Puliyogare at Zajibal Pass (The great lakes trek)

Day 3: Shekdur (3300m) to Vishansar Lake (3600m)

We woke up to cloudy skies, but thankfully no rain. We had a huge debate with the guides today. The questions were should we carry packed lunch with us. Ideally, we liked to have hot lunch. The guides promised us that we would be reaching Vishansar no later than 3PM and hence the team preferred to have lunch at the camp.

After a breakfast of bread and omlette, we started off towards Vishansar. Since it was cloudy and drizzling, today I chose to put away my DSLR and shoot with iphone. I also started using my Garmin forerunner for route tracking.

We started the day with a climb through forests of birch and cedar. Luckily it wasn't very steep.

The route to Nichnai was looking very beautiful and walking here wasn't too tough

We came across our first snow bridge for crossing the river

Once we crossed the snow bridge, we realized that we had a treacherous climb on the mountain side. The path was less than a foot wide and slippery mud. Our guides would help us individually cross the path, without them some of us would have slipped for certain

The Nichnai valley was a beautiful wide one and reminded us of the Rupin valley

From where we were, the Nichnai pass looked very near and we were excited to reach the pass. What greated was a huge snow field

What was in front of us was nearly a 3km long pass filled with fresh snow. The rains in June last week had brought nearly 4 foot of snow. At many places, the snow was powdery and soft and at other places, we faced slush created by the many horses that had crossed. We also discovered stream running below the snow. Walking was not easy, but sure it was exciting. The panorama shot below just can't do justice to what we saw.

Lest you all assume that this was smooth and fun, let me share the harrowing part. There were many spots where the snow was thin and misstep would take our legs through the snow into the streams below. At places there were muddy patches which were extremely slippery. The worst was getting down from the pass. What we saw was a valley and 100m descent in snow. This was the toughest part of the day and almost everyone slipped on the snow. The two Sidhu's were the hero's though. By this time they had learned to slide on snow and they effortlessly got down and also helped others.

Just as we got on the pass, Amu got hit by the altitude. She had headache and couldn't walk any more. We had to pack off her in one of the backup horses.

Once we left the snow field, we still had to pass through snow patches, streams and slush. Walking through the slush and mud was more tough than walking on snow; they were slippery and at times the shoes got stuck in the mud. By now our shoes were wet, snow and water had gotten though the ankle area and all of us had our toes loosing sensation.

We also realized that we were all hungry now. It was then that it dawned on us that it was nearly 5PM! We had been walking for 10 hours and were nowhere near the camp. We finished all eatables we had and reached down to 3600m and still no sign of the camp. Local shepherds informed us that we were still a few kms away from the camp site and everyone lost all their enthusiasm.

Well past 6pm we reached a fast stream that we had to cross. The two Sidhu's rolled up pants and crossed the freezing water, but the rest of us were in no shape to cross the water. Luckily, the younger and smarter of the guides Siddique reached with the horse and helped us cross the river. We reached the camp after 7PM, a good 12 hours after starting the day. We were furious that the guide had got the distance completely wrong 18km as against 12km!

We were in for further shock; the only food that was ready was Dal and Chawal. Everyone lost control and blasted the guides and cooks for misleading. On top of it one of the horses had slipped and fell into the stream and Vizag Sidhu's bag was fully wet.

The saving grace was that by now the weather was clear and we had the most beautiful starry sky.

Day 4: Vishnasar to Gadsar

We got up at 7 to glorious sunshine. After talking to the guides and the team, we decided that we will start at 11am towards Gadsar. The 4 hours of sunshine was used for drying our wet stuff, which we accomplished thanks to the strong sun. Today we also decided that we would carry packed lunch of pulao. We finally started from our camp at 11:30 AM

Immediately out of camp, we had to cross the river originating at Vishnasar. Sidhu's shoes were immediate casualty and we had to change the soles to help him walk without discomfort.

We then came to the beautiful Vishnasar lake. The lake was deep blue green against the backdrop of snow covered mountain and was fed by the melting glacier.

A little further away was the twin Kishansar lake. The lake was a contrast in that it was complete muddy.

From Kishansar, we had a steep 500m climb to the Gadsar pass. The climb was pretty steep and the going was tough. At places, the route was just a foot wide and some of our team was struggling.

Once at the top, the view towards either side was enchanting. On one side were the two lakes and the other side snowy slopes and glacial lakes. We had our lunch at the top of the pass and felt fully charged.

We have to go down all the way

Today, the team was much recovered and it showed in the way the team did the walk.

The boys planning a snowball attack on their unsuspecting victim

Unfortunately, Amulya again had altitude sickness and seemed to be much worse than the previous day. Horse ride it was for her again.

Our journey today was on gentle slopes and meadows, though through patches of snow, shallow streams and muddy stretches. We also crossed beautiful glacial Gadsar lakes that took our breath away. Finally we reached our camp again at 7pm for the second day.