Tuesday March 22, 2005

My rope leader will be part of Mt. Everest Expedition in 2005

My Rope or group leader Mr. Anupam, who was in our rope 9 during the Basic Mountaineering course at Nehru Institute of  Mountaineering at Uttarkashi, will be part of Mt. Everest Expedition organised by Indian Air Force (IAF) this year. We all are proud of him and wish his team members for safe expedition. According to Anupam, the team size is 20 members and 8 members are part of supporting team and rest are climbing members. Indian Army Women team will also try summit Mt. Everest from the North ridge. Good luck for the summit!.

And I'm off to Pithoragarh, Chaukori, Munsyari and Berinag in Uttaranchal for an outing alone this Holi weekend (Holi's a festival in India).

Thursday March 10, 2005

Skiing at Narkanda and Solang Valley in Himachal Pradesh

This is a small diary on my experience skiing at Narkanda and Solang Valley in Himachal Pradesh. Narkanda, at an altitude of 2700m, is a beautiful place. It's 65 kms beyond Shimla on Shimla - Rampur highway. On the way I noticed loads of snow patches  lying on side of the roads. It was looking great. I left Delhi at 9.30 pm on 4th March 2005.

This trip was very special because I went out after four months of tiring gap. So I had loads of fun while travelling and skiing.

Day 1
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I didn't do too much on Saturday because I was little tired after 8 hours of night journey. I just relaxed and went to see the skiing slopes there.

Day 2
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Sunday was the action day. I did six hours of non-stop skiing. I initially started skiing on flat snow surface to get acquainted  ith skies and other fundas of skiing. Gradually I went onto the slopes. The slopes aren't long, but they are very good for those who have just learnt skiing. You can easily traverse on the slopes if you know basics of skiing. I just paid Rs 200 per day for the  Skiing equipment including skies, skiing stick and gloves. The morning session was basically to recap skiing techniques which I had learnt in Feb 2002 at Auli (UA). During this time I must have fallen lots of times and I'll attribute my falls to not able to stop  then I'm about to hit the tress, So I end up falling sideways. In skiing you must know how to fall. That's the first thing you  learn among others like how to balance and body posture.

The fun started in the afternoon session when I started coming down from the slopes which took more than 20 seconds to decend. It  was great. I did fell  quite a few times, but I managed to recover fast. There were people falling badly. However my enthu didn't fade. I continued my skiing and  started going up on the slopes. I was little tired by the afternoon mainly because you need to go  on the slopes with your skies and it's very tiring unless you have ski lifts. Suddenly by 3.00 pm the clouds came and we received snow fall as well. I was having fun skiing during the snow fall. The best part was that nobody was there on the slopes except for Navy folks which were still in the learning stage.

I stayed in dormitory at Narkanada and paid only Rs 60 per day.

Day 3 
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Today I spent in Travelling from Narkanda to Manali. It took more than 12 hours to reach Manali in the bus. However the Valleys were too great. They were so great that my head was out most of the time from the bus. Somehow I managed to get a hotel in Manali and paid just Rs 100.

Day 4
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As soon as I came out at 6.30 am in Manali to go to Solang Valley, I noticed that people were asking for Rs 250 for just 13 kms. I didn't like this and I started Trekking to Solang Valley. The valleys were as usual beautiful. I think had I taken a jeep or  something I would not have enjoyed so much. Snow and snow all over the place. The villages were small and there was an Army camp as well. I had to trek for 3 kms on deep snow surface. Since it was morning, I had few problem in sticking my legs to the icy surface. But that's okay. It was part of the fun. I noticed a Navy guy and his wife coming my way and they were also going for Skiing. So we were talking about our past experience and all. He was great. He encouraged me a lot and especially after seeing that I'm travelling alone. I was really impressed with him.

The skiing slopes are too good in Solang. They are comparable with Auli slopes. I saw few snow scooter there. That was something which I had not seen before. The equipment rates were very expensive. They were asking for Rs 400 for two hours and in fact the skies were not so long. So I didn't like this offer. I approached Mountaineering organisation there but they said they wouldn't give skies for rent. They asked me to join the course for 14 days next time. I've promised them to come back.

Well I would have left Solang at 10.30 am and trekked back to Manali before getting a bus to New Delhi at 1.45 pm. I recached Delhi next day by 6.00 am

The photographs didn't come well because I used 200 speed roll and  Fuji films which my little camera isn't used to :). So I goofed up.

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   (2005-03-10 20:03:43.0)
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