Life in the Clouds: A Trek to Kuari Pass

Life in the Clouds: A Trek to Kuari Pass

Here is the story of my incredible trek to the high Himalayas (13,000 ft) last week in pictures.

We left last Sunday from Mussoorie at 6:00am and had a long day of driving to reach Auli where we spent the night in Mountain Shepherds’ (the company we went through) lodge. It was a long day of driving with really windy roads, but the drive was gorgeous! We stopped a few times for bathroom breaks, chai stops, and meals. Oh yea, and we stopped twice for tire repairs. The first time it was just a puncture that they tried to repair in a small town along the way. The second time the tire had to be replaced. It sounds really bad, but luckily our taxi driver’s friend stopped and helped him change the tire. It only took 15-20 minutes total.

A view from the drive to Auli.

A rest stop in in India.

 Our punctured tire after it had been repaired. This time, the driver actually had to change it. 

We had a great dinner in Auli at the lodge when we arrived. It was pitch black, so we couldn’t see the mountains yet (only the stars). However, when we woke up in the morning, we got gorgeous views of the snow peaks of the Himalayas. This included Nanda Devi, the highest peak in the Indian Himalayas. We were so close to these enormous mountains. It was quite magical and a bit cold! =)

 The lodge in Auli

Some provisions for our trek ready to be carried by the mules.

 The view I woke up to in the morning.

We started off our trek after breakfast. The first day, we hiked up to 8,000 feet and came back to sleep at about 7,000. All of our days were full of beautiful panoramic views of the Himalayas. The first day, we walked through gorgeous meadows.

 This is a view of Nanda Devi - the highest Himalaya in India and the most sacred. It is now a biosphere, so no one can make the ascent anymore.

 On the first day, we walked by a mundir (temple). These are some beautiful bells we saw.

These are two of the Mountain Shepherd guides. The guide on the right was with us for the entire trip. He is 23 years old from Lata Village which we visited later. I really enjoyed speaking only in Hindi with him (although he does know some English).

 More bells at the temple.

 Some of the beautiful meadows we saw on our first and second days.

 We had beautiful panoramas of the Himalayas.

 

One of the nice things about trekking in India is that you don’t have to carry your belongings or make your food. We had incredible meals made by Pushkar, our cook, and our sleeping bags, etc. were carried by mules. For dinner, we always had a dal, roti, rice, and vegetable as well as a sweet. My favorite breakfast was pancakes with honey, eggs, and these sweet, crunchy sesame seed snacks made of jaggery (sugar cane). Yum! 

 

On day 2, we left from our camp and hiked up to our next campsite through more meadows, across a ridge, along a beautiful pond, through the woods, and up to a nice campsite below Kuari Pass. We made it just in time. It was getting cold, and we woke up to snow on the ground the next morning. We had to amend our plans just a bit due to the snow. We made it as far as we could up to one of the summits of Kuari Pass which was covered in snow. Then, we descended to the same campsite as the previous night to warm up and eat some lunch. We would hike about 6 hours a day taking breaks in between to enjoy, take photos, etc. It was extremely cold in the nights, and we built fires to stay warm. One night, we all sang songs around the fire. We alternated between English, Hindi, Garhwali, and French songs. (We met two French backpackers the first night camping.) Even in my down sleeping bag, fleece liner, and three layers of wool socks, I still got cold sleeping in the tents. I would make the trek again in a heartbeat, but it was a bit cold in process.

I fell in love again with the beauty of the mountains. It was such a peaceful setting to walk along these ridges and stare out at the Himalayas. We saw some beautiful birds as well including two golden eagles. The wildlife was not around so much except for a few cows and goats along the way, but we did see some tracks which indicated there were bears and snow leopards nearby. As you can probably imagine, I had a really hard time leaving this incredible place.

 Our mules walking along the ridge.

 This was our lunch spot with Bijju (guide) walking in the background.

 The camp for night 2.

We woke up to a bit of snow after the second night. I was really lucky not have to wash the dishes in the cold water.

 This is the tent where all of our food was prepared and where the guides slept.

It looks cold right?

I was lucky to have brought lots of warm wool clothing which I bought in Mussoorie. I also found another use for my umbrella - hiking stick. It made me look a little like Mary Poppins but was really helpful to avoid slipping going both up and down.

 A snow storm rolling in forced us to head back to the camp for lunch.

 Here are all of our guides outside the tent (plus an extra who wanted to get in the picture). From left to right, Bijju (our guide), Pushkar (a fantastic cook!), Vinod (egg walla/carrier), Rani (mule man and singer with an infectious smile).

 The whole group of trekers and guides.

 Here I am along a ridge from which I could see the Himalayas on both sides.

 After walking at least 7 km a day for three days (11 km on the fourth day), one of my smart wool socks had enough.

We ended up cutting our trek one day short because of the snow, so we had an extra day where Bijju took us to his village, which is less than 140 km from Tibet. On the way, we saw some hot springs.

 We were stopped by some sheep traffic.

 Lata Village has both a summer and winter village which helps with staying cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The village is located in the middle of the mountains, near Nanda Devi, and a beautiful river. I have never seen stars so beautiful. Below is one of the women collecting grass for her animals to keep them alive in the winter. Bijju's mother at 65 years old was out all day collecting grass on the side of the mountain for their animals. It is hard work, but they still manage to smile and have such a positive outlook on life. Below are some pictures of the village.

 A woman carrying water from the tap.

 Two of the cute kids we met who had a school holiday for Eid.

The source of work in this village is farming. This woman is threshing some sort of grain.

 Bijju's cows. We drank some butter tea from these cows while we were there. It's quite a delicacy, and they added some bark from the Yew tree which is supposed to help cure cancer. I was not a huge fan but drank it without making too many faces.

 This temple in the village is over 2,000 years old.

 Bijju put bindis on all of our foreheads at the temple.

 Below is one of the houses used to store grass for the animals in the winter.

 Bijju's family. His dad in the center is 78 years old. He and his wife were married when she was 9 years old and he was 22. Child marriages are much less common now. Bijju's brother even had a love marriage.

 I tried to use the farming skills I learned at Navdanya to help harvest the amaranth and rajma. It was slow, but we actually cleared 4 of the terrace fields using sickles. For us it was fun, for them it's a daily routine.

 Bijju's sister-in-law and nephew

On our way back from Lata, we ran into another road block.

As you can probably tell, I had an incredible adventure to Kuari Pass and Lata Village. I really didn't want to leave. I am going to be planning another trek coming up or at least before I leave. One of my favorite parts was putting my Hindi to use with Bijju and the people in Lata. In Lata, the primary language is Garhwali, but most people also speak Hindi. Therefore, I was inspired to start learning Garhwali which I am beginning next week in addition to my Hindi classes.

All is well here! I hope you are all safe and doing well!

Lots of love,

Margaret