This is the toughest day as there were many ice bridges and boulders to cross while moving along the broken wall of mud and stones on the right of the valley to descend to the river. A few obelisk like boulders placed strategically in the elephant grass indicates the path to take.
You then descend to the river again and continue to face the same challenges of boulder hopping and melted bridges . The trail up in the hills is unstable – with landslides, steep piles of scree and streams of water flowing down the hillside. Trekking poles are very useful here. Slowly the valley widens out and one can see on the opposite end of the valley a meadow where herders tend a group of sheep. A final snow bridge crossing brings you to the wide meadow of Naspanpati or Narspanpatti. Here the Indian army helicopters land on reconnaissance flights at an altitude of 12630 ft (3850 metres). Sheep and long haired goats can be seen grazing in the shade of the mighty Kuchela with distant views of the queen of peaks Changuch and Nandakhat .
After about three hours you cross the river on ice to reach Naspanpati (at an altitude of 3850 meters). This a beautiful wide meadow with a lot of flowers.You also come across a cave carved out of a big boulder that can accommodate about 4 people.
The trail now runs along the true left of the valley and you climb 4 kms of grassy knolls alternating with the same gravel-mud-rock combine of collapsing walls and landslide zones . You then descend and cross a stream to arrive at the stone shepherd’s hut of Bittalgwaar. While walking on this high wall to arrive at this spot you can see ,on the opposite side ,the scree wall that marks the ShalangGaad which you cross over to from Laspa village to arrive at Bittalgwaar. It is evening by now so you set up camp and crash early after dinner to get up early and photograph the plethora of peaks ranging from Nandakot to Nandalapak, Nanda Devi East and Kuchela.
THE FINAL TRUDGE FROM BITTALGWAR TO ABC
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Early in the morning after clicking the mountains peaks that surround this camping site of herders one has to proceed to one's goal which is the advance base camp. This day is a leisurely walk with boulder hopping and moraine crossing. One crosses a glacial stream and then walk over the remnants of a glacier and climb to the advance base camp which lies in the shadow of Nanda Devi East. The climb is from 14107 feet ( which is 4300 metres ) to 15750 feet ( or 4800 metres ) and involves 3 to 4 hours of crossing a glacial stream and climbing over a dead glacier towards a basin which is the advance base camp with Nanda Devi East benevolently watching your advance.
After traversing the boulder terrain you get back to the hills onto some very narrow, slippery trails with steep drop-offs. One climbs the landslide hit areas with narrow slippery trails with the help of trekking poles or an ice axe depending on snow conditions. The terrain around Nanda Devi East base is a place of lovely meadows. You reach the basin after another two hours of hiking. The meadows here are bare with steep piles of scree, boulders, and mixed rock and all around peaks like Nandakot, Changuch, Kuchela and Nanda Lapak soar to give a heavenly vision. You need to climb a 20 foot high boulder at the bottom of the basin from where you can ford the stream. Stay on your side of the stream and head up over the lip of the basin, closer to the snow slopes above. After another half hour’s stone stepping you find a spectacular campsite carpeted with pink flowers situated between a steep snow slope on the left and a steep brown moraine on the right.There’s a shelter constructed of boulders suitable for setting up a kitchen tent. The main wall of Longstaff’s Col lies directly ahead of the campsite
@Swathi MC
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