Auli and Nanda Devi peak finally captured!!!

Dates : Jan 5^th – Jan 8^th

Destination : Auli

Roundtrip Distance : 1100KM

Max Altitude : 12000+ feet.

Route :

Noida -- Haridwar -- Deoprayag -- Rudraprayag-- Karnaprayag -- Nandaprayag -- Joshimath -- Auli.

Tourers on board:

Pankaj Chauhan : P180 v2 Dtsi

Jay : CBZ Extreme

Sripurna : P150 Classic

Jan 5 : Cruise Control till Rudraprayag

The biker’s itch has bitten me quite bad. I have made it a regular habit to visit one exotic place a month and this month we had decided it was “Auli”. Hounding all the logs in the net had brought some of the magnificent pictures of Auli ski slopes and the “Nanda Devi peak”. I knew I had to get up there and see, smell and capture it. It would be a nice place to break the new year’s quota also.

Talking about new year, we had some great plans and the original destination we had was “Harr ki Doon” valley. It is said to rival the “Valley of Flowers” in its beauty. It is a 35KM odd trek from a small village called “Sangkri”. Alas, due to some medical crisis we had to abort it on the day we had to leave(Dec 25^th). This trek was a 8day parikrama trip that would open us to the beauty of trekking. As usual I was back in office to hunt for the next destination the next day.

Day 1 started well as we set off at 4.30. Nice cold winter morning and with no traffic. The temperature as everyone knows was hovering around the 4 degree mark. The following was my attire selection to beat the cold :

• Inner wear with Winter full sleave warmers
• One Tshirt
• One full sleave woolen sweater
• One full sleave winter jacket
• One full sleave Rain proof jacket.
• One track pant and warmers
• One Jean pant
• One Cotton gloves
• One cramster gauntlet glove
• One sneaker
• One balaclava
• One GP one helmet.

With the above, the cold was certainly bearable and special mention to the balaclava. It made all the difference in keeping my ears, neck and face warm!

Heading to the all to familiar Delhi Haridwar highway we thought of rapping up miles quite fast. But surprisingly Jay took a wrong turn and went into the road which goes to “Dadri”. A good 15KM of back track to join the highway. We had split into two groups. The roads have improved a lot since a year. There is a 4 lane highway till the town of Meerut and the bypass is almost empty in the morning. The tar is freshly laid out and we were in haridwar by the stroke of 10.

We regrouped in a dhaba before haridwar and finished our breakfast. Started riding out by 11.30 and we entered straight into a 20KM bad stretch. This stretch starts out from the time we finish Rishikesh and till a small town of “Ted byaasi”. Construction work and couple of landslide made this stretch a bumpy one.

After the small town, the road is just serene and beautiful. The roads are very confidence inspiring, wide enough so that you take the corners anyway from 40 – 60Kph. There is enough twisties to work your hips and abs as though you were in a gym. It is as though you were doing “Power ballads on your bike”.This stretch goes straight through Deoprayag city. The city is confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river. The Ganga itself flows so calm and steadily coupled with a greenish tinge that is mesmerising. We were at 2000+ feet and covered atleast 280KM.

The ballad show goes on for another 60KM till you hit the city of Rudraprayag. The city has another confluence of “Alaknanda and Mandakini” rivers. One can also go to “Pauri” from “Kirtinagar” which is a 44KM detour. We have marked in our TODO list. We halted at “Shangri La Resorts” in Rudraprayag around 7PM. Nothing really to say about the hotel except that its name made us hope for some cozy setting. Dinner was served quite clumsily in the hotel and we waited for almost half an hour before the roti arrived. Day ends with 400KM on odo and we are still at 2200Feet! Grrrr…

Jan 6 : Get on top of that hill men!

After an excellent day of riding yesterday, spirits were high and the same can be said about the rain gods. We left at around 7 in the morning and instantly the clouds opened up on us.

I made a mistake of not carrying any rain proof pants but the gods were merciful that the pour was more of a fine misted drizzle than a torrential monsoon falls found in Agumbe. The distance to cover to Auli was around the 100KM mark.

We crossed “Gochar” in no time and then the second bad stretch starts. This one goes all the way upto “Karnaprayag”, a total distance of around 20KM. After we crossed this strecth, then the “B Dancing” began in ernest. The dancing went through the city of “Nandaprayag” and we were nearing Joshimath.

Joshimath is a small town sitting at 6000+ feet. The climb upto to this city is really brilliant, the roads are undulating yet no pot holes, you can corner hard with minimal traffic. One goes up above 3000+ feet in a matter of 25KM. It is basically a stop over for people visiting “Badrinath/ Valley of flowers/ Hemkund”.

The rain had been our constant companion since the morning and by the time we were in the outskirts of Joshimath, it had not let go. Even the mountains were not visible let alone “Snowy mountains view”. This was a “Big scare” in my heart. Coming all the way here and we would not be treated to a clear blue sky view to “Nanda Devi” almost brought me to my knees. Anyway, kept my fingers crossed and we then decided to go to “Auli” directly. Auli is around 14KM from the outskirts of Joshimath. The road was pretty damp with the rains and we were happy to take in the views.

Our eyes lit up with the first sight of snow on the roads at around the 7KM mark. The collection of snow kept accumulating on the road side till the 11KM mark. The last 3KM we lost the sight of the ground and by this time the road had a good 4 inch of hardened snow. The tires started slipping, the rear started its dance and after riding close to 3 and half years and accumulating 37000+ on the odo I went “Zyukkk Thudd for the first time!!”. I had lost the rear completely in a hair pin turn and I was surprised how softly I landed on the snow. The bike was ok, no bents or broken stuff. We struggled to cover distance from this point and barely made another 100 metres after which my rear was spinning madly!. We could not go any higher than this point. We were still around a KM away from the GMVN and because we had no reservation made previously we did not have much hope of getting rooms there. So we spent clicking pics and enjoying the snow.

I was keeping a close eye on the Ropeway that was going up towards Auli and was praying that it is still functional despite the rain and snow. We were relieved to see the carraige slide down from Auli when we were taking pics. We spent some more time and then planned to take the rope way the next morning. The only question left was “Will we get a clear blue sky in the morning?”

Point of Return!!!!!

She is Alone and Enjoying it!!!

Tyre spinning itself to ground!!!

Pankaj's bike is sliding as we regroup!!!

Aloha!!!! The ropeway is working

Day 3: Azzure blue is the gift for the New year.

Bless the lord! Bless the lord! was what I was thinking the first in the morning. Pankaj had got up somewhere near 5 in the morning and had taken a peek from the small window in the room and saw a million glittering stars in the sky. I was relieved. Miracles do happen in this world. With the first crack of dawn we were out hunting pics and we were not dejected. An Azzure blue sky was what we got. yayyyy!!.

I will let the photo of the morning talk for itself.

Now the Ropeway in Auli starts at 9.40 AM. That is the first trip. After capturing the sunrise shots I had one more outstanding thing to do before I left for the ropeway. There are two temples which are close to my heart, A lord “Narasimha and a Vasudeva temple”. Also the Badrinath “Lord Narayana” is also worshipped here during the winter months. I had to observe my services to the lord who had given us a Azzure sky blessing. Needless to say that the temples are brilliant and very colourful. You are not allowed to take photos inside the temple.

The left wrist of Narasimha is incredibly thin and gets thinner every day. It is said that when Kali-yuga overtakes the world, the wrist (arm) will break and the mountains Jaya and Vijaya (near Vishnu Prayag) will collapse and block the present road to Badrinath. The new Badrinath will be relocated at “Bhavisya Badri”, about 23km southeast of Joshimath.

Now it’s 9.30 in the morning and we took our tickets in the counter for the ropeway. Each ticket costs 400/- per person and that includes the roundtrip. You need to specify how much time you will spend in Auli and when you wish to return. The carraige itself travel every 20-50 minutes gap depending upon the tourist strength.

Some details of the ropeway :

Track distance : 4.15Km

Altitude at lowest terminal : 1906mts

Altitude at highest terminal : 3016mts

Capacity : 25

Total Ascent : 1110mts (yayyyy!!!!!)

Travel time : 25 minutes

Speed : 3 m/sec (hehe)

There were around 7 people excluding us 3 for the first trip. The ropeway is very smooth in motion and you really feel good. The gripe being that the glasses were pretty scratched, so you do not get good photographs. But the view and the experience is their in my mind perfectly.

I will again let the photos do the talking.

Nanda Devi peak is a colossus 7816mts high and the first time the ropeway operator showed us was spell binding. The photos do not do much justice to the beauty. There are trails that head towards the peak from Joshimath.

We had the customary Maggi noodles and a cup of tea for the breakfast. We took a pair of snow shoes (Rs 50/- per shoes for a full day). These shoes are bought from the Army themselves (that is the claim of the guide). They are good enough for a feet of snow easily.

We then decided to do some skiing. We enquired about the pricing and the guide said it would take 350/- per ski. We took one and took rounds in trying out skiing. The slope as such was already peppered with ski lines from the German foreigners who had accompanied us. The ski boots itself is very heavy and hard. It is difficult to walk for the first few minutes until you get the hang of it. Pankaj took to the slopes and enjoyed to the hilt!!! I was much happier to stay back and shoot him, Lest I feared and sprained ankle will not let me get back home in one piece.

It was already 3 in the afternoon by this time. We then packed our bags and headeed back to Joshimath. We had thought of covering some distance before the last day and so we thought of heading up to Rudraprayag. We started at 5 from joshimath and reached there by 9 having dinner in Karnaprayag.

Day 4 : Dance back to Home.

The last day started at 7AM from Rudraprayag and we reached home by 8PM in Noida. The ride was fast and furious!!! period.

Come to think of it, This has been an amazing journey and the best gift that anyone could have hoped for at the start of a new year especially after we dropped the “HKD trek” plans.

Even after coming back I cannot hide my shameless smile when people see the pics and go “Holy god WTF”, “You must be joking!”, “This is not India!!”. Ignorant people who have never stepped out of their well. period.

Lastly, all three bikes were flawless in their service. Even after three of them taking a tumble, they kept working like clockwork.