It’s been a little above a month since we updated the blog, so sorry for the delay, but a lot happened in between that kept us away from doing so. We came back from our three week long eventful trip to Sangla Valley, Lahaul-Spiti and Ladakh 10 days ago.

The trip got extended by 6 days due to a snow storm that we were stuck in. Mom and Dad both have a bad case of frost bite and are recovering. They won’t be able to continue the trip with us till they heal, but Ruchi and I move on and leave for Uttranchal today.

The story of our getting stuck in snow goes like this- On the 19th of Sept, on our way back to Manali,  around 120 km short at a 15,000 feet high pass called Baralacha, it started to snow like crazy. Trucks ahead of our vehicle stopped on the single lane road, and soon there were enough vehicles behind us that we had no way to go but wait for the traffic to clear-up.

Within a few hours, we were in the midst of a full blown snow storm, with strong winds and a heavy doze of snowfall. We spent that night sitting in our SUV, freezing and hoping things will clear up soon.

The second day, on the 20th morning, we woke up to see 3-4 feet of snow around and on top of our vehicle and it became evident that we were going to be stuck here till we got rescued by the Indian Army or the local government.

The weather detoriated further, another snow-storm, coupled with 2 avalanches a few hundred feet on either side of our vehicle completely locked us in this mess. There was no outside communication, as cell phones don’t work at 15,000 feet and we had no idea if there was any help on the way.

There were a total of about 25 vehicles stranded at the pass, comprising mostly of trucks and a few tourist vehicles, including locals and foreigners.

The second night was the worst- our vehicle’s front two doors got jammed due to the cold and won’t shut. We tied the two together with a rope to stop the wind from coming in and chilling our bones, but it didn’t quite work. It was -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) and barely enough to keep us warm.

None of us slept that night, just praying for the day to appear and the sun to shine finally. Our prayers worked! The third day was bright and sunny and in a few hours we had Army choppers dropping food supplies and blankets. Above all, by about 4:00 pm that evening, the rescue team that was sent looking for us two days ago, was finally able to reach us. 50 hours later, we were on our way down an avalanche to the nearest Army vehicle that had come up from a transit camp 30 kms away to get us.

We stayed at the Transit camp at Sarchu for 4 nights till the dozers were able to clear the road on the 25th. With a lot of trouble, we managed to get our vehicle to start. The fuel had frozen due to the low temperature. We drove accross the pass and managed to reach Manali despite the really bad road condition.

The next day we drove straight to Chandigarh and were go glad to be back home safely.

Unfortunately, four men died trying to cross the avalanche about 100 meters behind our vehicle and a total of 15 casualties were reported in the area due to the snow storm.

We hope all of you are doing well. We’ve got 16 more weeks of travel left in India and will keep updating the blog as and when possible.