PRASHAR LAKE TREK

Friday

15th February 2019

TIET, Patiala

It was around 4 pm and I was still playing FIFA on laptop with my friends, destroying each other’s careers. We were supposed to leave for our trek at 6:30pm but here I was, completely unprepared with unpacked rucksacks. But prioritizing FIFA before anything, I finished the match and packed my bag with all the only-necessary items as proposed by our OC’s – Nikhil and Kabeer.

6:40 and we were all set to leave for the trek. It took me a walk of 15 minutes to reach the Thapar main gate with the rest of my mates where our traveler was set to pick us from. The traveler came in about half an hour, meanwhile which we clicked pictures. I mean that is a ritual, right?

As excited as we were, we did not waste a second in hopping into our ride. Although it was supposed to be our nonstop ride until we reached Mandi, we had a few halts. First off we needed liquor. There’s only a thing or two that keeps you warm internally when you’re at higher altitudes and with college students, we wouldn’t miss buying that. For a distance of roughly 280 kilometers between Patiala to Bagi, which was supposed to take 8 hours, we later stopped at a dhaba in Ropar at around 10:30pm for dinner.

Oh wait, you still don’t know my destination right? Seems like I’m forgetful. We would be heading on our trek to Prashar Lake once we reached Bagi.

And right now, we were all set, happy and safe.

 ________________________________________________

Saturday

16th February 2019

Somewhere on the roads (wanderlust? Nah)

Dense fog. It’s February. We’re in north India. We are headed to somewhere up. Fog was just the expected thing. So at 3am we pulled over for chai. That’s another thing that helps you keep warm. It was just 30 kilometers to mandi now so we only found it fitting to stop for a little while ‘coz of the fog.

 5 Am. That’s when we reached Mandi. Time for some breakfast. We could hear the omelets and chai calling for us. But I guess that’s where the adventure begins. Nature’s call cannot be fought against and restrooms were not so easily to be spotted. So I and Manan went on a hunt for washroom where we found a government school and they allowed us to use them. A shoutout to the random government school in mandi please!

8 Am. That’s when we reached Bagi. We found ourselves dressed in the apt clothing for trek and around 15 past 9 is when we finally set ourselves on this trek.

13 kilometers and we were told that it’ll take around 6-7 hours to reach the summit. We had planning for this trek for a couple of weeks now so we found it only a beautiful addition to have our camps set near the lake.

But it seemed like our passion and dedication was only wearing thin, when only within an hour we were running out of breathes. I mean, we can call it on the 15-20 kg load that we were carrying! But zor laga ke haisha. We took mini spot breaks but it all seemed worthy of when the white sheet of snow came into appearance. Tiredness? Never heard of that. It was the mesmerizing view that I would rather want to take in.

It’s an up and down. What goes around comes all the way back around. We proceeded a little and it was 3 freaking feet of snow layered. Difficulty in walking was not even a surprise now because it seems like our gears weren’t prepared for this. But we decided to make most. Divided ourselves in two teams, it was a call for a snow fight. Imagine a bollywood movie setup. Except that this was nothing like how they show it.

So we lifted our bags again and where’s the musafir headed to? Manzil.

But one thing that kind-of stung me here was that our OC’s (remember Nikhil and Kabeer?), they were staying 200 meters from the camp site, just behind the slope and whatever excuse they presented for justification. I was kind of off the thing now. But okay let’s see what’s more to come

Another thing. We were first timers. Any kind of difficulty was of course not thought of and it in fact seemed larger than what we had imagined. But we were a troop of young boys. Our senseless humor kept us going.

The clouds started covering the sky and rain is exactly what we didn’t want, so we increased our pace. But wait, weren’t we at high altitudes? Snow! That’s what happens here. And now I knew, it will be a tough night to spend in our camps.

Nothing less than what we thought, in fact only more, it started snowing and as much as it was a beautiful experience to witness, things only started getting tough. There was a local person around, that’s where we took our shelter, in their huts. Prashar Lake would still take an hour to reach so we had to look for a protection plan. Bad planning calls here.

Now what we found was a broken hut. Slowly entering it, it was empty, broken, and had a door of barb wires. Once safety ensured, this hut was our savior for the night.

6pm. Having a local from there help us set our beds and a bonfire. Shoutout to the local too!

10pm. Had our slumber of 3-4 hours to recharge us, it was time for food. God bless the instant food manufacturers. Rajma chawal and a drink or two seemed bliss in the moment.

Sleep came easy that night.

Remember when we all watched man vs. wild when we used to e young? I remember Bear Grylls saying “nature is most powerful. When it decides to take you down, it will.”

Today’s day was only a little memoir of that.

Tomorrow, the team will set for Prashar Lake.

_________________________________________________

Sunday

17th February 2019

8am, tired and sleepy humans woke up from their slumber and when asked who all were set to the next stop- summit, we didn’t get many voters. Kabeer too decided to stay back in order to ensure that breakfast was ready and packing was done.

And then there were two. Nikhil and your first person Aakash Mittal.

Compared to our job yesterday, the journey for today seemed easy. The rain had made the snow hard but the tougher part to climb the steeper slopes. Sometimes with barely a foot of space available, we did face our own portion of challenges for the day. it took us an hour to reach the final destination.

The view. Enthralling. It got me real spellbound. The semi frozen lake at a little lower altitude lay at the foot of white snow covered hills. All of this, the snowfall, the broken huts, everything seemed so worth the fight. The sunshine with light breeze, I could have shot some bollywood song with a chiffon sari actress. Beautiful. We enjoyed the serene beauty of it, photos as per ritual were clicked for sure, and then we headed back to rest of the troop after spending about quarter to an hour in the place.

We captured the view for the last time with the lens of our eyes for the last time. And the immense sore of beautiful memories that I was collecting with me in beyond the description of words. We had chole bhature served when we came back and well as much as you love the food, kind of worried about not wanting to have bad stomach condition, I painfully distanced myself from it. The final few shots we clicked and well descended down was commenced.

We slid down the snow this time like little kids, but we know who lives the life to the fullest? Kid, duh.

But wait. It aint all a fairytale. How can you be on a trek but not lose your way? So our sub group, me, Nikhil, Raj and Shivam lost our way. But then somehow retraced ourselves and reached the base camp.

5:30 pm. We bid our goodbye to my first trek.

_________________________________________________

Monday

18th February 2019

1am. My bed. Right into the bed I hopped and slept.

I don’t know if I am going to the same place again but this was an experience it’s treasured. Forever. A lake of unknown depth and at that altitude is mesmerizing. It was one of those experiences i'll narrate when I’m sitting on that rocking chair.

Life’s beyond the materialistic. It’s as vast and open as those valleys I visited a few weeks back.

_________________________________________________

Ps-

Dips - unacceptably did great on the trek but was never satisfied with his sunglasses and pictures.

Also almost got himself buried in snow too.

Shivam - He is the First Human Cow.