The forecast said there is a 30% chance of rain. We expected that there will be some showers in the afternoon and that’s it.
It started raining at 1:00 AM at night and it never stopped. The mountains have their own rules. No weather forecast can predict what goes on in their minds.
The ground below the tent had eroded so much that my back hurt like crazy sleeping on the uneven ground.
In Bangalore, I had memory foam. Here, I just had the memory of foam.
7:00 AM – We were supposed to go to the base camp today. It was only a 2hr trek but with the rains, it was not recommended. We decided to wait and watch.
10:00 AM – It’s still raining. It’s almost like the mountains are mocking the weather forecast.
11:00 AM – Rain increases. Mountains show no respect to weather reports.
11:30 AM – We decide that we can’t move in this weather. We have a buffer day in the plan anyways. We will stay here today and move tomorrow.
12:00 PM – It starts snowing. Snow in the middle of May (middle of summer).
12:30 PM – The snowing increases. Our tent roofs are covered with snow and we are continuously cleaning them so that they don’t sag and fall.
1:00 PM – We have made the decision that we won’t be able to continue the trek as it would have snowed even more higher up on the Pass and it’s not a good idea to walk on fresh snow.
1:30 PM – Local drinks arrive as we have nothing much to do. Millet based ferments to keep you warm and to interfere with your brain communication pathways so that the brain areas controlling balance, memory, speech and judgement can get impacted and you feel at ease. 😃
2:00 PM – It’s still snowing. The entire area which was green or brown before has become white. Everything around looks like a black and white sketch. There is no colour.
6:00 PM – It finally stops snowing. we have accumulated around 3 inches of snow in just few hours. Even the trek organisers are a little surprised that it has snowed so much.
7:00 PM – We have nothing more to do. We start dancing to Himachali songs, around the fire. The fire warms us from outside and the millet ferments from the inside.
8:00 PM – The sky is almost clear as it has spat everything it had on us. Till new clouds form we can see the stars clearly. We take night pictures.
9:00 PM – We retreat to our tents after dinner. Tomorrow we will walk back to where we started from. We will not able to summit. Himalayan treks are always unpredictable like this.
The next day, we packed everything and started walking back to where we started. It was a LONG walk but at the end of it we reached the cozy warm village of Janglik.
Endless thoughts 