c u on top - satyabrata dam

  As our last pre-winter Dhauladhar trek of 2021, Ravinder and I chose the rarely visited high pass of Kundli. At 4550m it is mostly used by the shepherds returning from Chamba to Kangra during autumn. Seldom by trekkers. It is a difficult pass with unclear trail marking above Shindi Maata temple (last camping ground of shepherds) on the Kangra side and hardly any trail at all on the Chamba side till you are well clear of the cliffs and reach the tree line. Please do this trek only if you are physically fit and with a guide who knows the trail well. During our 4 days trek in the final week of October, water was difficult to find. I recommend you finish this trek as any other Dhauladhar trek, positively before mid October. Our team comprised of four: Ravinder, Arun Khanna , Akshu (a young local boy) and self. We packed food for five days since the trek is of 4 days.   Day 1 – Tangroti Khas – Kharota (1600m) by taxi. Kharota – Thatarna – Hoddi (2800m) trek. Total hi...

  Brief Introduction:     Chobia Pass offers a passage from Chamba to Lahaul that has been used by the shepherds for ages in their migration season, ideally from mid/end June when they travel to the higher pastures of Lahaul, mostly into Miyar Valley. They begin to return to Chamba around mid to end of September with their well-fed flocks. The ideal season for trekking to this pass is during the shepherd migrations, mid June up till end October or even first half of November. For the rest of the year the pass is covered in deep snow with frequent bad weather and should be crossed only by experienced hikers with proper gear. The trek from Chamba side begins from Kao Village and ends at Triloknath road head on the Lahaul side or vice versa. It is easier from the Lahaul side if you begin from Triloknath and descend into Chamba side. The approach is easier, and the climb to the pass is gentler.   Ideally this trek from Kao to Trilokinath takes 3 nights and 4...

  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 ...