Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra
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In a week that I spent in Auli, I spent only three days skiing and another three days in wandering, trekking to the high peaks, taking pictures or doing nothing much. Every day was fun in its own way.
On my second day, I put on my ski gear and decided to check out how much I remember from last year’s learning. Not much was forgotten for good, but in the initial hours I suffered from some anxiety and was worried about falling. Some anxiety had to come because I was skiing again after a long time, and the slopes higher up in Auli are much more steeper than what I used last year for learning. But two-three rounds of sliding down and I knew I am doing fine.
I was introduced to much more adventurous skiing in the next few days. One of the days, we went high up the slopes and skied down through the tree line. I was again scared about hitting the trees but it wasn’t very bad. A funny incidence is worth recalling here. As I was sliding down between the trees, I lost balance in one of the occasions. And I did what anyone would instinctively do on loosing balance – look for some support. To my bad luck, the nearest support I found was a tree and instincts lead me right into it – and BANG! The skis hit the tree and parted – one to each side of the tree and my body moved further towards the tree! Luckily I had slowed down by then, and managed to hold the tree with my hand, getting out from there without any scratches. But I will tell you – the fun of skiing amidst the trees is worth this risk, as long as you make sure you don’t over-speed.
There was another occasion of injury attributed my stupidity. I was skiing in open slopes with my backpack, which had my expensive camera. I was weary about falling and damaging the camera and was coming down slowly. At a relatively easy turn, I made a half minded attempt with the camera in my mind, and the next moment I was on the ground, with my right knee nearly twisted! Again I was slow and was lucky to get away without any injuries to the camera and myself. Despite all this, I learnt a lot of skiing in these days put my time to good use.
After this, the most happening activity on the slopes was jumping over a rock with the skis or snowboard. But with the nearly twisted knee, I did not want to take any more risks and decided to let my camera work on the people jumping instead.
All these things – skiing in the forest, jumping on the rock are things that we never managed to do last year when there was full snow in Auli. Thick snow prevented us from getting into the forest and there were no rocks jump on but just the smooth slopes. The near-summer skiing had an element of disappointment in the beginning due to lack of much snow, but I soon figured out it has a charm in itself. Besides, we never had to worry about the chilling cold weather too.
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: Rishikesh to Auli
+Next: Skiing at Auli
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I took the cable car to Auli early in the morning. It is a 4 km journey, which takes around 25 minutes. We climb up steeply against the views of the valley below, the mountains on the other side and the town of Joshimath.
I was at Auli a year ago, almost during the same time of the year(See: images, report). This year’s weather was much different to what I had seen then. It was biting cold, with tonnes of snow everywhere last time, but this time it was warm and pleasant. Snow was no-where to be seen in the lower regions and you had to go high up in search of it. While we were wearing layers of sweaters and jackets then, I now walked up to snow line and beyond with a thin cotton T-shirt. It was not exactly that warm, but I love the cold weather and the gentle kiss of the mildly cold wind against my body, and would not mind shivering a bit for the experience.
Lower regions did not have much snow this year
I was here for a seven day skiing course, but the fact that I did not see much snow, I was contemplating staying for just a day or two and go back. I went up to have a look at the snow where people were skiing, and it was too tempting to join them. Skiing is an addictive and irresistible sport and it is just difficult to get away from it. I decided to stay on.
I noticed a few people playing cricket just below the snow line, taking advantage of the warm weather. And some one had already set up a tea stall there! Climb a little higher and the cricket ground gave way to ski slope!
Where-ever you are in India, even high in the mountains, you are never away from a bunch of people plyaing cricket!
Learning to Ski at Auli
There are some good things about not having much snow. Besides skiing, we could manage to climb higher up in the mountains and trek around to see the beautiful Himalayan vistas spread all around Auli. Besides, we did not have to worry about the chill weather of the snowy winters that would keep you shivering through the day. I spent the first day without bothering to wear the skis. I walked around and spent time taking pictures, watching others learn skiing or chatting with instructors whom I knew from last year.
I spent some time taking images of beautiful vistas of mountains across the valley
Next day, I was up to go up with my ski gear and figure out how much did I remember from the last year’s ski lessons.
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: About Rishikesh
+Next: First Day at Auli
+Go to beginning of the series
My next rendezvous was Auli – probably the most popular skiing destination of India. I had to catch a bus from Rishikesh to Joshimath, and then take a cable car to Auli.
The most painful thing about travelling is journeys. You would like to be up there in your destination, enjoying your time but you will have to go through the trouble of reaching there. You have to willingly submit to be herded like a sheep into crampy tin boxes, where you are allotted 2 feet by 1 feet space and you are confined to it for several hours, surrendering yourself to claustrophobic moments and hoping that it is just a nightmare and you will soon wake up to the joys of your destination.
On the way to Auli, you have no choice but to take small buses, whose seats are cleverly designed to seat two persons where just one can sit comfortably. The leg room is probably sufficient for someone under 5 feet. The 12-hour journey is entirely on the mountain roads and is usually driven so badly that you keep holding on to some support all the time. Add to all that, the bus stops everywhere on request, and there seems to be no concept of designated bus stops. On many occasions we stopped at 20-meter intervals to pick up more passengers. And in the towns on the way, people would use the bus like a city service!
Admittedly, you have beautiful views out of the window. The road is built along the valley of Ganges all the way from Rishikesh to Joshimath. You can see many streams merging with the Ganga along the way, including the confluence of Mandakini and Alaknanda at Devprayag to form the Ganga. But after a couple of hours, the journey does feel monotonous and you will be looking forward to reaching Joshimath soon.
The bus driver said we should make it by 4pm. It was 7pm by the time we reached there. The cable car to Auli stops operating after 5pm, so I was stuck. I ended up staying in Joshimath for that night.
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