Trees and Some Snow: Har-Ki-Doon, Uttaranchal India
Who took this photo: There is a dispute about this picture in my house, my young and naughty nephew claims he took it whereas I remember taking this one myself. Either way, both of us remember this beautiful trip. My nephew saw snow for the first time on this trip and I for the second time in my life. But walking on snow is altogether a different affair. It is something that I am not comfortable at all! And to think that people happily climb mountains of snow and ice, in storms!
I was quite happy that there was little snow on the ground on this Har Ki Doon trek whereas I could see a lot of snow on the peaks! Now that is how a nice trek should be, at least in my opinion.
I remember my first trek to Sar Pass, in Himanchal Pradesh. In that trek for one whole day we walked on snow. Then trekking for the first time, I was wearing my city shoes, a sneaker and how I slipped for the entire day! There were two of us on that trek who slipped a lot. I remember the guy saying to me, “where everyone else was walking comfortably we were on all fours.” It was a horrible feeling.
I blame my husband for it. He had trekked before and yet did not warn me to wear a proper trekking shoe! The second time around at Har-Ki-Doon, I was wise and wore what locals wear, something called ‘hunter shoes’ and it has pretty amazing grip, so slipping on snow is now a thing of past. But it is also true that there was very little snow on the way in 2004 in Har-Ki-Doon. And yet it was such a beautiful trek.
