7 Days in Ladakh - Day 2 - Manali to Keylong via Rohtang

The call from our reception at sharp 5:30 am announced the arrival our taxi and we had about an hour to check out and start for Rohtang, and to our surprise, we managed!
Our driver was a young Nepali (Sherpa) lad, who would later impress us with his grasp over the history, geography and even politics of Ladakh and Kashmir. Of course the fact that the Sherpas with their legendary immunity to severe cold and high altitudes (Nepal has the likes of Mt Everest in their backyard), are the best guides and drivers in such terrains did put us a bit at ease too.

It was a pleasant drive early in the morning, and in half an hour we reached the base of a mountain from where it was a constant steep climb to Rohtang, taking us from 7000 ft to 13000 ft in about 2 hours flat!

Soon we got stuck in a traffic jam (highest in the world?) as a car got stuck in the slush on the narrow highway, causing scores of tourist vehicles to queue up behind. Rohtang is an extremely popular spot tourists lining up to check out the snow which adorns it for almost 10 months round the year.

There was a huge contingent of tourists from a particular state (I won't say which!),whose sight was so hilarious it made me burst into peals of laughter - they were covered in like 10 layers of clothing causing them to walk like a robot - enough to embarrass an Eskimo, and we were not even near snow yet !

The view gradually changed from scenic to spectacular, as we left the pine tree forests and moved up above the tree line into rocky snow bound peaks.

Soon we reached RohtangLa top, our first pass as well as our first encounter with snow on the trip.

Rohtang, by the way, means - "The Pass of the heaps of corpses" in Tibetan - a deadly name for so beautiful a place. It also serves as a natural climate barrier between the fertile green valleys south to it, and the dry high altitude desert of Ladakh to the north.

This was my 4th visit to this Pass, the last being in 2005; still it felt as refreshing as the first time.
There was plenty of snow around and the locals were making good money by renting ski's to tourists who seemed content with walking 10 steps with the ski's on ( and falling down on 5 of them!)

We too trekked to a snow clad cliff and after frolicking in the snow for half an hour, we resumed our journey down the other side of the mountain towards Khoksar.

We could see the beautiful ChandraBhaga massif on the far opposite side, which was permafrost(PERMAnently FROzen for 12 months), and as it was shrouded in dark clouds our driver said it was snowing there right now, and if it snowed too heavily we may not be able to cross it the next day!

Descending on the other side of Rohtang, we could see the stark contrast in landscape, from green alpine meadows of the Pir Panjal range earlier, to the barren but majestic high peaks of the Great Himalayan chain, signaling our arrival in the tribal region of Lahaul.

We stopped for a cup of tea in the small village called Khoksar at the bottom of the mountain, where Mr. Driver quite "encouragingly" told us about him being stranded in this very village for a week, in 6 feet of snow just a month back. Charming!

As we continued further in the flat valley, we saw our first river of the trip, the enchanting emerald green waters of the Chandra(moon) river, coming down from the ChandraBhaga massif near BaralachaLa, and later we saw it's confluence with the Bhaga(Sun) river to form the ChandraBhaga or Chenab, as it's called in Kashmir and Pakistan.

The next stop was at a gas station to fill our tanks since a board proudly pronounced the fact that there was no gas station for the next 365 kms.... till Leh!

We reached the small town of Keylong(administrative center for Lahaul district) before sunset and checked into a small but strategically located hotel - our balcony gave us the best views I've ever had from anywhere - humongous snow capped peaks towering bang opposite forming a kind of semi circle around us(Video below). We had a cup of "High" tea sitting there, and just marveled at the beauty around for some time, though it was bitterly cold out there, and it still seemed to be snowing at the peaks around.

As we huddled into the restaurant later for some hot soup, we were informed that we were the only guests in the hotel, and also probably the town since it was off-season and they were about to shut down for winters in 2-3 days.

This was also the 1st time (not the last though!) that we were told in no uncertain terms that it was not worth risking our lives for some (mis)adventure since the weather was very unpredictable and heavy snowfall on the next 3 passes could trap us in 300 kms of 15,000 ft high freezing desert. Even the Army, having already cleared the highway 2 times in the last month and carrying out search and rescue operations for those stranded, had now declared that the highway would shut down after the next snowfall (would not be cleared).

We were "Shaken, not Stirred" on hearing all of this and decided not to give too much attention to the doomsayers. However, when we went out for a stroll in the small bazaar, a certain shopkeeper who seemed too keen to don the role of our guardian angel as he was hell bent on making us turn back! He said only a 4 wheel drive could get through the icy roads safely, and though the driver's risk was kind of an occupational hazard, we were risking it just for fun!

We returned to the hotel feeling a bit "stirred" now, and it was as if a pall of gloom had descended upon us - we mutually decided not to talk about it till next morning - and then take a call depending on the weather - whether or not to proceed !