Visiting Manali: Rohtang pass

The big trip on the first day was to Rohtang Pass. The taxis here charge you by the trip rather than "per head" and that means that since I was traveling alone, it cost me a fair bit. Still, it was good to have the luxury of being able to stop the car when needed and take pictures or whatever. The driver was fun and good company and it made the trip fun. We rented snowgear and got ready for the climb.

What really impressed me along the way was the road. It had to have about 3000 cars driving up the road everyday. Not to mention the fact that it's on the face of various mountains and subject to extreme weather and erosion. We saw batches of workers repairing the road at various points in near-freezing conditions and it made me appreciate the BRO - Border Road Organization a lot.

The traffic got very crowded at the end and my driver dropped me off a fair bit before the end. That meant that I ended up climbing on my own and it wasn't fun. I thought I was in decent shape since I'd been managing a couple of miles each time I went running lately, but the low oxygen, drop in temperature (from 100 F to 40F) and walking in snow was too much. Of course I didn't know I was screwing myself up till I got back to C'garh. Meanwhile I climbed to the top and it was spectacular, made up for the effort of climbing up. Tall peaks all around, snow everywhere. It made me think to myself "Remember, you trip where you couldn't go any further ..."

Of course, lot of foot and vehicular traffic so that ruins the landscape there a little but it's understandable. After all, this is one of the very few places in India you can have snow in the summer and everyone wants some of that. I kept hearing various languages as I walked through the people. There were atleast two Telugu student groups. Being as this is a honeymoon hotspot, the locals build small snow sculptures shaped like "heats" which couples can sit in front of and have their picture taken. Clever! There're Yaks you can take your pics with, man-powered sleds you can ride to various parts of the Pass, etc. Sadly not enough fresh snow to the point where people could throw snowballs at each other. But still a great sight to see.

The weather changes to quickly over there, like in all mountains basically. During the hike to the top, it suddenly got dark and started snowing. That was a bit scary. It was pouring on the way back and I'd hate to think of the snowfall at the top and the people stuck there.