Team-BHP - 14th Raid-De-Himalaya 2012, My experience as an official

Mods: I am posting this in travelogue section and not motorsport because, this is an account of my travel experience as a Raid official and not an account of actual competition, however you may move it if you deem fit. Thanks.

Leg-1 (7th October 2012) Shimla to Manali, total odo for the day: 302.8 KMs

After 2 days of scrutiny and ceremonial flag off, finally we were ready for action. The best thing about raid is that you slowly start losing the track of days and time, but for a change we remembered that this was a Sunday. Day-1 is usually a stressful day for competitors, old timers know that this is a tough stage which readies everyone for real action and newbies are anxious to discover the animal called Raid!

Raid runs in 2 formats, TSD (Time, Speed and Distance) version called “Adventure Trial” and a more hardcore version called “Extreme”, where only timing matters. We were officiating for Adventure Trial this time unlike Mughal where we also took care of extreme too. The good part was that this year’s adventure also followed the same route as extreme.

We started rolling for leg-1 at 3am in morning; this may be called a late start as compared to the early starts that officials are used to of. Atul (Atul Handa, Clark of the Course (COC)) pushed the convey as usual to ensure that we were ready with rally course well before the rally flags off from Shimla.

Various TCs (Time Controls) are setup enroute the rally course to give surprise check to competitors and this determines their penalties between time controls. We had a picturesque TC location. The day as expected was full of rocky tracks which were enough to sort out the serious competitors. We passed through Sunni, Bakrote, Kelodhar, Chattri and Kullu to reach Manali at 8.30pm. Total 17.5 hours day…and it was just the start :)

Leg-2 (8th October 2012) Manali to Tabo, total odo for the day: 254.1 KMs

After catching sleep for couple of hours, we got up at 1am to roll for next day. We started at 2am as planned in a convoy to set up rally course for Leg-2. We reached Rohtang pass at 3am, the condition of road (if you still call it road) was as expected. Day-2 to Tabo was to pass through the most treacherous terrain. I am sure pictures are worth a thousand words and I will let them do the talking.

We stationed ourselves a KM below Kunzum La to setup TC location for Day-2 after the extreme passes the rally route. We were at 14900 feet, temperature -6 degrees and Poonam, my wife and co-driver started to get AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness). There was very little oxygen near Kunzum and dusty track only added to our troubles. In hurry, we missed picking packed breakfast so biscuits were our breakfast and lunch for the day. This was to be a long day for us as we expected rally to cross us post noon, and then we had to drive till Tabo, at the end of Spiti valley. Adventurous day indeed!

I had to handle the TC alone and as a pleasant surprise almost every competitor asked me if Poonam was doing okay, this is all about bonding during the rally.

The route from Gramphoo to Losar enroute Kaza crosses most inhospitable terrain in the region around. However, you get to see snow clad mountains, one of the highest passes (Kunzum) with a beautiful temple, a valley drive (after entering spiti) and beautiful landscapes enroute Tabo.

We managed to reach Kaza by 5.30, refueled (and carried extra fuel) and started towards our halt for the day at Tabo. We passed via Rohtang, Gramphoo, Kunzum La, Losar and Kaza to reach Tabo. Only consolation was that weather Gods were kind unlike last trip and we thanked them for the same :)