c u on top - satyabrata dam

Penrose Stairs - the never ending climb When we try to achieve excellence in anything, we perhaps measure our achievements in terms of the degree of expertise which we have managed to achieve. Many quit when they become good, for them, being good is enough. Those that continue soon become good enough. Eventually many of those too would quit, since to them being good-enough, seems enough. A smaller number continue to grow and evolve, seeking further excellence and they become very good and then they quit. There are few who continue further eventually becoming the best, in their chosen field, and then they too stop evolving any more.   But there’s that rare breed of people who just continue without quitting, because they don’t wish to become good, or good enough, or very good and certainly not the very best. They believe in only one thing and that is to be the best of their own-self, without any comparison or scale. They are competing only within and they never quite become the b...

  View from Toral Pass towards Chamba It is said that it takes ignorance to make mistakes and courage to admit that you did. Well, I guess I have plenty of the former if not necessarily the latter. I could have remained quiet or simply not put on records my mistakes, yet I am here since I have always prided upon my ignorance be it in matters of the world or of the mountains. Without ignorance we won’t seek to learn and without mistakes we would never learn. Once someone said that show me a person who has never made mistakes in his life and I will show you a person who has never tried to learn. Mistakes must be made; else our learning would only be bookish, rather than experiential. And with that spirit let me begin. May I add that before you read this post, please step back and read my post on Toral that precedes this one.   Crossing Toral Pass from Kangra into Chamba is an arduous adventure by any standards and should be undertaken only in a group with a guide and adequat...

  Add caption As October was coming to its conclusion, I decided to do one more Dhauladhar Pass before the festive month of November set in. This time we opted for Toral Pass, as my friend Ravinder had requested. This pass had been crossed by his shepherd forefathers and he had never been there so he wanted to visit the footsteps of his ancestors. Nearly 10 years back I had gone to Toral Pass from Kangra side and had returned back to Kangra therefore I presumed that I at least knew the first half of our journey. Once again we decided to do this pass unguided, just the two of us. And this subsequently proved to be an immense tactical error much to our chagrin. Despite our combined experience of over 50 years, we got stuck at one place, totally lost, which I completely attribute to our own errors of judgment and perhaps a good amount of complacency on my part. I will elaborate upon this as a lesson learnt not only for myself (even after a climbing career spanning 45 years and pretty ...

  Singhar Pass, temple and view of Chamba side After a brief respite once again my friend Ravinder from Tangroti and I headed up to yet another Dhauladhar pass connecting Kangra with Chamba. This time our objective was the dreaded Singhar Pass, which has also been called the killer pass. To my knowledge, this is the only Dhauladhar Pass that even the Gaddis (shepherds) are bit wary of crossing. Hence trekkers crossing this pass is extremely rare. I know of only one instance before us that of two friends of mine, Rijul and Tarun, both seasoned hikers. A brief mention about the pass altitude. Figures vary about its height but according to my altimeter and referring to Army Survey maps I would place the height between 4330 to 4350m hence I would settle for the higher figure of 4350m. The pass ridge is rather long so it depends at which point you cross it. My estimate of 4350m coincides with the lowest point on the ridge, where the temple is located and to which the trail leads. Now ...