Skiing at Auli, the land of gods

Times Travel's skiing trip amidst the snow capped peaks of Auli-the Land of God-ended in a journey of self discovery and enlightment... After 17 hours of tiring and rather a boring road journey, the first sight of serene surroundings with snow clad mountain peaks and alpine trees was sufficient to make the tiredness and boredom go away within moments. If the first sight was an indication, the mere thought of learning skiing for the next 15 days in such enthralling backdrop was also adequate to assure myself that my rather risky decision of taking a sabbatical and starting it with traveling out of mad metropolitan crowd was worth it. Well, the start of this adventure expedition for me was an adventure in itself too. I set-off for the journey by bus as there is no rail network beyond Haridwar / Dehradoon in Uttarakhand. The fact that this lack of infrastructure deters numerous domestic and international tourists and robs them of some truly picturesque destinations along with hampering state's economic growth is another matter. From Haridwar (which takes approx 5 hours to reach from Delhi), one can either hire an expensive private taxi, or take a shared cab or a local bus to Joshimath which is 275 kms uphill. All along the way, I had been looking for mountain peaks with snow but was disappointed as I could not see any, but as soon as we approached Joshimath there were many snowy peaks in sight-the view was awesome. I was booked at GMVN guest house in Joshimath for the night but was glad to know that they had the only 4x4 gypsy which can go right up to the skiing resort in Auli. However, the chilly morning was a little dampening too when I came to know that the gypsy was not coming down from Auli. I had to take a private taxi that would drop me mid way and from there I was supposed to trek up. Hardly left with an alternative, I took taxi and got off after 5-6 kms and started on my own on the snowy trek and this time carrying the two heavy luggages became a humongous task. I sought a porter's help after a little while and gave him the trolley with myself carrying the backpack. Though he charged a significant amount but I was relieved as well as overawed and inspired by him. It was then I realised that life in mountains is not easy. He lured me into taking the stairs as that would take less time but the stairs were very slippery and for a moment I questioned my adequacy for the next fortnight. We were profusely sweating by the end of stairs and continued for the trek after a short break. We covered the last few meters which had snow till the ankle level and finally reached the skiing resort, by this time my lungs' capacity had been tested to the hilt and the porter seemed just little tired. I was really beginning to admire him and his fellows for going through such hardships for a living and still smiling. And even though Auli is connected to Joshimath via Asia's longest and highest air gondola, due to the neglect of State Government, it is not functioning for over a year now due to which tourists have to face a lot of problems. The resort provided for this GMVN skiing trip was a good one. All my meals were going to be in the restaurant instead of the mess which could not be operated as I was the only one in this particular batch of the skiing course. I was certainly not complaining. On the first day itself I witnessed and experienced my first snowfall also and my love with the nature started to deepen. But it also drew the day to a close for any session as it became heavier and lasted till the evening. After unwinding with some soulful music in the evening, The first skiing class followed the breakfast though I was fortunate to complete the sessions with just a couple of falls but even those falls brought giggles to a few casual tourists as well as myself. Getting up on your own after falling on the soft snow is a little difficult for the first few times but it's easy once you are taught the technique for the same on the first or the second day. The next couple of days showed gradual improvement but it was clear that a 7 day course though would have been equally enjoyable but not sufficient to acquire proper skiing skills one would like to go back with. I was patting myself for coming at leisure with lot of time at my disposal. With 3 local kids from Joshimath aged 12-16 joining me from 4th day onwards I began to pick-up pace too. They had already attended basic 7 day course the previous year were ahead of me in terms of skills as well as stamina and that motivated me too to stretch myself. Couple of these kids, one of whom was a girl used to trek to Auli on a daily basis in the morning and went back in evening after the post lunch session and that in itself is such an enormous effort. Few of the kitchen staff members, the cable car and ski lift operators also followed the same schedule and hats off to all those people for the efforts they put in daily. I had my share of fun with them as well as next batch of 11 people who joined for a week's course during my second week. I suddenly changed into a senior albeit I was just one week more experienced than the new batch mates. But it was more fun watching them (than myself) fall often while sliding, banging into each other and at times falling even while standing. We all used to crave for the drink breaks during the morning session where they used to serve the chilled Rhododendron Juice. The temperature at Auli drops upto -7 Celcius. The taps and the entire pipeline at the dormitory also freeze during most mornings. The days' long power cuts and no mobile signal almost give you a feeling of "Ice Age" literally. And though a bit inconvenient all this is actually amusing and adds to the tremendous enjoyment. The team of instructors at GMVN is very well experienced with a couple of National and Asian Skiing Champions also being a part of the lineup. They are also very humble, committed and pay individual attention to all the batch members irrespective of age and gender. We had a 45 year old lady, one 46 years old and another 55 years old gentleman who all were equally enthusiastic about the course and at a similar level of learning the sport as their mates aged almost half than them. They also made it a point to keep the spirits and morale of entire group up by being rather friendly and enjoying along with every one. By the end of the course, I had become capable of skiing down the 1.3 km long slope on my own, though I was still falling at times but each time the soft snow kisses your face it is lovable to say the least. Apart from skiing there is not much to do in Auli, in fact apart from a couple of resorts and tea-shops and temples, there is not much around. However, it is known only for its long, wide and natural skiing slopes. If one looks around, its nested in nature's lap, surrounded by awesome Nanda-devi (India,s 2nd highest peak at 7800 meters), Haathi Parbat, Ghori Parbat and many more peaks(in the range of 5500 meters and 7500 meters) that form a scenic beauty that can not be captured in mere words. There are several other such patrons we were told and I felt there was a strong possibility of one more name being added to the list in the future such was the experience for me. I had the solitude I needed, the thrill in the sport when you ski down at maybe 60 kmph, met a few like minded people and got inspired from a few too and grew my love for mother nature and God. This was way more than I had expected to take back from trip. One wonders why everyday of our life can't be as much to treasure as the time spent there and I was not the only one thinking like this, the entire group was. Maybe, if we do not stress ourselves with materialistic aspirations and rather try and follow our interests we can. Maybe there is a bigger lesson that could be learnt from this voyage and maybe I have learnt that. Time only will tell that but I believe this attempt would be surely worth it too just like this expedition.