Lahaul Valley and Snowy Road

In the #winterchallenge started by @worldmappin, today I am going to tell you about a place that does not seem real. And I am saying this because this place, which is famous as Lahaul Valley, used to be cut off from the rest of the world for 5-6 months of the year, but now after the construction of Atal Tunnel in the last 2 years, the people of this valley can come and go to other parts of the country in winter. This valley is the gateway to Spiti, Kilad, Zanskar and Ladakh. So let's go to the land of Lahaul.

This happened in June this year when I went to Manali-Leh highway with my friends to volunteer in a road running event. In this event, the runner has to run 480 km and that too in 120 hours. But as difficult as this race was for the runner, it was equally difficult for me because as long as the runner walked, I had to stay awake with him and when he slept, it was my responsibility to wake him up. Everything was very difficult but after 5 days when my runner finished this race, I felt very relieved, it felt as if my hard work was worth it.

The Manali-Leh highway has won the title of being the most difficult highway and the highest highway in the world, not only in India but in the whole world, years ago. The average height of this highway is 4650 meters. I am traveling on this highway in the car. We leave Manali early in the morning so that we can cross the Rohtang Pass on time and without any problem and enter the Lahaul valley. Manali is located inside the tree line, so there is never a problem of breathing here, which I came to know only after going to Lahaul.

So if you have your own car and are with the mountains, then the adventure will definitely go to the next level. Little did we know that we would go to visit Lahaul and there we would face the snow-covered road that had fallen a day before. Leaving the greenery of Solang Valley, as soon as we crossed the Atal Tunnel, the landscape changed magically. While there is greenery in Solang, the Lahaul valley is covered with snow these days. Seeing the scene it seems as if the area around the Chandra river has wrapped itself in a white sheet so that its warmth remains intact for the winter.

We cross Sisu, then Tandi Bridge and finally we reach Jispah where we enter the kingdom of snow after saluting the last vegetation of the valley. Now if we or the vehicle face any problem, we will get stuck here but taking risks has always been in the blood of humans. Without thinking much we are driving the vehicle like a snake on the snow desert, I swear it is a lot of fun. My companions are a little scared, while my thought is completely different that "if there was fresh snowfall, it would have been so much fun".

Lahaul valley is situated on the banks of Chandra river, its border is from Kunjum Pass of Spiti to Baralacha Pass. There are many villages between these two mountain passes where the locals live their lives by living in difficult conditions. Looking at the snow-covered land, it is hard to believe that farming is done here but it is absolutely true that farming is done here in a large amount in which apples, peas, potatoes, cabbage and broccoli are grown. By selling this crop prepared in summer, the locals collect stock for themselves for the terrible winter.

We go to zingzingbar in Lahaul from where we do not take the risk of going further because the petrol in the car has run out and forget about the petrol pump, there is not even a shop here where we can sit and drink tea. Anyway, we come back 200 km where there is Tandi Sangam, from here we fill petrol in the car and cross the Natal tunnel again and sit in our room in the hotel of Solang with hot tea. This was today's day where we went to visit Lahaul valley, enjoyed the snow and had an adventure by driving on snowy roads. I hope you liked this trip. See you in the next blog.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from sony point and shoot camera and edited in lightroom.