Day 6 of Bali Pass: A Chilling Ascent, Summit Triumph, and a Snowy Descent
13th June 2024 – Thursday
Bali Pass : Day 0, reaching Dehradun
Bali Pass : Day 1, arriving in Sankri from Dehradun
Bali Pass : Day 2, journey to Seema from Sankri
Bali Pass : Day 3, journey to Waterfall Camp
Bali Pass : Day 4, journey to Ruinsara Lake
Bali Pass : Day 5, journey to the Basecamp
At 4 am we were awoken by the calls of Bachan and his team. We were served a cup of hot tea and got ready to begin the last stretch of the trek.
The chill of the air was piercing but the thought of finally reaching the summit of the Bali Pass proved to be the fuel to continue walking.
It was a steep upward climb in snow. Like needles piercing my skin the cold left my toes and fingers in perpetual pain through the entire duration of the climb.
As we walked on, the sun began to rise and the light from the rays opened up visibility for us to walk on. One rather unexpected thing that I came across was that my glasses were entirely fogged up due to the extreme cold. It’s as good as putting a bunch of glassware into a freezer, the same haze coated my spectacles inhibiting my visibility severely. I took periodic breaks to wipe away the lens as I was equally blind without my glasses as I was wearing the hazy ones.
The climb was certainly rigorous and with frequent breaks I found myself at the back of the group, yet again.
‘It’s okay, we are almost at the finish line’, I told myself.
The summit was appearing closer, yet so far away when you take a moment and realise how much more there is left to walk.
The last stretch, Suresh offered to help me reach as I was starting to give into the exhaustion with each step. He took my hand and like before, pulled me up in intervals of 10 steps. Repeatedly taking breaks to catch my breath and looking down I could see the narrow strip of the snow coated land that we were ascending.
The peak was nearly a 100 m away when I started to get my throttle back up again.
This was it, We had finally reached the summit of Bali Pass.
I took a small seat on one of the rocks and took a long breath and looked around.
Peaks of mountains surrounded us all covered in pearly white snow. The peak of Mount Swargarohini was visible clearly at this height. It was surprisingly quiet, only the distant sound of wind was heard.The clouds were so close at this height and the soaring altitude in this Ice Age – esqe landscape felt like one was at the top of the world!
I was the first on the peak and Suresh went down to help the others climb. I sat there in solitude just trying to absorb the sheer scale and magnificence of what was around me.
As I saw the rest of the group approaching the peak one by one, I could sense the same excitement and wonder that I had felt a few minutes ago, on their faces, upon finally having reached the top.
At 16,240 feet (4950 m) above, the summit of Bali Pass, everything suddenly felt worth it. All that effort, all that pain of walking, the stomach ache and the dreadful exhaustion, thoughts of which just fizzled away. The views that surrounded me felt like a deserving end to this true rollercoaster of a journey.
We started our descent along the slope of the summit. After climbing down to a safer height, we were told that we could slide down the snow to descend further.
This was a rather scary experience where in, for me I ended up sliding a bit too fast. I lost balance and ended up making a full 180 degree turn and was now sliding head first to the bottom. It was terrifying, if my head hit a rock in that speed, well…
I got a bit scared and in order to get a bit of a control, I stuck my walking stick straight into the snow. Alas, with that velocity, the trekking pole snapped in half and I went sliding down.
Luckily I slowed down and there were people to help me get up after that crazy snow slide. My shoes and socks were filled with snow so I wiped it all off and continued the walk down.
After about 2-3 hours of climbing down we finally reached campsite. It was refreshing to see the green grass covered landscape after the two days of only white.
But it was too early to celebrate..
Peacefully asleep inside the tent, I was suddenly awoken by thunderous sounds outside.
Within 5 minutes the familiar ‘clicking’ sound from the previous day began propagating everywhere around the tent.
There it was, Hailstorms Part 2.
For about half an hour the vigorous hailstorm maintained its presence and once it had settled, we stepped out of our tents.
The entire green landscape was back to marble white. Snow covered the entire terrain and the temperatures dropped back to sub-zero.
I groaned in disbelief. ‘This again?’ I thought to myself.
So there went one more chilly night spent on the snowy floor inside our humble tent.
Tomorrow we were finally going to be back to civilisation and with that thought, I dozed back to slumber.
Last Day of Bali Pass Trek: An Epic Himalayan Adventure in 2024
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