As a child I was always fascinated with snow. I always wanted to load myself with lots of sweaters and jackets and then experience the snowfall, so this winters I decided why not make a dream come true and have one more check in my bucket list. Few years back I saw some pictures of Auli but I had not heard a lot about this place so I did some research and yeah we were there on our first trip to Auli. We started our journey from Pune, landed in Delhi, headed to Dehradun and after exploring Dehradun and Mussoorie our ultimate destination was Auli. As they say good things doesn't come easily so was our journey to Auli. We started our journey from Dehradun around 5 am in the morning with a bus run by Uttarakhand Transport Corporation and reached Joshimath around 8 pm. Sitting in a bus for around 15 hours was really tiresome. But our hectic journey was all worth when we saw those mesmerizing snow cladded mountains in Auli. Auli is situated around 30 kms from Joshimath. One can reach Joshimath through bus from Rishikesh or Dehradun. There are very limited directed buses run by Uttarakhand Transport Cooperation from Rishikesh/Dehradun. As we were already aware of the fact that it takes around 12-13 hours to reach Joshimath from Dehradun we booked our hotel in Joshimath for that night. After having dinner at nearby restaurant we slept for that night in Joshimath. Next morning, we were full of excitement as we were going to Auli.
So Auli is situated around 3o kms from Joshimath. One can reach Auli from Joshimath either by Cable car or Gandola (revised price costs Rs 1000 per person that includes both up and down from Joshimath to Auli) or by road. But in winters due to heavy snowfall roads are mostly blocked. So we booked the cable car since roads were blocked due to snow and after 20 mins ride of serene nature we were there at the perfect winter wonderland - Auli.
We took 11.30 am cable car ride and reached Auli around 12 pm and we were astonished with the first sight of this place. It was sunny and the place was entirely covered with the blanket of snow, the view was magical, it's description is beyond words. We fall crazily in love with this place. We played with snow, rolled in it, we did snow fight and what not. The best part was I even got a ride of Piste Caterpillar. It is a machine that is used to flatten the snow for skiing. Locals here are very helpful and cooperative.
Standing there at the height of 11000 feet and having the view of the great Himalayas makes you feel like a princess. The view is mesmerizing. One can have a very clear view of Nanda Devi, second highest mountain peak in India. I was awestruck with the view, it was so surreal.
After spending some quality time there we checked into our hotel in Auli. Now here is a Tip - One can go either way that is one can stay in Auli as long as they want or one can have just a day trip to Auli. If you a tight schedule you can catch the first cable car ride in the morning from Joshimath to Auli and can leave by 4 through the last cable car ride from Auli to Joshimath after spending quality time here. Hotels in Joshimath are expensive as compared to hotels in Joshimath though there are some really good options like GMVM. Now most of the hotels are situated in Auli Ski Village which is little down from the cable car station. To reach there we again have to take cable (it costs around Rs. 500 for both up and down from ski village to Gandola station), now this cable car is open and best thing in Auli. The view of Ski village that we get from cable car is heavenly. After reaching Ski village we checked in our hotel and spent time chilling there, then we had our dinner and slept with ultra big smiles on our faces.
Next morning we woke up early and went our to take some ski lessons. After learning skiing and practicing for 2 hours we were doing good. Auli offers one of the best skiing grounds in India. This place provides world class facilities for skiing. Auli also has one of the best skiing institute in India - "Mountaineering and Skiing Institute" that offers various skiing courses. This year Auli experienced record snowfall after 2008. I was lucky that I was here and got a chance to take a deep dive to God's phenomenal creation - Nature. It was divine, serene and full of purity.
After having breakfast we checked out of the hotel and took a return cable car ride back to Gondola station from ski village, from there we took return Gondola ride to Joshimath. We wanted to spent more time over here but we had to head towards Nainital as we were on tight schedule. We spent a wonderful time here. Auli is incredible creation of God. This place has my heart, best place I have ever been to and perfect winter wonderland in true sense.
