Bodies of eight members of a West Bengal trekking team, which had gone missing from Gangotri-Kalindikhal trek following turbulent weather in upper Himalayan reaches ten months ago, have been spotted, a senior official said today. The bodies of three trekkers and five porters were spotted in a tent between Sita glacier and Tapovan by a trekking team three days ago. The team was on way to Satopanth peak, Sub Divisional Magistrate of Bhatwari Chandra Singh Dharmsattu said. The team, also from West Bengal, established the identity of the bodies on the basis of their documents and other belongings and later informed the Uttarkashi district administration about it, the SDM said. The administration is now planning to send a team to recover the bodies in view of fresh information made available by the trekking team, he said. The team led by Alind Mukherji was going to scale Satopanth peak. However, it returned from midway yesterday as the weather became turbulent, Dharmsattu said. The eight-member team had gone missing in September last year. After that, the district administration had launched a search operation with the help of army helicopters and Indo-Tibetan Border Police, but they failed to trace them due to continuous heavy snowfall in the area. The then West Bengal Ministers Kanti Ganguly and Srikumar Mukherjee, along with a rescue team, had also made an unsuccessful attempt to search them. The administration had later abandoned the search operation.

Heavy rains lashed Chandigarh and various parts of Punjab and Haryana Saturday morning, bringing down the mercury in this region.

Chandigarh recorded a minimum temperature of 22.2 degrees Celsius Saturday morning, which was five notches below normal. Besides, this centrally administered city recorded a rainfall of 36.2 mm in the last 24 hours.

‘We had light rainfall in various parts of this region Friday night and heavy showers this morning. This trend is going on for the last couple of days. Whenever mercury starts soaring, we have rainfall to bring it down. This is due to the movement of western disturbances over this region,’ a met official told IANS here.

‘We are expecting similar conditions to continue for the next four-five days. Though this is not unusual, the frequency of showers has increased in June this time. We are expecting the actual monsoon to arrive in this part of the country by the end of this month,’ he added.

Punjab’s Amritsar city recorded a minimum temperature of 23.4 degrees Celsius Saturday morning while Patiala (12.6 mm rainfall) and Ludhiana (27.6 mm rainfall) settled at a low of 23.3 and 21.7 degrees Celsius, respectively.

In Haryana, Ambala received heavy rainfall of 63.5 mm and recorded a minimum temperature of 22.8 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, Hisar recorded a minimum temperature of 27.1 degrees Celsius.

Certainly not a time for attempting wilderness treks.

Plans of North India are facing dramatic change of weather.  SUN has come up and days are getting warm now with little chill in wind.

I would suggest readers to undertake their journeys without any issue…all flights and trains are running normally.

Deaths and destruction is for those who got trapped and ater is running fast towards DELHI.

NOT a good time for trekking, climbing in Himalayas.

Ajay Dhamdere of Pune

Mr. Ajay Dhamdere of Pune- is going to publish a new dimension book on treks of Sahyadri mountains. Not a detailed what and where to go…but through eyes of a trekker- what he sees and where he should head to.

ABOUT AJAY DHAMDERE:  A multi dimensional personality. Climber, trekker, musician and photographer he is main spine of himadventures for operations in SAHYADRI MOUNTAIN RANGE. He has done Advance Mountaineering Course.

We will coming back with details as soon as it comes out from Publishers desk !

The 13,000-foot-high Rohtang Pass was opened to tourists last week. It’s the highest point on one key road in the region.

The pass is an important destination on the itinerary of tourists visiting the picturesque Kullu valley and also an adventurer’s dream destination.

A variety of adventure activities like ski scooters, snow tubes, skiing, sleigh and yak rides attract thousands of tourists every day to the scenic area.

Tourists visiting the area are extremely excited about seeing snow in the middle of a summer season.

[Amit, Tourist]:

“Look at the snow, which is coming mildly. Although it’s very cold but I’m actually enjoying it… This is my first time. Can you believe it? I’m 33 years old and this is the first time in my life I’ve seen snow falling like this. I’ve seen snow covered mountains but I have not seen snow falling like this so this is an awesome experience.”

Though the snow brought a chill in the air, the cold did not dampen the spirits of the tourists.

Source: http://english.ndtv.com

Char dham yatra has started and Srinagar and Manali are HOT destinations.

SJOBA is the alumni association of St. John’s High School, Chandigarh, voted as amongst the top 10 schools in the country by Outlook magazine. SJOBA was founded in 1980 and now has over 2,500 strong members and a global presence with a Chapter of the Americas also. Apart from the Rally, SJOBA organizes various events through the year like the SJOBA Winter Ball,  Blood Donation Camp and the Mini Marathon.

The idea of Motor Sport came into being, when SJOBA decided to do something for the region. Ideas were thrown about and SJOBA decided that motor sports would be its forte. So, the first SJOBA Motorcycle rally was held in 1981 and this graduated to the SJOBA Open Rally in 1982 where, for the first time, amateurs in the region were exposed to motor sports in a professional way.