[Farukh]

The whiteness of the snow is blinding.

I am already rating it 5 starts and awaiting for the trip to unfold!

[Silverfire]

Wow! Absolutely stunning Photologue man. Made me look at Kashmir in a whole new light.

[RArun]

Hi Rajiv,
Looks like you and family had a wonderful time. The photos are good enough to be an advertisement for Kashmir Tourism (I would be amongst the first ones to sign up for a trip).

By the way did you have to prep up you SX4 for driving on snow? Any special arrangement?
Arun

[Sleeplessdriver]

Wonderfully narrated using images. Your experience casts a spell and pushes me to take that plunge and go for that vacation revisiting "Kashmir".
Great job

[Mohan Mathew A]

I am speechless. It looks so wonderful. Awaiting more..

[pillaian]

Excellent photography RK, pictures and travelogue’s like this inspires the rest of the lot to backpack and do some adventure or explore the length and breadth of India. Keep them coming

[rkbharat]

Thanks alot or such wonderful words

Originally Posted by saket77

Amazing scenes and beautifully photographed. Wallpaper material easily. Waiting for you to unfold rest of the story. Come out soon!

More soon

Originally Posted by vasudeva

Have been there thrice, last time in 2010, but never in the winter season.
The only place in India (except for my wife's hometown) which I can keep visiting again and again.
The last photo seems to be the Lidder in Pahalgam. How the river has shrunk in the winters.

Thanks, yes last pics is one of the offshoot of Lidder, on the way to Aru

Originally Posted by Sommos

Beautiful pictures Rajiv.
Must appreciate your courage to venture out into such uncertainty.
In the third picture your car was covered with snow in front of the red building, how did you get it out from there.

We used our shovels to clear the snow in front to get out, this was just 10% of the snow we experienced a day before, when the car was completely under the snow

Originally Posted by codelust

RK,

All I see is white! Looks like it was quite an adventure and the teasers hint at the very-much-expected-by-now RK class photos and some really great driving.

Were you carrying snow chains?

Thanks, we missed snow chain big time. more than 4WD, it was the need of snow chains

Originally Posted by sameervg

Mind-blowing pictures Rajeev!
It is really tempting!
How car did behaved at cold starts and how was the visibility during such heavy snowfall?

No cold start issue, I guess lowest we experienced was -12 at night which is not that bad for Petrol cars.

Visibility was pathetic, during our drive between Pahalgam and Anatnag, we drove under heavy snowfall. I will write about it when we reach there in this thread

Originally Posted by rajneeesh

Rajiv,

There are two people who make me want to pack up and head for the mountains. You and Tanveer. The Pictures are simply superb. Waiting for a complete blow by blow account.

Head out there soon, another western disturbance is on its way

Originally Posted by recshenoy

Absolutely beautiful! Really want to go for a snow trip now. Pictures have come out really well. Please share more snaps.

By the way how much was total trip cost like stay , food etc.

thanks, around 28K, with a stay for three days at a friend's house. We always stay at JKTDC or goverment guest house, unless its not available. Reducing the cost of the trip is as important as the trip for us

Originally Posted by Amogh Barakol

LOvely ! ABsolutely lovely ! Admins please don't flag me again for one liners , but the quality of the pictures has left me speechless . To experience that first hand , my oh my !

Originally Posted by pulsar56

Wonderful pictures Rajiv. No wonder Kashmir is called the Paradise on Earth.
Please do continue with the rest of the travelogue soon!

to the snowman!

More soon

Originally Posted by sukhoi30

Beautiful pictures!!! I want to go next year. Will probably will get in touch when I plan that to get more details.

Sure, BTW we are doing Zanskar and Nubra in June

Originally Posted by hyper-VTEC

What's your photo gear? Exceptional photos. How did SX4 do? Any issues faced in the snow?

SX4 did really well, not a single issue. Climate Control was running 100% of the time
On some of the snow drives, we missed the engine braking of diesel SUVs and less weight was going against us.
We were driving at 15km/Hr with tyre pressure at 13 psi, all was well, till there was steep descend, where I had to apply little brakes, I guess I tapped it little hard, and car did 180 and both me and wife out with Shovels . After this tough lesson, I did fine for the rest of the snow drive.

There was a desparate need of snow chains, a fully loaded vehicle and engine braking of diesel vehicles.

Originally Posted by Farukh

The whiteness of the snow is blinding.

I am already rating it 5 starts and awaiting for the trip to unfold!

Originally Posted by Silverfire

Wow! Absolutely stunning Photologue man. Made me look at Kashmir in a whole new light.

Originally Posted by RArun

Hi Rajiv,
Looks like you and family had a wonderful time. The photos are good enough to be an advertisement for Kashmir Tourism (I would be amongst the first ones to sign up for a trip).

By the way did you have to prep up you SX4 for driving on snow? Any special arrangement?
Arun

No special prep, except regular service before the trip

Originally Posted by Sleeplessdriver

Wonderfully narrated using images. Your experience casts a spell and pushes me to take that plunge and go for that vacation revisiting "Kashmir".
Great job

Originally Posted by Mohan Mathew A

I am speechless. It looks so wonderful. Awaiting more..

[Heavy Horse]

Originally Posted by rkbharat

No special prep, except regular service before the trip

Hi Rajiv, not only are you an intrepid traveller, but also a gifted photographer.
On the issue of service before the trip, obviously you believe in that. There is another view that if the car is running fine, then it's better to undertake the trip and do the service afterward, just in case something get's screwed up during service and you get stuck on your trip. What makes you do what you do?

[rkbharat]

Originally Posted by Heavy Horse

Hi Rajiv, not only are you an intrepid traveller, but also a gifted photographer.
On the issue of service before the trip, obviously you believe in that. There is another view that if the car is running fine, then it's better to undertake the trip and do the service afterward, just in case something get's screwed up during service and you get stuck on your trip. What makes you do what you do?

Thanks

I always get the service done two weeks before the trip. Its important to get it serviced before the trip, because if there are things working fine in city but at the end of the age, will definitely break during the trip. So there has to be some proactive jobs

[rkbharat]

Day 1 - 28 Feb

While there is always a plan for each trip, it was difficult to make any plan for this trip. There were so many unknown unknowns and weather was quite unstable. There were chances that we would not even cross Udhampur. So didn't booked anything on hotel and left everything to a good friend in Srinagar.

With lots of uncertainties, we started our drive on 28th December, early morning 5:00 AM. Target was to reach our tried and tested destination Kud or Patnitop and I thought it will be easy like every other time we did it.

Drive from Gurgaon to Pathankot was event less, no fun and boring. We entered Jammu by pass and got a call from another friend that police has setup a barricade at the start of Udhampur and not allowing any vehicle from outside to go towards Srinagar. This was because of the one way traffic rule and today was the day from Srinagar to Jammu. But if we book a hotel in advance in Patnitop and let the police talk to the hotel guy, they might allow us forward.

Quickly talked to a hotel guy and confirmed the room. As expected we and all other cars were stopped just before udhampur by police and they simply refused to allow us forward, they asked us to submit the RC and collect it back in the morning and we can continue to Srinagar tomorrow. I simply refused it on his face and told him that I have a booking at Patnitop, I am not going to Srinagar today. Made him talk to the hotel guy and he was convinced, allowing us to go forward. There were many choke point like this and we had to repeat this drama couple of times with police posted there. We lost almost 1 hour in all this chaos and reached hotel by 7:00 Pm, checked in to hotel and just remained indoor, it was very cold outside.

Day 2 - 29-Feb

Target was to reach Pahalgam, and it was an easy target. We started lazily at around 9 Am. Today was the day for the traffic towards Srinagar, though we did saw vehicle coming down from Srinagar side, but that could be the local villagers in between. There was not much snow on the way, very few at Patnitop and some at Jawahar tunnel, rest all was dry. We reached Pahalgam by 2:30 Pm and went straight to Punjabi Rasoi, owned by my friend Jagjit, met him and had a really heavy lunch and a burger specially made for Nandini.

Jagjit booked Hotel Mount View for us at really mouth watering tariff, central heating, lovely views and safe parking. After checking in and few round of tea, we spent rest of the time playing with snow around.

View from hotel near patnitop


First view of Kashmir






Gang on loose


Entering Pahalgam


With my friend Jagjit, very few restaurant are open in winter


View from the room at Pahalgam


Snow time

[9thsphinx]

Man, you're living the life. You must be glad your daughter carries your "travel" gene

I have been to Kashmir just once when I was very little. Thanks for making me relive the memories. It's still so damn beautiful.

What wonderful photography!

[subhodeep.g]

@rkbharat: Those are some brilliant photograps there. One word, beautiful.
share with us the details of your gear for such wonderful pictures?


Did it have any ground clearance issue in that heavy snow? And what about tyre chains for grip, considering that much snow in the roads?

[sajusherief]

Speechless !!! I know that Kashmir is beautiful, but never knew that kashmir winters are so beautiful. The photos deserve special mention (of course the photographer), they are mind blowing! Thanks for such a BEAUTIFUL photologue.

[mobix]

Congrats RK on second Kashmir trip within 6 months, I surely envy you now man! But simply breathtaking pics .. well done man.

[YanTra Makto]

Awesome Pictures. Must have been painful, trudging along at slow speeds with uncertainty of road blockages, but then you were rewarded with what not many of non residents of Kashmir will ever see / experience. Hats off to you and your family.