Snowfall In Narkanda

Vargis Khan · Dec 21, 2015

Day 2 - Narkanda

I got up early next morning and decided to go for a little walk, leaving Shoyab still sleeping in the hotel. Tea and coffee in Narkanda were the worst ones I ever had in my entire life and not just in one hotel, every restaurant that I tried in Narkanda, offered me what looked more like a cup of boiling water than a cup of tea or coffee. After roaming around for about an hour, I came back and found Shoyab already out of the bed. We both decided to go visit the hatu peak.

Vargis Khan · Dec 21, 2015

Hatu Peak is located at a distance of 8 km from Narkanda. The road is surrounded by pine and spruce trees. On top of the hill, ancient Hatu Mata temple is located. The peak offers spectacular view of the entire Himalayan ranges, snow clad mountains and in depths are the dense forests, green fields and apple orchards.

After after having a light breakfast, we got out of the hotel and started to walk towards Hatu Peak as we wanted to go hiking to the top. An old man on our way suggested that hiking is just a waste of time and there isn't much that we can enjoy other than getting tired. So we got back to the hotel and started to ride up on my bike.

Once at the top, I immediately knew why Hatu Peak was so famous. View of the valley and Himalayan peaks from here was amazing.

Standing here, I only had one thought in mind, I want to see the sunrise from here. I spoke to Shoyab and he too agreed to come back here early morning tomorrow.

Once back at the hotel, there wasn?t much for us to do except to enjoy the natural beauty from our hotel window, watch TV and play chess.

Vargis Khan · Dec 21, 2015

Day 3 - Narkanda

Thanks to the multiple alarms set by us, I got up early next morning. It was still dark outside and I started the tough task of waking up Shoyab as we both wanted to go see the sunrise from Hatu Peak but no matter how hard I tried, he didn?t get up. After trying for 15 mins, I realized that I might miss the sunrise if I waste too much time here. So I started the ride again towards Hatu but this time alone.

I reached the Hatu Top in about 15 mins and sun was already starting to come out from behind the hills. As soon as I stopped my bike and got off, I noticed a pack of about 10-15 dogs barking and running towards me. It sent shivers down my spine. I knew that those dogs were there because I saw them the day before but I thought they were used to seeing human beings up here and had no idea that they would actually charge on me. Maybe it was because I was up there too early and at that time I was the only one standing there. I didn't know what to do because the place I was standing was the dead end of the road. After this was a straight fall into the valley and from the other side, those dogs were coming towards me. I looked around but it was just me, standing on top of a hill all alone. If it would have 1 or 2 dogs, I could have managed to scare them away but it was a whole pack and I knew that if they attack, they might just end up killing me or push me down the valley. I stood motionless, just looking at the dogs and as they got closer, they slowed down and stopped barking. Look at the picture below. The place where my bike is where i was standing and the dogs were coming from the other side.

Finally they stopped a few metres away and turned back while one of them came to me and started to wave its tail looking at me. I sighed and patted its head and after that, it was time to enjoy what I came here for. Sunrise at the height of 3300 metres.

Vargis Khan · Dec 21, 2015

Once back in Narkanda, I stopped at a restaurant to eat something. When the restaurant owner came to know that i was up at Hatu this early, he gasped and told me that I shouldn't have as wild animals come out at night in the jungle and there have been incidents of people getting attacked at night. I just smiled at him and sipped down my coffee.Shoyab was still sleeping when I came back to the hotel. I too crawled in the bed and was soon fast asleep.

We both got up at about 12 noon. It was very cloudy and looked like it will start to rain at anytime. After having our lunch, we decided to go visit a nearby lake.

Vargis Khan · Dec 21, 2015

It was around 5 pm when we got back to the hotel. It was still very cloudy and cold. When I looked at the hatu peak from our hotel window, I could see some fresh snow on top of the hill. Our hotel owner told us that we should have been up there at this time as hatu looks magnificent when covered with snow. So we thought why not go now? And once again we were riding back towards the peak.

Road to Hatu peak is hardly 2 metres wide with a steep fall on one side so one has to be very careful when riding or driving up. One slight mistake could result in a fall in the valley below and can prove fatal. About 2 kms away from the peak, the road was covered with snow and I knew that riding on such a narrow road with snow on it would be very risky. So we parked the bike and decided to walk the last 2 kms.

Vargis Khan · Dec 21, 2015

Standing on top of Hatu Peak for a third time, I knew how right our hotel owner was.

By then, it had gotten extremely cold and the only sound we could hear was of the cold blizzard which in itself was sounding so scary. We took a few photos and started to walk back towards the bike in haste as we knew that it would be dark soon. But darkness came way before than we actually expected. By the time we reached my bike and started to ride down, it was already pitch black all around us. To make it worse, it started to snow and we had to ride down back to Narkanda in total darkness with snow falling down straight on our faces. I knew that we will have to hurry up because if we take too long, then the entire road would be covered with snow and we might just slip somewhere but speeding up on a road so narrow was a problem in itself. The only light around us was of my bike's headlamp.

I stopped at the same restaurant that i did in morning and the restaurant guy once again was shocked to know that we just rode down from Hatu Peak in total darkness.

After we reached back in our hotel, it was time to enjoy the snow.

Vargis Khan · Dec 21, 2015

Day 4 - Narkanda To Delhi

In the morning, we found the entire town covered with snow. Before starting to ride back to Delhi, we decided to go for a walk around to enjoy the snow covered valley.