The Brighu Lake is situated amidst the snow clad mountains of the Spiti Valley beyond the town of Manali, at a height of 14,500 ft - half the height of Mt. Everest.
Eight hours of uphill trek and 4,500 ft later we are finally there...the most beautiful sight ever ! The Brighu Lake frozen ! All around us there are mountains far and near. Feels like the mountains are embracing us, welcoming us into her abode. Months of dedication and hard work has brought me to this conclusion. I am proud as I have surprised myself ! The travel guide of the tour organisers call this a mini - expedition. Macro, mini or maxi, this was an expedition in itself and I felt as if I had conquered the mighty Everest itself ! As Sir Edmund Hillary has said, - " You do not conquer the mountain, but yourself." - couldn't be more true in my case. Truly extraordinary moment of my life and I shared it with two most beautiful persons of my world, my kids.
The preparation for this trek started four months prior to the actual trek itself. I had to shed a few precious kilos off my body and trained a bit hard in the gym. The result was I had injured the cartilage in my knee and now they were painful. Getting up and getting by the day became a mean task. Knee supporters were second to my skin and painkillers included in my daily diet. I persevered.
We reached Manali, to our base camp without a glitch. This is my first journey where I am not being chaperoned by any member of my family. In fact, I am chaperoning my group of six..me and my two kids, my co-sister and her son, and my niece. I am in charge and so far have managed very well in spite of being tutored with many do's and don'ts back home. We don't know what we are capable of until we are really in a situation. My confidence went up a notch.
River Beas is flowing next to out camp site. The calmness of the place, the cold weather, the pristine air, the roaring of the river water....I feel like drowning in the sheer beauty of the place. I want to capture each and every detail in my memory so that I can reminiscence later.
Our top camp was at a height of 10,00ft, after the last village of Manali, Koti and 25 kms before the Rothang Pass. The weather here was too cold for comfort. Out of the 110 campers, around 85 of us signed up for the actual trek to Brighu. The air was electric with excitement on the morning of the trek.
There were three cut-off points where one could drop off and discontinue the journey. Some did, the rest of us tread slowly. At the third cut off point, I had almost given up owing to the condition of my knees..they were jammed and numb with pain. My family encouraged me to go on and I did. A few hundred meters into the climb in almost knee deep snow, I regretted going along. I have a phobia for heights, I could neither look up or down. I asked some guys to hold my hand and lead me. Sometimes I supported myself with my hands literally climbing on all my fours. I did slide off the mountain at one place, but a volunteer was behind me who was an experienced climber, he came after me and got me back in line. We reached the summit at around 3 pm in the afternoon. I was the first lady in the whole group to reach first..I like to be a part of many firsts. This was the first in the 25 year history of the tour organisers that a mother had successfully climbed with her kids ! That goes for my co-sister too. No words to explain the exhilaration I felt.
"If you believe in victory, then victory will believe in you" - Paulo Coelho. And I have never believed myself more !
Climbing up to the summit was half the battle won. Coming down was more challenging. We had to slide down from the mountain, the first was a sheer drop of more than 100 ft. Given my fear for heights, I was the last one to go. The only thing I remember was that my bottom burned ! Snow is something to reckon with, one cant just take it for granted. It is more meaner than it looks ! The whole group was dispersed by now, the key was to keep sight of at least one person so that we are not lost. We had to walk through slush...after my third fall, I stopped counting the number of times I fell. My low waist jeans was going lower as it was wet and weighed down by mud sticking to it. Finally, we reached the camp around 8.30 pm, after more than 13 hours of being on the road. The ovation we received is memorable. Everyone was clapping, hooting, shouting and cheering. A very emotional welcome.
Tired and chilled to the bone, the day filled with many falls, excitement and triumph...sleep wasn't easy to come by because my mind was drifting back to the defining moment of my life, a moment where I had lived every moment and the moment when I realised my dream.
"Winning is not everything, but the only thing." I don't agree with this statement generally, but on that day I couldn't agree less. I had won.
Eight hours of uphill trek and 4,500 ft later we are finally there...the most beautiful sight ever ! The Brighu Lake frozen ! All around us there are mountains far and near. Feels like the mountains are embracing us, welcoming us into her abode. Months of dedication and hard work has brought me to this conclusion. I am proud as I have surprised myself ! The travel guide of the tour organisers call this a mini - expedition. Macro, mini or maxi, this was an expedition in itself and I felt as if I had conquered the mighty Everest itself ! As Sir Edmund Hillary has said, - " You do not conquer the mountain, but yourself." - couldn't be more true in my case. Truly extraordinary moment of my life and I shared it with two most beautiful persons of my world, my kids.
The preparation for this trek started four months prior to the actual trek itself. I had to shed a few precious kilos off my body and trained a bit hard in the gym. The result was I had injured the cartilage in my knee and now they were painful. Getting up and getting by the day became a mean task. Knee supporters were second to my skin and painkillers included in my daily diet. I persevered.
We reached Manali, to our base camp without a glitch. This is my first journey where I am not being chaperoned by any member of my family. In fact, I am chaperoning my group of six..me and my two kids, my co-sister and her son, and my niece. I am in charge and so far have managed very well in spite of being tutored with many do's and don'ts back home. We don't know what we are capable of until we are really in a situation. My confidence went up a notch.
River Beas is flowing next to out camp site. The calmness of the place, the cold weather, the pristine air, the roaring of the river water....I feel like drowning in the sheer beauty of the place. I want to capture each and every detail in my memory so that I can reminiscence later.
Our top camp was at a height of 10,00ft, after the last village of Manali, Koti and 25 kms before the Rothang Pass. The weather here was too cold for comfort. Out of the 110 campers, around 85 of us signed up for the actual trek to Brighu. The air was electric with excitement on the morning of the trek.
There were three cut-off points where one could drop off and discontinue the journey. Some did, the rest of us tread slowly. At the third cut off point, I had almost given up owing to the condition of my knees..they were jammed and numb with pain. My family encouraged me to go on and I did. A few hundred meters into the climb in almost knee deep snow, I regretted going along. I have a phobia for heights, I could neither look up or down. I asked some guys to hold my hand and lead me. Sometimes I supported myself with my hands literally climbing on all my fours. I did slide off the mountain at one place, but a volunteer was behind me who was an experienced climber, he came after me and got me back in line. We reached the summit at around 3 pm in the afternoon. I was the first lady in the whole group to reach first..I like to be a part of many firsts. This was the first in the 25 year history of the tour organisers that a mother had successfully climbed with her kids ! That goes for my co-sister too. No words to explain the exhilaration I felt.
"If you believe in victory, then victory will believe in you" - Paulo Coelho. And I have never believed myself more !
Climbing up to the summit was half the battle won. Coming down was more challenging. We had to slide down from the mountain, the first was a sheer drop of more than 100 ft. Given my fear for heights, I was the last one to go. The only thing I remember was that my bottom burned ! Snow is something to reckon with, one cant just take it for granted. It is more meaner than it looks ! The whole group was dispersed by now, the key was to keep sight of at least one person so that we are not lost. We had to walk through slush...after my third fall, I stopped counting the number of times I fell. My low waist jeans was going lower as it was wet and weighed down by mud sticking to it. Finally, we reached the camp around 8.30 pm, after more than 13 hours of being on the road. The ovation we received is memorable. Everyone was clapping, hooting, shouting and cheering. A very emotional welcome.
Tired and chilled to the bone, the day filled with many falls, excitement and triumph...sleep wasn't easy to come by because my mind was drifting back to the defining moment of my life, a moment where I had lived every moment and the moment when I realised my dream.
"Winning is not everything, but the only thing." I don't agree with this statement generally, but on that day I couldn't agree less. I had won.
Nice one Janaki, it is almost 15 years ago I had been to Brighu..with Anala. Memories are still fresh... It took months to come out of the feeling of achieved something. After reading this I feel the same thing again i.e I have done it. I do feel that is the highlight of the Manali trek.
ReplyDeleteMay be the tour of Andaman comes very close to it as far as the nature's excitement.