Snowball fight at snow point, Patnitop—a short trip from Jammu
After leaving the rest house, the road went down a bit
and then leveled up still turning around in gentle curves. The snow point was
not really a village or a specific place where establishments existed—it was
just a stretch on the winding road where the low hillside rose on the left and
went down below on the right, both covered with patchy layers of snow. It is a high point in the area and that's why the last snow remained here only. We came
to know about this stretch from the locals at Patnitop rest house and decided
to include it in our itinerary. To touch snow we must go to this place—we were
told. Though I was not greatly interested, my companions were.
The snow point being within an hour’s distance, our
plan was to spend a few hours playing with snow (not me, no, I am sensitive to
cold, and perhaps old!) before turning back towards Jammu. Without any halt in
between we should be reaching our house to have our lunch by late afternoon.
Patnitop is not very high in altitude (around 6000 ft to 7000 ft), but during
winter, areas around it get thick snow covers. Some hotels and resorts even
offer snow gliding that time. When summer comes the snow gradually
melts away leaving the ground vegetation and the lone trees breathing
again.
Snow line is low here compared to the central or eastern
Himalayas. In this country it is never easy to reach snow in the mountains. In
central and eastern Himalayas, to touch or walk on snow in April, you may have
to go much higher in the mountains. Casual tourists like us cannot easily
access those places. Here at Patnitop we had the chance of a snow walk in April
just like that, without any preplan—without any preparation or special
efforts. My friend asked, “Do you want to walk on snow?” We said, “Yes.” That
simple. I could well understand the excitement of Tukai and my friend.
The snow
point was about a thousand feet higher than Patnitop—the rise was gradual and
the road almost flat. Even bends around the hillside were gradual. Occasionally
the road straightened. On such a stretch we stopped the car. The flock of sheep
grazing down the valley looked like cute slow-moving toys.
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| Sheep grazing |
Hillsides here were not rocky or devoid of vegetation.
There was something for the sheep to graze upon. Slopes here gentle and inviting. You
could easily go down the soft curvy slopes. I wanted to.
Wherever
sheep graze there must be human habitation nearby. The view of the villages
sprinkled across the valley below was not breathtaking but inviting.
 |
| Villages on the valley |
After a short while we stopped at a
midway viewpoint. These viewpoints are always chosen to offer an open view up to
a long distance. Whenever amongst hills, I look for these viewpoints and never
like to miss one.
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| Midway viewpoint |
Clouds still there with us. Rolling
hills merged with the clouds at the horizon. I admired the view and tried to
imagine how good it would look in a bright sunny day.
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| Rolling hills - from midway viewpoint |
Not in every
part of the mighty Himalayan range could you see such an open view. High
mountains tend to wall you in. Patnitop being situated on a high plateau and the
surrounding hills lower, one can enjoy the openness to quite a far
distance. I yearned for bright sunlight. Such a scene if sunlit would have looked great.
The trees around the place were nicely dense and were of
all varieties that occur at this comfortable altitude. A row of young willows
looked like beauties lined up for a fashion parade.
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| Beauty parade |
A young one of different variety looked
like a Christmas tree.
 |
| In pose |
I went close to a weeping willow. Though these trees are supposed to appear only in
the mountains, I had occasionally seen this variety even in plains in a
tasteful garden. As a wallpaper of my laptop screen this would do well, I
decided.
 |
| Weeping willow |
Tukai
spotted a dark colored bird that we couldn’t recognize. It could be a hill crow,
I thought.
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| Dark colored mountain bird |
While
Tukai liked the birds, I liked light shining through a curtain of leaves.
 |
| Curtain of leaves |
Time to start for the main attraction.
The road rose slowly for some time and suddenly there
was a shout from my friend. The car stopped. We had reached the snow. It was
only a small patch of snow coming down the low hill side. This was our snow
point.
 |
| First snow |
The car was parked at a convenient
point. A large group of tourists made lots of noise and
threw snowballs round a bend. We chose an unoccupied stretch of the road and
got down. All around us lay the much coveted snow, albeit in patches.
 |
| Snow on the road |
The road in front first veered right, then after a brief
left turn took a wide roundish right turn. The hill on the left of the road was
low and snow cover thicker.
The
thickness of the snow cover was about 4 to 5 inches. It came down up to the
road. Roads were cleared up for cars to move freely. On the right snow flowed
down the hill all the while losing cover and thickness.
 |
| Snow view |
We
moved closer to the snow, touched it and though I wanted to taste it, my friend
said, “No, don’t. It may not be clean.”
 |
| Snow up close |
I saw ice before but not four inches of snow that melts
away. Tukai had never seen snow or ice except in a deep freezer. Just a while
ago we saw the tourist group around the bend romping like a group of children. We
all have children in us.
Being a man of advanced age, I couldn’t easily let go,
but not my friend. He had tremendous reservoir of energy and enthusiasm and
obviously a playful child in him. Tukai was
also in teens, and eager. It was great fun.
 |
| Snowball fight |
My friend took the offense while Tukai was on the defense.
I was the referee counting the strikes. It went on with lots of laughter.
Game stopped. Players took rest.
I have an explorer in me and so somehow clambered
up the hill on the left. It was laborious and difficult, but after a brief
ungainly struggle the 30 feet peak was conquered. I stood triumphantly at the
top waving my hand at the puny little figures far below. Rejoining, we went sightseeing.
Looking
closer through the lense, the snow on the hill ahead did not look very nice. The
view was somewhat saved by the beautiful green frills of leaves in front.
 |
| Snow patches |
But
when I turned I liked the view facing me. Encroachment of snow
ended a short way to the right. The hill went down gently and then up
again. Signs of human habitation could be seen on the face of the far side
hill.
 |
| Far side hill |
Looking
closer, the high tower carrying electric power long distance looked tiny and
out of place. Small huts or cabins look fine but not power towers.
 |
| The tiny tower |
A
particular tree caught my attention. While rising, it had lost all its
branches midway and then ended with a tuft. It reminded me of sheep
partially shorn of wool.
 |
| Half clad tree |
I
was quite taken aback when I noticed a group of very small cottages far away. Looking closer, the cottages looked beautiful. I
was still more surprised and asked my friend the name of the place. He
could only say, “It is a private resort.”
 |
| Resort cottages |
Great location, I thought. I tried
to search the place in the Net later; possibly this was the place near Nag temple.
On the hillside the trees stood tall with dwindling
patches of snow lying at their feet. In a short while the snow will
melt away.
I noticed
that absence of trees at the places of snow covers. Perhaps every
year snow flows down the same areas killing the trees in the process.
 |
| Trees and snow |
Looking
up and closer, the snow streaked hilltop got framed.
 |
| Framed hill |
Still
closer, the frame looked nicer. This was one of the hilltops we saw yesterday
from our rest house.
 |
| Snowed hilltop |
Altitude
decreased quickly. It warmed up noticeably. Near Jammu Tukai
spotted a representative of our possible ancestors resting with a thoughtful
face on a tree fork.
 |
| Thoughtful on a tree |
Even
the two small ones crossing the road at a fast roll couldn’t escape Tukai’s
eyes and finger reflex.
 |
| Road crossing |
A
few minutes later my friend pointed forward. The palace looked like
a picture postcard.
 |
| The Palace |
He informed me that this is the Amar Mahal Palace or Dogra Palace in Jammu. This was built by Raja Amar
Singh in the nineteenth century and later was donated by Dr. Karan Singh to be transformed into a museum.
Our
home in Jammu was not far away.
Author’s Note: This was a trip from Kolkata to Jammu where we had about 12 days. We
went from Jammu by car to Dalhousie first. That was our prime destination. From
Dalhousie my friend picked us up for Khajjiar for a one night halt. From
Khajjiar we returned back to Jammu via Jyot.
Later we made a short visit to
Dharamsala and then ended the whole trip with Patnitop. Except Patnitop all the
places were in beautiful Himachal.
Memories of those days come back
to me vividly with scenes of tall mountains covered with high altitude trees,
winding ghat roads along the hillside, down below occasional thin silver streak
of a river flowing through the green valleys and glimpses of majestic Himalayan
snow peaks.
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