First Snow

It’s a place like I had never seen before. I had never been so excited to reach a place. I do travel a lot as its a part of my work. But this place was completely different from anything that I had seen before. Humla, a remote district located at a remote Karnali region of Nepal, certainly is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to.

Getting there is not easy. The place is not connected to any road way by which you can travel. To get there either you will have to walk all the way(from the nearest road link, which is days away) or get a flight to the place. And flights there, again are a different story. You don’t get a fix official price for the tickets, nor will you get a date or time of the flight. You just buy the tickets, in whatever price you get and wait for the flight from early morning and just keep your fingers crossed and pray that the flight will take-off. Chances are high that you wont be able to fly in the first attempt. I was flying to Humla for conducting activities to promote Adoloscent Friendly Health Services in the region, along with three friends(co-workers). We had been lucky that we flew the very morning that we were supposed to, in a small plane that contained more goods(form food supply, clothes to furniture) than people. The entire 30 minute flight from Surkhet to Humla was amazing (in a scary way). We were able to see mountains all the way through the flight, sometimes they’re so close that it looked extremely terrifying. The landing was the most scary part, when the plane’s about to land, you will feel like its about to hit a huge hill, runway appears no where and it feels like the aircraft is heading straight to crash on a hill.

But we landed safely, and as soon as I put my steps out of that aircraft, what lay before my eyes was –Paradise !!! I was awestruck ! We got so excited by what we were seeing that we danced on the runway (literally, other people looking curiously at us). The place was so beautiful, snow-capped mountains all around. I felt like I was looking at a beautiful scene from a romantic movie. The place was making me feel like a bollywood actress, I felt like dancing in some typical romantic song(would not have mind wearing a sarees as well ). I may sound like I am exaggrating, but Humla was so beautiful that it brough tears to my eyes.  Everywhere I turned I could see snow capped mountains, words would be to little to describe nature, but to use just one word; it was 'breathetaking'. Well, I could go on writing about the beauty of the place, but here actaully I am intending to write about the little adventure that we had on the very first day of our Humla stay.

View from airport at Simikot, Humla

After sometime of landing in that heaven, we could see that the mountains were so close, it felt like we would strech our hands and we will be able to touch the snow. After having a nice meal, we did not have any particular plan for that day. So we decided to explore around, planned to visit a Gumba, suggested by some locals. Went along asking the way, but after some half an hour walk we saw that a mountain was so close, it would be rather interesting to climb up a little and play snow. I absolutely loved the idea as I had not touched snow till date (sad but true). So the four of us, started climbing up a hill, which then would lead to a mountain on its side. It was absolute fun and adventurous !

So we started climbing up the hill, it was quite steep and most troublesome thing was that, it was filled with some plants with very pricky thrones. After climbling for a while, we didn't find anyway up. We were literally crawling from in between the thrones, making our way out of no where. As much as we climbed up, we were realising that the snow that we saw from below seemed as far, the more we climb the father it seemed. It had been two hours that we started climbling and we were not getting anywhere ! We were exausted and scared but had no strenght to walk back the same way we climbed up. And at some point we literally came to a dead end, big rocks standing right before up…no way to go further ! It was getting late and was about to rain. We had no option but to try to climb the rocks…So we challenged the limits of our own bodies and climbed across the rocks. Then…there…we found snow !! Pure white snow…about a bowl of it ;) I mean it was only handful of it, but we still celebrated and got over joyed to atleast take snow in our hands.

But then, our adventure took no name to ending !! The weather was getting worse and we were not being able to find the way back (by now we had given up hope that we will reach the snow filled place, it seemed wise to climb down the hill as soon as possible). We were completely lost, one was suggesting to go this way, other that way…it was total confusion. Then we found a waterfall's way, there was very little water flowing at that moment. So, as we had heard, follow the water when you get lost, we decided to follow the waterfall way. Then the weather started to get really weird, it stared to rain and wind started blowing.

We tried to walk back as soon as we could, but it certainly was not easy. Everyone was falling down and slipping, every now and then. It was as if we were competing, who falls the maximum number of times ? Our greatest fear was that, what if the waterfall way actaully turns into a FALL ? What will we do then…but we had no other option but to follow the way. It did turn into a fall at few places, we had to jump…and creep and crawl at a few places. But the way down seemed never to come !

All kinds of scary thoughts had started coming in our minds. Nobody knew where we were. Nobody will come looking for us even if we don't go back to the hotel. There is no phone network here. We were starting to think of all the scary things. I had already started calculating the risks inside my head, I have a packet of noodles, a bottle of water, few chocolates, that will keep us going till the morning, IF we have to spent the night in this place. I thought I was thinking of the worst, but then I realised that others were thinking worse. One friend, was saying that only today she realised how much she loved her own life. It was getting real dark and raining heavely, at this point we were actually, scared for our lives !

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The way seemed never to end. Our eyes were constantly looking for the way that would lead us to the village. By now, we were all had stopped talking, joking, pulling each other legs, everyone was quiet, tired, wet from the rain, cold and scared.

After uncountable slips and many scratches, wounds from thrones…we finally saw a way…a man made way that is. Can't express how overjoyed we were.

After walking for hours on the places probably where no human foot had taken step, it felt like luxury to walk in the muddy road. There we actually knew which way to go. After some 4-5 hours of wandering into the hills we were back where other human beings were around. I am going to call home and tell my family that I love them, thats what I thought. It was still raining, it was cold but we were happy just to be back and safe.

And happy that we played snow…a bowl of snow !