THE UPPER FOOTHILLS
On our fifth day, our vehicle climbs for five hours, taking us to Leti 360°, a hideaway of four stone, wood and glass cabins nestled in the peaks, run by Himalayan experts Shakti Himalya. Here, 8,000 feet up and deeper into the Himalayas, the whole scale of the landscape changes: the mountains grow bigger and the bends elongate around giant rock slabs with dizzyingly steep drops, thousands of metres to the valley floor. The region’s ubiquitous terraces are now perched like stepladders against vertical escarpments, and the mountains, well, the mountains just go on forever. The temperature grows colder – Leti’s proximity to the Heeramani Glacier, a mere 15km as the crow flies, equates to standing in front of a giant freezer pumping out frozen air across the valley.
Leti’s four cabins meld into the landscape and, facing mountains that feel close enough to touch, I’m on top of the world. Leti is so still, it places you a million miles from the humdrum of daily life. At dawn a weak sun creeps over the peaks, gradually illuminating hazy snowcaps, bringing them into focus from my bedside.
After breakfast we set off to explore the local flora and fauna; cows wander at will along the paths that are littered with rhododendron as well as wild sage and dwarf thyme, which perfumes the air as it’s crushed underfoot.
Gearing up for Leti’s toughest hike, a vertiginous two-and-a-half-hour walk, we visit a shrine to Lord Shiva that overlooks the Ramganga Valley, where griffon vultures drop and soar with the thermals. Plentiful food accompanies plentiful exercise and Yeshi, Leti’s cook-cum-monk, prepares a fusion of flavoursome food that’s fit for a maharaja – all in a primitive wood-fired oven. He also teaches us how to meditate, as well as to make dumplings, chocolate fondant and hemp chutney.
On our last day here, we set off at 5am in the black of the early morning to reach our destination, a view of Nanda Devi, India’s second highest mountain, in time for sunrise. The first thousand steps are in the dark, heading ever higher in a state of semi-awakened huffing and puffing. The going is tough and exhausting but completely worthwhile – arriving at the top just before 7.30am as the sun creeps over the summit is reward enough. This peak, whose name means bliss-giving goddess, leaves us all speechless and in awe of the utter stillness and beauty.