The day of the train race to Hanumangarh Peak has finally arrived. We have been preparing for this event for a week and now we are moving towards the final stage. Tomorrow the race will start at 6 am and will end at 12 noon. The cut off for the 18 km long rest is 6 hours. Last year a local runner took 02:41 to finish this race. Let's see if this record is broken this time or not.
Now let me tell you my work that what I have to do today. At 4 am a four will drop three of us at Chhaina Pass. Chhaina Pass is 22 km from Bir, it is a hilly path so it took us one and a half hours to reach Chhaina Pass by car. Chhaina Pass is the pass connecting Bir-Biling to Chota Bhangal. When there was no road here, the locals used this track to go from one valley to another on foot.
The construction of the road here has greatly facilitated the locals and tourists. So the car drops us at 05:30 at the Chhaina pass, there are some shops here which are still closed. We are standing at 2850 meters so early in the morning and the weather is very cold, my nose starts running due to the cold wind. There are two more people with me. One is @naveen.jogta and the other is Katara who was also with me for route marking.
We have to climb Hanumangarh Peak from here, to climb this peak from this side we have to climb a 6 km steep mountain in which there will be an elevation gain of about 670 meters. So the plan is that we have to reach the summit before the first runner so that we two people can photograph the runners and Katara can shoot follow shots of the runners. And when the last runner crosses the peak then we will go down along with him to the Chhaina pass from where we will sit in the car and go back to Bir.
05:30 While walking, we cross the meadows situated above the Chhaina pass, light sunlight has started coming here. Both my companions are walking fast so that we do not miss the first runner. The first rays have fallen on Dhauladhar and the view has turned orange... I click some action photos of both of them in front of Dhauladhar. Looking at the other part of the valley, golden rays are seen shining on the mountain peaks.
After reaching the summit, we have to wait for about 40 minutes for the first runner. So the race started at 6 in the morning and the first runner covered the 8 km long climb in just 40 minutes. This runner is from Himachal Pradesh itself and seeing his speed on the down hill, all three of us were stunned. Then after 15 minutes the second runner came and on this side, runners kept coming one by one and kept crossing the summit.
By 9 am, the last runner also crossed us, now it was time for us to descend. We wait for some more time at the top, we were hungry since morning so we eat the sandwiches we had brought with us, eat a banana and drink juice and then start descending. The strong sunlight forces us to remove the layers we had worn in the morning.
On the way, the view of Chhota Bhangal, Badagram, Rajgunda and Kothi Kohad village looks very beautiful from a distance. Naveen has a light body so he descends quickly while Katara and I descend at our own pace. On the way, we come across a herd of sheep eating grass. On the way back, we cross the temple of Satbahini Devi, fold our hands here and after taking the blessings of the goddess, we reach Chhaina pass by 12:30. Here our vehicle is ready and we board it and reach back to Bir.
So this was our day today in which once again we summited Hanumangarh Peak, hiked, clicked photos of runners and enjoyed the amazing views of Dhauladhar. How did you like this journey, and how did you like the photos of this journey?
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from canon 77d (55-250mm) and edited on laptop lightroom app, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.
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