Preface

It's a long time since last excursion, so we thought of a different place this time. It's February 2009 and we aware of that it certainly snowed in higher reaches of Himachal. We had seen snow and snowfall many a times in past so this time we planned for something different and guess what it was -"A Frozen Lake". Yes, we were planned for a frozen lake this time. We had enquired about Parasher Lake but to our disappointment, came to knew that the lake was not frozen and had melted.

Another option was Sirloskar Lake, near Jalori Pass in Himachal. We don't have any idea about the situation there but had not any other option we decided to trek to this beautiful lake. So the team prepared and I along with Mayank, Vijay, Indraveer (Iv) & Varun packed the bag and headed to Jalori Pass in Iv's Honda City car.

Itinerary:

Day 0: 6th Feb 2009: (Chandigarh --> Narkanda, 165kms)

We left for Narkanda on Friday after office at 6:30PM and reached Narkanda in pitch dark at 12:30AM. We had dinner after Shimla at a roadside dhaba. The journey was eventful; Varun had puke out followed by me:). I still don't know why it happened, that was the first time that I had vomit on the way. We realized that it getting dark and in winter the night falls way before in hills, so we were little tense about getting accommodation in Narkanda.

Thanks to God that we didn't find dense fog on the way, though occasionally some fog was there but driving was not a problem into that. We reached Narkanda at 12:30AM and it took us complete 1 hr to find an accommodation and that to be in Rs600 per room, which didn't even worth Rs100. We were amazed that, what the hell going on that all the hotels was booked in this tiny town. We got our answer next day.

Note: Please have your dinner or lunch before Shimla, as there are not many option after that and you have to either keep fast or have only Rice-Daal as the option.

Day 1: 7th Feb 2009:(Narkanda --> Luhri --> Ani --> Khanag --> Jalori Pass --> Sirloskar Lake, 19 + 18+ 8 + 7 by car + 7kms trek)

We woke up at 6AM and soon after refreshed from daily activities, we were all set for moving to Jalori. The weather was chilled outside and the peaks were clapped with tons of snow. One can catch the glimpse of Kinner Kailash ranges from distant. We could saw the Hatu peak that covered with snow at that time. People rushed to this small town to enjoy skiing, that's why all the hotels booked to their peak.

After having some light snacks we moved further at 9:30AM. The road was very well maintained. After covering some 30-35 kms, there is a U-turn on your left side which takes you to the Jalori Pass, the straight road goes towards Rampur Busher. The weather was pleasant but we can felt the scorching Sun inside the car.

We reached Ani, a small but seem to be a big town in this area. We had Rice & Daal in lunch and after purchasing some water bottles moved further. We had bought a bottle of Brandy from Khanag, the last village and perhaps the last liquor shop before Jalori Pass. The road from Khanag till Jalori is steep uphill and in very bad condition. There was no snow till Jalori from Khanag but you can find plenty of snow covered the entire road other side of Jalori Pass.

We reached Jalori at 12:30PM; this pass located at 3300mts & providing you a breathtaking panoramic view of Dhauladhar ranges on your left and Kinner Kailash ranges at your right side. You can find few shops and a small temple on the pass. The other side of road coming from Soja was completely in snow and very few taxis plying at that time from other side.

We were ready for the trek and carried only necessary things with us like tents, sleeping bags and food items. One more interesting thing I want to share here that there was perhaps some miscommunication between Mayank & me in Chandigarh that we forgot to carry a sleeping bag for me. Now we were 5 persons with 4 sleeping bags.

Mayank carried both tents on his shoulder which weigh around 20kg, amazing. There was occasionally the snow patches on the way. The trek path is very well marked and easily located. There is lots of up's and down's on the way. Varun was very slow due to his body weight and it was his maiden trek. So we decided to let Vijay handles Varun & allow Varun to coming at his pace while we reached at the lake and start pitching tents before dark and made all arrangements for fire also.

Well we reached Lake in 3.5hrs. Gosh! What a view we had, the lake was partially frozen and the surrounding was full of snow. The serenity was at its high and nothing was there that could disturb us enjoying that mesmerizing scenery.

We located the tent location and start pitching up the tents after clear off the ground. We had 2 tents but decided to pitch only one. That was the first time we have been using our tents. We prepared tent and start looking for wood for fire. After around 1.5hrs Vijay & Varun had arrived. I & Vijay, prepared a temporary Chullah (stove) by putting using some stones and started fire to cook the food before it getting dark. We had few packets of readymade food that we boiled in the Lake's water.

No doubt about the Vijay's hidden quality as a chef; he had no problem in cooking food with woods and that to be in open space. The weather now getting cold to colder and fast blowing winds made things quite worse. You can imagine the coldness by that the fire that we blown up to keep us warm outside, now slowly got vanished. We tried several times to start it again but no use. The lighter give up and even Petrol that we carried along us, failed to lit up the fire again. The temperature that we recorded was around -17C.

We had took some superb evening shots but the weather didn't allowed us to roam in open for a long so we called off the day and went down in the tents. In night we heard several strange voices like some kind of animal walked outside our tent. We decided not to go out of the tent at any cost and next morning we even saw a bear pug marks in the snow.

Note: Please carry a matchstick as the lighter sometimes failed to fire up.

Carry a knife with you or an Air pistol to avoid wild animals in this kind of isolated places.

Never ever get out of the tent, usually no wild animal tried to get into your tent that make your tent a safe place.

Always pitch your tent besides some stone that can protect your tent from fast blowing winds.

Please throw your food waste at a distant from your tent so that wild animals do not attract at your tent.

Day 2: 8th Feb 2009: (Sirloskar Lake --> Narkanda --> Chandigarh, 217kms by car + 7kms trek)

Woke up late at around 6:30AM, as we hadn't sleep well due to:

1. Snoring of all the members except Vijay (poor Guy, everybody blaming everybody else in morning).

2. Fear of wild animals that walked outside our tent till morning.

3. Mayank and I sharing common sleeping bag by opened it like a quilt, which made us quite uncomfortable but protect us in that chilly night.

What a refreshing view ahead, completely frozen lake. That was the first time that we all could witness of nature's marvelous view. I and Iv had some photo session on the frozen lake against Mayank's wish to not to stand on Frozen Lake. But how could we miss such a wonderful opportunity despite of danger associated with it.

After some photo session we packed out tents and moved back to Jalori. We reached Jalori at 12:30PM and then had lunch on the pass itself. Clicked some pics of the pass and then moved back to Chandigarh.

We safely reached Chandigarh at 10PM. Thanks to Iv for showing his driving skills.

Note : Vodafone, Airtel & BSNL worked fine even at Sirloksar Lake

 

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