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Showing posts from 2016

Panwali Kantha

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A day by day account of my experiences while hiking Panwali Kantha, which is a high altitude pass and sprawling meadow in Garhwal Himalayas.  Day 0 Delhi to Rishikesh I made a random plan to trek to Panwali Kantha. Came home from work, booked a bus seat, packed my bags, bought a few utilities and off I went. I definitely feel that sense of purpose. The entire journey in the metro, I was immersed in deep thoughts. A visual of what I expect from this trip. The guy standing next to me in the metro had a tattoo on his right arm. "Nothing shall be impossible" - Luke 13:7. Amen to that! Another guy in the metro was presumably chatting with his wife on Whatsapp Husband - "Aaj khane mein kya hai?" Wife - "Dal roti and bhindi" Husband - "Aaj khane mein maza aayega, kal bhi maza aaya tha" He kept talking about food for the next 5-6 messages.. Dude must be really hungry. Yes, I peep into other people's whatsapp messages

Chadar Trek

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I must have some irreversible attachment with Ladakh. I was there in September and I have just returned from there today. This time, I went for Chadar trek. The planned route was - Zok to Tilat Sumdo to Shingra Koma to Tsomo to Dibb to Nerak However, As I learned in the last few days, Trekking in the Zanskar valley is highly unpredictable. To beat the Chadar, you have to become the chadar. Cold, constantly reformed, hard. My perception of cold also kept changing on a daily basis. I think that is the USP of this trek. Dealing with extreme cold is part of the adventure. It was fun watching the Zanskaris deal with it though. Whats routine for them is adventure for us. I wonder if enough people realize that. They probably do. We couldn't make it past Tsomo due to the Chadar not having formed from there on. There was an alternate route via the rock patches on the side of the river but even after it, there didn't seem much to keep any hopes of progress alive. Howeve