Chadar Day 6: When bags and laces freeze at (-20C at Nyeruk)

I'm writing this on Day 9 sitting inside a Jet flight back to Delhi. Sucks! Also, hungry.

Going down from Lingshed in the snow was fun. I don't know how time went after Lingshed - I didn't have time for Kriya either. It snowed like crazy and temperatures dipped around -20 degrees centigrade. I was happy my fingers and toes didn't fall off. It snowed throughout the day. We had lunch at the base of Lingshed mountains. Padma Wangtak - our great cook with a military background - made totally amazing desi pasta. I saw him cook it - ghee first, some onions, freshly chopped tomatoes, cabbage, and spices. Yum! He cooked in the snow. Made me really wonder about the various travails we go through to simply eat in the city. This tasted seriously better.

We waded through snow, ice, water and rocks to reach Nyeruk. On the way I got into snow fights. In one, Milan dug my face and clothes into the snow. We reached Nyeruk village around 4pm I guess. My gators and shoes were frozen, socks, Goretex and everything else was soaking wet. I stay put in Meme's hut for most of the evening. Meme is called so because he's a goat keeper. I slept back in the tent but the rest of gang slept with Meme's goats in the other room. I kept looking at him. He has only one eye - he's 80-85 years old. Stays alone. Dressed always in maroon colored Buddhist clothes. During the day, he wears blue colored glasses to cover his blind eye (am guessing). Tsering got him six bottles of Chinar rum. He enjoyed his piece of chicken with relish. Meme sits quietly and observes everything. He comprehends everything but doesn't speak much. He's very much like the Himalayas.

We had dinner in his hut. Milan always provided briefings in the morning and at night. That night, we had to make a call about leaving the next morning or not. Meme and Tsering intently listened to the 8PM All India Radio news. The radio said it would snow heavily until the next evening. It didn't.

It was cold, cold, bitter cold night in the tent. I didn't sleep very well. Our bags, laces, everything that was outside was very frozen. My thermometer lost its reading - it can only go up till -20C. Earlier that evening, Mammut, Milan and I talked about stuff - of doing multiple interesting things v/s focusing on some. The discussion continued till the morning I left Leh.