come back.

Now started the real trek. This path was real steep, all the "chillier-party" [ all the kids in the group were called so ] started helping everyone. they showed great co-ordination. I slipped twice and fortunately held a rock…after this I was real scared to climb. Thought of going back, I could no way go back alone! the only choice was to go up with the group. It got steeper and steeper and my love for life started increasing !!!! This is exactly the place where I thought I should have listened to my mom and not gone for the trek :D

There was a small water falls and we had to climb the rocks adjoining this. This was damn too slippery and I thought it was just impossible to climb here. Ganga Ram - the super hero , came to my rescue, he just pulled me up till the top. Finally at the top he says ….”moTi ho” ..grrrrrr….should i be hearing this at this place !!! If it was somewhere down the city I would have shouted at him…but at that place..I was just frozen !!…We were almost at the top. It was around 11:20 am, if we had to reach base camp before evening, we had to start descending by 12, so we rested and chiller-party and others left to explore further up. Me , Bops , Dr and Deb, while waiting for the rest of the team to come back, were wondering how we would be descending…it was so steep…I thought there should be some alternate route to come down. After the group came back,  Ganga ram announced..we would be descending in the same route…I felt this was madness, I thought, I am stuck here for the whole of my life….he held me and just ran down as though it was  a flat road…the way he was going it seemed so simple…I was screaming..I couldn't feel  my steps…I even cried out of fear. I was asking him to slow down…he was speeding…at one point he just stopped..” kyun chilla rahi ho, yeh sheR ki pakad hai ”…. seemed like a dialog from some Amitabh Bachchan  movie…..within minutes I had cleared the steep descend. Now came another challenge…we had to slide down the snow path…i sat down and slid…within no minutes I was at the bottom,…I loved this experience…the whole group came down one by one. There were 3 such snow patches…by the time we cleared the third one…everyone had started enjoying this. From there we came to Maggie point, we were all very hungry, had the best Maggie till date…[ probably the last one ] …then headed to  camp.

Morning Warm-up session

Snow time!!

we were all feeling victorious to have reached the top and come back safe. Congratulated everyone. What a day it had been!..but wait ..that was not all!!! there was much more adventure to the night.
After dinner, we all went to our tents…I was not able to sleep…had been a hyper active day and  I was recollecting the events....by then I felt the tent was shaking…too windy it was.  it kept on increasing…I woke up my tent mate..she sat up and both of us were thinking what next…the tent pole started shaking, i was holding it..while others in the tent woke up..the whole tent came down…we were trying to hold it up..and started screaming for help. By then the Gangaram and his group came and they asked us to keep the tent flat so that it doesn’t  get torn in the storm. We sat like this for quite some time..it seemed like ages for me…This is when I realized how people who are stuck in natural disasters would have felt…..There is huge difference in Seeing it on TV and experiencing it. After a while when storm reduced, tent was fixed. I couldn't sleep after this…call it something like a Tent-o-phobia!…was awake for quite a lot of time.
it was too much of adventure for a day !

Day 8: Chikka to Jhobri Bihaii

We headed towards  -Jhobri Bihaii  - now this was breeze…most the talks were around the storm and the previous day trek.
We reached a place called Setan Village , we got mobile signal here after 4 long days…I was eager to talk to my dad..finally called home and felt  at peace. I hadn’t imagined i would miss home in such short time.

Day 9: Jobri Bihaii to Prini

Reached the Prini base camp…now the descend felt so easy.
Evening roamed  in Manali market, relished crispy Jalebis and red cherries.
Later it was party time,  I danced for the first time :) Thoroughly enjoyed the dance party.

The trek had ended and I was like, when is the next one. This is the common emotion in all the treks i go. How I feel along the trek is something like this :

Day -10: Rafting Day
We went to Kullu  for rafting. Rafting in the ice cold water was great  fun….bus ride was much more scarier than rafting. Evening we started to Delhi.

Day  11: Namma Bengaluru !!!!!!

Heatwave in Delhi welcomed us. So restricted ourselves to Airport. By evening we were back to 'Namma Benagaluru'…!

Moment I came back …started missing the mountains….the fear, pain….seems like forgotten….all I  remember…is the huge mountains, sound of river and chilly winds..!

                                                  Another tick off my bucket list!