This is Himachal Pradesh in winter, located in the northern part of India in the Himalayan mountain range, where winter has already arrived. Snowfall has begun above 2200 meters, and in a few days or weeks, it will reach down to 1800 meters. How wonderful it would be if I could see the snow-covered landscapes from the sky like a bird! I hope to get a drone soon so I can fulfill this wish.
In today's post, I'm going to tell you how I and my two companions reconnoitered a mountain route, marking the path wherever necessary. Today, we will travel from Solang Valley to Kothi village, which is situated at an altitude of 2500 meters. From there, we will have to climb the mountain and hike to Kothi Top, which is at 3200 meters.
From Kothi Top, if the weather is clear, we will see Hanuman Tibba Peak, and from there, following a dry stream, we will reach the base of Mount Patalsu Peak, which is called Khobi. Khobi is at an altitude of 3450 meters. I hope we don't encounter any snow or other difficulties on this route. We all want to finish the day in a spectacular way.
We woke up at 7 AM and quickly packed our bags. After breakfast, we left our hotel on foot. Walking, we crossed the Nag Temple and Palchan village and reached the Rohtang turn. From there, after walking another 2 km, we reached Kothi village. Now the rest of the path is all uphill, nothing but climbing. We started our trek at 8:30 AM, and slowly climbing, we reached Kothi Top, which is at an altitude of 3200 meters. So far, we've hiked 7 km. Upon reaching the top, we couldn't see the Hanuman Tibba peak due to the clouds. From here, we entered the forest. After walking for about half an hour, we saw snow that had fallen two days earlier, though there wasn't much of it here. Walking alongside a dry stream, we encountered knee-deep snow. Where we were previously walking at a good pace, we were now moving much slower.
Our shoes and pants were wet from the snow. While there was some sunshine in the morning, the sky was now covered with dark clouds, and a cold wind was blowing, making it feel like it was about to snow. I was walking in the lead, marking the necessary points, while my companions were behind me, enjoying the surrounding scenery. Everywhere I looked, there was only snow. Besides the threat of snowfall, I also felt the danger of wild animals.
Last year, while hiking in this same valley, I saw a black bear, and we ran down the mountain very quickly after seeing it. I don't want to see a bear again. But even if we wanted to, we couldn't walk fast because of the deep snow. At a certain distance, I could see our destination, Khobi, covered in snow. The trail wasn't visible in the snow, but I've been on this route before, so we were on the right track.
We started our hike from Kothi village at 8:30 AM, and it was now 4 PM. Khobi was still about 2 km away. We spent the next 2 km struggling with thirst. We had already finished all our water and the food we had brought with us. All three of us were saying in unison that we wished we would reach Khobi soon. Finally, before 5 PM, we reached Khobi, which is at 4350 meters.
Khobi is the base camp for Mount Patalsu Peak, which is 4250 meters high. The peak was covered in snow, and so were our shoes. Well, that was our day, where we spent about 8-9 hours in the snow. It was a wonderful day and the three of us had a great time. I hope you enjoyed the day too.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from One Plus 13R, and post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.
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[//]:# (!worldmappin 32.31620 lat 77.15685 long We 03 friends spent 09 hours hiking on a snow-covered track (Solang valley, HP, India) d3scr)