I awoke with my alarm bright and early at 4:45am, first light. I had already packed up all my stuff, I wasn’t exactly eager to remain in the cheapest lodgings of the trip so far, a stand-alone building/garage with some cheap beds in it, $4 for the night. I rolled up the squeaky garage door to the dismay of the one other person sleeping there, and I was on my way, snack in hand. I crossed the bridge over the river, passed some tents, and easily found the start (or end) of the trail.
The usual way that 98% of people do this hike is starting from Manali and finishing where I’m starting, using a tour company, staying in their tents, fully cooked dinners and breakfasts, donkeys to lug up all the stuff, etc. The whole production. It’s the same standard package at every single fricking tour company, the 4 days/3 night tour. Sooo slow! Independent trekking still isn't a big thing yet here in India. One the previous week I had emailed a bunch of the big companies wondering if I could just get a guide, and ONLY a guide to do the trek in reverse, where I carry all my own stuff and do my own meals, and we finish the whole thing in 2d/1n. Absolute crickets on this request! Not a single response! Ahh screw it, I’ll do it by myself. I’ve got my offline map, it’s a well trodden route, what could go wrong?!
The previous night I’d already seen from the road that there might be a tricky part right at the beginning, a large section of snow/ice going all the way down to the river, but it appeared to have a path cut through it. It looked very steep from the road, but once I got up to it the angle wasn’t so bad. But what worried me was how deeply frozen it was. I started to cross, but if you got further out and happened to slip, you’d slide all the way down into the freezing, rushing river. Nope Nope, too risky. It would probably be fine in the afternoon once the snow thawed and you could cut out steps, but not all slicked up at 5am, no sir-e-bob.
So it’s either go back or go around. Around it is, arghh! Already lots more work than I hoped. I scrambled 45 minutes uphill until I could finally get around the sheet of snow/ice. Hard work! By this time I was already so far up above the trail that I wondered if I could just meet up with trail a bit later. As I kept going it looked like I probably could, the only problem being that I was on the wrong side of the river and I’d have to find a good way to cross, which might be difficult. Eventually the river flattened out a bit and I’d have my chance. I tested out a few spots, didn’t really love any of them, but eventually settled on a route that took me on a long diagonal.
the trail going up, finally the sun coming out
The important thing on these crossings, besides not crossing anywhere too deep, is to have enough rocks above the surface to be able to rest a hand on for stability. It’s very easy to have your foot slip from the slick rocks of the riverbed, especially when you’re not wearing shoes - and you really really do not want to fall all the way in. I took off my shoes and socks, strapped them to my bag, got out of my hiking pants and started across. The water was absolutely freezing and flowing at a good clip. It didn’t take long before my feet were going numb, but I had to keep moving. My feet were getting so cold that I thought about stopping, climbing on a rock and attempting to warm them up, but nahh, just gotta keep going. Towards the end my feet might as well have been bricks, it was hard to place them as I literally could not feel them at all. Finally I scampered to the other side, quickly dried them off on a sunny rock and tried to smack some life into them. Come on!
I think this was the coldest my feet had ever been! I was actually somewhat paranoid that I possibly did some long-term damage to my toes. They weren’t coming back yet! Even after I started hiking again the toes on my left foot stayed tingly and not completely revived. It would be hours before they felt normal again. But hey, the good news was that I was back on the real trail! From here it was just a steady ascent further into the alpine valley, with one more annoying river crossing, and then the steep uphill climb of the pass. Soon snow started almost all of the ground, it was lovely. There was also one small lake which made for a nice photo with blanketed white peaks looming not far away.
I made my way up the weak point where I thought the trail would be, but I guess I lost it in the snow. It took me a bit of scrambling to find it and then it was straight up up up to get over the pass! Fortunately most of the trail was not snow covered, so it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Not long later I was looking down over a completely white valley, the mountain peaks looking very close! This was it, Hampta Pass! No prayer flags to mark it, just some absolutely outstanding views. (pictured at the top)
Then it was down some rocks and to the bottom of the valley, I’d have lots of snow to cross now. But it wasn’t steep or dangerous and it was soft enough where you could cut out your steps to make sure you didn’t slip. There were also parts with no rocks where you could sit on your butt and slide downhill for 40 or 50 feet, called glissading, and that was obviously the fun part! It took about two hours before I would get completely out of the snow, but it was mostly enjoyable.
Once the snow ended it was all standard downhill trail hiking, nice! Around 2 pm I passed the camp that all the tours sleep at before heading over the pass in the opposite direction. They were a bit surprised to see me. I said some hellos and chatted for a few minutes before heading on my way. I was in a good hiking mood and was happy to descend rapidly. From the camp I picked up two guide dogs to lead me along the way. Well one was always running ahead and waiting while the other one was happy to stay right behind my heels. It was nice to have some company.
My guide doggo
I was moving fast enough downhill that I thought I might be able to finish the whole trek in just one long day, the full 20 miles. This became my new goal. And then maybe I wouldn’t have to camp overnight – I uhh didn’t actually have a tent, but I did have a tarp and some twine, although I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use it or not! So down and down it was, passing plenty of groups slogging their way up. Judging by the facial expressions and body language, most Indians did not appear to be enjoying their hike whatsoever!
Hours passed, I had now made two more river crossings, passed another big tour group campsite, made my way through a bunch of sheep, saw some waterfalls, and I was getting pretty close to the end of the trek. My knees were hurting pretty good at this point though. I talked to a local and he said there wouldn’t be any cars to take me down if I made it to the road, and it was another few miles until the next village down the road. So while I could have made it to the road, doing an extra 3 miles past the road sounded absolutely miserable, so I decided to make camp about a mile before the road, where I still in nature and had a nice view of the valley. So technically I didn’t do the whole trek in one day, I only did 95% of it, blah blah blah.
Now all I had to do was find a flat spot with two trees about 8 to 12 feet apart where I could tie my twine across and make a little A-frame tarp/tent. Of course I could not for the life of me find two trees across from each other on a flat piece of ground, so I would have to improvise. I’m not sure the Boyscouts would be proud! But my shelter seemed to hold up, very fortunately it didn’t rain, and due the exhaustion I slept pretty damn well considering that I was not close to being comfortable!
Not pretty, but it got the job done. Thank god for no rain!
I woke up with sun in the morning, packed up and made it out to the road. It was still to early for people to be getting dropped off up there, so I decided I’d just walk down back to Manali. And fortunately there were dirt trails in between the switchbacks so you didn’t have to follow the meandering road the whole time. A few hours later I had reached the very bottom of the valley and finally flagged down a taxi to get me the couple miles to the city center where my hotel was. A very successful day and a half of hiking! I can’t say I’d recommend it my way, but I was certainly pleased with myself!
After so much high altitude desert, it was great having trees again!
Manali down below