Vastness of Surrounding

Preface

I read about this place when wandering on net looking for some trekking place nearby Chandigarh. I was planning for this place in the very beginning of February 2008. I came to knew from various resources that this place not be doable in these months (Best time to visit is May-November); still we were so enthusiastic that we left to endeavor Churdhar in the beginning of March. It’s almost commencement of summers in plains but as we reached in hills, essence of chill still there and increases as we headed to our destination.

Our team members includes 4 members Mayank, Abhishek, Abhinav and Sandeep (yeah that’s meJ). We are enthusiastic person working for the same company and like to travel a lot, without any reasons. We planed a little bit and in hurry as we were short of time and want to done this on weekend only. We bought essential things like tents, sleeping bags and trekking shoes from Delhi (though we didn’t use them in the whole journey).

The Journey

Day1: (29th Feb 2008)   We did our assigned task early in office and left for Churdhar from office at around 5:00PM. We bought some essential items mainly readymade snacks from shop and quickly slipped to our destination. En-route we passed Solan and had dinner at Rajgarh where we gathered some more info and to our disappointment came to knew that Churdhar is almost impossible at this time. Still in some hope we moved ahead.

It was quite dark and chilled at outside and as we reached Haripur Dhar, we encountered with some patches of snow at either side of the road. The wind blown at its peak which had makes the darkness scarier.

Note: We had chosen Haripur Dhar instead of Nauradhar or any other places (like Chaupal) accidentally and had we choose some other location we have to return empty hand for sure. This is the only place from where you can climb on the Churdhar Peak at this time of year which is almost impossible from any other location.

We search for the accommodation and came to knew that the only place where you can stay here was Bhangeni Maa Dharamshala. We located this Dhramashala, found a room and slept in peace.


Bhangeni Maa Temple Day2: (1st March 2008)   This temple is dedicated to Goddess Bhangeni Maa, situated on the top of a cliff which provided you a 360 degree panoramic view of Himalayan peaks. This temple is very well built and we amazed to see its beauty. That was amazing experience which can’t be described in words. One can view the majestic peaks of Himalaya from here clapped with snow round the year. On the other side snow clapped Churdhar Peak towering the temple. We were bid prayer in temple and talked to locals about Churdhar peak. They were surprised and about to laughing when they heard that we planned for Churdhar. They discourage us so deeply that we went hopeless; suddenly an ex-army person came to us like a streak of God and suggested us to go Trehan Village which is around 26kms from Haripur Dhar. He told us that from Trehan Village the Churdhar peak is very close and it’s easy to negotiate from there rather than any other place at that point of year.

On the way to Trehan Village We reached Trehan in 1:30 min. (at 11:30AM), thanks to road which was kept in very bad condition. Again we faced same situation here, people laughing when they came to knew that we planning for Churdhar Peak. Everyone suggested us to head back and attempt Churdhar in May-June. But ‘we are we and others water less (hum to hum hai baki paani kum)’, so we were stick to our plan so after about 1 hrs one shopkeeper made a call to Gulab Singh, resident of Trehan village (Gulab singh was our porter for the next 2 days). Gulab came down from its village to Trehan (actually his village is around 5kms from here) and after discussing with him we left most of our luggage back in the car and headed towards his village. We parked our car in front one of the shop.

Gulab’s Village situated some 5 kms from Trehan and it’s a straight climb to his village which was very tiring. We were completely exhausted when reached his village. He offered us shelter under his wooden cottage, very well maintained and neat. We had delicious dinner that night and fall asleep.


Sun Rise at Trehan Village Day3: (2nd March 2008)   We woke up at 8:00AM in the morning and got refreshed as earliest. As per plan we would left for Churdhar early in the morning, well before 8:00AM, but got late and paid hefty amount for that later.

Starting at 9:00AM with pur porters Gulab Singh and Sunder Singh, the climb was very steep and soon we were reached at snow line. At beginning it was fun to walk in snow but soon the patches going bigger and bigger and it’s hard to negotiating them. So now we negotiate them and walk on ground as much as possible but soon we were in the middle of snow.

On the way to ridge Our plan was like, climb till the ridge and then move towards Churdhar by following that ridge only. This was somehow riskier plan as the ridge is covered with snow and both sides had steep gorge, but at that time that was the only way to reach Churdhar.

We reached at ridge in 1.5 hrs, my friends were completely exhausted and so tired that they refused to move ahead. We had have strong argument there (but aap sabko to pata hi hai that a travelling kida bite us), so wasting our precious 45 minutes and over heated discussion we were finally agreed upon a toss (head for moving ahead and a tail for moving back, you going to be surprised that we had tossed the coin 7 times and every time its head, not a single tail). So finally we moved ahead.

View at Ridge The ridge was full of snow, which some where it was like waist deep. We were negotiating one ridge to another and this process continues for another 3 hrs. Meanwhile we had our breakfast cum lunch on the way. We walked at very low pace due to snow beneath us. Now the worst had to be come, sky started overcast. We had to increase our speed as we were in the middle of snow desert with no shelter around us. Soon it started falling Bajri (snow grain type). It getting fast to faster and soon started snowfall. I had never even heard of such an extreme snowfall, and here I was facing that. Snow stroked with our face at such a great pace that started irritating us, so we tied our jacket hood around our face, but no relief. Wind blowing at very high speed and soon there was totally whiteout.

Slope at the Ridge We had no other option rather than moving fast and reached temple, which was now the only hope for us. The condition was that bad that even our porters believed that we never made for the temple. But ‘karte ya marte’, we were continue moving ahead and great part was that we had short of water now. When we moved from Village we were only carried 1 liter of water with us and I wonder how silly we were at that time (Gosh….1 ltr for 6 people). We spent all the water till ridge and now there was only fresh snow that we sucked all the way to fled from dehydration.

After some time the temple came in sight far away and that was such a great relief which can’t be described in words. This would like regeneration of new energy within us. According to Gulab the temple was now some 30 minutes away from us, but we knew that how much these 30 minutes means to these mountain shepherds (I wonder that they actually know how much time it would taken for covering a particular distance or else every thing on mountains is actually lies within 30-40 minutes distance). Well moving ahead was the only way, so we moved quickly for shelter and water.

Actual Scene on the way to Churdhar, snow all aorund We reached near temple in another 1.5 hrs, and Gulab with our two other friends reached there before us. Suddenly Mayank, which was some 50 mtr ahead of me, chop down on the snow with his head totally under snow. I was like running towards him, shocked and afraid in fear of any miss happening. My heart was like pumping fast that it would came outside. I was sweating and one can saw the sweat around my face in such a cold. I and Sundar, took Mayank in our lap and started shouting to other guys for help and water, but it seems that our voices not reached to them. Suddenly Mayank opened his eyes, what a great relief to me and Sundar. I was like nearly crying if didn’t know the situation at that time.

negotating the snowed path Mayank (what a brave boy he is) had stands slowly and asked for moving ahead. In 15 minutes we were at temple, completely exhausted. We were collapsed like parched leaves in one of the room, which was already set up by Gulab and friends. There were only two Pujaris in the temple, which stayed here all the year, even in these harsh winters. They were very surprised as they didn’t expect anyone dare to come there in that harsh weather. We had tea and took a quick nape.

Woke up at 6:30PM and had a look outside, there were snow all around and very mild snowfall still continued. We check our mobile but there were no signal at all. We were afraid because now there was nothing by which we can communicate at our home. There was one more reason for being afraid as we told at our home they we would returned by Sunday (2nd March or 3rd Morning) night and now we were on the top of snowed mountain and there was no clue that how we could descend down the Churdhar. We were talked to Gulab but even he had no clue about that, he told us that its al depends upon weather (we came to knew later that even for them it was their first time to came Churdhar at this time of year). Well we had dinner (Rice & Daal) and were so exhausted that call off the day at 7:00PM, under a 10 quilts layer, which was heavy enough that we couldn’t move freely inside it.


Background the path visible which we covered last day Day4: (3rd March 2008)   Woke up at 6:30AM and found that it was a quite sunny day. The sun rays made white surrounding more beautiful. We had a look all the way on ridge we covered last day. That was such a beautiful & breathtaking view, both side of this peak are lies small villages. We were bid prayer at Churdhar Mahadev Temple and left for the Trehan village.

Now the crucial stage had came as we had to decide from where we were climbed down the peak. There were two options as suggest by Gulab-

1) Took all the way back from ridge, the same path we had covered last day.
2) Slide from the top of the peak to all the way down until we don’t reached to a surfaced ground.

Snowed Slope outside the temple The second option was riskier but very short. The only problem was Gulab didn’t know exactly about this path; he only believed on his direction sense. Well nobody interested in following 1st option, so we took second one.

The sliding was great, this was our first experience of snow sliding and despite of our freezing ass, we were all enjoy this (this proves the theory of adaptation). This was risky too as told by me, as we were afraid of hidden crevasses on the slope and fear of stroked with tree was always there. We were some how managed to stop just before any gorge had came on the way. There was no scope of any fault; as that time, fault means broken body part or even any serious causality.

Pic taken at 2 month after our visit, chk the difference :) Soon we were out of snow line and within 3 hrs, we were at Gulab’s Village. We got fresh in no time and thanks to Gulab and Sunder for their help and moved back to Trehan’s market. Picked our car and moved back to Chandigarh, where we reached at 12:30AM around in night.

This was a wonderful trip under snow storm and harsh weather. This was really a tough journey and we learnt lots of lessen there.