Chadar trek. Walk on the ice. Extreme negative temperatures.
Survival trek. This is all I knew when I registered for the trek in Jan
2018. This trek is so close to my heart
that I am writing this blog after a year and half, yet the memories remain
fresh and it has caused greater impact than any other treks.For those of you
who are new to the Trekking world, Chadar might just be another terminology,
but it is a major checklist item in most of the trekker's bucket list. And the
reason - it is a survival trek!
History (skip if you already know the basic details):
Chadar trek is a very popular frozen river trek, located
near Leh in Kashmir. In the winters when temperature drops to negative degrees,
the Zanskar river freezes, thus forming a sheet of ice between the huge
mountains. The roads are shut, thus blocking the day-to-day survival of the
multiple villages around this area. Surprisingly, the humans never stopped
exploring and mastered the art of walking on the ice. This continues till date
and it gave birth to the famous Chadar trek. People from around the world come
to Leh every year in the months of January and February to experience the daily
routine life of Zanskaris.
[On a bright sunny day in Chadar]
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) are trying their best to
construct roads to help humanity. While the roads are helpful to many, it
brings damage to the peaceful environment and unemployment. Yes, Chadar trek
offers a lot of employment opportunities to the local crowd who help in
transporting the items between campsites, cooking food, setting the tents and a
lot more - overall, they make our life easier in the extreme temperatures and
takes extreme care of everyone! While walking on ice is itself a challenge,
these people are the real heroes who also pull a sledge with our items loaded
on it. Also, if some parts of the river are not frozen, they carry the sledge
on their back and cross the area. Yet they reach the next camp ahead of us and
keep the tent & food ready before we reach.
REAL HEROES, right?
PRO tips before the trek:
· Fitness is
very important – so exercise regularly and keep your body in shape before the
trek
· Get used to
the cold weather. It is okay to take bath in cold water.
· Buy appropriate
trekking gears, but my advice would be to buy woollen attires from Leh market
which is cheaper and effective for the cold weather.
· Purchase your
boots only from Leh market and give it to the porters during the end of your
trek because it is very cheap over there and waste of investment if you are
planning to re-use it within India
· Book your
flight tickets in advance and we would prefer Air India as the probability of
flight cancellation is less. Don’t forget that Leh airport is prone to shut
during bad weather.
· Plan a day or two
to acclimatise in Leh before the trek. It is a beautiful city and worth
spending those additional time.
[Excitement in the air?]
PRO tips before the flight:
· Take enough
cash from the ATM. Do not rely on ATMs at Leh!
· Take your
sweater/jacket and cover yourself from head to toe before checking-in your luggage
as Leh airport will start to freeze the minute you step on it.
· Carry just one
ID cards and only necessary items. Get rid of everything else.
The flight from Delhi to Leh was itself an experience that
anyone can’t afford to miss in their lifetime! You get to fly on top of the
mighty Himalayan ranges and the winter time is an advantage. Our travel time
during the sunrise was an icing on the cake! I stepped upon an interesting
person during my 1-hour flight travel – Naada, a trek organizer from
IndiaHikes. who inspired with her mountain experiences, and the snow-capped
mountain views outside gave wings to my dreams. In no time, we reached the
small town in Jammu and Kashmir – Leh.
[View from the flight to Leh]
The minute you step on Leh, as much as the weather brings
chills to your skin, the Indian flag and soldiers dressed in their uniform will
make you look prouder. We took the prepaid cab from the airport to reach our
hotel ‘Palace View’. Rest of the trip was managed by Bikat Adventures. Having reached
a day prior to the schedule, we had sufficient time to get acclimatised and
roam around the streets of Leh. We were craving for non-vegetarian food in the
cold weather and the local crowd suggested Wazwan restaurant in the main Leh
market, but the day happened to be a local pooja fest and non-veg wasn’t
available. Yet, their vegetarian food was also amazing, a must try!
[The famous outlet for snacks/food in Leh Market]
While I roamed around the streets and clicked random
pictures, I lost track of the number of items that I was holding. Since I kept
juggling between my mobile, wallet, and the multiple cold-protectors, my wallet
fell somewhere and I didn’t notice it till the next day.
26th January, 2018
27th January, 2018
We had a brief round of introduction to the group whom we
were going to spend the consecutive days along with yummy breakfast comprising
of hot aloo parathas, curd & coffee. Two tempo travellers filled with
enthusiastic trekkers and a whole lot of trekking bags & poles - the
adrenaline rush began! Something flashed my mind to inform my trek leader about
the lost wallet, he spontaneously asked if it was a red wallet and clicked a
photo of me. As we didn’t have enough time to research more, I left the
responsibility with the hotel people to help me to find my wallet. *But I was
happy that someone was looking for me*
[Sangam - The intersection point between Indus and Zanskar river;
Observe the colour difference]
On the way to Chilling (trek starting point), the porters
also joined us with the raw materials & camping items. We crossed a lot of
military zones, saw some touristy places - magnetic hill and Hall of Fame. We
were stunned at Indus-Zanksar convolution point (Sangam) looking at the clear
difference between the colour of the water. The drive was itself an adventure –
frozen Zanskar on one side and huge mountain on the other side with a very
small lane where it was extremely difficult for two vehicles to pass at the
same time. A huge salute to the Indian Army as they maintain these landslide
prone roads too and make our lives easier!
TREK ROUTE
Chilling -> Bakula -> Sumod base camp -> Tibb camp
-> Nerak -> Tibb -> Bakula -> Chilling
Trek Details:
Day 1 will be the most fascinating day as you will try to
take baby steps on the ice, balance yourself, have some dangerous fall and
laugh about it with your group. And as the day progresses, you will master the
art of walking on the frozen river and slip & fall in the right way without
breaking your bones (Go with the flow, slide with your back support and never
try to balance using your hand or leg when you fall!) Ofcourse, you need to be
careful to not to move closer to the flowing waters as slipping into the
ice-cold water is almost equivalent to death.
[Lying on ice bed with cold water behind us and below us]
[Non-Frozen waterfall]
The silent environment without any distraction, interacting
with strangers and watching every single step that you take – Well, I can
assure that you will live your life every second. You will wake up every
morning to hot chai served by the Sherpas amidst an ice-filled tent (literally)
because of the abnormal temperatures which goes up to -40 degree Celsius. It
will become a routine that you hop from one camp to another for 7-8 hours, play
ice football post lunch, some crazy UNO games, endless MAFIA & its
arguments and the day will fade away to another freezing night. Despite the
routine, each day will give you surprises and more memories!
[Stunned at the frozen Nerak, you beauty!]
Nerak was the most beautiful campsite in the entire lot as
it had the astonishing Nerak falls – the frozen waterfall. We had to hike 5000m
hill to reach the falls as the river path wasn’t frozen. That day also marked
Viji's birthday, where one of our co-trekkers Robin, the master-chef joined
hands with the sherpas to bake a quick cake with very limited items (yes, in
the middle of nowhere) Few of the many reasons why I love to go on treks - Not
just for the cake (haha) but for such gestures which indicate love and humanity
still exists in this world, understand the importance of every small thing and
appreciate it.
Just like how all good things aren’t easy to attain, the
return journey from Nerak to Tibb gave us a near-death experience as the ice
that we walked previous day had melted and we had to cling to the rocks and
slide one-by-one in the thin sheet of ice along with our trek leader without
falling into the freezing water. Luckily we survived the stretch - thanks to
the boss. The longest distance that we travelled in a day was 14.5 KMs between
Tibb and Bakula.
On our final day, we got the opportunity to have a dip in
the frozen chadar – thanks to the sun which helped us to withstand the
temperature for few minutes. That was one hell of an experience. It wouldn't
have been so much fun without an enthusiastic group, and it would be a sin if I
don't mention about our Devanshi, 11-year old brave woman, who dared to take
this challenge along with us and she completed the trek like a pro. Bidding
good bye to the chadar, we went to Leh by road and stopped at Pathar Sahib for
(free) lunch. Stayed at Panorama hotel that night and it took a while for us to
shift from the fantasy world to the real world.
[Little Devanshi]
[Clean us - After the dip in frozen Chadar]
On our final day, we did some touristy things. Took a van
and visited Thikse, Hall of Fame, Sindhu Ghat
and finally ended in Leh market to buy souvenirs for friends &
family.
Food served during our 7-day trek:
· Breakfast –
Bread, Butter & Jam, Corn Flakes, Porridge, Poori, Roti, Egg
· Lunch –
Macroni, Maggi, Pulao
· Snacks –
Bajji, Tea
· Dinner –
Chowmein, Rice, Dal sabji, Fruit Salad, Custard
The Story of Lost Wallet
To those of you who are curious to know about the story of
my lost wallet, it ended up in the hands of an amazing lady, who took efforts
to search for me using my ID card; who went to help centres and tried to call
me on the number on my ID card; who tried to reach me via FaceBook and indeed
pinged people in my friend’s list to reach me; who didn’t want to give the
wallet to the hotel guys or my guide just so that nobody stole the cash in the
interim; who walked all the way to the market from her house; who waited all
the time to give the wallet only to me after confirming that the photo in the
ID matched my face. This superwoman is Zohra, a teacher in Leh. Words weren’t
enough to let her know how grateful I was. She proved that HUMANITY STILL
EXISTS! Thank you Zohra for the best memory that I could keep passing for
generations!
[Superwoman Zohra]
Cost Split-up:
Flight expenses - Rs. 16000 (BLR-DEL-LEH and return)
Trek charges - Rs. 22420 (including food and stay during the
trek)
Trek Sherpa Head - Mr. Stanzin Chomdan (Contact +91
9469457388 / stanzin_chomdan@yahoo.co.in)
Trekking Group - Bikat Adventures
Hotel - Rs.2500/night for triple occupancy (stayed 2 nights
before and after the trek)
Photo Courtesy: Thanks to Neha's mobile and Neha :P who clicked most of the pictures.
Photo Courtesy: Thanks to Neha's mobile and Neha :P who clicked most of the pictures.
[Happy us - Viji, Ajay, Neha, Shamili]
***My journey to Leh was indeed a rejuvenating experience – not
just physically but mentally! ***
