Auli skiing continued
Second day in Auli
I got up very early in the morning. One thing I do most of the times
when I am out traveling (specially in mountains) is to get up very
early ( before sunrise ). Some the views of sunrise are breath taking.
I am sure you agree with me since you have seen those sunrise photos.
It was very cold in the morning. I was out with Saurabh taking
pictures. There was a layer of cloud on top of Nanda Devi peak. Sun was
rising behind Nanda Devi. As soon as we saw some light, the color of
the cloud started to change. It was initially red. Then slowly changed
to orange. Then bright golden color. I have tried to capture those
lights in my camera by spot metering my camera to those clouds. Some
the results were really cool.
We had told our instructor that we will report at 9.30 in the morning.
But we reached there by 10 am. Kailash had already got Ski for us. We
started immediately. Another instructor Pavan was teaching Saurabh.
Saurabh was way ahead of us in terms of learning. He was very good in
control but his body balance was not that great. He was now learning to
turn.
Rest 3 of us were almost in the same phase. But Pramod showed lot of
improvements initially. He was able to go some distance without fall.
Jalan fell few times initially. But once instructor asked him not to
use the sticks and go without them, he got the body balance right. I
was in the same state as previous day. Falling most of the time. I felt
little bad that I was not able to do it right.
Then I told myself that I can do better. So everytime I start, I was
constantly telling myself to keep my body weight front and concentrate
on controlling. I did pretty well then onwards.
Now I started to get the feel on skiing. I started going little fast
and then trying to control by spreading the heals. I was doing quite
confidently now. I was feeling happy about this.
I didn't fall after this point. I was in control all the time.
My next assignment from my instructor is to go down the hill then stop
at sometime.
The slope where he was asking me to stop was still tricky. I used to
pick speed just before he asks me to stop. But I was doing a good job
on slowing down and stopping. Now I was enjoying skiing.
By this time for some reason, Pramod lost the touch. He was going very
fast. When ever I watch him, I am pretty much sure that he will fall
anytime. He was doing great job to avoid falling sometimes, But his
body was not at all in balance. But he was turning very well.
For me turning became little tricky. I was turning easily to my left.
But Right was little touch for me. I was doing half turn and then going
down the slope. For some reason I right leg was not turning as much as
I wanted. But I was pretty much confident that I can do but it is just
matter of time.
We came back to Hotel by 3.30 pm. We had asked resort folks to provide
gas stove and microwave.
We cooked some MTR ready to eat curries and ordered rotis from Hotel.
In the evening we played TT in the hotel. Hotel manager had told us
that they would have a camp fire in the night. So Jalan and myself went
down in the night after dinner to see it. Camp fire was about to start.
We saw that there was a forest fire in one of the peaks in front of us.
I immediately ran to my room to let Pramod and Saurabh know about it
and also got our cameras. We did try to take pictures by exposing for
longtime. But none of those photos came good.
This was our last nite in Clifftop resort. We had to vacate as we
didn't have reservation from next day. So we were having a long chat on
what to do next. There were lots of brainstorming on this.
Some of the places we discussed were
Mussiorie
kasauni
Corbett National park.
Finally after lots of discussion we decided to go to Corbett.
Next day morning we checked out of the hotel in the morning. Saurabh
and Jalan went for a half day skiing. I wanted to go around auli and
explore. So Pramod and myself took the chair car and went down to GMVN
(Ghadawal Mandal Vikas Nigam ). We went to a Hanuman temple. This place
was very peaceful. We spent about 30 minutes sitting there and gazing
the mountains.
We left Auli in the afternoon to Joshimat. We stayed back in the same
Hotel Komet. In the evening Pramod, Saurabh and myself went to
Narasimha temple and Shankaracharya Mutt. I was told that Lord
Badrinath's Idol (of Badrinath ) will be brought to Joshimat during
winter and will be worshiped from
Narasimha Temple. The reason is that during winter it is difficult to
reach Badrinath.
We inquired about Bus to Corbett National park (Ramnagar). There was a
direct bus but it was in the morning 3.30
So prepared mentally to get up early in the morning and set the alarms.
Travel to Ramnagar was very long and tiring. It took 15 hours by
bus. But I must say that the route was very scenic and had some breath
taking views on the way. We reached Ramnagar by 6.30 in the evening.
Ramnagar
Situated in the rich farm belt of Terai, on the southeastern fringes of
the great forests, the busy market town of Ramnagar is the main
administrative center for Corbett National Park.
We first went to forest department. It was closed. But Jeep drivers
there gave all the information
required for us to stay inside National park.
I will talk about Corbett national park in my next and final blog about
this trip and also post some photos from Corbett.
Posted at
10:29PM Feb 14, 2006
by madhu in General |