24/05/2021
Date: 18th May 2021
Starting time: 02:45 am
Ending time: 05:45 pm
Distance: 23 km
Elevation: 2300 m
Route: Vashisht - Panduropa - Bhrigu - Panduropa - Vashisht
The Kullu valley in the state of Himachal Pradesh had received the last snowfall on April 23rd 2021. It was after 40 years that the region received snowfall in the last week of April. The snowfall was followed by a month long weather that was cloudy with recurrent rainfall in the region.
There was still quite a lot of amount of snow over 3500 meter. We decided to attempt a speed hike to the Bhrigu lake. However, in order to do so, we first hiked to Panduropa (3600 m) just to get a better understanding about the amount of snow. The landscape till 3300 metre was devoid of snow and then there were patches of snow spread here and there. This gave us enough confidence to plan a one day speed hike to the Bhrigu lake from the Panduropa side which is a quite steep and long approach.
In order to navigate through the snow landscape effectively, we decided to start at night. After taking a power nap in the day, we woke up at 02:00 am, packed our day-sack and started from the Koshla village at 02:45 am.
We maintained a good pace and reached Panduropa by 07:00 am with an ascend of 1200 metres. We took cover under a big boulder and grabbed some food while we waited for the sun rays to hit the meadow slopes.
We started out approach towards the lake and after hiking continuously for 4 hours we covered some 7 odd kilometres to reach the Bhrigu lake by 11:00 am. However, to out utter surprise, we were NOT able to see the lake as it was completely covered by snow. We sat near the lake for a while to put on our gaiters. We decided not to have lunch there as it was cold and there was no place to sit (due to loads of snow). We bid our goodbye to the lake and started descending through the same path.
After a lot of glissades and standing skiing, we reached Panduropa in 3 hours. We sat and finished all the food that we had. The weather had turned cloudy (which is quite uncommon for the month of May) and we started descending the final patch. It was a pretty quick and easy descend as there was no snow and we know the terrain like the back of our hand.
We reached Treenido (home) by 05:45 pm via the Kunool waterfall.
It was a tiring day indeed and we were little sad that we were not able to see the lake. However, it was a really nice day as we got to spend 8+ hours in snow. It turned out to be one really amazing speed hike.
In my opinion, it would make sense to hike up to Bhrigu lake in June first week because by then the snow would definitely melt.
