Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra
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I spent six good days in Auli – skiing, trekking or just having fun indoors. It was time to head back. Getting in and out of Auli is always a painful experience. The long distance to Rishikesh that needs to be covered in the hilly roads is not the most pleasing experience. I was planning to catch a bus from Joshimath, but I met a few people from Bombay who were kind enough to offer to take me with them in their cab. It made things much better than taking a bus.
Reflecting back at the days I spent in Auli, I felt they were well worth the back-breaking journey. I was pretty unhappy to see the lack of snow this year, but the activities that you could do in summer like conditions in Auli are equally interesting.
THINGS TO DO: AULI IN SUMMER
In fact more people visit Auli in summer than winter, taking a short detour on their way to Badrinath temple. Hotel prices in Joshimath increase and you pay 50% more to access the cable car.
The cable car ride offers great views
If you are a day visitor, take the cable car up and enjoy the majestic views of the valley and the mountains on the other side. You get good views of Mt. Nanda Devi from Auli, and go a little higher to have a look at the peaks of Chhang Bhang, Trishul and Dronagiri.
Mt. Nanda Devi, just before sunset
Hire a guide to take you up to Gorsau top or the lake to the right of it. These are the places that get buried in snow in the winter and can’t be accessed. For those looking for a more difficult trek or adventure, Auli is the starting point to trek up to Kuari Pass. The views on the trek are known to be great, but I haven’t been there. Spending a day or two in Auli is worth it if you are here in summer. Early mornings are obviously best time to have a great look at the distant mountains.
See my Auli photo gallery for images from my this year’s trip. Read through the previous posts to know about my trekking and skiing experiences in Auli.
THINGS TO DO: AULI IN WINTER
In winter every thing looks different in Auli. Every inch of ground is covered in snow, and walking in most of the areas is impossible. You can’t climb up beyond the heights which can be reached by cable car. But a casual visitor can still enjoy the abundant snow, and frequent snowfalls. If you love to see snow, it is a worthy trip here even if you don’t intend to ski. Read about my experiences of skiing in Auli last year. Also see the last year’s image gallery when there was a lot of snow.
Auli is full of snow in winter
Of course, it is skiing that attracts many people to Auli. Auli has excellent slopes and you can come here to learn skiing. GMVN conducts introductory courses for seven days and certificate courses that run for 14 days. Instructors are good and the course is worth it.
Also see more about Auli in paintedstork.com
Visit to Auli in 2005
* Images from Auli(plenty of snow)
* Trip report
Visit to Auli in 2006
* Images from Auli(little snow)
* A back-breaking journey: from Rishikesh to Auli
* First Day at Auli
* The days of Skiing
* Spending time in Auli
* Trekking and walking around
* About Auli
Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra
+Previous: Spending time in Auli
+Next: About Auli
+Go to beginning of the series
One of the days, we decided to take advantage of the fact that there wasn’t much snow, to trek up the mountains above the slopes of Auli. We started pretty late in the morning, with the local forest guard guiding us from the front. There was still more than a feet deep snow high up, so we rented rubber gum boots for the walk.
Very quickly we were walking in the alpine forest, with snow covering up the forest floor. Evenly spread Golden Oaks and Pines dominated the forest. Higher up, a few rhododendron trees occasionally popped up from the snow. Silence of the forest was broken by our own low voices and occasional calls of birds high up on the trees. The white forest floor was decorated by brown dried leaves of the pine trees. Occasionally, the trees spread apart to give us the vistas of the high Himalayan Mountains far away. Our guide showed us the taller peaks visible from here – Chhang Bhang, Dronagiri and the mighty Nanda Devi. Views of Kuari Pass looked beautiful and inviting, with patches of bare land seen emerging out of the snow cover.
A Rhododendron plant emerging from the snow
Wildlife in the forest seemed to be in plenty. We did not see any, but our guide who was walking in the front did get to see a monal pheasant and wild boar. But there were many signs of wildlife, as we saw many footprints of snow leopards, bears, musk deer and boars. Human footprints and mark of the skis made an odd and interesting digression from this, but these were a minority here against the wilder ones. There did not seem to be much bird life and even the forest seemed to have been dominated by ravens.
Pug marks of a snow leopard
A few kilometers of walk took us to a beautiful frozen lake – called Chhatra Lake – covered all around by snow. The melting snow gave way to ice in a small corner, where I walked down and touched its freezing water. The opening made by the lake in the forest showed up the afternoon sun and the snow lit up brightly in the depression of the lake. A few steps above the lake was a small hutment where a hermit was known to have practicing a few years ago.
The frozen Lake
We walked higher and reached a ridge and then to the highest point around. Indeed, like anywhere else in the Himalayas, we were rewarded with magnificent views that few other places in the world can offer. To one side of the ridge was the lower region with villages, cultivated land and alpine forest. The other side, which was towards Auli, opened up to the higher, snowy mountains of the Nanda Devi range. It was a pleasantly cold day, with direct sunlight warming our body and making us feel good. The guide slowly muttered that he could sit here all day, and I nodded in agreement.
We retreated from here as the sun started moving downwards in the sky. It was almost 5pm by the time we reached back to Auli, and we haven’t even had our lunch. We quickly changed and rushed to the restaurant to fill us up, and then for some rest and slumber.
Also see more about Auli in paintedstork.com
Visit to Auli in 2005
* Images from Auli(plenty of snow)
* Trip report
Visit to Auli in 2006
* Images from Auli(little snow)
* A back-breaking journey: from Rishikesh to Auli
* First Day at Auli
* The days of Skiing
* Spending time in Auli
* Trekking and walking around
* About Auli
Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra
+Previous: Skiing in Auli
+Next: Trekking and walking around Auli
+Go to beginning of the series
Skiing takes up a good lot of your energy. The heavy boots and equally heavy skis can tire you in half a day’s time. If that is not enough, reaching the slopes from the lodge is an equally difficult exercise. We had to walk a long way up to reach the snow line, a part of it carrying or wearing our ski shoes. Thankfully, we had help from friendly and hard-working porters who would carry our skis up. Without them, I am sure most of us would take half a day just to get to the slopes.
Taking the chair car to the ski slopes
The climb is worth it. The higher you get, the better the views. And better snow for sliding down. We would get energized with heavy breakfast, take the chair lift that would save us a 15 minutes of climb and make our way to the slopes at around 9am. It would be beyond 10am by the time we reached the slopes and start skiing. Go up and down a few times and we would be tired and sweating, loosing a good lot of the energy. But the addiction to skis does not let you go easily. Some rest and a ‘cool-drink’ and we would ready to go at it again. The morning hours would pass by, with some moments of thrill, some moments of falling and a good lot of fun and practice. By the time we descend, we would be hungry for food and rush to the kitchen.
A portion of the ski lodge
The Restaurant
By 2.30pm, food and fatigue would have made us drowsy and we would head straight to bed. Few people would have the energy to stay up, and there is nothing much to do in and around the ski lodge anyway. Later part of the day would be whiled away in the restaurant, bar or the dorms, finding ways to while away the time. The restaurant had good heating and served hot chocolates and great Pakoras, which made us flock there. Dumb charades dominated our free time in the first few days, but we soon ran out of ideas.
It’s the gang of local Gharwali children, who were on a sponsored program to learn skiing, kept us amused in the last few days. They were hyperactive, noisy, running around and shouting all the time and sang loudly whenever they were bored. We would occasionally sit with them, get them to sing or play with us. They sang funny Gharwali songs in loud and shrill voices. We would encourage them to dance and they were too happy to oblige. Some of the Gharwali songs are incredibly funny and left us laughing to the end. One of them that seemed to be famous there went like this:
Bubbly tero mobileWah re tero smile
(Mobile – pronounced as mo-baa-yil and smile pronounced as is-ma-yil in Gharwali fashion!) The kids got into a fight sometimes and one of us had to rush to set things right!
Dancing Gharwali kids
Most of the evening and time after dinner would pass this way. We had good moonlight and clear skies when we were there, and some times we went on after-dinner walks in the forest below the lodge. Hope of seeing some wildlife in our day or night time wanderings never succeeded, though we saw plenty of signs of presence of bears, leopards and musk deer.
Also see more about Auli in paintedstork.com
Visit to Auli in 2005
* Images from Auli(plenty of snow)
* Trip report
Visit to Auli in 2006
* Images from Auli(little snow)
* A back-breaking journey: from Rishikesh to Auli
* First Day at Auli
* The days of Skiing
* Spending time in Auli
* Trekking and walking around
* About Auli