Frozen Waterfall – Chadar trek memories

Chadar trek is the most beautiful & risky trek. This is the fourth part of the Chadar trek blog series. If you missed the initial parts start reading from here for better context & mind boggling nature. On the fourth day of the Chadar Trek we went to Nerak to enjoy the sight of blue frozen waterfall. Majestic.

Planned Day 4 | Towards Nerak | 12kms | 6 hrs | 10,760 to 11,150 ft

I had been cribbing about too much crowd yesterday & the chadar goddess answered my calls.

As fate would have it no batch was able to get past Tibb to reach Nerak this season due to no chadar formation at places, that meant many porters who lived at Lingshed ( place after Nerak) have not been home for more than 2-3 months.

Ours was the first batch this season who had good walking conditions to reach till Nerak. In turn the porters would now have the chance to go further ahead till Lingshed to be home for the first time in months.  Tibb to Nerak is 12 Kms & Linghsed is further 10 kms ahead.

Actual Day 4 | Towards Nerak & Lingshed | 12 + 10 kms | 9 hrs | 10,760 to 11,150 ft & to 11,811 ft

Jigmet was one such Lingshed resident who was heading home today. According to plan we were to go to nerak today stay there & come back tomorrow to Tibb. Jigment’s plan was to go to Nerak & further to Lingshed & come back tomorrow to Tibb to be back with the team.

Always ready for some action Dr Sachin, Dr Ash & yours truly The Free Bird decided to join Jigmet & his friend on their journey home 22kms one side. The super humble Jigmet obliged.

On account of the distance to be covered we started early by 0730 hrs when other tents were in deep sleep. We carried only the bare necessities in a single rucksack. Had breakfast & started off at super penguin speed.

Having started early it was definitely colder but without a human being in sight apart from us, it was much more peaceful & serene. Early morning empty Chadar definitely had some perks.

By the time sun light had reached Chadar we had already covered more than 6 kms within 90 minutes at super penguin speed almost matching Jigmet’s & his freind’s speed.

Since we were the break away group we decided to name our group. Of the options we finalised to call our selves Snow Leopard team. Locals call Snow leopard as Chan. Hence we decided to be the Chan team. Too short name meant we added some adjectives and became the Snow Chan group.

We are SNOW CHANS

We continued to navigate difficult patches without much problems. The nature continued to be at its best. At some places chadar was missing but river bank was not that steep and was climbable. Within another hour we had reached the fabled land of Nerak. Trail had become narrow & risky. Nothing venture nothing have.

After negotiating the curve finally the most beautiful waterfall started to be visible. It appeared as if the snow clad mountain was oozing through its walls as the frozen waterfall and creating the mighty chadar.

As we neared the waterfall, the nature provided a dramatic drum roll.  Zanskar was playing a welcome song to the tune of its rapids trying to take over the chadar. With the waterfall within a stone’s  throw I remembered these golden words from ‘ A Farewell A Welcome’

Moment by moment, in life’s winter, life froze.

Echoing a history of blues, a milestone rose

This brilliant blue waterfall was definitely the high point of the chadar trek till now, both literally & proverbially. But we were meant to reach higher.

A little ahead we found a bridge used by villagers to go across the flowing river in summers.

In another 45 minutes we reached the Nerak campsite. Half the milestone was achieved in almost three and half hours. Nerak village was further ahead from the camp sites, where i’ve heard there is electricity & connectivity. But we didn’t go there as we had bigger things to accomplish today.

We had to walk another 10 kms to reach the icing on the cake at Lingshed.

END OF PART 4

Click here to read about Lingshed. Most beautiful place I had ever been to

PARTS: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

 

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