Himalayan Odyssey VI Snow fall ---> Snow Storm.







The sun was out with gentle sunshine spreading in the hills, the snow on mountain looked bright rather than cold. It was a great morning weather The Campsite made it look even more beautiful with the monastery going up the hill and river flowing down surrounded by mountains on either side. These are some of the places you dream of waking every day of your life with a hot cup of tea.

But then we were in Himalayan Odyssey, we had to ride to the thump. We started of from to camp to join the rest of our riders at the hotel compound. We had a tough talk from Sachin for the number of falls we have been having. The ride today was supposed to cross the second highest pass Baralach la and after that we camp at Sarchu.

Now we had to get into a team structure to help each other ride, I tagged along with Shaibal, Abid, Vikarm . Actully when we started we were 8 in the team but looking for 8 people was getting tough so we split agian and that how I got into the team. I asked Abid before I joined, " I don't drive too fast, if you guys drive fast let me know I 'll find another group". Abid said, " No we will drive smooth". Eventually We did some of the fastest lap in worst of the mountain roads after that. You see what Abid thought about his adreline rush.

We got a group of malasyian riders trying to ride BMW from nepal to pakistan. ALong the way we got a couple of water crossing through towards baralach la and Damm the boots they were again water logged. While doing the accend we witnessed snowfall again yeah I started dancing. This was for long and real cold. The boots started getting colder. We put on the raincoats. Suddenly we lost track of Abid and Shaibal. Me and Vikram started the accend and then suddenly out of a blue the beautiful snowfall turned into a snowstorm. It started getting real tough will the lack of oxyzen, high altitude, snow on the roads and to add to the misery was the trucks coming from opposite direction.

It was getting difficult to drive in the snow and we tried to cross the pass as soon as possible. On the way we saw Harsh and Sachin enjoying the snowstorm. How could they? I wanted to just speed off. Then and there we hit the road block. Traffic jam on second highest motorable pass. A truck was stuck on the road with ice wall on one side and cliff on the other. I think God must had pity on US and he threw sunlight, wow the landscpe looked amazing for a while. Well in the traffic jam we had a pajero as well, which much to amuzment of the passenger served as hot bonet to dry our gloves.

After a while the truck managed to find its way and so did we, but I guess god had mercy only for the stop. It started snowing all over again, we reached bhartpur our lunch re-group point with chillness up to the bone. The first thing I did was bought some warm clothing and tried helplessly to dry my boots. The tea and the food finally gave some hope of warmness but the sight of snow storm outside kept giving chillness. We waited till all of us crossed the pass and started for Sarchu.

We started of in the snowstorm which turned to mild rainfall by the time we decended. The road were terrible and then something happended that I was not expecting. My bike started giving up for moments within the run. I prayed for the bike not giving up completely and rode the rest of the journey with blips on the power. We finally reached Sarchu , our campsite. I'll need some oxygen before I tell you what conspired through the evening. night through the morning.

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