We started the next day to a place called Litham. From there, was our base camp to the Buran pass. Buran pass is the highest point of our trek where we cross the mountain.
The camp in Litham was supposed to be on the snow. However we camped a little away in the soil. Not that it made a big difference as the soil was also freezing cold. When we reached and unpacked our items, it started raining.
It was a heavy downpour. We were all sitting inside the common tent and we could feel the harsh sound of the rain and wind on our tarp. The downpour was so heavy that we could feel the water flowing below the tent also. Initially I was a little scared as this was new to me. But later we all enjoyed the experience.
We had to wear raincoats to even go and pee outside. After dinner, we went to our personal tents. The rain did not stop. Lying down in the tent listening to the rain falling on the tent’s tarp reminded me of the ASMR videos “camping in the rain”. I liked it.
The next day was a steep trek to a place called “Chandranahan lake”. It was a glacial lake and it is the starting point of the Pabbar river. It had rained the whole night and had just stopped a bit in the morning. But it didn’t stop us. We wore our raincoats and started trekking.
Before starting the trek, I sat on a rock and did my pranayama practice. With the sun shining on me, with the sound of the river creating the soothing sound, with tall mountains around me so as to protect me, with fresh air to breathe, the experience was blissful.
We proceeded on the trek. It was a steep climb but once we reached the top, we saw a huge valley of snow. It was snow snow snow everywhere you could see. It was my first experience walking in such deep snow and I thoroughly loved it. We made snow balls and threw it at each other. Even better we used the mountains to create a snow slide and came sliding down the snow. And since it’s snow, we came down sliding head first.
Playing on snow felt like playing on a huge area filled with cotton or foam. You can fall, roll, slide or run without any fear of getting hurt.
We had reached quite an altitude and it also helped in acclimatising for the next day. We could see that the breathing was getting deeper as the oxygen was lesser but it was all a part of the process anyways.
Climbing down was difficult as it had started to rain. The rain was quite heavy and the entire path had become slushy and slippery. I slipped and fell about 8 times while coming down as it was very slippery. Even the trekking shoes gave up on providing any grip in the slush.
We finally reached our base camp after the tiring but memorable trek. Our shoes were filled with water as the snow that entered the shoes had melted into water. 😃
It started raining quite heavily that evening but this day we were not so scared as we had experienced it before. Some water had entered some of our tents, the land below the tents had been washed away creating more uneven surfaces to sleep on. But, when you are trekking in the Himalayas, what else can you expect?
Endless thoughts 