If it seems like we haven't posted in a bit, it's true. We moved up-valley, to a smaller town with a much more laid-back attitude, phenomenal ski access (and initially much less internet access). We made the move last Sunday thinking we'd be here for 3 days, and today we went down to Manali to get more of our stuff in order to settle in to Solang (pictures) for a longer stay.

We headed north and up on India's Republic Day to find our intended hotel (The Iceland) completely booked up. The Friendship looked like the next best option, so we ended up taking a room there. The room came with a wood stove and firewood each night, which we fully took advantage of - with the fire our warmest nights since arriving in Himachal Pradesh. If the rooms were a bit run-down, and the kerosene used to start the fire were less than optimal, we were just excited to be here and ready to ski. Our first afternoon we took a little tour up above the ski lift (which covers approximately 75 feet of vertical over 100 yards), and immediately felt the altitude. Solang is at ~2400 meters (~8000 feet), compared to Manali at ~2000 meters. The little ski slope at Solang is really a bit of a circus, and the best part of touring on the hill may be the local entertainment. Tons of Indians (many of them honeymooners) come here to see snow for the first time, and the ensuing chaos/excitement is fantastic. Many of them rent rubber galoshes and either full-length fur coats or fantastically colored snowmobile suits from road-side stands in order to be properly outfitted for snow-play. Locals rent out (mostly ancient) ski gear and offer lessons to first-time snow enthusiasts, who seem completely uninterested in anything as boring as the snowplow, and spend much of their time in a determined racing tuck (on a 10 degree slope) with their instructors pushing them up or down-hill. Tea stands abound, yaks are decoratively placed so tourists can pay to have their picture taken with or on them, and a truly wicked tubing slope operates right above the throng with complete disregard for who might be in the way at the time. The final liability factor is the paragliding operation that occasionally sends a client down right on top of the whole mess - skiers, tourists, yaks and all.

Retiring to our rooms, we were pleasantly surprised when the waiter/bellhop/floor scrubber appeared with our wood and proceeded to start a roaring (if stinky) fire. Shortly after that, he returned to tell us that our dinner was ready (did we order food?). In the dining room, we met up with another visiting ski tourer from England, who'd been living at the Friendship for about 2 weeks, and had the system figured out. As the small mountain of food arrived (2 dishes each, plus more rice than we could eat, plus chapatis - soft flat bread), Joe explained that if you didn't specifically order, and didn't let them know you'd be eating elsewhere, they just brought you a lot of food. Which gets added to your bill.

Day 2 we decided to ski tour up to Dhundi, still further up the valley, to scope out the approaches to a few ski tours. Our ski-touring guidebook described a lovely approach via a nice flat road covered in snow. Since publication there's been a new development: The Tunnel. India's little row with Pakistan over Kashmir has resulted in a need for troops and supplies to the north of where we are - an area effectively blocked off by high, snow-bound passes (like Rhotang Pass near us) for up to 6 months a year. The solution? A 17k tunnel right through the heart of some really massive mountains. Unfortunately for our peaceful tour, the Indians are so keen on the tunnel idea that they're employing work crews year-round to improve the existing road to the mouth of the planned tunnel (unfortunately the road we wanted to ski up). This involves first clearing away the snow with a bulldozer (no easy task when a meter of snow needs to be cleared off 7k of roads just to get to Dhundi, then maybe 2 or 3k more to the tunnel site), then blasting away the banks bounding the road, then letting crews of Nepali workers break any big rocks into pieces using sledgehammers, then using the smaller pieces to gravel the road. We were mostly contending with the clearing process on our tour (either bootpacking the already cleared part, trying to stay ahead of the dozer on the partially cleared part, then finally having a couple of klicks of peaceful touring when the machine slowed for a difficult part). Dhundi was pretty inspiring. The views of Hanuman Tibba, Friendship Peak, and the Beas Kund tour made us anxious to bring our camping gear up to settle in for a few days. We skipped the dozer conflict on the way home by touring via the river most of the way, which worked out quite nicely.

Since our first couple days in Solang, we've moved over to the Iceland (much nicer - and fantastic food), and met up with Kelly, a crazy Canadian staying there. We four ski-touring gringos have had a few hikes, some touring up above the lift, and one really fantastic ski tour up Patalsu (post coming - maybe tonight).

So to summarize: we love Solang, the folks at the Iceland are fantastic, we've been playing way too many hands of cards with Kelly and Joe, and tomorrow we've volunteered to help out with a local youth ski competition up on the hill. Things are going quite nicely indeed.

Labels: India, Kullu Valley, ski touring, Solang