Preface
Chanderkhani pass trek was my first trek and first long journey takes along with YHAI [May2016].
Chanderkhani pass is a mountain pass located at a height of 12190 feet near Kullu valley near the Malana village in the Shivalik mountain ranges. The trek covers many scenic locations like Parvati valley, Magic valley, Malana village, Watching forest etc.
I was a tag along friend with my BTech classmate who planned it with his childhood friends who tagged their friends and colleagues who tagged their friends and so on.. It turned out I did the trip with total strangers as my friend ditched the plan. But the trip became the best I had done till then.
Preparation was itself exciting
As this was my first trek, I had to familiarise with the concepts of trekking, buy lot of gear which I never knew existed. But, luckily there was fad at the time among Indians regarding trekking (so the result was plentiful of informative blogs) and there was this new chain of retail stores selling all these niche gear called ‘Decathlon stores’. It was a one stop shop for trekking accessories. It had its implications too. You won’t be the only one wearing donning any piece of 'trekking fashion'. The entire trekking team looked like they were on a school uniform on a Saturday special class day. There would be at least one other guy who has whatever accessory you are wearing. I was at the same time excited and scared by photos sent by previous trekkers in Chanderkhani as they showed snowing at the trekking route. I had never seen snow in my life before. All the gear cost 20k Rupees approx. in total. We (a group of 11 tagged along people) familiarised ourselves through the Whataspp group we formed for the trip.
Trek plan
Day 0 - Reach Base camp in Manali
Day 1 & 2 - Acclimitisation
Day 3 - Trek towards Yosgo, Malana village
Day 4 - Towards Behali riverside camp
Day 5 - Towards Watching forest camp
Day 6 - Towards Nagroni camp
Day 7 - Chanderkhani pass and Naya Tapru camp
Day 8 - Return to Manali base camp
The awesome team
Day 0 - Delhi to Manali
We (11 people) all landed in Delhi from different locations [Kochi, Thrissur, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi]. Took a bus to Manali to the base camp. The journey was tough as the route was rugged. By morning we reached Manali. It was hot around (30 degrees) after 0930 at Manali. The base camp at Seobagh is located at 6000 feet and had these tents on plain ground with just a building for toilets.
YHAI (Youth Hostels Association of India) camps are an ecosystem by themselves. They have their discipline. There were trek managers at all camp locations along with their crew of cooks, logistics team, doctor etc. The YHAI tours are cheap as all these crew are experienced trekkers who serve at YHAI voluntarily free of cost. You have to take a membership which you can use to rent YHA hostels at many locations around India or around the world depending on the membership you hold. At least one YHAI trek is must for anyone once in life.
Beas River, Manali
YHAI Base Camp, Seobagh, Manali
Day 1 and 2 - Acclimitisation
We had two days of acclimatisation at the base camp. In the morning we had to do flexibility and strength workouts and later after breakfast had to go for mini-treks to nearby hills. We were group of 50 people who did this Chanderkhani pass trek starting May 21 and were named as a batch called CP21. The base camp also housed people of other treks like Hamta Circular, Sar pass. Every night at the base camp was a cultural night. Every batch had to do some performances. The idea was to mingle and share experiences with many people. There also would be farewell to those who leave for treks after the 2 days of acclimatisation. The whole camp had a feel of a vacation school.
After 5PM, training is done and we are free to roam before dinner time, so we went around and took bath in cold ice melt Beas river. If you stayed in the water for more than 30 seconds, you would freeze and become numb. You could even die if you stay longer.
The acclimatisation walk
View of the Shivalik Mountain ranges
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