This was the day we all were waiting. We were heading towards Auli. We were very excited for this day and there were two main reasons for being so excited; one was the most famous ropeway ride and the second reason was the snow. Auli was completely covered in snow. Those who haven’t read about previous day of this trip can read here:
We had got the tickets and the ride was at 9 am. We checked out from the hotel and walked to the ropeway station. It was at walking distance from the hotel. We reached the station and waiting for our turn in the waiting room. They allow only 14 people in one go. This ropeway is one of attractions in Auli. This is the highest and longest ropeway in Asia after Gulmarg. It covered the distance of 4 km. It is also called Gondola in local language. There are 3 ways to reach Auli from Joshimath; trekking, by road and this ropeway. All routes are excited and adventurous. Bikers would love to go by road; trekker could treat themselves by choosing to trek to Auli. But these two routes are usually be closed in winters. Ropeway is the only route that is opened throughout the year. But I would love to try each route once in my life.
During our visit, It was full crowded and we were facing difficulties in arranging the tickets as ticket counter had long queue. We asked hotel manager to arrange and he said that those are who are gonna stay there would get ticket after 12PM. but we wanted to spend as much time as possible in Auli. Although we were going to stay there, yet we had only this one day to explore Auli and we had to return next morning. There was a person at hotel reception, he took some extra money and arranged the tickets for 9 AM ride.
We had heard that ropeway has the amazing 360 degree view of Himalayas. So I was very excited. And finally the time came for our ride. We 14 people got into cabin and ride started. I can’t write down here about my experience, my feelings. In simple words, I could say that it was beautiful. I am uploading the ropeway video here . See it and feel it.
There are 10 or 12 stations; we all had to get out at station 8. After station 6, Nanda Devi peak was visible very clearly. It was shining in the sun. It was the icing on the cake. We reached station 8. There were many snow games. We had to travel through chair car lift to reach our hotel. Ticket cost 500/- per person. So we decided to stay there till evening. We kept our luggage in locker room at station only. There we got snow boots on rent for the whole day. First of all we went for skiing. It was not like the professional type but it was fun. They taught us some basics about it and then we were ready. After one hour, we did a small trek to the top. Although we couldn’t reach the top because of the snow, yet we had fun in snow. There was a small family with two small kids. They come to us to play snow bombing. We played for a while. There is an artificial lake in Auli, Chenab Lake. This is reservoir. This fulfills the water need for the Auli village. But this was frozen so we couldn’t see that. Then we started to go up and then a tragic incident caught us.
So we were heading towards up and there were not many people there. Except us, there was only one group of 4-5 boys who were also going to top. But they were far behind us. There my sister’s one leg boot got tucked deep in the snow. It was very difficult to get that out, as the snow was very thick. Snow was higher than our knees and the boot was deep inside, filled with snow. We tried a lot but since we didn’t have any equipment and it seemed impossible to get it out without any help. Now It was a panic situation because we couldn’t see anyone in that area who could help us. Then we saw that group of boys who were trekking to the top. They helped us and finally after struggling for almost 1 hour, we got the boot out. Then we finally could start our trek again.
We tried to reach the top and almost reached there, then we realized that it was getting dark and it would take time to get down to the station. So we dropped the idea to reach the top and started back to the station. We collected our luggage and got ready for chair car lift.
Here are some clicks of our fun in snow:
Here is the video of our chair car ride. It was an amazing and beautiful experience.
Our hotel was around 2km from the chair car station. Roads were very slippery. It was difficult to walk with the luggage. Somehow we reached hotel. This hotel was ok. Room was suffocating and blankets were also not clean. We didn’t like hotel at all. Food was also just okay.
some evening clicks in Auli:
We spent one night there and next early in the morning we were to leave. It was a wonderful day. We all were tired and decided to get room service for dinner. We had to pay a little extra for room service. We had called to our home, discussed our day, and narrated our tragic incident. It was all fun. We had dinner and slept. This was the end of the day.
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