Day 2: Winter Expedition to Auli, Deoriyatal & Chopta

Day 2: 23 December 2015 at Auli

We had big plans for the next day. We noted that the minimum temperature had touched as low as -6^o C early morning, but that didn’t budge our persistence. One by one, starting with Gaurav (who usually gets up early just to run to the bathroom), we all got up early and were ready, after taking baths in that frigid temperature, at around 6:15 am as we wanted to see the sunrise from the majestic Himalayas. Huffing and panting, exerting as still adjusting to the altitude and cold weather, we reached the Hanuman temple close by which was a good location to be a party to witness the sun rise from behind the hills. The weather was painfully gelid and we hoped that the sun would rise soon. But we had to endure more before experiencing the otherworldly.

Mt. Kamet that started to obtain an orangish hue initially. We realized that the sun had risen behind the hills. Mt. Nanda Devi felt like it was burning. Sunlight was blending with some fog to produce the magic. And then it happened. Sun slowly began peeking from the hills. Gradually, Mt. Nanda Devi, Hathi Ghowda and Mt. Kamet had all begun to simmer with the godly rays. While my fingers kept clicking to capture the breathtaking resurgence of this everyday yet a deeply invigorating phenomenon, my eyes, now and then, looked away from the camera to testify the event itself. We couldn't have asked for a better start of the day. Despite watching sunrise umpteen times, it still fills one with vigor all the same.

The chill in the climate was getting the better of us, more of me I would say. In spite of the woolen gloves, my hands had frozen and I was even unable to hold my camera properly. I had to run to the warmth of the heater in the room just to get the blood in my hands gushing again. But what we had just lived was certainly worth the pain.

We were told that the breakfast at GMVN restaurant is served from 8 to 10 am. We reached at around 9 am. We ordered parathas and puris and I came out to take more photos. The camera battery played spoilsport and from 90% the last night, it was showing low battery now. We finished the breakfast promptly and ran to our room to charge the battery for at least for half an hour. To make things worse, there was no power when we reached the room. We went to the reception to check if there was power. As soon as we reached there, he said that power has come back. We returned to the room to keep the battery charging and ventured out to nearby areas.  At 10:30 am, we were ready to leave. We kept out luggage at the reception and vacated the rooms. At around 11 am, we had reached to the place where cable car starts its journey. We paid INR 300 per person for the roundtrip. It took us near the ice rink, which usually appear completely frozen in the photos. That season was still far off and the snow machines would start artificially snowing the rink after 1st January as we were told.

We charted our own path from the rink to under construction ecotourism resort and then to a chai-cum-maggi shop. We enquired a few things there and moved again. The higher we were going, the depth of the snow under feet increased. And then our childhood spirits overpowered our true nature. On seeing the first slope full of snow, I couldn’t think of anything else but to slide from the top (not as deadly as it looks) to the bottom and I tried to do the same. Clumsily I sled down and came back up with Gaurav's helping hand. Videos, selfies, some DSLR photos were all part of the trek up. While Utkarsh mimicked the  scene from the song in Dil Chahta Hai movie where Aamir Khan tricks at eating a raw fish with snowball, Gaurav actually kept the snowball in his mouth till I clicked the photo.

We saw ITBP personnel getting trained in the snow. We found a solo corner from where a dense forest at even higher altitude originated. It was covered with heavy snow, suitable for any enthusiast. I was leaping with joy here and there when Utkarsh kickstarted the snowball war and soon we were aiming at each other. Targeting and evading. We started to climb higher and higher only wishing to reach one of the peaks. We were bound not by energy or stamina but by time. The last cable car runs at 4:30 pm and so does any vehicle from Auli to Joshimath. Thus we thought it to be prudent to climb back down and summit another peak in the next few days. 

 

As we reached the maggi stall on the way back, we gorged on the maggi and sipped tea getting warmth from the fire that fellow had alighted. He mentioned that the weather was also getting worse and we had to resume our descend. We were back by 2 pm at the GMVN but couldn't find any vehicle going down. One was asking for INR 1000 for going down. As we reached the reception, we overheard a girl ordering a taxi from Joshimath. We asked her if we could also join her and she readily agreed. As the taxi arrived, we arranged our luggage on top of the vehicle and chatted with each other for the next half an hour. We bid the girl goodbye on reaching Joshimath and paid her 750 bucks. 

It was 3:30 pm in Joshimath and we waited for any bus or cab to go to Chamoli where we wished to stay overnight and meet another of our friends, Dinesh, who had travelled all the way over from Bhopal to join us for this expedition. But we had to wait for another half an hour before one of the cab drivers agreed to take 10 guys to Chamoli if people paid him INR 150, nearly double of the usual INR 80 bucks. We reached Chamoli in couple of hours at around 6:30 pm and found Dinesh standing there. Overall, he had travelled extensively and waited another 3 hours before we eventually met him. We were all rejoicing after meeting each other again after our college days.

Dinesh had already found a room in a lodge at INR 700 for the night, which we found convenient enough. I also called up Raghuvir Negi in Sari village to enquire about night camp at Deoriyataal (lake) on top of a hill in the same Sari village. I asked him about the best way to reach the place. He mentioned that there is a route from Chamoli to Chopta and then to Deoriyataal but that might as well be closed due to snowfall. He said that he'll call back the next morning to confirm if that route was okay or was it better to take the other longer route from Chamoli to Rudraprayag to Ukhimath to Sari village and then trek to Deoriyataal from Sari village. Teasing Dinesh over the fun that he missed today, we gossiped for long, watched TV and slept off comfortably.