I am very happy
to write about this day. Happy because this was a day all of us were
really worried about and we all including the support team made it
back safe and sound. There were minor incidences yes, but nothing
which we had to regret later. I must say, it was indeed one of the
most challenging days of my trekking life, but then very happy to
have seen it thorough.
We started
early, around 5.15AM towards the pass. It was very cold in the
morning, one of the coldest days on the trek. Thankfully, the weather
was still holding good. The sky was clear and there were very few
clouds that I could see. We all huddled together and I said a small
prayer before we started. We were really going to need all the
Mountain Gods to be with us today
.
Rohit had given
his snow boots to Balwant so that it would be easy for him make steps
in snow. When we started, there was no sun, but as the sun rose in
the sky, all the surrounding mountains were glowing and were golden
as the sun rays kissed their tops. This was a site beyond any words.
I felt absolutely humbled in front of nature's glory.
We were all
making steady progress as we climbed towards the pass. After a
while, I smelt what seemed like gasoline on the snowfield. It was
only after a while we realized that one of the porters had a fall and
he spilled around ten liters of kerosene on the snowfield. Now that
was not a good news.
I was walking
with the guide, and he told me that we had taken a round about route
and now we would have to descend down on to the glacier and then
climb up again. Believe me, the descent down was very scary, since
the snow was not very soft and in between we had slick ice. We were
all descending very carefully now. I was tagging along with the
guide.
We all had so
many falls, but thankfully none of them were serious. Negotiating the
snow, the killer altitude and the thin air was making our going
tough, but with every step we were reaching closer to our
destination. We reached just below the pass from where the last tough
climb to reach to the pass commenced. This was a sheer wall of ice.
It was so steep that I thought, the guide would ask all of us to use
a rope to climb up, but that was not to be. The pass looked so close
to but the route was very steep.
As the sun came
up, the snow was getting softer and the guide was making steps so
that we could follow him. I was right behind the guide. Every step
was so hard on the heart. I realized that this was no mind over body.
I did not want to tire and I would never give up. It was all a mind
game from here on. I kept talking to myself, counting each step and
taking rest after every 10-15 steps. I was marching quite confidently
behind the guide and then when he shouted at me “Aram se ayiye,
nahi to vahi chale jaoge jaha se aaye the” ( walk carefully
otherwise, you would directly go to where you came from down below).
I started to be more careful after those words but I still slowly
followed him. All of us were on the pass after a while. Balawant told
us that there might be ice cornices around the rocky edges and asked
us to come very carefully till the end of the ridge.
We reached at
top at 9.45 am and the views from top were out of the world. This
was for the first time on the pass Sandeep and I got the best views.
The weather was still holding good. One by one all our team members
including all the porters arrived. As Jaggi reached on top of the
pass, he looked exhausted. Later on he told me he had vomited while
climbing up, but he was still looking very calm and composed at the
top.
We were all
happy and ecstatic at the pass. We had dreamt of these views, had
done all the hard work and we were not disappointed. Kala Naag (6387
meters), the Banadarpunch ranges (6316 meters) were clearly visible.
There were colorful lakes of blue and green hue that were visible on
the glacier, the huge ice fall from the Kala naag also appeared
daunting. The whole snowfield was heavenly crevassed. Swargrohini
(6250 meters) ranges were playing hide and seek in the cloud. Every
time I looked around, I just wanted to soak in, into the beauty. The
guide did the customary pooja atop the pass. We celebrated for
sometime and then started another ordeal. I had forgotten that we
need to get down on the other side. There was very steep descent
from the pass, full of slick ice and snow and without ropes it would
be not possible to go down. The guide fixed one end of the rope at
the top and he went down to fix the rope at the other end. First the
porters decided to climb down. It was a very slow process. The rope
could take only one single person at a time. It was a tad risky if we
had multiple people on the rope. Each one of us were taking almost
15-20mins to getting down. I was worried because we had never been on
top of the pass for so long and the chances of weather turning bad
were very high. Jaggi and Rohit went first amongst us as they both
were not feeling well and descending down was the best option. All
the porters went down. Brijesh and I were the last one to go down. We
were on the pass for almost 3hrs waiting our turn to go down.
The descent on
the rope was also very scary. The rope was only one length , 100mts
so we could descend only 100mts. At the end of the descent, the ice
was very slick and it was difficult to keep the balance hanging on to
the rope. it was all slippery snow and we were all stopping just
short of a big crevasse.
As I got down, I
was happy to see everyone make it safe. Jaggi too was looking strong.
At around 1 pm everybody was down the pass and I knew it was going
to be tough route from here on in the slippery snow. It is easy to
climb in the soft/slippery ice but its difficult to negotiate the
soft snow while descending. Balwant gave the marching orders and we
followed. This time his instructions were to follow his footsteps
very carefully.
I have known
this, as I have done quite a few high altitude passes that reaching
the pass is challenging itself but the more challenging part is
descending down and reaching safely to the camp site as it is a very
common to lose focus once the summit is achieved.
At this time, we
were crossing the snow field and suddenly a big rock came rolling
from above and I didn't even notice it. Balwant ran towards me in a
jiffy pulled me out, just avoiding the rock. I thanked him many
times. I don't even want to imgine what would have happened if he
wouldn't pulled me like this. The whole area was prone to rock falls
and after this, I saw multiple rocks falling all around us.
Rohit and I was
walking ahead with a few of porters. Sandeep,Brijesh and Jaggi were
with Suresh, a little behind us. Suddenly one of the porters slipped
on the ice and did multiple somersaults and was headed towards a big
crevasse. Luckily, he stopped just before the crevice. Everybody was
just shocked and were standing still for few seconds.
This is when he
got up and we realized that he was absolutely safe. We were all so so
relieved. I would have described the beauty of the surroundings, but
the going was very tough now. All I can say is that I was walking
amongst the shadow of the mighty Kala naag, with the heavily
crevassed snowfields on my left.
After a while I
saw Sandeep struggling while getting down the snowfield. He was
prostrate and finding it difficult to get up on the slippery snow and
on the other side the guide was shouting at Rohit and me to go ahead
as we were standing near a big crevasse. I saw Suresh helping
Sandeep to move ahead and only then I was relieved.
Once we crossed
the crevasse zone, we were quite relaxed. All of us had countless
falls in the snowfield and we had been walking for a long time now.
There was still no sign of campsite. We crossed the regular campsite
of Arjun Jhari and I was surprised, there is no “jhari” here, it
is all a big snowfield. Our guide did want to camp in the snow and
insisted that we go further at the end of the snow field.
Once the
snowfield ended, we started negotiating boulders. Everybody was
tired and most of the so called accidents happen when the body and
mind are not sync. During one such section, Brijesh also slipped. He
slipped and landed very near the edge of a cliff with a sheer drop of
around 200 meters. Our heartbeats stopped momentarily. Luckily for
all of us, his fall was automatically arrested just before the big
drop. Thats when I realized that the day had not yet ended. When
Balwant saw Brijesh fall like that, he got very angry and asked us to
be doubly attentive. The walk was not going to be an easy one. As
they say during the marathons , the last mile is always difficult.
The same was true here. We had almost walked for 11 hours but still
had to struggle in the end to to reach the campsite. The campsite was
visible but it looked so far. Then again, because of the last years
flash floods, all the trails were destroyed and we were having a very
hard time negotiating the broken ridges.
Finally after a
long long haul, we reached the campsite at around 5.30 pm. It was the
longest day on the trek for us. Every part of the body was crying out
in pain, but it was the most beautiful feeling in this world to be
safely sitting in the tents. Jaggi too was ok after reaching the
campsite. He remained very composed throughout and did not even once
crib.
Wow, what a day
it had been. Everybody was safe and sound in spite those incidences.
I should say we were very lucky. I turned my mind to the campsite,
once I had composed myself. This campsite was also very beautiful.
Behind our camps, the massive Kala Naag and Banderpunch glaciers met.
In front of the camp was the massive Swargrohini peak.
It was as if
all these peaks were guarding and protecting us. We were still at a
decently high altitude of around 4600mts, but all of us were openly
relieved and were happy to be ensconced in the safety of the tents.
Later in the
evening, Sandeep went to speak to the guide. All of us were still
ready for the Bali Pass, but we
needed to take stock of our rations
and fuel. It was indeed not a good situation. If we had to do Bali
Pass, we would have to get rations from a long way and this would
mean additional three to four days which we did not have. We all had
a discussion and decided to skip Bali pass. It was not as if there
was any more adventure lacking in the trek and Bali Pass would be
done some other time.Previous Next
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