Monsoon in the Himalayas
July, 2023
Hiking the Himalayas was a dream of mine, and happily for me, my children got pulled into the dream too. Since we were visiting India for a substantial duration after COVID, we decided to take 2 weeks to do a trek in the Himalayas. It would have to be a monsoon trek, since we were visiting in July, and after much assessment, we settled on Hampta Pass. We could not wait.
We signed up, trained, ran, got fit, shopped, faced many obstacles, packed and finally, it was time to meet the Himalayas!
Our vacation started at a small but lovely homestay called Fursat, which we reached after an 8 hour taxi ride from Chandigarh. We stayed in rooms overlooking the valley and numerous pear trees and birds. It was serene. After loading up on a sumptuous breakfast of Poori and Bhaji, we set off to start our adventure across the street at India Hikes Jungle Line Campus.
Day 1: India Hikes Jungle Line Campus to Jobra
The IH campus was quite nice, it was rustic, a place with no electricity but setup very efficiently around tents and shelters in such a way that nature’s presence is enhanced at every turn. Here we met the team, rented our gear, had our first taste of the IH food and then left for the starting point by Taxi.
The Team. We were a group of 16 people who came together to form an instant family. There was the trio from Chennai - Nivedh Ashwin, who was eager and willing to assist every trekker on the trail, Jaswanth and Adith, and together, they were a hoot. The super kind Namya and and agile rock climber Mileena were masters students studying Psychology, Varsha my very gregarious tent mate who works at Amazon, Sweet sweet animal lover Ritu who is an architect, Ramya from Bangalore, Manu, a 21 year old student from Kochi, Indrasheesh, a creative content writer who has also published a book, Rohit, a civil engineer from Patna and Ankit from Dubai who schedules an adventure to challenge himself every year. Of course, there were the four of us. We ranged in age from 14 to 54, came from all parts of the county (and the world), and all industries, but we bonded immediately over our love of nature.
The ride from Sarsai to the Jobri starting point was very scenic with Manali nestled quaintly in the valley views. The weather was beautiful and our spirits were soaring. We encountered a shepherd herding a big group of goats up the mountains, they were of every color, size and horn shape and were so cute! Before we started on the hike, we got a chai for Rs.20 at a dhaba at the starting point, and filled up our water bottles with fresh spring water. After our obligatory starting pictures, we set off to fulfil our dream of hiking the Himalayas!
The trail to Jobra was an hour long. Within the first few minutes, we came across an imposing iron bridge with prayer flags strung across. The views of the peaks ahead were beautiful. Without much effort, we reached our campsite by 4pm, just in time to escape some light rains. We snacked on yummy popcorn and went out to setup our sleeping bags in the ready made tents. Ashwin and Divya were tent mates. Outside our tents, the river Rani ki Naala was meandering her way through the valley and we could see all the way up to the waterfalls in the peaks which were feeding the river. On the other side of the river, we could see mules and goats on the granite rock walls. Turn around 90 degrees and you can see views of peaks on the opposite side of the river, with the sun setting behind them. The scene was simply magical.
We dined on a sumptuous dinner of roti, paneer mattar, rice, dhal, salad and for dessert, hot and crispy Jelabi. To think that the IH kitchen team could turn out such meals for such a large group from the rustic kitchen tent was simply mind blowing.
With our happy bellies, and happy souls from the beautiful Himalayan scenes, we retired to the tents for our first night. At night, I needed to use the restroom (IH has bio-toilets, which is basically a hole in the wall, but dressed up in such a way that it neither stank nor felt inconvenient, at least for the first few days), so Varsha and I headed out. To our immense surprise and joy, we discovered a starry moonlit sky, which made the river appear iridescent. Unfortunately, we didn’t take a picture to capture the scene as we didn’t realize that this would be our only such night.
## Day 2: Jobra to Jwara
In the morning, we breakfasted on veg-idli and boiled eggs, in the company of sheep, goats, cows, chicken and mules. We had some precious time before the start of the hike to sit calmly on a rock and take in the views and listen to the thoughts in our heads, and offer thanks to the great vastness of the world.
We set off on our trek to the Jwara campsite. The trail was mostly just rocks, boulders that we had to climb on, and for me personally, it was more difficult than I had anticipated. We had numerous small streams to cross, and I managed to keep my shoes and socks dry for all of 10 minutes. There were comfortable rock bridges to cross over the larger streams*. We gained about 2000 ft in elevation over 4 hours, and it was a mildly strenuous day. Light rain started about 30 min into our hike, and it was a wonderful experience hiking in the rain. On the way, we saw rushing falls, roaring rivers and divine views all around. We had to cross a stream over a waterfall, which gave us a refreshing shower as we precariously crossed it, placing one foot at a time. The most difficult and memorable part of the trek was crossing a roaring stream which was over waist deep for me. The IH team setup a rope and helped us to cross the freezing stream by holding on to the rope and the hands of the strong men, but we managed to cross without much discomfort.
Later in the evening, the sheep and goats arrived at our camp providing us unending entertainment. Watching them bungle their way across the stream was so much fun. Chachu took our entertainment to the next level with him riding the sheep as his motorbike.
We played some indoor games, got to know each other better through reflection cards, and finally, retired to the warm dry tents (!!) for the night. We had aloo chole chaat for evening snacks, and dined on the sumptuous dinner which by now we had come to expect as our trekker’s right.
## Day 3: Jwara to Balu ka Ghera
Rain started that night and never stopped. Today, we had to hike for about 3 hours, with an elevation gain of about 1200ft, and we were to reach Balu ka Ghera for another hot lunch. We set off in the rain, crossing the first stream right at the camp site, followed by numerous other streams. We were soaked in no time at all, rain gear notwithstanding. We passed by and crossed many glaciers, which the goats and sheep proclaimed as their personal playground.
At one point, when we rested at a dhabha, Divya was very cold and had uncontrollable shivers. The way the team came together to get her warmed up was heartwarming. It turned out that her rain jacket was completely unsuitable for the rains that we were experiencing. Namya graciously gave her a spare rain jacket and beanie, and once she ate some soup and lightened her pack weight, she was good to go. Even so, once we reached camp, she was taken to the kitchen tent to warm up in front of the stoves and was attended to by the kind and attentive kitchen staff.
We arrived at Balu ka Ghera to find a campsite that was wet, had streams flowing under every tent, wet sleeping bags, flooded toilets and no way to dry our wet clothes. Many of us were on our last set of dry clothes, and we all huddled up in the dining tents, waiting for the wretched rain to stop so that we could continue our hike. While it was hard hiking in the rain, it was so much better than spending the evening sitting at camp, getting colder and wetter and letting the despair set in. There were distant snow covered peaks and a million smaller water falls around, but noone wanted to leave the relatively warm and dry dining tent to catch any views. Everyone was trying to stay warm by using each other’s body heat. Once we had dinner, we could not wait to put an end to the miserable evening and the rains. We retired to the tents in anticipation of a hectic climb tomorrow in reasonably dry weather.
## Day 4: Nature’s Fury
The day began with a call from our trek leader Nikhil at 6:30am, Good Morning team, time for black tea. Very soon, this was followed by an announcement that we are not ready to move, stay in tents and be dry, we will regroup later. Much later, we left our sodding wet tents and went to the dining tent to await the day’s news. Meanwhile, the rain only increased in every possible sense. We had little streams making their way into our tent, while some of the other tents were completely wet with streams of water flowing right through. We were still told that the safest way out of the camp was to go up to the pass, since the other side of Hampta Pass was the dry desert of Spiti valley. But also, we were to spend the day waiting and witnessing the fury of the mountains from the flimsy shelter of the dining tent. The rivers were pregnant with boundless water and energy, a few hundred feet away, there were reports of tents getting washed away. We witnessed a landslide right behind one of the toilet tents (of which we had 3 to begin with, and now there was one). All of us were down to our last set of dry clothes, which we were wearing. While this was the most miserable day on the trek, I would say, most of my learning on the trek happened on this day. The helplessness of us trekkers as a group in contrast to the mammoth force that was unfurling around us was a humbling experience. In the face of nature, what are we but a chance collection of atoms? Also very humbling was the willingness of the whole group to help each other in whichever way possible, and accept this less than desirable outcome of the trek without a complaint. At night, for example, when I was shivering in my wet sleeping bag trying desperately to get warm, my tent mate Varsha immediately moved closer and lent me her body heat. Despite the dreary day, there were songs being sung, games being played and a lot of laughter heard.
As the day progressed, it became clear that we were in not just an inconvenient situation, but a dangerous one. Our campsites were on a river delta, and with the rivers at capacity and the rain still unrelenting, our camp site could be washed out at any time. That night, we were asked to all sleep in one dining tent, so that in case emergency evacuation was necessary, we were already in one place. We were instructed to run towards the hills and *not* the river. We were going to go down to Manali the following morning, so we had to rest to the extent possible since the hike would be about 10 hours long.
## Day 5: Evacuation Day
The following morning, we quickly packed up our wet gear, and with our heavy packs started the trek down to Jwara. What was a relatively easy hike on the way up was now treacherous. The first part of the trek was along a narrow ledge with a steep slimy hill, where there was only enough room for one foot at a time. Raghu took a tumble on this trail and fell right onto me. My already low confidence on this trail further plummeted after this. The trek leaders and the guides were very kind, holding each person's hands and helping them through these treacherous slopes and very steep declines. We came to a high current waterfall / stream, which we had to cross by linking hands with each other. I fell into this stream and since my hands were locked and I was weighed down by a heavy pack, I could not get up without help. I ended up sitting in the freezing stream for almost a minute which led to me getting hypothermia. I didn’t make the connection at that time, but soon after crossing the stream, I was feeling dizzy, unable to send commands to my legs or form words. All I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep. Our trek leader Nikhil grabbed my hands and marched me along to the next camp site as fast as I could, while shouting instructions about oxygen, dry sleeping bag etc. Every step I took seemed like the extent of my capacity, but eventually the trail concluded and the campsite came to view like a paradise. I was led to the kitchen tent where a team of staff descended on me, massaging my hands and legs, procuring me dry pants out of thin air and warming me up beside a gas stove. Incidentally, there was a baby lamb which was also struggling in the frigid rains and it was warming up right beside me. Special kudos to the staff member who stopped to scoop up this baby lamb which was found alone shivering in a cave so that he could tend to it, all of this while helping a team of panicking trekkers navigate the treacherous trail.
Soon, I was warm enough to join the rest of my group, who had congregated in the dining tent at Jwara. Jwara campsite already had about 25 trekkers from the previous group, and now it had the 16 of us, the staff from 2 groups. To say the campsite was busting to capacity was an understatement. Despite this, IH whipped up an amazing evening snack of mattri and pakodas with chai. The kitchen staff were simply miracle workers.
We had to spend the night in a dhaba on a platform that was about 20ft by 8ft. 16 of us had to catch some sleep here as we had another day of hiking ahead of us. Once again, 16 of us, who were total strangers less than a week ago, managed to somehow fit (albeit a bit like sealions..) on this platform, keep each other warm and get rested here on this rainy night.
## Day 6: More Streams, Hello Sunshine and Bye Bye Mountains
We woke up to no rains, and that lifted our spirits immensely. Many of the streams that we had passed on our way up were now unpassable due to high currents. The log bridge and the iron bridge were washed out, but while we were on our way down from Balu ka Ghera, teams were working on repairing the bridges as best as they could, and installing ziplines where it was safe to do so. We started our hike by ziplining across a stream, and after that we had a beautiful hike to the extent that the circumstances provided. The rain had stopped, the sun was poking out in parts, and the trail was beautiful! We did have a few streams to cross, but considering what we had been through, this felt like a cake walk. We had to cross a stream by a rope bridge, and another by zip-lining, and when we reached Jobra campsite, our group was collectively happy, relieved and grateful for the end of the ordeal. I am amazed at the human capacity to put aside our misery of the past few days, the fears of the dangers that we faced, and our disappointment at not summitting the pass, and at the first sight of a sunlit valley and experience pure joy.
The iron bridge that we crossed on the first day was washed out, and had to be replaced by a make shift bridge of a huge tree trunk that had taken the IH team, and other local organizations a herculean effort to organize in these conditions and in this haste.
Our trek ended an hour later where it started, at the dhaba where we had garam chai and maggi awaiting us. We bade our newfound family goodbye, took lots of pictures and shared memories to last us a lifetime.
While we were all undeniably happy and relieved to be on the other side of the mountains, I must acknowledge the moments of pleasure, joy and the priceless lessons we learnt on the trek.
The beauty of the mountains, the valleys, and the streams were mesmerizing. This was true from the very first steps onto the trail, and even during the times of the treacherous rainfalls. The beauty of nature can take your breath away.
We encountered so many animals on the trail that entertained us and made the trail even more beautiful. From the playful sheep, goats and mules, to the greedy chicken to the cows, (the pesky mouse in the dining tent!), and all the beautiful birds, even the Himalayan griffon, I am thankful to them all for enriching our trail experience.
The capacity of human beings to come together and become a family in difficult circumstances was inspiring. When anyone needed anything, be it a jacket, body warmth, or anything else, everyone was willing and happy to help. Everyone came together to lift each other's spirits with laughter, stories and songs.
The IH staff and the local guides went above and beyond their duty to ensure that we felt safe, comfortable and protected. If not for their expertise and selfless work putting themselves at risk during all that time, we could not have had a safe end to the trek and for this, I am very thankful to their community.
Despite plans we make and intentions we have, the mountains have the last say, and the only sensible thing to do is to accept the words of the mountains. If they let you pass, be thankful. If they refuse, retreat gracefully.
Last but not the least, I learnt that packing diligently and having the best quality gear possible is of utmost importance.
## Day 6+: Post Trek
While on the trek, we were blissfully unaware of the ordeals that Manali faced. The roads in Manali had crumbled like a pack of chips, the city had no power or running water. No internet or mobile connectivity. Our plans of spending a day enjoying Manali and then taking a comfortable Volvo bus to Delhi was a sad joke. We got to our hotel, which at least provided us with electricity and hot water until 10pm. The yardstick by which we evaluate luxury quickly came tumbling down to bare necessities. We were short on cash, had no way of contacting family and had no idea how we were going to get out of Manali the following day. I don’t think I’ve felt that vulnerable at any other point in my life.
Despite this, we slept like a log out of sheer physical and mental exhaustion.
Blissfully, the next day, we realized that Jio network was working and I was able to contact my parents. We visited the Hadimba temple, offered thanks for delivering us from the mountain’s fury, and managed to secure a taxi to take us to Mandi. The ride, which should normally take 3 hours, took us all of 10.5 hours, of which many hours were spent parked on a windy single lane. During this time too, we were so fortunate to witness kind deeds. People would stop at every car and drop off some fruits for free, dhabas were offering teas and maggi at very nominal rates. After what seemed like an unending journey, we reached Mandi at 11pm.
From Mandi, we got tickets to a Volvo bus to Delhi at 3am, so we had an opportunity to have a late dinner at a dhaba, which was also to mark our 25th wedding anniversary. We thought this was the end of our ordeal and the following day would be spent exploring and eating at Delhi. Little did we know at this point that the Yamuna river had flooded Delhi and all heavy vehicles were prohibited from entering the city. Ashwin had also developed a stomach bug and I was sorry to see him suffering through the ordeal. We had a wedding anniversary adventure riding fatfatis with 6 people to a small vehicle, and all the luggage, through the waterlogged streets of Delhi. Once again, we were low on cash and were fortunate to tag team with another couple who lent us the cash and were helped by my knowledge of Hindi.
Our outsized adventure concluded as we boarded a metro in Delhi, and normalcy returned to our lives. One thing I hope I never take for granted in my life is normalcy, what a luxury that is.
I am thankful for the prayers of family and friends and all the circumstances that came together to ensure our safe return to Chennai.
While another monsoon hike is not on the cards in my recent future (and will not be as long as I can help it), I can honestly say that this was a valuable and memorable experience, one that I will reminiscence over for many years to come.
PS: You can see all of our pictures at this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pHV7CJdvieHULiF26
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