Well as a engineering graduate me n 2 of my other friends decided to take a big & memorable break before we head in different direction & our eyes fell upon Youth hostel SAR PASS trek. After a through packing & shopping for over a month we camp up with this list after reading many blogs :
So we left Bangalore by train & it took us approximately 3 days to reach Manali and after a tiring Sightseeing we reached the Kasol base camp from Bhuntar which is about 40km away. We reported there at around 8:30 pm & which was almost the closing of the day at the camp. We got few instruction & rules after which a big tent was allotted for the 3 of us n got some good sleep that night.
The following day we had to get up early morning around 5:30am n after getting refreshed tea was served & the entire group was taken to exercise. It had to be the toughest exercise we had ever done in our life & everyone was down sweating & panting in just 15min. After an hour of rigorous workout we were finally giving the freedom of heading back to camp. That day after breakfast we had to send off our previous batch SP-37 for the trek & we were given some time to refresh & re group with backpacks of minimum 5kg weights as we were supposed to head on to acclimatization trek to the near by hill. This trek seemed pretty simple & jolly, as time went by the pain from the morning excise started to kick in things got tougher. We had lot of time to rest in between so the 6km trek turned out to be very simple .We returned back to our camp for lunch & then we had our orientation by a senior volunteer of YHAI. He gave us lot of tips & tricks on how to survive, also told the various treks by the Youth Hostel. After that we had camp fire & had nice sleep that night.
The next day we were supposed to have Rock climbing & Rappling but we had to skip because of time constraints & directly joined the SP-38 crew to start off the trek.It took us some time to digest the fact that the moment was finally here when we about to start the trek of our lifetime. Initially we had to walk through kasol as we introduced ourselves to the group & we were give nick names (AD , Maddy ,GUZ)& took time to familiarize with each of them. After that we headed out into the jungle, after trekking for couple of hours we were into thick jungle with a stream flowing right next to us. Our guide was professional as they all knew how long to trek before we could take break & the duration of the breaks. Without any complain we trekked till break ,had our packed lunch & utilized this time to take power nap. We felt revitalized & good to go again, so we trekked steadily for few more hours before we reached the steep areas. This section of the trek gave us reminder of what we were up against. The smiles on everyone's face was wiped off in some time & it become really challen
Kasol , The place where it all begins and ends in the trek. Most of they usualy spend roughly 3 days here getting acclimatized by exercising everyday morning & going for a short trek. The last day is a small session of rappling & rock climbing before the big day.
One of the most beautiful camp sites in India where our tents were surrounded by Himalayan ranges from one side, evergreen forest on another , small waterfalls on the third & a steep hill on the fourth. The clear skies at night gives a spectacular view to countless stars .
The highest base camp of the entire trip with mind-blowing views & on the other hand the only base camp that goes below degree zero at night.
