Sach Pass - The tough way round

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Varun and I were disgusted at the sight of a cow tumbling down to her death, can’t even imagine how this would have felt. Hope the injured people were given first aid at the landslide area, else I shudder to imagine what state they would have been when they reach hospital at Shimla.

[KurtRules]

Just to think of the fact that you were with him minutes ago and later he was flung across the gorge, makes me really sick...I wonder ur state of mind with rain, and two unconcious men lying around....What Manik did was really brave and the need of the hour ... Salutes to him .....

But sometimes it makes me wonder, that us at BCMT take so many risks, travelling in adverse conditions to some of the remotest areas of the country .... i mean god forbid, it could have been any one of us in his place .... Salil, i ask u, was all you did worth the risk? You were on top of sach pass, but the day before all this had happened ... No doubt in what u were feeling

[abhi1975]

Last night when I first read about the incident I was at a total loss of words, also I did not have any courage to write anything about those brave men because sitting in the comfort of my warm room I'm no way suited to comment about a situation which I can't even imagine.

I thought at considerable length last night and also this morning while working and finally I think there's something that I can write. We are tourers, mainly in the Himalayas. Though now BCMT has started to grow and covering many areas of our country but still the majority of us, we love to travel to the Himalayas. The BRO guyz or maybe some other organizations who are responsible for the creation/maintenance/upkeep of the road network in the Himalayas, we all know in how much adverse condition they work so that we can visit whichever place we want to visit. I understand they are not doing this solely for us but we are also benefiting, na? Which makes me wonder, can't we do something for these BRO guys, to be precise for the families of those guyz who lay down their lives each year so that we can keep going?? Maybe we are too short in number to make an impact but still we can start somewhere. We can contribute personally, we can approach people we know. I am sure we will grow bigger over the years and who knows in future we may even actually do something for a kid who has lost his father while working for us.

Maybe this is not the right thread to post, mods may split it and find a relevant place for this. What say my friends, can't we make a start???

[hitanshu]

Why not simply donate to PM's relief fund quietly privately every year? Would avoid making any big discussion over it imho.

[anupmathur]

Salil & Manik, this incident must have been a fair trauma for you!

Originally Posted by Salil

...... and the next morning, a helicopter landed for a short while at the helipad to airlift the injured to a proper hospital in Shimla.

I just feel so angry & frustrated........... next morning ........... why next morning????......why not within an hour or two?
This is what tells us how much we value life!
On the other hand, had it been elsewhere in the hills, other than Himachal, you might as well have buried the two injured men there itself.

[Salil]

Originally Posted by KurtRules

But sometimes it makes me wonder, that us at BCMT take so many risks, travelling in adverse conditions to some of the remotest areas of the country .... i mean god forbid, it could have been any one of us in his place .... Salil, i ask u, was all you did worth the risk? You were on top of sach pass, but the day before all this had happened ... No doubt in what u were feeling

When you set out on any adventure, there's some element of risk associated with it. And more often than not, it is often the risk factor that makes it an adventure in the first place. Of course, when we set out on this trip, we were not expecting anything like the events that actually occurred. And the mishap that happened would have happened regardless of our being present at the moment it happened. Virtually every road that you ride on in the remote areas would have some such mishaps in its past history. You had yourself crossed the very same roads unaware of what had happened a few days back!

But at the moment and time, we had 3 options, and we took the one most feasible. 1st option was to wait, but we were already short of leaves. 2nd option was to take the route through Jammu, but the riots in Jammu had resulted in the roads through that sector being blocked. And the third option was to turn back and cross the 4 landslides again, which certainly didn't make sense over crossing the one landslide that we had at hand.

So, to answer your question, yes, it was worth the risk. After all, we do set out on 2 wheelers over the highways of India, don't we? That in my eyes is the biggest risk ever.

[Salil]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

Salil & Manik, this incident must have been a fair trauma for you!

I just feel so angry & frustrated........... next morning ........... why next morning????......why not within an hour or two?
This is what tells us how much we value life!
On the other hand, had it been elsewhere in the hills, other than Himachal, you might as well have buried the two injured men there itself.

Traumatized yes, but we did recover enough to proceed further.

Well, even if a helicopter was on stand by, it wouldn't have helped much. By the time Manik came back after calling for help, it was almost dark and weather conditions were deteriorating. But yes, it could certainly have arrived early morning the next day, which it didn't.

[d50alchemy]

Wow! fantastic.
keep it up man.

[Salil]

Days 6, 7, 8

The last waterfall that we crossed, and that drenched our bikes and luggage completely, took a toll on our bikes as well. We had to stop on the incline right before the waterfall to get into rain protection. Now, in a hurry to cross the waterfall as fast as possible, we half-clutched and kept our revs really high. On top of that, we had to stop again after the waterfall to remove the rain protection. This meant more half clutching. Right after the incline and curve succeeding the waterfall, I found Manik stopped. It was the worst that could happen in these conditions to a bike. His clutch had burned out totally. There was no movement at all when he revved the bike in first gear, clutch completely engaged.

Our first reaction was to wait. Maybe, once it cools down, it will work again. But no, there was no difference at all. It would be a Herculean task to push the bike all the way up to where we could get help. Turning back and going down towards Killar was an option, but not possible. It was fast turning dark, and the cloud build up, that happens practically every evening in these places had started again.

Right ahead of us was this stream to be crossed. A sure shot way to get your feet wet if you have a bike to push through. But thankfully, help is never far away in Himachal, however remote the place you are in.



As we waited, gathering our thoughts as to what to do now, we saw a Mahindra pickup come up and stop at the very same point where I found Manik stranded. We waited for it to drive up to us, hoping that it would have some space for Manik’s bike. But the Mahindra looked stuck as well. About 10 minutes later, with people pushing from the rear, it started moving slowly, and reached us. It was empty! But our moment of joy was brief. As we turned back, we saw huge sacks of green peas being carried up towards us to be loaded into the pickup. It had to unload everything, since the incline was too steep for the Mahindra to be able to move with the load!

So pushing remained the only option we had. We tried towing the bike with a bungee rope, but it was not strong enough. The cloud cover that had been building up was threatening to rain down any moment now. Progress was slow. I would ride up, park my bike, walk down and push Manik’s bike up. But soon it started drizzling. Our priority now was to find some shelter. I rode ahead, reached Bagotu, about a Km ahead, left my baggage at the dhaba and came back for Manik. It was a big relief to find shelter. It was already 6 PM. We had tea, waited for the rains to die down, and then went back with a piece of rope borrowed from the dhaba. I was just about able to tow the bike up to the dhaba; towing a 140 Kg bike with a 90 something Kg of load on it is no easy task when all you have is a 16 bhp 2 wheeler and a steep muddy incline in the name of roads.

Bagotu


Once at Bagotu, I found that Manik’s clutch lever had no play at all. Out came the tools and we adjusted the clutch cable for some play and lo Manik was riding again. He took a short test ride and the bike felt fine. So, we would finally have a bike to ride up to Sach Pass! Couldn’t wait for tomorrow. I had a particularly bad time at the dhaba. It was a one room dhaba that had the kitchen, dining area and beds all in one place. The only thing missing was ventilation. It was hard for me to keep my eyes open due to all the smoke from the wood burning chulah. I could eat very little for dinner, and got under the quilts, hoping we wouldn’t suffocate to death by morning.

Manik charging his cell phone, now a GPS device.


We started for the day at 8:30. The vistas were changing dramatically, as we neared the pass. Glaciers were to be seen in plenty. Let the pics talk…









The Roads...


Sach Pass 4Kms


The road ahead...




About 3 Kms before Sach Pass, there is a huge flat piece of ground, bordered by glaciers. Manik had gone ahead. I decided to park my bike and do some photography in the location.

a 360deg pano of the ground:


Meanwhile, Manik rode up further, and shot with my camera from far above with his S3IS at 12X.

The road from the ground:


Glaciers on the ground






Glacier Bugs!






Melting...




The BCM seal!




Back on the road...




This was right at the edge of the ground.


Meanwhile, Manik rode up further, and shot me from far above with his S3IS at 12X.


After spending quite some time at the grounds, I starting riding again, expecting to find Manik waiting at Sach Pass. Right after the ground was a tough incline. Just as I rode over, I found Manik, waiting. It had happened again! Manik’s bike was clutchless. And there was no scope for adjusting it any more. Sach pass was still about 2 Km up from there. We weighed our options. We could easily roll down to Bagotu, but we weren’t sure if there would be transport available for the bike to be sent over the Sach Pass to the next town/village. Or we could do some more hard work, push the bike up to Sach Pass and roll down the other side of Sach pass and hope to hit some place where the bike could be repaired before the descent ran out. We just didn’t feel like turning back, now that Sach pass was just 2 Kms away. So we decided on taking the chance and pushing it to Sach pass.

So, at over 4400 meters above sea level, there we were... 2 guys pushing a bike up steep inclines, huffing and puffing, lungs burning Sach pass being the motivation. It was no easy task. We ran out of breath many times, and just had to sit down to catch our breath. But finally, Sach pass was in reach.

And this is how we made it!

YouTube - Pushing a motorcycle to Sach pass @ 14,500 feet

YouTube - Pushing a motorcycle to Sach pass @ 14,500 feet

I almost couldn't believe that we were at Sach Pass. A seemingly routine trip, that we calculated would take 5 days had already stretched on to the 7th day, and we were not done yet!

Sach pass: We made it.








This pass is a bit different from other passes. This one has a pretty flat top that stretches on for some distance once you cross over to Chamba. We were relieved believing that there would be no more pushing required. But how wrong were we. After the immediate descent, there were quite a few more inclines that required a good amount of exercise. While we were resting after one such stretch, I spotted a peice of rope lying where I sat, covered in mud. I gladly picked it up inspite of the mud, and had Manik store it for future use.

All the pushing meant I was a little short of time when it came to photography. The vistas changed dramatically once we crossed over. There were green meadows covered with flowers of all colors, and going further down, the greenery was lush, unlike Bagotu side of Sach.

The other side of Sach...




Glaciers were much more in quality and quantity.




The roads


The meadows...




The flowers up close...












According to the guys manning the check post at Satrundi, our only bet to get the bike repaired was Tissa, about 50 Kms down. After the initial hiccups, there was an almost constant descent. Manik kept rolling while I was stopping frequently for photographs, much to the annoyance of Manik, who had no one to push his bike up whenever there was an incline. So after a while, photography breaks were few and far between.

Roads...


Vistas






Waterfalls...


My Kodak popped out of its pouch and fell face down while I was crossing that stream. Thankfully, not much damage done. I promptly removed the batteries and shook the water out of it. It still works!








The stretch between Satrundi and Tissa happened to be the most beautiful in this trip.








Manik pushing his bike down Sach Pass!




Metalled roads! We were seeing one after 4 days of torture! We took a really long break here.




Once at Tissa, we had about 30 Kms of inclines to cover before we reached a mechanic. So out came the rope I had picked up, and the towing began. We reached Tissa around 5,and aftersome roaming around as a consequence of being misguided by locals, we found a mechanic who could fix Manik's bike with a new set of clutch plates.






The old, almost bare clutch plates...


Unfortunately, the guy didn't have all the required tools and substituted wrenches with a hammer to free the clutch hub. On top of that, he didn't have the orignial spares. So when he was done fixing the bike, Manik's bike was more of a vibrator than the smooth P-180 that it was. Well, Manik had no option but to enjoy the vibrations till he reached home the next day. Nothing much to write about the last day.

So, was this the toughest trip ever? Hell it was!!!

Salil

__________________________________________________ _________________________
Day 1: Delhi to Sundernagar
Day 3: Sissu to Udaipur
Day 4: Udaipur to Tindi
Day 4, 5 : Tindi to Killar
Days 5, 6 : Killar to Bagotu
Days 6, 7, 8: back Home
__________________________________________________ _________________________

[akshay4384]

One amazing adventurous trip you guys had

No words for the pics.