We woke up at 4.30 am to get ready for the big day. This was supposed to be the highest pass that we would climb on this trip.
After a hearty breakfast of Tibetian bread with honey, butter and scrambled eggs we set off for the day. As soon as we turned a few corners we could see fresh snow up on the mountains ahead. While it sure was breathtaking to see the mountains clad in snow white sheets, it also bode a warning as to how the weather could be at the top of the pass. And just as if to prove that we could see a thunderstorm approaching us very early in our ride.
By now the group had split in 2 - and AC took a call that it would be wise to pack the bikes and load them on the 4X4 instead of trying to brave the rain on the pass. When you ride as a group, safety in the mountains becomes the prime responsibility. However, the guys at the front didn’t want to pack their bikes and were riding ahead to avoid the sweep. The rest of us ended up loading the bikes in the 4X4 only to see that 1 km ahead the weather had opened up to a bright and sunny day. Talk about unpredictable weather in the mountains. So there we were again, unloading our bikes and starting the climb towards Kunzumla again.
The ride up the pass was pretty easy. Yes it was a long climb, but nothing too steep or challenging, it was just a matter of patience and to keep going on and on. ML and AM did a bit of hitch hike up the pass as both of them were not riding due to bad shoulder condition which was worsened by the roads. They used to walk / run in patches till the backup vehicle caught up. They then rode in it till the point it crossed a few of us on the climb, and then they used to get down and repeat the cycle.
The ride to top was pretty uneventful. Bacchittar, one of our crew members had brewed some black tea for us, God knows what he put in it, but it was the best tasting black tea I have ever had. Flavourful, a mixture of sweet and spice and hot. We all had a cup of tea before proceeding towards our campsite - Chandrataal -literally translating to Moon Lake.
It was supposed to be a downhill from here - with traversing the last few kms to the campsite. What we didn’t expect were the cold winds. As the downhill was full of switchbacks, there were these freezing cold winds that would hit us on our face on some patches and then would be behind us on the next turn. Even though we had our jackets on, it hardly made any difference.
Halfway through the downhill, we reached the point where we had to take a detour towards the campsite. This was a small road that traversed the mountainside. Tricky bit - we had to cross quite a few streams on our way. While some were small enough to just keep pedalling, the first big one that we encountered - got us a bit cautious, not for being washed away, but more so for getting our footwear soaked and having to ride the next day in those wet shoes. So we stopped before, removed our shoes and socks, waded the icy waters barefoot, pushing our cycles through it. On the other side we were back in our shoes and pedalling ahead. It was at this point that AC had caught up and we discussed that it should have been easily possible to ride through the stream without wetting our footwear. It seemed possible as long as we don’t have to stop in between or we end up losing our balance.
Pic by Amal Mitra
So come the next stream both me and AC were up for the challenge. This one was a longer crossing as the stream flowed along with the path for sometime before going downhill. All seemed nice and easy till some idiotic car driver ahead of us decided to stop in the middle of the stream, causing us to lose our balance and we ended up with wet shoes and socks !!! Luckily - the campsite was not too far away and we were spared the discomfort of riding in freezing cold shoes for long.
After a lunch of Daal and rice, we hitched a ride in our backup vehicle to see the lake. (Campsites are almost 2-3 kms away from the start of the lake to avoid polluting it) We reached the lake and started exploring around the periphery only to be greeted by rain. The wind picked up speed too, and since it didn’t look like it will clear out quickly, we returned back to the campsite. It rained the entire afternoon and evening and we were holed up in the tent in that gloomy weather.
Chandrataal lake
Fun fact - the Kunzum pass connects the Lahaul and Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh. While the Spiti valley is more dry and arid devoid of trees, a semi dessert, the Lahaul valley is known for high rainfall and is known for mountains and valleys covered in pine forests. Nature just seemed to be educating us on the field with a live demonstration.
We also got news that there were heavy rains - towards our destination for the next day - and the road conditions had deteriorated and would have made cycling difficult. The next day the original plan was to cycle from Chandrataal to Batal and then to Manali via Rohtang pass. This was supposed to be a good 80 -90 km ride including the long climb up Rohtang. Both our crew members got news from the other drivers who had come from that side, that the road had been washed out due to heavy rainfall and they said advised us to ride in the vehicles instead of the cycles in order to avoid any mishap. We decided to take a call towards night, depending on the rain situation at that point. The rain didn’t let up and finally we did take a hard call, that we would load our bikes in the 4X4 and ride in it till we got on a patch of road from where we could continue cycling. While many of us were disappointed, it proved a good decision in hindsight.
ML and SG had decided to return to Kaza from Chandrataal instead of continuing with us. SG was supposed to go on a trek with his friend in the whereabouts of Kaza while ML was gonna walk along the mountains in the Pin - Parvati valley. They figured that they would ride out with a couple of drivers who were headed that way the next day.
We ended up in the kitchen tent for dinner - a small tent where all 8-10 of us fit in to avoid the rain outside, and had a quick meal of Rajma n Rice. (fun fact - to cook Rajma (beans) at that altitude required a humungous effort and time for the chef. Apparently took 20-30 whistles of the pressure cooker to cook them)
With nothing else to do, we retired early - listening to stories from AC about his races in Italy. Each one of us prayed for good weather for the next day as we drifted off to sleep - hoping that we could ride as many of the 90km .