The high road to fun

Why let the R word dampen your holiday spirit Heres how you canu00a0 enjoy an actionpacked vacation in Himachal Pradesh with some help from the Youth Hostels Association of IndiaFor those of you who would love to see snow while the mercury climbs relentlessly back home you neednt take the first flight to Switzerland Himachal Pradesh offers you enough snow to have fun with at a height of 12000 ft and above And its almost freeu00a0 Im saying this because years ago when I visited Kashmir one brief ride on a small wooden plank the local version of a sleigh was Rs 200 for less than 5 minutesIn contrast in Himachal theres loads of snow even at this time of the year but the climb will take you 56 days Not to worry its not one continuous climb ALL KITTED UP for the climb The author on the Himachal trekHurray for YHAIThe Youth Hostels Association of India YHAI organises trekking camps in Himachal with the help of trained volunteers YHAI has been running these programmes for years now They started off in the Jammu and Kashmir region but once the strife started in the valley they shifted base to Himachal Pradesh YHAI is trying to add on more routes in Uttaranchal and other places The price ranges from Rs 600 for the childrens nature camp to Rs 2765 foru00a0 the trekking camp for those over 15 years There is no upper age limit Even people in their 50s and 60s can do the trek if they are fitBefore you start on the trek you need to get to Delhi at your own cost Then take the interstate bus to Himachal Mention the name of the YHAI base camp and the bus will drop you there Stay smartAvoid private buses or you may be cheated You will get tickets no doubt but the same ticket would have been sold to someone else by another agent When you get into the bus you will find someone else usually a foreigner in your seat In the toss up the foreigneru00a0 will be given the seat and you will have to adjust in the drivers cabin Once you reach the base camp you can dump your stuff in the tents and chill out make friends and enjoy the scenery The first two days at the base camp are meant for acclimatization There will be morning exercise after which you will learn to cross the river tied on to a rope across the water Dont fret the practice session will be over a dry strip You will be harnessed and you need to pull yourself along the rope You also learn rappelling which means you descend a rock face dexterously with harnesses to support youu00a0 Advice from a proThe afternoon before the actual trek is inspection time You leave all your belongings in one tent or in some rooms rented nearby and carry just one pair of clothes in your rucksack besides the ones you are wearing Travel light is the sincere advice Turns out so true because within a few days you dont even want to carry that one set of clothing Day 3 to Day 8 or 10 will be the actual trekYou leave the base camp after an early breakfast and with packed lunch Start trekking in your own groups of friends or make new ones along the route Enjoy nature stop to eat and then move on to the next camp There is only one path so you cant take the wrong one At points where you are likely to get confused the recce group would have painted arrowsu00a0 The view from the top is great For most parts the river Parvathi flows way down in the valley But we are warned right at the beginning Look where you are going otherwise you will go where you are looking Before sundown its dinner and then camp fire Thankfully trees are not felled for the wood but we pick up whatever twigs we find around So it is not a huge fire But the spirit remains Its interesting to hear regional songs and watch some energetic dances by the enthusiatsic ones in the groupThen its time to sleep as there is no electricity to light up the place and no TV to watchNew adventuresEach day you are sure to find a different type of terrain u2013 sometimes sandy paths and sometimes paths strewn with pebbles and acorns In the beginning you enthusiastically pick up as many acorns as you can to take home as keepsakes but later you find them too much to carry and you leave them right thereClose to the penultimate day of your climb you reach the snowline Everyone scrambles to play in the dirty snow close to the muddy path not realising theres so much more cleaner virgin snow as we move upwardsAfter that it is sliding down the slopes for free and snow fights and picturetaking before moving to the camp The finale is really here though of course there is the last camp to visit and spend the night before returning to base campBy now you have made lots of friends and are loathe to leaveu00a0Usually groups of adventure enthusiasts go on to visit the rest of Kulu Manali on their own Most people love to try river rafting in the Beas while some go to Manali to try out paragliding or do a short mountaineering course