Just returned from our first trip back in the hills of northern India and wow is it great to be back in snow country! I think Dusty summed it up great when she justified my sustained energy to climb as "eleven months away from mountains." It has been quite rejunivating to be back!

In addition to the large masses of snowy earth that calls my soul, my return trip to the Kullu Valley has yielded warm welcomes from the friendly communities of friends we made here last year. After the 16+ hour bus ride from Delhi, we arrived in Manali to the warm hospitality of Peter's family: hot chai, showers, and peaceful views up the valley from their balcony.

On our first full day in the valley, Rob and I hiked up to Solang where Em and I lived for most of our season. Just before Solang, we were stopped at a river where villagers from Burruwa and Solang were building a bridge to connect the two communities. We helped throw some stones into the approach and appreciated being allowed to share in the communal chore.

The next day we got on our skis for a day trip up into the Gulaba region. We both felt the altitude but still enjoyed almost 4000' of spring turns as Robo caught his first glimpses of this vast high country. We descended to the bottom where the Himalayan Ski Village was sponsoring a ski contest. I ran into a bunch of local mountain acquaintances there and soon enough we were strongly urged to attend the awards ceremony and eat lunch. This was Robo's first no silverware eating experience and being the rough-Alaskan-working-next-to-the-wild-things-guide he is, he was quite the natural with his bare hands.

The day was great as I recognized most of the attendees and immediately felt like I was back amongst a community of friends. I think the fact I returned has given me a certain level of respect from locals while simultaneously boosting their pride in their backyard. Lots of people continue to ask how Em is doing and sending love her way. She is missed by many.

Building to the community of great people we have met here in the Kullu Valley is the Canadian duo of Jeff and Dusty. Fabulous folks and instantly we hit it off. They are kind of the Trev & Em of this season as they have been living at The Iceland Hotel in Solang since February.

They invited us on their "final trip" to Rohtang Pass and due to the obvious synergy, it was a no-brainer to accept. We were delayed a few days on our departure as the Army was not allowing us to our desired road drop-off point due to the fact that the "Chief Engineer" was in town. We tinkered with trying to get permission as it is just a liability issue that they wouldn't allow us to pass their road block. Sure enough, two days later we were allowed up as any sort of liability concerns seemed to have left town with the "Chief Engineer."

We spent seven days camped up on Rohtang Pass (~14,000') and enjoyed some very sport lines. It was a perfect first trip for Rob and I as we had one base camp allowing for day pack (lightweight) trips, were camped high for instant acclimitization and had quick access to many great routes that did not require early morning starts and huge vertical gains.

Conditions were fantastic with consistently sunny mornings and a stable spring snowpack. In addition to great skiing, we shared tons of laughs with Jeff and Dusty. They are both holds-no-bar sort of jokesters and it was great to throw jokes around so easily.

We had such a great time that they are going to join us on our next trip up the Jagatsukh Valley. We are hoping that this journey will be another false "final trip" for them!

Labels: Iceland Hotel, India, Kullu Valley, Manali, ski touring, Solang

We finally put more pictures up – our hike to the waterfall this afternoon, Trevor and Joe’s experience at the Festival in Burruwa (in the Solong Winter folder), 3 surprise days of skiing at the local hill, and some pictures of life here at the Iceland.

We had been planning five days of camping up on Gulaba, and had our bags packed and a taxi hired for the morning of the 20th. Morning dawned with another snowstorm, so we scratched that idea. The next day was sunny, but we didn’t think the road to Gulaba would be open, so Trevor and I walked to Manali. We took the scenic route through the villages and orchards on the west bank of the Beas, and enjoyed friendly faces, plentiful bird life, and greening fields set against a backdrop of freshly snow-covered mountains.

With the clock ticking on Joe’s time in Solang (he had a ticket for the 1-day cricket match in Delhi the 28th) we decided we’d better get him up into the mountains one more time. Our bags were still packed, so we set out for Dhundi and Beas Kund on the morning of the 22nd. We planned to set camp further up the valley than on our last trip. There comes a point in the tour when the valley narrows, and a choice needs to be made between touring up the river bed, or taking a high route over some benches to the right. Our choice to take the high route didn’t work out particularly well. Several harrowing hours, nasty gullies, and difficult-to-traverse debris fields later, we set camp well short of our intended destination. It’s hard to complain about the site, though. Trevor and I agreed that it might be the most beautiful spot we’ve ever camped, with sheer rock cliffs, hanging glaciers, the river below, and Hanuman Tiba presiding at the head of the valley.

Morning brought bluebird skies and the sun on our tent at 7am. We set out for Beas Kund, but topography and avy considerations taken into account, we decided we were not in a position to make the tour. So we did a quick lap of the slope above us on some nice spring snow, and went back to camp for some serious lounging. We dug an L-shaped couch (complete with coffee table) and added the sleeping pads. Sunny, snacking, card-playing perfection, with an incredible view.

At dusk we were just finished eating dinner in the tent (protein nuggets in soup with pasta – yummy!) when we heard very strange noises coming from outside the tent, near the cliffs above our campsite. Somewhere between a goat, a hawk, and a dying crow…a repeated bleating/cawing that we didn’t know what to think of. Trevor made the excellent point that it would be better to check it out while there was still enough light to see, so I headed outside. I saw motion a few hundred feet up the hill – what looked like a fox. Joe and Trevor got outside the tent in time to see it make its way – stopping several times to look back at us – across the hillside and away from us. A few hours later we heard the same strange noise again. (A Google search has since revealed that foxes do make noise exactly like what we heard - who knew?) Overcast skies and a chilly wind convinced us the next morning that we should head home, and we had an interesting and enjoyable exit ski along the river. By the time we got home, it had gone from drizzling to raining, and it rained, snowed, and hailed for the next three days.

This afternoon we took a hike to a lovely waterfall just across the valley. We didn’t even know it was there until our friend Dev recommended we check it out. We started out after lunch, spotting one of the most interesting birds I’ve seen here before we even crossed the Beas - the hoopoe has eye-catching black stripes on its wings and back, and an impressive fan-shaped crest on its head. We continued on over the bouncy wooden bridge and through the boulder field of the river bed. The falls are not far from Old Solang, but even though you get a glimpse of them on the trail to the village, they are not exactly easy to get to. We tried the direct route first – following the stream up into a fantastic gorge, with ferns and flowers growing out of the overhanging rock walls. As the gorge narrowed, we couldn’t go any further. We retraced our steps, going around up through the village and over the ridge above. Views of Friendship peak over blooming yellow mustard crops, flocks of mountain finches performing synchronized aerials, and purple wildflowers clustered around every stream we crossed would have made the route worthwhile regardless, but we eventually rounded a corner to see the falls tucked back in a narrow valley, with sheer rock walls behind. We displaced a couple of kestrels, likely there in pursuit of the flock of snow pigeons cautiously foraging at the edge of a few patches of snow on the hillside. Two piles of pigeon-colored feathers (one in the lower gorge, one right by the falls) attested to the kestrels’ success. After sunning ourselves on a rock just outside the spray of the falls, we headed home for dinner.

Tomorrow we hope to head up to Gulaba again… wish us luck for better weather than the last two times!

Labels: hiking, Iceland Hotel, India, Kullu Valley, ski touring, Solang, Solang Valley, wildflowers