Chattru

Well I'm back in Manali for a day to restock with food and to have a shower. I decided not to go to Leh/Stok Kangri, as it sounds like lots of driving followed by lots of walking up a big hill with an even bigger bag. I'll go back to Chattru tomorrow for another 10 days, then down to Amritsar, Wagah, and Pakistan...

From Northern India

The climbing in Chattru is stunning, and there is really no need to leave. You could spend months here and not get bored, there are thousands of boulders to explore, and when the skin needs a rest, there are huge trad lines, and 4/5000m peaks to have a go at. Then when legs need a rest, there's plenty of bouldering... you get the idea.

From Northern India

From Northern India

Chattru is a 'village' about 7 hours north of Manali. It consists of one broken bridge, one slightly less broken bridge, and four large tents ('dhabas') which house the four families who live there. The tents are their homes, and also small shops and cafes for the passing vehicles on the road from Manali to Kasa.

I'm not sure what the rocks is here, maybe shcist, it looks like gtranite but is a little flakier. It can take a bit of effort to find good trad lines, as often stuff that looks good from a distance turns out much biger, looser and scarier than expected. That said, we've done a coule of classics on really good rock.

From Northern India

(Don't worry I've had a shave since)

The bouldering is amazing, easily as good as hampi, with better climate and less monkeys and annoying locals! The glacier approaches do cause a bit of hassle, but at the rate it's melting, should be clear by the end of the week. There is a guidebook, but so far it's been much more fun just to mooch about and find stuff that looks good.

So far, this is probably the only part of India I would seriously want to come back to. Hampi and Badami were good, but the amount of driving, the heat, and the annoying people take away some of the appeal. The people up here in Manali and the north are so different, not only in appearance (lots of Tibetan and Nepali infuence) and religion (Buddhist) but they are much more layed back, friendly, and less interested in fleecing us than in the South. You could get to Chattru in about 36 hours from London... do it.

Manali

From Northern India

We're just about to leave Manali for three weeks away from BiRT. First to Chattru for big trad and bouldering. Apparantly Sharma was there last month (oooh!) so it must be reasonable at least. Then to Leh, and a trek up Stok Kangri. Should be fun (and cold, hard work!).

From Northern India

Manali is a cool town in the foothills of the Himalayas. The climate is good, it rains a lot and there's lots of marajuana growing everywhere. We can see these amazing snowy peaks from our hotel up on the hillside; if we had more time here there could be months of climbing just in this valley. I'll try to put some pictures up later. We'll be back here in three weeks to meet up with BiRT again and then drive to Pakistan...

From Northern India

The grittier side of India

I'm writing this in Delhi where it is about 45 degrees in the shade. Since Goa we drove for three days straight up past Mumbai till we got to Jaipur. Jaipur is famed for it's 'pink city', ancient forts and Hindu temples. I had a major case of Delhi belly and spent 36 hours not being more than 5 meters from the bathroom. Probably actually the best time to be ill, as Jaipur is an absolute hell hole (well the small bit I saw was anyway). The pink city is more of a dirty brown, there are a few nice temples but overrun with beggars and people selling all sorts of tat to the tourists. Also it was very, very hot :-(

Another half day drive to Delhi so we could sort out Chinese visas. It's hot here too, and I've decided to bail and get a bus to Manali to escape the searing heat and fetid air. Will meet up with the other guys next week sometime.

The last couple of days we climbed on some awesome trad quartzite at Dharj, which was actually pretty good after the 3pm thunderstorm had cooled things down. For the next month or so until Lahore, things will be much colder - after Manali we'll head to Chattru (3500m) for big mountain trad and then to Leh to have a go at Stok Kangri, which at 6200m should be refreshing to say the least.