Spending winters in Lahaul

Feb end - March 2022

It was never thought of before to reach Lahaul in Winters. You could've still gone to Spiti via Kinnaur. Atal tunnel has changed that though. The longest tube highway tunnel at an altitude above 3,000 m(10,000 ft) finally gave what Lahauli's had been asking for a long time, an access to their valley during winters. Try to imagine life before that, a civilisation being cut-off from rest of the world for almost 6 months every year, that too in sub zero temperatures. Sit and chat with any local person and you'll be provided with many interesting stories of what used to happen there when the valley used to survive on its own.

We got to experience a glimpse that. Although the tunnel has provided connectivity, it closes sometimes when it snows for a long span of time. BRO (Border Roads Organisation) does commendable job of clearing the snow on a regular basis, but even their work halts when Mother Nature showers too much of her love in the form of snow. Sukrit and I had gone to recce the place for a shoot and our plan was to bring the team once the location is finalised. A snowstorm occurred when we were in Lahaul and that meant we were stuck. Had we come on a leisure trip, I would have never used the word 'stuck.' But we were there for work. And mind remains restless if a work is stuck, even if you are at an off-beat location with so much peace and natural beauty.

Winters are a silent time in the mountains. Nothing grows or rather cannot grow in the fields. Everyone gets cozy in their houses. Kitchen becomes the most active place at that time. It is the main source of energy for everyone, not only in terms of food but also heat. People use 'tandoor', a small oven which uses wood as fuel. It heats up the whole room as well as is used as a stove to cook food. But people also need to keep themselves busy. So every family keeps themselves busy by making handloom carpets. We also kept ourselves busy. By tracking weather window on the internet every hour. Here's some of the instances of our happenings in the vlog below:

There were some clear windows as well. But it had already snowed a lot and hence were informed that it will take almost a week to open the road to Manali. We used to wander around, visiting our friends' cafes, enjoying 'arak', a locally made liquor and then playing chess afterwards! Our good friend Sunil Bodh, who owns Climbers Cafe in Keylong took us for our recce as well. We climbed and huffed and puffed to make our way in 5 feet of fresh snow to check for various places for the shoot. While he skied down easily, it was not the case with Sukrit (who was trying to learn snowboarding on fresh unbeaten snow) and I. Still we managed to come down. It's always fun, like we say, to call all this as part of our work and these places being our work station.

And then the roads opened. I went to Manali to receive the rest of the crew. It was the day of MahaShivratri. On the way at Tandi, met with people celebrating the festival of Shiva at the confluence point of Chandra and Bhaga river, where it becomes ChandraBhaga river (which is then called Chenab). The passion of devotees celebrating and honouring 'The Destroyer' in freezing cold temperature even made me join the whole congregation.

And then was just the last part. To do what I do. Film. And this time it was to shoot Arjun Vajpai. Arjun is a very famous mountaineer who climbs 8000+ mtr peaks. He was the youngest Indian to climb Mt. Everest when he was 16. Since his endeavours usually are at a high altitude arena, we were tasked to replicate glimpses of his adventure of those altitudes. Lahaul and it's landscapes proved the perfect match for it. Filming so during the winters in -15° C did also played its part in making it feel like that as well.

I might not have told everything that happened during that time. But I did record most of my time spent in it. You can check out in the vlog below: