Himalayan Bargain

As you may know, recently floods devastated the Himalayan area of Uttarakhand (“Northern Province”) in India. Thousands of people died in this tragedy and more than five thousand are still missing and presumed dead. The images of angry brown rivers and completely washed out roads were shown across the world on TV. Some videos, thought to be too graphic for the TV audience, made rounds through the YouTube channel. They showed a bunch of people getting caught in flash floods and drowning, a tourist bus plunging in the valley, and other similar horrors.

Having been to the Himalayas some eight times made these images look all too familiar to me. I (we) have travelled through villages that looked like those on the screen being devastated. We have encountered numerous times roads that were washed out or almost so. Specifically, here are some such events that have happened in my (our) Himalayan journeys:

·            1963: On a trip to Kashmir, a massive landslide washed out the only road connecting the fabled valley to the rest of the country. Our family was stranded in a village for two nights while they fixed the road. Then we had to wait for several hours to let a military convoy get by before finally proceeding further.

·            1977: While going by a jeep from Darjeeling to a place called Sandakphu, our driver missed a turn and the jeep overturned. There happened to be a ledge just where the jeep landed, otherwise we would have gone down three thousand feet. Amazingly, we were not hurt and the local military personnel arranged for a ride back to Darjeeling for us.

                 2000: This time we did not go to the Himalayas, but our children did, accompanied by relatives. There was a major flood in a river they were supposed to cross, washing away all major bridges. Fortunately, they were on this side of the river not the other. That saved them at least from major hardship if not something worse.

·            2007: Before we left for Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, on way to a trek, major flooding washed out the highway, isolating the town. Fortunately, the road was repaired in time but the place where we landed, Gauhati was rocked by racial riots, and vehicles were burned. We managed to get transportation by selecting the driver of the right ethnic background. On our way to the trailhead for the trek, the road was washed out, requiring manual transport to the other side.

·            2012:  Before we left Delhi on way to Ladakh, we got the all to familiar news that because of rain the road was cutoff at Manali. By the time we got there, the road was “repaired” but the trip on Rhotang Pass just beyond Manali, going up to 12,000’, was as muddy and dangerous as it could be. Next, at the end of the trip, we got the news that because of rain; the other aide of the road, leading to Srinagar, was cut off at Zoji-La pass. Again, it was repaired, and again, we had a harrowing journey on that pass on a barely drivable road.

All these events would make one think, why do it?  That’s where the positive side of these trips comes in.

I can think of no other region as exciting as the Himalayas, and I have been to many remote corners of the world. It is not just the world-class scenery, but people who live in that region.

Where would you see four of the five highest mountains in the world at one glance, as you could from Sandakphu? Where would you hike up to the bottom of a 28,000 feet mountain as you would on the trek in Sikkim mentioned above? How about the arid, multi-hued, and spectacular region of Ladakh, where the road, bad as it is, takes one up above 18,000 feet and there are multiple opportunities, even for mere mortal like me, to hike higher than one can anywhere else in the world? Do you think a Swiss shepard you meet in the pristine area of Zermatt would ever invite not just you but your entire group for dinner? That would, and did happen to us on one of the treks.

This is the Himalayan Bargain. You take a lot of risks but gain a lot in return.

However, after experiencing this magical part of the world as many times as I have had the good fortune to, I now feel that the risk outweighs benefits. As the roads continue to deteriorate, weather becomes increasingly fierce, and the number of travellers keeps increasing, there may come a day when our luck would run out. We may need to be evacuated or worse, end up in a hospital or a morgue. Yes, there is always one more trek or trip to be done before we really become old, but is it worth doing after having already experienced so much?

Maybe not.