From the trekking stories of Dr. Chander Mohan- FRGS In 1995, when I was wandering in the university campus at Shimla, I got a message from my mother that a group of devotees is moving to Manimahesh through Kugti Pass and if I wish to join them, I must rush to Lahoul immediately. I packed up and same evening started to Manali by night bus. I reached Manali at 4 AM early in the morning and slept for 3 hours at my home (Manali) and again took a bus to Lahoul at 8 AM. It was going to be a long journey but I was so exited and young that I hardly realized the tiredness. I reached my native house in Lahoul in the evening and surprised to see the arrangements and sentiments of people for the devotees leaving for this trek next morning.
My mother’s elder brother (my maternal uncle) was the most respected and known saint in Lahoul valley who was known as the living human image of Lord Shiva. Right from the ancient period, the people of Lahoul are frequently reaching Manimahesh through Kugti pass to eliminate their worldly problems and to get the blessings for prosperity, children and peace in families. It was a tradition in Lahoul valley to visit my mom’s brother who was of 95 years that time, take his blessings and permission before every visit to Manimahesh dedicated by the people of Lahoul. It is now about 70 years of his spiritual leadership and during this long period, he has helped hundreds of Lahouli families.
Location: Kugti pass lies in the Pir Panjal range of Central Himalayas. Rapey, the last village before Kugti pass provides an open view of Pattan Valley of Lahoul. We visit Hindu temples and tribal villages on the way till Rapey and through Jobrang, move towards the Khodi Deo Paddar, the first camping site. Crossing Kugti Pass, we trek over snow, ice and glaciers for three to four hours- which is off course physically demanding. From Kugti Pass it is possible to see the snow capped mountains beyond Lahoul valley on one side and Manimahesh Dhars on the other.
- International airport to hotel in Delhi transfer by small coach/ medium or large cars as per the group size
- Sightseeing/ monument visits as per the itinerary
- Delhi to trek beginning point and back to Delhi transfers
- Transfer to international airport in Delhi after the trip
- Transportation of porters, cook, kitchen staff to trek beginning point and back to their places after the trekking
Accommodation – city hotels with breakfast & remaining on full board
- Hotels as per the program
- Trekking duration camps with all meals
- Gala dinner at Delhi with expedition mementoes/ souvenirs
Staff
- Porters for the trekking part
- Cook and kitchen helper (01)
- Trekking guide (01) from trek beginning point to trek end point
- Local sightseeing/ city/ monument guide
Equipment
- Trekking tents for the members
- Trekking tent for cook+ helper and trekking guide
- Ground mattresses
- Kitchen tent, chairs, tables, stools, utensils, crockery and cutlery
- Toilet tents and toiletries
- Medical kit
- Maps and directions
Administrative assistance to the expedition team
- Cargo Management for big groups
- Insurance of the staff and porters for trekking trips like Kangla Pass
- Inner Line permits/ restricted area permits
The cost doesn’t include
- Air tickets of the expedition members
- Any kind of insurance of the clients
- Personal expenditures of the clients
- Helicopter rescue
- Personal sleeping bags and sacs
- Cargo handling charges
Skiing supplement
- If you want to ski down from some point, you can write separately.
Day 01: Arrive Delhi, where you will meet our office representative at the international airport to escort you to the hotel where you are booked for the night.
Day 02: Delhi to Chandigarh by train (03 hours) and later drive to Manali for 7 hours. Hotel in Manali.
Day 03: Manali to Keylong drive over Rohtang Pass- Morning start drive to Keylong, the headquarter of Lahoul & Spiti through Rohtang Pass. The total distance is 110 Kms and the road moves through green Manali valley till Rohtang Top. The place is extremely occupied by domestic Indian tourists almost throughout the year. Just after 2 Kms of Rohtang, the tourist population dramatically decreases and we step into a quite land of Lahoul. On arrival, check into the hotel for the overnight stay.
Day 04: Full day to visit different villages and monasteries in Lahoul valley with base at Keylong.
Day 05: Drive to Jobrang Bridge and trek to Khodi Deo Padhar: Chander further writes, “since it was not a commercial trekking but absolutely a religious devotion towards Lord Shiva for various individual reasons, so we were supposed to spend our nights in caves or under the open sky, no cameras were allowed, no tents, no porters and sleeping bags were allowed. We started early in the morning, made the PRASAD (the sweets we offer to the God during POOJA) and after rituals, we started our journey by raising slogans in devotion of Lord Shiva. This day was not a long day and we stayed at Alyas (Alyas is a term in GADDI language for a place which offers a shelter). This was a small cave, quite impossible for 14 persons to sleep in, so we made it our kitchen. In front of our eyes was the mighty Kugti Pass which was our next day’s mission. The place is called KHODI DEV PADDHAR.
Day 06: Khodi Dev Paddar to Camp over Kugti Pass: Following the same practice of morning rituals, we started quite early at 6AM. We were told by the elder travelers that this valley has different sounds of drums, flutes and slogans. So we kept walking silently and witnessed the various unclear sounds. May be this was the sounds of musical instruments and slogans raised by travelers since ancient period that still sustained in the valley covered by mountains on both sides. We were having one person along with us in the group, who used to perform oracles and in majority of cases he might feel very uneasy even able to hold control on his mind and body. At certain instances, he would start shivering and shouting, I was told that while going in trans, he was becoming a medium of some super natural power, may be a perspective representative of any local deity, and this was troubling him any time. The situation in Trans looked very painful to me. Though this impression was under his sub conscious state of mind but still it was frustrating. I couldn’t understand much but one very interesting thing, probably having some scientific reasons, that whenever he goes in Trans (may be some force entering in his body) lift him up from the earth, he will become normal. It was very necessary for the group also to find him normal, else we were getting stuck and late till he becomes normal. The another thing I learnt was more surprising that, at KALING TEMPLE (we were supposed to reach there after two more days) the priest (Shepherd Guru) would identify that which deity is entering in his body and why it is bothering him. There the Guru will give him the initiation with one shepherds’ rope and one cap after which the person will become normal.
This day, we had to lift this man lot of times from soil to keep him temporarily normal. This was the most exciting and tiring day of the whole trekking.
High altitude nature opens its more secrets in front of your eyes once you keep gaining altitude. Depending on the season, but when I was climbing this height, I found almost after half of the distance from the base to the Kugti Pass top was covered with snow. Watching down was the most exciting experience from half the way. One feels glad seeing the open valley and the huge distance he has covered and the height he has gained. At the left side of Kugti Pass, we saw a mountain range of same height with various white and black lining, running for kilometers of distance. It is believed that this was the foot impressions of the marriage of Lord Shiva when he traveled to Kailash with his wife and followers from Drilbu area of Lahoul, the house of Goddess Parvati.
The top of Kugti Pass (5250 M) is a flat room size area with the small temple of Goddess KALI. Having an open temple (not made of walls but placed only TRISHULS, flags etc.) here originates a divine feeling. One of the devotees of our group sacrificed the first sheep here to KALI and the local wine was offered to all us as the blessings. Magnificent views of Kailash to the south and the peaks of Lahoul valley to the north were just in front of eyes from the top of Kugti Pass. Then we started walking down to the other side of Kugti Pass. A good care is required here. It is a small path down side where group needs to walk one after one carefully with a good distance from each other. Loose stones are in abandon which can be slipped with one’s mistake. After few of the minutes’ walk, we suddenly found crevasses with hundred meters of depth. Again a good care is required. It is told that the Sages jump in these crevasses to leave their bodies once they find that now this body can not be powerfully used to move on spiritual path. We could see some of the places the Saffron dresses along the crevasses. It was absolutely a wonderful day; we reached to green section of a narrow valley after ending the descent and stayed at a beautiful place with a cave close by, which was again used as kitchen.
Day 07: Camp to lush Green Camp: Morning after routine worships and tea, we started our journey. We were told that this day was the easy day and the distance too is not much. We met one old Gaddi (shepherd) couple this day. Their positive attitude towards life was impressive as I still recall their behavior. Really the GADDIS are the real image or reflection of mountains and the Lord Shiva who owns these Himalayan Mountains, the peaks and valleys. They are honest, very simple and tough like mountains. People say that Lord Shiva too speaks in the language of Gaddis when he needs to communicate with his people. This proves that how Gaddis are close to the God. The whole day was spent with the beautiful nature, green meadows, shepherds, sheep, goats, various streams coming from distant mountain glaciers and the clean sky and mild sun made all the day very pleasant. The valleys on all four sides are so beautiful that mind desires to rush to the extreme of each side to explore everything completely. We crossed one river and stayed for overnight in a beautiful place. I call it Green Camp.
Day 08: Green Camp to Keyling Bazir temple: We had a miracle this day. The walk went through green meadows and mountains for couple of hours. It was so beautiful and open all around that mind was forcing to leave all fellow trekkers and rush towards any of one side for miles. All corners were inviting us to get deep into their secrets. Anyway, we kept moving with slogans in praise of Lord Shiva, our target for the day was KEYLING TEMPLE. Lord Shiva has two sons, GANESGA and KARTIKAY. Kartikay is known as KEYLING BAZIR in Lahoul and remote areas of Bharmaour regions. On the way, almost after half of the distance, we found a roaring river coming from the heights of one corner of valley and it was difficult to cross with sheep. So we started searching for a flat section to cross it easily. It took about 2 hours here to find a suitable patch and finally we selected a place and started putting boulders at one end of the river. It was extremely a time consuming effort but there was no other go also. Suddenly we found a GADDI coming towards us with a tree on his shoulders. He greeted us and placed the tree on two fixed stones in the river and helped us to cross it. We offered him some toffees and started trekking forward by bidding him farewell. After this river, we had little up hill walk but not tiring as we were reaching closer to the Kaling Temple. The greenery was increasing and curiosity to see the temple too was rising.
Finally we reached Keyling Temple. It is a big wooden temple in complete isolation with the main God inside the Lord Keyling or locally called “KEYLING BAZIR” There were hundreds of chains & iron made divine ornaments hanging on all four walls of the temple and the silence was mesmerizing. I personally feel that these chains indicate the presence of various mountain gods and goddesses and few might have TANTRIC values too. Suddenly a Shepherd (PUJARI or Priest) appeared in front of us and we started chatting with him very normally without thinking anything about his sudden arrival in this isolated temple in dense forest. As earlier mentioned that all 14 of us were belonging to Lahoul and the elder members of team were familiar with route and language of GADDIS. So we had no language problem here. Then we started rituals under his supervision. One pair of very old drum, covered by the skin of sheep hopefully, was also hanging on one wall (This drum is called NISHAN in Lahouli language and it can be resembled with TABLA –one popular musical instrument of Indian classical music). Two of our team members started beating (playing) the drums and one played on flute. Hopefully the music produced was BAT WAN (the music on which Lord Shiva does TANDAV DANCE- the dominating dance position of NATRAJA). During the music, the priest opened his turban and we could see his long hairs, he was about 6 feet, very healthy and graceful, bearing the traditional dress of a Gaddi. Then he started asking the reasons of our arrival and blessed for all our wishes. Temple had a big room to spend a night and the place to cook food also. It is important to mention that one of our team members who used to go in Trans, had sacrificed 2 sheep and the PUJARI had identified the power as Goddess KALI. He was given with the brief initiation and declared as the representative of Goddess Kali. The entire movement of this evening was a dreamlike experience and we had a wonderful sleep, first day after our homes, in a big room.
Day 09: Excursion of Kugti village- This day we decided to visit to Kugti village which was hardly 2-3 Kms and spent full day there and come back to temple in the evening. My father has traveled twice on this route and when I was a school going, once he was telling us the stories of his traveling. During his talks, he explained Kugti in a way that I could never forget it. He said when he reached Kugti, he saw children bearing the white woolen dresses in the village and they were running here and there like the herds of infant sheep. He further added that he had never ever seen ladies as beautiful as he could see in Kugti Village. While walking in the village hopefully I was most excited and curious to see the beautiful children in white woolen dresses and the ladies. We spent few hours at the village and turned back to Kaling Temple. It was a gap of about 35 years in between my visit and my father’s last visit and this village also had gone through changes. Meeting with the villagers was very interesting as they have very good feelings for the people of Lahoul and it is no so interesting to mention that I was about to be attacked by a group of huge eagles when I started taking bath under a stream on the way back. Thanks to a team member who appeared when the eagles were just few feet from my body.
Day 10: Kaling Bazir temple to Last Camp: A trekker could have two options from Kaling Temple. He can spend the day in Kugti and next day he can reach Kugti Nalla for overnight from where he can reach Hadsar and take bus for Bharmour. We continued our trek towards Manimahesh Lake from Keyling temple. The beginning of the trek was good and the scenic beauty was amazing. But for the last 2 hours, the trek goes little tough, as one has to climb uphill. After trekking for about 6-7 hours, we stopped at a suitable place for the night.
Day 11: Last Camp to Manimahesh Lake over a pass: We started early in the morning from last campsite to Manimahesh Lake. The day had combination of all experiences. Beginning is good through beautiful landscape and later it becomes tougher when we start gaining altitude and walking over the small pebbles. From the base of last pass till the top is tough trekking experience because of these small stones where you move one step and pebbles push you back sometimes two steps, and the top is again beautiful surrounded by another snow- covered peaks all around. The finest view of both sides and the high mountain peaks all around make you fresh and energetic once again, really the power of beauty is great and when it gets mixed with divineness of mountains, the adventure becomes spiritual. After spending couple of minutes here, we started getting down to our final destination. This was remarkably tough and technical as the decent is steep and snow covered (the ice covered we can say). We were not carrying ice axe but we had the normal axe, so we used to cut some ice to fix out steps and carefully started getting down. Mesmerized in the beauty of nature, I slipped for few hundred meters down on ice first and then snow just with my negligence and stopped at a flat section, it was quite risky. I found my friends shouting but I was not under control of anyone. When I stopped, I looked at the top and first thing I found was a huge boulder coming fast towards me, probably I had hit it or some other reason would be there, but it turned from very close to me. Further is the long walk on crevasses and ice, at one place a sheep had fallen into a crevasse and we had to work hard to get that out by sending down a knotted rope several times in that dark hole. Finally we pulled out the sheep and continued. Right to us was the most sacred and popular mountain of MANIMAHESH – a range of KAILASH in Chamba and we slowly walked towards the target on flat and down way route. We reached Manimahesh Lake at about 04 PM and the event was memorable experience forever. There were few GADDIS from Hadsar village and may be one or two pilgrims, when they saw us reaching down to the lake, they exclaimed with joy and greeted us with utmost warmth and happiness. After POOJA, we relaxed for the night. I found a sage here who stayed for the whole winters previous year under the snow and was a disciple of my maternal uncle; I have talked about in the beginning.
Day 12: Lake to Bharmaur and further to Chamba: We started moving down to Hadsar in the morning after having the view of Shiv Linga. This LINGA remains covered for most of the time with a circle of clouds and one can see it for few minutes if he is lucky enough. MANI is Jewel in Hindi language. It is believed that in this mountain of Manimahesh (Jewel +Shiva), lord Shiva exists in the form of shining Jewel. It is rare to see the shining jewel in the mountain. I saw this jewel on my 4th visit. It appears from nowhere in the mountain, which is just in front of the huge lake and shines like SUN. After few minutes it disappears. Some of the time few people see lots of jewels and some of the times; the jewels form a garland around the Shiv Linga. From Manimahesh, Hadsar is 13 Kms and total way is ascending downwards. This patch has various tea stalls (temporary) set during the festival in August. From Hadsar, Bharmaour is 12 Kms. We see the cluster of 84 temples and drive to Chamba for overnight.
Day 13: Chamba to Dharamsala: (220Kms). This drive takes about 7 hours to reach. Evening is free to explore the local markets and experience Tibetan settlements in upper Dharamsala. Mc leodganj, the upper portion of Dharamsala is the capital of Tibetan Government in Exile and once you reach here, you can feel yourself in any town of free Tibet.
Day 14: Full day Dharamsala. There are various places to visit. Namgyal Monastery, Residence of HH The Dalai Lama, (a meeting with HH, if he is available), Tibetan Medical center, Tibetan Library, Tibetan Children Village, Tibetan Handicraft Center, Norbulinga Institute etc. are lot of places one can visit this day.
Day 15: Evening train to Delhi (overnight) from Pathankot: Pathankot is 90 Kms from Dharamsala and you can reach Delhi in a comfortable overnight train. Day 16: Morning you will be received by our representative and escort respectfully to your hotel. After getting relaxed, you can have sightseeing of Delhi and especially you can see the old Delhi, its courtyards and streets which even today speak a lot about an age of Mughal period.
Getting there: Your nearest international airport is Delhi where you will meet with our expedition manager. After essential visits to IMF and cargo (if required), you will be escotrted towards the initial point of your adventure as per the program details.
After the expedition/ adventure journey, you arrive back to Delhi. After de briefing (in case of expedition) and farewell ceremony, you will be driven to international airport to board flight back to your home.
Airtickets: We have our partners in almost every foreign countries, so if you need any assistance in your air tickets bookings, you are always welcome to speak to us to know about our partner close to you.
Cargo Management: We have strong tieups with the cargo management companies to get your consignments clear timely in Delhi. In maximum cases, you will only need to spend just 2 hours for getting your consignmwent delivery. Once you send the documents and the boxes details, we start locating them in India.
Insurance : It is a condition of joining our trips that you must be adequately insured. All persons are expected to arrange their own insurance. Polices should cover any potential risks involved in such adventure.
Our hotels and camps: We offer you best economy hotels in cities and towns and till base camp we provide you very comfirtable tents with maximim possible faciltiies in the mountains. For the trekking, Jeep Safaris, MTB and other adventure journeys, we provide the most luxurious camps fitted with dining areas and modren toilet facilities.
Adventure India briefing: We have excelent maps, images and movies of majoriety of our adventure expeditions/ joiurneys and sports. A short briefing in our offices is highly recommended so the team understands logistics, forecarst problems and know where the solutions would be. We stress on planning, planning and planning in any adventure expediton and till now we have remained successful in all of our expeditions just because of our planning. So we need you to be an active part of it.
Rescue and helicopter evacuation: if the expeditons are well planned, rescue operations can be avoided. In the history of 14 years, we didn’t encounter any seviour requireemtn of rescue but still we can tie up with the agencies to provide helicopter evacuation on your request and willingness to pay the charges.
Peak booking formalities: already mentioned in detail in our mountaineering formalities in India link. For necessary applications either you can check the website of IMF or speak to us.
Ground transportation: We provide the ground transportation compriseing of best available cars/ copaches in fine roads and rough trucks in remote areas of the Indian mountains.
Porters and ponies: We provide ponies till base camp and HAP/ LAPs as per the requirement of the expedition.
Fuel and gases: Fuel (aftwer BC) is not a part of cost included section, but we will manage Butane / Butane propane gases for you on your timely request.
Trek & BC food : We offer a mixture of Vegetarian and Non vegetarian food till BC including the several herbs we have individually discovered with the medicinal values and capacity to keep the body warm. We have cooks who make Korean, Japnese and Continental food along with Indian food.
Our guides & instructors: Our guides are basically trained till BC trekking and support to establish BC. But our instructors do have good experience of mountaineering who can join the expeditions to higher levels too.
Ground Support system: We have fantastic ground support system developed in collaboration with the local people of nearest villages, army camps, porters and local guides. We have re discovered the use of traditional communication system also along with the setellite phones to stay in touch with the groups after BC. Our BC staff is trained to keep information of the groups at ABC and between and act as per the situation.
Cost Includes & not: The cost includes all hotels, guest houses, camps till BC, food till BC, ponies, porters, LAP/ HAP, food & tents for the porters, cooks and staff at BC, insurance of our permanenet staff, food for LO, cargo management, all transportation, all sightseeing, liasioning and coordination, trekking guides and BC management. The cost doent include IMF fees and environment levies, State Government fees and environment levies, porters insurance, clients air fares, helicopter evacuation, extra porters requirement from the BC, extra days at or above BC and any expenditure on personal level including clients insurance/ visa etc.
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