Solang Valley is a beautiful place in Himachal Pradesh, India which I love to visit every time. Patalsu is a 7 km trek and every year there is a 14 km run here, 7 km to the peak and back to the endline to finish the race.
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My and @himalayanwomb job was to mark the route of Patalsu for the runners before the race. We took a paint and brush, some chocolates, water and started the route marking. After walking about a kilometer, my period started and I did not have a sanitary pad, nor was there any shop nearby. In the middle of our route marking, there was a village and I requested a girl for a sanitary pad. Now I was okay for route marking.
It has been 2 hours since we started walking and we have crossed Saga Dug and moved ahead. The jungle that starts after the village is still continuing, if the villagers are to be believed, Himalayan bear lives in this jungle which comes to the village almost every day and spoils the apple crop. I have heard many dangerous stories of this man-eating bear since childhood, due to living in the mountains, I have seen this ferocious creature in front of my eyes many times, so I am afraid of such places. I don't know why my companion himalaynwomb does not care and he is busy in route marking and is walking a little ahead of me.
We have reached Khobi by 2 pm, this is a place which is situated at 3450 meters. Here the tree line leaves the mountain. Here we meet a runner couple, both of whom are heading towards Patalsu Peak in alpine style. When we talk to them, we come to know that the female runners are doing the Mount Patalsu Challenge in which they have to climb 14 km to Mount Patalsu and then descend towards the finish line, while the male runners are participating in the 30 km category. We take a lot of rest as we are tired, seeing us tired, the runner couple offers us an apple which we gladly accept.
After eating the apples, I feel as if I have never eaten a better apple than this. After a 20-minute break, we move ahead towards our destination. Patalsu Peak is clearly visible from Khobi. Looking at this wall, it seems as if we will reach in a short while, but the summit is still 1.5 km from here. I am getting a little uncomfortable and as the height is increasing, my speed is slowing down. I stop at a point, I tell my partner to go and finish the marking work and I will meet him here. The runner couple also leaves with @himalayanwomb and now I am alone. Let me tell you that I do not like being alone in the mountains at all.
After about 10 minutes the female runner comes to me and tells me that she is out of breath and can't walk anymore. We both wait here while the weather has started getting bad, suddenly dark clouds have covered this mountain. And what is this, after about 15 minutes the male runner also comes back. Now the three of us wait for the marker, he is so high up that now he looks as small as an ant to us. After about 30 minutes the marker calls and says that all of you start coming down slowly, I will come down soon and the marking work is complete.
The three of us are descending very slowly, it took about 40 minutes for the marker to reach us and by then we had reached Khobi. Here we reunite and start descending together. After a while the jungle begins which we cross at around 5 pm, I was only afraid of the jungle which is resolved safely. On reaching Solang village, everyone drinks water to their fill because all of us had finished drinking water at Khobi itself. From Solang village, it takes us another 30 minutes to reach our hotel. From here the runner couple goes to their hotel. So this was my incomplete track of Mount Patalsu Peak.
I am sure that one day in the future I will go to Solang Valley and complete this summit. In Solang, I also have to go to Bhrigu Lake and stay there for a few days in winters and learn to ski.
