Yesterday was one of the most amazing days of this trip. Mind you, today I was at the Dalai Lama’s spring teachings, and yesterday beats that (sorry, HHDL, but it was hard to understand the translator and four hours of sitting on the floor makes for a sore and sleepy me).
Anna and I were on the road to Triund by 7:30 am, early enough to be the only trekkers in sight. Triund is a mountain top about seven kilometers from Mcleod, 2,875 meters above sea level. Though the most traveled hike from Mcleod, a trip to Triund promises breathtaking views of the Himalayas and –unfortunately– plenty of tea shacks to ruin the experience of nature by selling Lay’s potato chips and sweet teas along the way. They make all the effort to carry the potato chips to the top, but when it comes to trash, the tea shop owners are lazier, barely making it to the precipice before throwing the garbage into the nature that draws trekkers there in the first place.
Nevertheless, the walk remains breathtaking. Almost as soon as we’d left Anna and I ran into Tender, a Tibetan friend I’d made the night before at one of the beer bars at Mcleod that plays Backstreet Boys on a loop for ambience. He’d joked about coming with us, and I’d gone along assuming he wouldn’t wake up in time. But as soon as we reached Mcleod’s main rode, there he was, and so he came. To tell us about growing up in India, to guide the way, and to lead the way on the snowmen building and the snowball fights.
About 45 minutes from the top I almost bailed. We’d been told it’d be cold and snowy at the top, and wishing to minimize our footprint as much as possible, Anna and I packed way too much food and way too much clothing, resulting in a heavy backpack we traded back and forth every half an hour or so. Adding to this weight –which wasn’t that much of an issue at all– was the sight of a mountaintop covered in iced snow. The sun was on the other side of the mountain, and overnight whatever snow melted during the day turned slippery and smooth. It was clear trekkers turned back here. In the distance we could discern faint footprints, a haphazard ledge on the side of the cliff wide enough for about one foot.
“Let’s just come back when it’s melted,” I suggested, prudent. Anyone who knows how clumsy I am can understand my hesitation.
“No, we’re just so close,” Anna replied.
She’s much more stable than me and took the backpack and proceeded to claw her way up the ice. I shrugged, making a mental reminder that I’d hidden the emergency numbers in the backpack, just in case. When I finally stepped onto the flat mountaintop and first glimpsed the mountain range and the snow –invisible until the very last turn– I was so grateful Anna refused to turn back.
Pictures are coming soon, promise, as soon as my Friend Hong Kong helps me take them off her camera. This weekend Anna, Kylie, Hong Kong and I are heading to the Elephant Festival and Holi in Jaipur, which will provide the perfect opportunity to test my new camera.
Even as we make plans to go back and camp out in the caves, the underlying knowledge remains that every day the snow melts, that even though without the ice we can explore beyond Triund, there won’t be on this trip another gorgeous day on the snowy mountaintop, the sun in our faces and the view stealing all our words.
On the way back Anna and I sang the Sound of Music Soundtrack at the top of our voices, the beauty we’d glimpsed reminding us of another similar sight on the Swiss alps.
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