Manali Diaries part two....climbing the peak

One friggin thirty. In the morning. That's when they woke us up. Three a.m. is when we left, to climb this peak called Brighu. That's where I was the whole of yesterday.
The toughest part of it was supposed to be the first two hours. We did the first two hours in the dark, by torchlight, so I guess I didn't even notice. Haha.....
But yeah, well worth it.....
Before we went, we were standing in line, and our very weird instructor, Girish, makes us look up at the sky.......
Diamond dust on velvet is how Chikki put it....I couldn't describe it better, I think....It's just....with no artificial streetlights around, and in complete darkness.....Every single star in the sky......all over......This place, i tell you, is serene. I really wish people would put their music and phones away and enjoy it properly......especially Daku fuckin' Daddy......I've had more than enough of that song.......
So off we go, uphill. And we had NO idea where we were headed, we were just following. The thing is, we'd look down every now and then, and it was just amazing how fast we were ascending, the lights from the camp got further and further away and soon they'd gone......

At 4 am or something, it started to get light......Imagine this...you're walking on a green meadow in the dark, you know there are mountains on both sides....and then you look at them and you can actually see them, see the outlines, and then it got brighter, really fast, and the first rays of the sun poured down over a peak in the distance, and it was pure bliss. Wordds do NOT do justice, really.
After that....it just kept getting more beautiful, and then we hit the snow. Deep sigh. We walked over plain snow for I don't know how long, until we got sick of it, and the funny part is we were all Just too tired for even a small snowball fight. Strange. But yeah, walking for like 7 hours straight.....
Girish said before we started, we're all mad, the whole of India is asleep, and here we are, off to climb. He said that as the sun hit us, You are here, look at how beautiful it is, and your Hussaini sir is still in his sleeping bag (i think I detected more than a touch of scorn there. and rightfully so. weird guy that one, if I kept writing about every single thing that's happened........well......I only have so much money to spend at a net cafe.....the days are longer here, and more...full.)

So we deposit our bags at this "lunch point", a bunch of strategically placed rocks.....And then they show us the final slope we have to climb. Long, 500 feet ascent, i think. 85 degree slope. Almost straight upwards. Fuck fuck. Off we go. The local staff, Govind and Laalu, were Brilliant. See, you have to cut steps in the ice for us to climb.....And they make it look SO much easier than it is.....I tried.
It took us an hour or so to climb.....slow work, the high altitude hit all of us, i was the front and practially falling asleep as I climbed...........But yeah, an hour later, there we were, at Brighu lake.
Said to be holy. currently frozen. BEautiful. Serene. It's a pity people couldn't stop swearing, at least for a little while.
Beautiful energy that place has........

After the ascent, we gotta get down na? here starts the best and most screwed up part. We slid. On our jeaned butts. About 500 feet on that 85 degree slope. On ice. It beats......The fastest rollercoaster in the world woudln't be as thrilling.....
And after lunch (chana puri in wet-butt-numb-ass jeans) we had to slide again. and again. and i kept losing control. falling over, rolling, backwards. But fun.......like you can NEVER imagine.
And AFTER that the screwed up part.....two hours downhill in drenched jeans and shoes. My voice is gone. my stomach does weird things to me. I felt, in short, like a drenched rat.
\But yeah, we made it up and down. Alive. And after I got dry, I was even happy. VERY fuckin' happy.
Can't really put a fitting conclusion here except for this: Dad, I miss you, and you'd be VERY proud of me.