Road to Hampta Pass

   

Hampta Pass Ahead

 It all began with me and my Best Friend wanting one last trip before he goes abroad for studies and so began the search for an exciting Himalayan trek. After some dilemma we finally cherry picked Hampta Pass from other options. Come the day of leaving for trek 19th June 2018, we got on the train from Mumbai, started making new friends and before reaching Delhi the next day we had ourselves a nice group of interesting and fun people, all pumped up to scale the mountains.

    After, one day's bus ride we reached our first destination on the trek. The first base camp embedded in mountains at the scenic yet tiny rumsu village, Manali .

Finding our path in rumsu  and tea at base camp

View from Base Camp

View from Base Camp

Our first trek was a short acclimatization trek in the mountains surrounding the village. We got to see the mountains and the flora and fauna in the region. Back from the trek, we were excited for the big event next day, leaving for Hampta. But the day wasn't over, while everyone was full of energy and playing games, I was napping comfortably in the room. In the evening, we were briefed about our route to reach Hampta Pass and what to carry.

Trek Route

 We left for trek early the next day in jeeps and after a brief stopover at a scenic place in the middle of nowhere, we reach the start of the trek.

Day 1: We reached our first Base Camp at Chikka (11,100 feet) . It was a short Trek of approx 2-3 hours. This was my first introduction to the landscape and it was completely mesmerizing. The campsite was near a flowing river which we will be following throughout the trek ahead. After reaching the camp we had an acclimatizing trek to a nearby waterfall.

Waterfall  and the camp tents

First sight of the camp

A Good Boy guarding the tents 

Landscape near the base camp

Also, this was my first time ever in a sleeping bag in mountains, and what better place to wake up to then the clandescent peaks, the sun rising from silver snow caps and misty rivers.

Day 2: Woke up early in a chilling cold, got ready(just came out of tent actually)and after a hot breakfast, we left for BALU KA GERA(12,650 ft). I remember having questions, why is it called balu ka gera ?kon hai balu and usko kyu gera? ( i am pretty sure that means something totally different in the local tongue) which were quickly undermined by the excitement of crossing the cold cold river in front of us, barefoot. That was the highlight of the day for me.

crossing the river led us to a beautiful meadow with green grass and yellow flowers, it looked straight out of a fairy tale. After a total of 4-5 hours of what seemed like a moderate difficulty level trekking, we finally reached our base camp as it started raining and we rushed for tents. Then we had the day to ourselves to explore the surroundings and play. But after some play, I was too tired to be in my senses and took a quick short nap and woke up the next day obviously.

Day 3: Today was the main event, the longest trek awaited me. We woke up super early, ate breakfast and resupplied our water bottles from the river. We were briefed about the route before leaving the camp like always and with the additional instruction to make up our minds for the road ahead because it was going to be 8-10 hours of  trek in a rocky terrain with no tree foliage and low oxygen at high altitude. This was the day we cross HAMPTA PASS(14,380 ft) and reach SHIA GHORU(11,800 ft). This trek was challenging as we had been told and after crossing mountains, climbing rocks and balancing on narrow pathways we finally summitted Hampta Pass. It was a view to behold. Playing in the snow for some time,  the time to descend was marked by the quickly changing weather from sunny to cloudy and foggy. 

Road to Hampta pass

Road to Hampta pass

Hampta Pass 

The Team

Shia Ghoru base camp

We said our goodbye to the pass and left for Shia Ghoru and midst the descend it started drizzling which soon turned into a snowfall but it was really just frozen rain. I finally reached Shia Ghoru , sore and weather-beaten but full of energy somehow. That night ,I creeped out of tents at 1.30 AM in freezing cold to star gaze in solitude but my enthusiasm for wonders of nature was soon overwhelmed by the cold even under 4 layers of clothes and I decided that the stars can see themselves for now and crawled back inside my cozy sleeping bag which I was used to by now.

Day 4: Pretty Relaxed day, the pass was behind us now and ahead lied the road to CHATTRU(10,000 ft). It was a short trek of 3-4 hours with changing landscape and a river to cross. The rocky terrain gave way to grassland with ever increasing oxygen levels as we descend to our final base camp.

Road to Chattru

  

Chattru Base Camp

Maggie

River Crossing

A fellow Trekker

CHATTRU is near a small village and has ample playing area near the campsite. After getting our tents, I and my friends quickly decided to go and explore the village and get our hands on the dhaaba maggie obviously as the weather fluctuated between rainy and sunny in the mountains. That day was the day of relaxing and we played games at the campsite, stayed up late as we 15 people decided to fit in a tent meant for 4 people and sing songs while a torch did not blind us to the darkness in the tent. The next morning we got up to the excitement of going to Manali and I finally had a change of clothes in all these days.

Finally completed this trek with an unmatchable experience which I will remember for a very long time and a new found admiration for raw nature. It really put things into perspective when we live in nature without external human contact, electricity, cellular network or any worries about the busy world out there. It made me realize how uncomplicated things actually are and how little we require to actually survive. So then, Until next time. 

"The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.” 

― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

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