The heights of Chanshal peak

Shriniwas Joshi

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The Himachal Pradesh Tourism site reads: “If you look for a road less travelled, if you want to sense an indefinable blend of myth and reality, fact and fiction, if ancient and towering temples, legends, charming architecture and soaring mountains excite you, if fishing and trekking set your pulse racing, if you plan your vacation in the scrutiny of picturesque hamlets, fruit-laden orchards cradled by thick woodsand set by swift streams, and if you want to feel a place where man and nature live on – experience the bewitching spell of the Pabbar Valley.”And Chanshal stands high at 4,520 m between the Andhra and Pabbar rivers on one side and Rupin and Supin rivers on the other.

We, five of us, started from Sudanshu, 2 km from Chirgaon, in the morning because we knew that the road to Chanshal was 23 km of bumpy, tough ascent.

We took a detour to Dhamwari to visit the trout seed farm established in 2005. It draws water from Khanyara khad through GI pipes at the rate of 150 litres per second. There are five trout seed farms in Himachal Pradesh-Patli Kuhl in Kullu, Barot in Mandi, Sangla in Kinnaur, Holi in Chamba and Dhamwari in Shimla. We then moved to Larot, about 18 km short of Chanshal peak, which is a much talked about village in every travel literature. One need not expect much from the village except that it is the last station before Chanshal where one finds a few dwellings, a small bazaar and a visitor to Chanshal peak gets tea and snacks here. It also boasts of a Rest House. It used to be and is the base for treks to Dodra-Kwar, the Sangla valley and to Sarahan via Taklech and also to Nichar. As we moved higher and higher, the vast sprawl of the Pabbar valley appeared enormous where the villages looked as if that was a gathering of several pretty toy-houses.

A mass of white and purple rhododendrons was decorating the hills as if to welcome us as we approached the Chanshal peak. These trees were not as high as these go in Shimla but much smaller and appeared ‘flower-washing’ the hillock in the summer months.

It was a sight that reminded me of the valley of flowers in Uttarakhand. Today, when I get caught up in the reverie of the past, I swim with the words of Wordsworth: “For oft when on my couch I lie,/ In vacant or in pensive mood, / They (flowers) flash upon that inward eye, / Which is the bliss of solitude.”The highest peak at Chanshal is at 4,520 m but the pass to the twin villages of Dodra and Kwar stands at 3,750 m and most of the tourists call off the journey at this height on the glades of Chanshal (See Photo).

The scenery around all sides is breathtaking-distant ranges of hills and the clouds playing hide and seek with each other presenting a vista unforgettable (See Photo). An entrepreneur had put up a tent at Chanshal and was serving hot rice and Rajmah, also sugary tea. His eats were selling like hot cakes. The laudable part was that an official of the Forest Department was requesting the visitors to drop the leftovers in a pit dug there. Chanshal top was, therefore, neat and tidy.When I asked the question that why Chanshal and Dodra-Kwar remained cut off from the rest of the world for so long? I was told that the local people did not support the road-construction efforts of the government till 2006 because they believed that their deities would not appreciate the road ingress into their domain. The deities, however, agreed to have road connection in 2006 when the draft plan for 92 kilometres of Rohru-Kwar road was finally approved. A wait for another three long years and Kwar was ultimately connected with Rohru.

I saw several cars loaded with logs going up to Chanshal in the evening, perhaps to have a picnic by the campfire and then to pass the night in the tents pitched at that height. Chanshal invites all to spend the days as well as the nights on its verdurous bosoms.

TAILPIECE

Chanshal is eternal; luckily I lived to climb it.