Chandratal Trip

On 26th of September we found four participants for our trip to Chandratal. Myself, two of my teammates(Puneet and Abhinandan) and one from another team (Jaiprakash). The only thing we could manage to book before we started for the trip was the vehicle (Tavera).

Our driver Hukum Singh proved to be an excellent driver having more than 6 years of driving experience. He took us almost non-stop to Manali with minor stoppages for a quick dinner and one tea break and we were at Manali by 2:00 pm. We spotted an economy hotel for stay and lunch. We were lucky to reach here before the holiday crowds and managed to get a two room and four bed suite for just 600 bucks. Lunch was pretty simple with yellow dal, matter alloo, channa masalla, rice and butter roti made on tawa.

Next we went hunting for campers in the Manali market and found one that matched our taste and budget both. These guys were pro and cheap both and we managed a deal for one cook, one tentmaker, one cleaner boy, tent for six, cooking materials and sleeping bags just for 2000 bucks. With advance payments cleared and timings fixed for 30th September 9:00 pm to leave for the camping we rushed off to Solang Valley. We reached there arround 4:00 pm and managed to do some para-gliding amidst lush greenery with horses grazing all over. Thankfully none of us landed on these horses. By 8:00 pm we were back in the Manali market for shopping and dinner. We had a quite chinese dinner and treated ourselves with four in one chocodip icecreams.

Next morning we were all out for camping by 9:30 am. Our first point was Rohtang pass, were we stopped to click a few pics of the majestic snow clad mountain peaks of Rohtang pass. Rohtang pass is the gateway to the Lahual Spiti Valley. Beyond this the roads were all dusty and winding up and down at terrible angles. Our next point was a small place called Gramphoo were the roads for Keylong and Batal part ways. Road to Keylong goes all the way to Leh via Baralacha Pass and the road to Batal leads to Kunzum pass which is the gateway to Spiti Valley. We took the road to Batal which was worse than the dusty roads from Rohtang to Gramphoo. Our next destination was a small village called Chatru about 30 kms from Rohtang pass. This village has only four huts. Three of these offer home made food for travellers and one offers beds for night stay. We stopped here for our lunch comprising of rajma chawal with some aam ka aachaar. After clicking some more pictures here, we headed for Batal. All along the route we rode besides the Chandra river with Peer Panjar ranges along side. On the way, towards our right we got to see the majestic peaks of Bara Shigri. This is the asia's second largest glacier and divides the Lahual from Spiti. Bara Shigri means big glacier in Lahuali. Batal village is even more smaller and acts as a base for various treks. Batal in Lahuali means wind and the winds out here can knockout your breadth. From here again there are two roads one to Kunzum pass and one to Chandratal. Well, to put it precisely its not a road but only a track that you follow with just enough space for a single vehicle to pass on with steep mountains on one side and deep valley on the other. Its a roller coaster ride at its best. This part of the journey is so difficult that a less than expert driver would refuse to drive through this part. Most people usually trek on these places. But fortunately we had an expert driver who never wavered on this road even when our Tavera suffered from broken right step gaurd and broken mud guards because of the terrible roads. Finally after some five to six hair-pin turns on stones and mud we arrived at the wonderful lake that is Chandratal. Some 70 kms from Rohtang Pass and at an altitude of 4300 mts this lake is surrounded by Chandra Bhaga Ranges and Dholadhar Ranges. From here you can see the CB13 Peak where once an Air Force jet crashed in fogy conditions and the remains of the same could be found till today.
It was time now for us to unload and setup our camps. Our tentmaker did most of the task while we stood by photographing the lake. Our cook too was quick to prepare us all a hot cup of tea. Pretty soon the cold winds picked up again and we were left cold, numb and breathless. We packed ourselves with thermals, sweaters and Jackets and still could feel and hear our teeths rattle away. By this time, I had put on three pairs of thick socks and shoes and still could feel my feets froze. Most of us started to feel the high altitude sickness and lack of oxygen. When even a much needed hot soup could not make us feel warm we had to close ourselves inside our tents and inside our sleeping bags. By the time our dinner was ready none of us wanted to venture out of our tents. Finally hunger proved more powerful than the cold and we all filled out one after another for dinner comprising of hot rice, yellow dall and alloo matter. Once back in the tent we closed ourselves in the sleeping bags after wearing as many clothes as we had and sang aloud to keep ourselves warm. But nothing helped and none of us could sleep. We sat awake till 3:00 am in the morning fighting tiredness, breathlessness and dizzyness commenting "kitni lahmbi hai yeh raat, is raat ki subha nahi". By 4:00 am finally the sleep overtook us and we slept for two hours. When we heared my mobile alarm ring at 6:00 am we were overjoyed to releaize that we were still alive and ran out to see the sunlight shine bright gloden on the snow clad mountain peaks. It was an amazing view and even in the cold we could not resist taking our hands out of the gloves to take some amazing pictures of the golden snow clad mountains with their crystal clear reflection on the lake waters. To our amazement we found that the water bottles that we had left outside our tents had frozen to ice. We had never enjoyed a hot cup of tea so much in our entire life as we did on this morning of 1st October at Chandratal in freezing tempratures. We then moved arround the lake taking pictures from all possible angles and views. The best pictures were taken when the winds stopped for some time and there were no ripples on the surface of the water so that you could see a crystal clear reflection of the mountain peaks. After a scumptous breakfast of bread, eggs, jam, and maggie we started packing our bags for the return journey to Manali and from their to Delhi.

This was our best adventures trip so far.