In the lap of majestic Himalayas

I will begin my journal with my snow experience, which I had last year in December. I loved being near some of the highest peaks in India when I visited Joshimath and Auli.

My journey to Auli was one of the most arduous one considering that it takes more than 12 hours on narrow and winding roads with hair pin bends making me close my eyes with my friend – a veteran on these roads since he belongs to Joshimath – at the wheel who drives car even on these roads like he does on Delhi roads.

As we neared Joshimath mountains kept getting higher and higher with Alaknanda giving us company throughout the journey on one side. At certain places negotiating road was like taking part in some "Who dares wins" with widening of road in full flow causing landslide at various places. But it was a thrilling journey worth every trouble.

Joshimath is the place from where Badrinath is just 40 Kms away. And, it is from here one takes ropeway to go up to Auli. By road Auli is 14 km from this ancient town where Shankaracharya meditated under a tree and went on to revive Hinduism.

Since I reached in the evening, it was quite chilly even on December 12. After checking in hotel first thing we did was to get snuggled in quilts with extra layer of blanket. We woke up to a different climate. It was raining and on higher hills around us one could see white cotton like layer. Wow it was snowing! My friend and me were smiling like kids because it was first ‘snow experience’. It was a surprise because we did not expect it to snow before December 25. Around noon when my friend came to take us to Tapovan – a hot water spring – 14 Km away on Nitipas Highway. We began journey even as it rained. We had moved just few Kms, bit higher then Joshimath we could see sleet falling on our car front. We stopped our car and felt the sleet mixed rain. We looked up over our head towards Auli Bugyal, green trees were turning white.
We kept driving and stopped at Tapovan. It was raining and here it was hot water oozing out from nowhere. Besides there a family also who stopped to feel the hot water. Since I knew Reni

village was also nearby, I wanted to see it because it was from this village that Gaura Devi – the founder of Chipko movement hailed. She died few years ago but the village has a gate in her memory with names of other brave women and men who were ready to lay their lives to save the trees.
Next day was the big day for us because that’s when we planned to go up to Auli. But we were not certain. The ropeway was closed for the annual maintenance and road was not travel worthy because of previous day’s snow on the only road leading up to Auli. Fortunately manager of the ropeway turned out to be my friend’s schoolmate. He said the ropeway will make a trip for maintenance and we could accompany them.
The journey by the ropeway was itself an experience. The Auli ropeway is longest in Asia. As we reached close to our getting off point (10th pillar), we could see some of the highest peaks -- Mana Parbat, Hathi Ghoda Palki, Thrishul and above all the majestic Nanda Devi. As per the man on ropeway Nanda Devi’s best view can be had only from Auli. It looked so close from there with naked eyes. We spent there more than an hour. The slopes were covered with half a feet of snow. We played like children there. Made snowman. Threw snow at each other and just tried to capture as much as possible the beauty of this wonderful creation of nature. Unfortunately we could not try our feet at skiing since there wasn’t enough snow for that.

There is more about my journey to the 'Land of Gods', which I shall share in my future journals. Bye for now.

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