Rohtang Paas

The Highest Place I had been to...

Rohtang Pass! At 3978 m it is easily the highest mountain I had been to! I had no apprehensions about altitude sickness. But people who had not been to the mountains had a lot to worry. You are entering a different world. The air is icy and thin.

As soon as I saw snow peaked mountains from Kullu, I knew I had to be there. My trip to Himachal would never be complete without doing so. Though I have been walking most of my trip in Shimla, I knew it wasn't going to work this time. Rohtang Pass is 51 km from Manali at an altitude of 3978m. It is not just any mountain I had seen. The word ‘Rohtang’ is literary translated in Bhoti as ‘pile of corpses’. People die all time from bad weather while trying to cross the Pass. Rohtang Pass is quite significant in this context. It connects Kullu valley to Spiti and Lahaul and the NH-21 highway to Leh also passes through this.

The road from Manali to Rohtang is one of the most precarious roads I had been to. Higher up, there are no trees but rocks and snow. The mountains are bare and you could see small road cut out of steep mountains. At every turn you tightened your grip and prayed that the jeep wouldn't just drive off the cliff. Statistically speaking, this road has very low accident incidence rate. Perhaps, they are daunted to drive safe by the road itself.

Marhi is a good place for Para-gliders. But the mountains and deep gorges can be more unnerving than Solang Nala. Here the wind is cold and the weather seemed to be changing all the time. The 16km road from Marhi to Rohtang Pass took more than 2 hours. After a certain point of time you stopped worrying about time and just hoped you’ll make it safe through the fresh lava like- sticky paste of mud and rocks. Many vehicles turned their way around and headed back to Manali without even reaching Rohtang Pass.

Hundreds and thousands of people visited Rohtang Pass each day. Most people came to see and play on the snow. I had dreamed of playing in snow since I was a kid. But when I reached there it was freezing cold. I stepped on the hardened snow and after few minutes my feet got a little numb. I was stunned to find makeshift shops selling cold drinks. But than again some people would drink it just for fun. Here, even a cup of hot tea gets cooled pretty fast. A piece of charred maize is sold for Rs.50. Popular sports here are skiing and quad biking.

Rohtang Pass is also the place where many rivers rise. I wandered off from the madding crowd towards the upper mountains facing Leh. The lower face of these mountains is carpeted with purple, yellow and pink summer blossoms. You couldn't see it from distance but these tiny flowers are perfect and beautiful. By autumn they will rot under sheet of fresh snow and will have to wait for summer to see the light of day.

Under the shadow of giant mountains, the air was getting cold. My fingers were numb and stiff. It was beginning to go into my head. Sometimes the beauty of nature belies its tyranny. I had never though of it this way. But as beautiful as it was, it could also kill fiercely.