THE DAY I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE MOUNTAINS - MY FIRST AVALANCHE

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I have loved mountains from my very childhood but my mountain love became prominent that day, the second day of my trip to a village called siklesh, Kaski, Pokhara. The day when I decided I would live for these mountain trips and I have to say, I still do today(This might just be too deep but these things happen when you write a post with Indie Folk playlist in the background LOL). And every long holidays since then, I have tried to fulfill my mountain dreams.

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Today I woke up with this feeling of being remembered by someone and the call was nothing but my mountains remembering me - as they say

“The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go”

So I decided why not forget the “Work Sleep Repeat” schedule I have been following for these past two months(this full time working certainly is a new experience for me and I am earning for myself now but something was missing this morning). And I decided to respond to my mountain calls by revisiting this trip, I made about 6 years ago with my parents, through this post.

I have this philosophy that I should not miss out on my opportunity of travel, I readily go out with my parents too(which most of the youth despise these days) and you will be surprised to know that I have also gone out on religious India travel with all other fellow travelers about 20 years older than me. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t go out with friends too LOL. I am planning to go solo too someday but it can get too risky sometimes.

SHUT UP! - SHARE YOUR MOUNTAIN STORY AND PHOTOS ALREADY!

The visit to the Siklesh started late that evening when we reached this place all gloomy and dark. Now that I rethink and visit these photos, I can see that the first day’s landscape was something worth remembering too. But for younger me, they weren’t as special as they are for me today.

The little Siklesh village is wealthier than other villages we have around here. They even have their own electricity and they are mostly inhabited by gorkha armies(rich ones). I was surprised to see this and the place was very clean and beautiful too. But I had no expectations for what I would see the next day.

The village

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THE NEXT DAY

I woke up the next day and started shooting some photos because I had recently got a new compact camera and was amazed by its amazing features. It was a long zoom one and it also had inbuilt features like HDR, automatic B&Ws. And I have to say I was a huge HDR freak back then.

I was pretty unknown about the scene on my back side. So I tried shooting some landscapes with the village in the foreground.

And then my mother shouted “Hey have you seen the mountains” and I was like “Woah!”. But I had seen them closer before.

But then we were told that we would see them very close if we hiked for about 45 minutes and so we decided to do so. We started our short hike and I got busy taking shots as I was already too fast than my old ones.

The wheat field

Trying out the B&W feature of this newly bought one.

And it also had this long exposure feature. So I tried making this harmless buffalo a fearful one.(Foolish little cave!)

But the mountains were getting closer and closer and after about 15 min walk it was closer than any mountains I had even seen.

After about 5 mins

After about 10 mins

After about 15 mins
Little cave’s obsession with HDR LOL

I thought it wouldn’t get any closer but I was even more surprised while taking every other step and my love for the mountains was growing fiercer and fiercer.

The next step

Even more surprising on the next step

And then we finally reached the spot and we sat down. Sometimes we were sleeping amidst the beauty and sometimes jumping and shouting. It was already the best visit I have ever had and everyone making the trip.

I tried shooting a small video. Just look at it and see how beautiful it was around the place. You can see Mt.Lamjung(the large one) and also Annapurna II and IV.

But then there was a loud BOOOM! The Mt.Lamjung got all smokey and I experienced my first ever AVALANCHE!. It was so beautiful and we were the luckiest.

The moment we heard the loud boom

Then there was smoke everywhere

The falling of glacier

After a while I finally remembered that I could shoot a video too!

Not a great video but you can see smokes and falling snow cap.

Not to worry the place is at the safest distance possible to view them. But you must be very lucky to witness them avalanches.

The wonderful sighting of the avalanche turned me into a hardcore mountain lover. I have made numerous trips to basecamps and other breathtaking places but the place is the most special to me.

Btw this is little cave back then :D

THE PLACE WHICH MADE THE MOUNTAINS MY DEAREST