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Magazine
FOOTLOOSE
Himalayan trek
SWAHILYA
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Experiencing snow in the higher reaches of the Himalayas in December is a heady experience.
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I guess we should be thankful to some of these rules that let nature be, instead of trying to tame snow and make the mountaintops habitable in winter too.
Photo: Swahilya
Experience tranquillity: Inviting mountains.
Hima Alaya — the abode of snow. A trek through snow as bright sunshine filters in through the deodar forests is an experience in tranquillity and solitude, where nothing moves much and even water freezes. I got an opportunity to walk through a
soft and sometimes slippery white track at Dugalbhitta, 15 km before Chopta near Tungnath in the Rudraprayag District of Uttaranchal recently.
With ignorant plans of trekking up to Tungnath, unmindful of Ukhimath locals telling me that it will be covered with snow, I waited for a bus to Chopta one chilly December morning, watching the thick thunderclouds fiercely pass by the mountains from the shelter of an umbrella. A lone teashop vendor opened his shutters and informed me that buses didn’t ply along the route because of the rain and snow.
Even before I could think of giving up my plans of visiting Tungnath, one of the Panch Kedars, my new-found friend, Sudhir Maharaj of Swami Pranavananda Vidya Mandir said he might make arrangements for me to visit Chopta along with the teachers on an excursion. For many like Suman, the 24-year-old Garhwali teacher, this was the first time they were having a feel of snow, despite seeing it cover the mountaintops all around their home town.
Snow ahead
As the car neared Dugalbhitta, which means two slopes, Shivani Chatterjee, the senior-most teacher, gave out an excited shriek as she first spotted a light spray of snow flakes on the leaves of the pine trees and along the roadside. All of us were chattering continuously, which probably was the effect of the sight of snow.
Though our travel plan was to go to Chopta, from where Tungnath is a three-kilometre trek, the driver did not find it safe to go beyond Dugalbhitta as the snow had covered the road completely. The track of ice formed by jeeps plying to Chopta everyday was very slippery to walk on.
The experience of walking on a snow track in the Himalayas is unique. The residents vacate the place when snowfall begins and all the major pilgrim centres — Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath — remain closed for six months on account of snowfall. The hotels, rest houses, temples, ashrams and even the numerous wandering sadhus, or babajis as they are called, move down the mountains to Joshimath, Ukhimath, Rishikesh or Haridwar. The remaining few wanderers are also sent packing by Government officials. I guess we should be thankful to some of these rules that let nature be, instead of trying to tame snow and make the mountaintops habitable in winter too.
We got out and began to walk on the soft snow on either side of the ice tracks. The fresh snowfall on the trees was collecting up in huge formations, now like a lion, now like a walrus or the shape of a penguin or a tiger. We were told that with almost no humans around, it was a field for snow leopards and bears to roam freely around. Also they would probably be hungry as well as very little food was available to them in such weather!
Our group, however, was not to be deterred by stories of animal attacks as we broke into twos and threes and began walking. There was much beauty to be seen around, but we had to be careful. Even with eyes glued to the ground and placing step upon watchful step, I slipped twice. But for most, a fall hardly hurts.
We walked for three kilometres sometimes on the fluffy snow and sometimes on the ice tracks. A metal drum filled with mud and placed on the roadside as a barricade had a big ball of snow collected over it, making it look like a giant ice cream.
Picture perfect
At the snow-covered Nirikshan Bhavan, the Government inspection bungalow built to watch the musk-deer habitat, a board said the height was 2,360 metres and the year of construction was 1925.
There was nothing much to do but walk in the snow, frighten each other with big snowballs and see the sights around. As the sunlight lit the snow so bright, it was hardly cold and many of us removed the coats and sweaters that we were wearing.
There was a gorgeous view of the Tungnath and the Kedarnath peaks far away. The sloping roofs of some thatched and abandoned huts had a layer of snow, like a picture postcard shot. On the tile roof of the Nirikshan Bhavan was a block of ice with sharp and long icicles. The excursion party was quick to pluck a block each and hold it on each others’ head, posing for photographs with a thorny ice crown.
We got back to the lone tea stall for piping hot tea and also to munch on the snacks that we had brought along, filled with a vision of snow that will not erase for a lifetime. Our faces were gleaming with joy...
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