We have emerged from the down sleeping bags and feel the strength returning each day! Starting slowly, we've been walking to nearby villages and even got on our skis yesterday (pictures from the Manali-Solang tour).

Two days ago, we jaunted over the Beas River to Vashisht. The village sits on a steep hillside rising east from the river providing great views. With less sales push than the tourism-centric Manali, we found lots of welcoming smiles and a couple young girls even convinced Emily to slide down the hill on their sled (a piece of plastic). In additon to viewing the temples, we also were on a reconnaisance trip to find the start of ski tour. Wandering through the village we found women weaving (common in winter) and people tending to their cattle.

For heating purposes, old homes have a basement or lower level that is the "animal floor." Here the animals eat, sleep, etc and create a central heating source. With 6-8 inches of clay used for floors, supposedly the smells from the animal floor do not rise, only the heat. Sounds great and most likely much better than the contemporary homes that not only lack any sort of insulation but like our upscale cottage, lack mortar between the small stones that make up the (otherwise solid) walls.

In addition to finding what we believe to be the start of the ski tour, the walk was equally satisfying for Em as she was able to check a couple more birds off her list. The bird viewing here is fantastic, whether it is a laughing thrush, blue magpie, Himalayan griffin, or swinging monkey (OK, not a bird, but still fun to see as you're looking up), there are birds everywhere.

Yesterday, we got the skis out of the bag and headed north towards Solang. An absolutely beautiful day with bright blue skies and almost no haze. The track/trail we were on led us high above a village before ending in an eroded hillside. So we navigated our way down the hill, over local woodpiles, and through some homes until we got close to the river. Fortunately, the attitude towards private land here is far less territorial than back home, and seems to be that all people have a "right" to be on the land. This is good, as the difference between a major path and someone's front walk is slim here - beyond our powers of discernment. We expect that we may eventually be shooed out of someone's vegetable garden, but so far nothing but funny looks for a pair of exploring ski tourers!

While our gear deserved a few odd looks from locals, and even a group photo with some domestic tourists most likely seeing snow for the first time, skis here are far from foreign. Everywhere we've been, the kids have been sliding! Whether they're on ski gear being handed down from the tour operators, traditional woods sticks about 2' long with metal curving up for the ski tip, or just rubber boots, the valley residents love to glissade. Very cool.

Speaking of skiing, we are heading north to Solang tomorrow. Solang sits a few hundred meters higher than Manali at ~2500m and boasts a rope tow. This is one of the big 3 ski centers of India and just last night we met a former national ski race champion who grew up training at Solang. Training here involved stomping out a groomed path (with new snow depths often topping a meter) above the rope tow, placing bamboo poles into the snow for gates, then hiking laps to practice slalom turns. I think TAS (Team Alpental Snoqualmie) has it just fine at home.

The crew at Himalayan Journeys continues to treat us great. We are keeping most of our gear at the cottage while we head up to Solang the next few days. It is very comforting to have a base, and much easier getting around town for basics with their network of friends. We look forward to somehow paying them back. Unfortunately Himanshu has not arrived back in town yet so any of our help towards the ski village remains to unfold.

We continue to have little luck with posting pictures so bear with us...our patience has grown tremendously but still 2 photos an hour challenges even strong Buddha minds. We have a few more potential tricks to try when we get back from Solang.

Glad the Cascades have been getting dumped on and looking forward to figuring out some satellite magic for the Hawks game come February 5th!!!

Labels: India, Kullu Valley, ski touring