Trek to Beas Kund and more

Honestly, we were quite optimistic of doing the summit, especially after conquering two passes near about 5000m in recent times, with rather ease! But then its not always as it seems right. Mother nature had some other plans for us…

Once we were done with our packing we loaded our rucksacks in the vehicle and drove to Dhundi. Dhundi is a small place along the new, under-construction Manali Leh highway, a route that would avoid any need of crossing the hopeless Rohtang Pass!! Our trek actually begins from Dhundi. Our target today was to reach the Beas kund campsite, before the nightfall, crossing the Bakar thach Campsite and the Beas glacier moraine on the way.

Trek Route from Dhundi to Beas Kund Campsite

It was 2:30 pm, Thursday afternoon, on 6th Oct, 2011, we began our accent towards the Beas Kund campsite. After just walking a Kilometer or so we realized how heavy actually our bags were. After a few ups and downs along the path we stopped for a breather.

The weather was not the best, we could get. It was cloudy and overcast. Even at 3 in afternoon it felt as if it 6 in evening.

Walking along the way, we crossed the Beas river and began a continuous climb to Bakar Thach camp site.

Soon the beautiful Bakar Thatch campsite came to our sight, and by about 5 pm we were at the campsite, sharing tea with college students. It was getting dark really fast and as it is during the winters the day light is for shorter time. Over the cup of tea we were having a discussion, of should we take a risk of crossing the glacier in night or not.

Chander wasn’t very keen but, we had to cross to give it a good shot to make it to the summit the day after. Took a call and we decide to go on and reach the campsite.

Please find below the link to: MORE PICTURES OF TREK UPTO BAKAR-THACH

Soon we began the very steep ascent to the top of the glacial moraine. Tired of previous night travel and days long trek with a heavy heavy bag, we somehow managed to reach the top. Once on top, the tricky part of crossing the glaciers over boulders begins, and it gets even trickier due to fast disappearing day light.

Chander sprinted ahead of me and I followed. Crossed over on to the other side of the glacier and waited for Vivek and Ramu to come. Once Ramu came across, even he sprinted ahead to set the camp up. Since I was aware of the path, I felt it was Ok.

It started getting really dark, and by the time me and Vivek was down the glacier, it was dark as night. Now the biggest challenge we faced is actually locating where our campsite was.

All I could see was darkness and hear a stream flowing by. Soon we saw a torch light glowing towards us. Slowly steadily we headed towards it. Helped out guys with setting up the camp and changed ourselves into dry warm clothing’s for the night. Quick dinner, trust me dal rice never tasted that good. Once done, we straight hit our sleeping bags and fell into deep slumber.

AT THE BEAS KUND CAMPSITE

After a rather disruptive sleep, we woke up fresh the next morning. Sky’s looked relatively clear, a bit hazy though, but better than yesterday… Once out of the tent, we attended to our daily morning chores, followed by a very heavy breakfast, we packed back our stuff and were ready for the steep hike to base camp/camp1.

Trek Route from Baeas Kund Camp to Base Camp/Camp1

Ahemmm!! Back from morning chores... you know them..

360° of Camp Site

You see the frozen river, in the picture above, taking a left and climbing up, further up there is the Camp1

The mighty Hanuman Tibba

Please find here: MORE CAMPSITE PICTURES

We took a lead and headed straight uphill via Beas Kund. Soon we realized, the not so challenging looking walk to camp 1 as it appeared from our previous camp, was actually more than what we expected. Soon I started setting short targets to reach.. And trust me that made our lives easier. Once on reaching the targets, we took a little breather and off towards the next target..

As the climb began, it got steeper and kept on getting steeper...

All seemed going great. We were hoping to be at campsite by early afternoon, at the speed at which we were walking. The only thing that was hurting us was the heavy rucksack..

Kept Here are : MORE PICTURES FROM BEAS KUND CAMP TO CAMP1

In the mean time the weather started to deteriorate.. It got cloudy, and the peaks were engulfed by the dark clouds. We kept walking up and must have been about an hour, hour and half away from camp1, and it started snowing! At first Vivek though that his jacket was torn and inside fiber was flying around.. At first we enjoyed, but it soon it got really windy and the snow got heavier.. We were in a fix, so decided for Chander and Ramu to catch up with us.

Soon they were there and we all decided to wait for a while for the storm to sub due..

In the mean time though, it was time to eat some boiled eggs.. And I tell you.. “ Storm mein boiled andae khane ka mazza hi kuch aur hai..” What I said is that boiled eggs and snow storm make a fabulous combination.

Click here for: MORE PICTURES OF THE SNOW STORM

About an hour or so passed by, but there were no signs of weather getting any better. Infact, it got a little calm for a while, and grew stronger again.. We could have very slowly and steadily made it to the campsite, but Chander advised us against it... Said, if we stay up and the storm get stronger, the snow would get big and it would be difficult for us to reach the summit. And anyways, if weather stayed bad, we wont even try the summit!

So we decided to head back down, and not take any kind of risk… Now that was a challenge of other kind in itself.. Steep down slope gradient, heavy rucksacks, wet shoes and slippery surface.. On top of that strong winds and snow fall, and terrible visibility.. Everything that we asked for from the almighty that morning…

Soon we reached, Beas Kund… but the storm never stopped.. After a small breather here we decided to head down, atleast up to Bakar thach and then decide what to do next.. When we just reached below the glacial moraine, it stopped snowing, but then it started to rain….

Again it was quite a tricky walk across the slippery, rocky glacier moraine, but we managed it without any incident.. On the downward walk, we encountered a mountain rat, who dint mind posing for us.. It was still raining, when we reached Bakar Thach Campsite... It was a bit mucky there, so we decided to head down all the way to Manali…

Slowly and steadily we made the treacherous walk down to Dhundi, once there we waited the vehicle to come and pick us up..

Click Here For: MORE PICTURES DOWNHILL FROM BEAS KUND CAMP TO DHUNDI

At Dhundi, the SUV picked us up and dropped us to Solang Nala.. We paid up Chander and Ramu and returned the equipment's and rented a car back to Manali...