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A green mountain meadow and diagonal belt of conifers beneath two snow-streaked peaks and towering white cloud

The journeys / 03 With friends · June 2023

TowardsMantalai.

The way back was part of it.

Walk into the story Three friends / A valley to ourselves

A last-minute plan / Parvati Valley

We went for a lake.
We came back with this.

The plan was Mantalai Lake. Three of us, a sudden decision, and everything we needed to make camp on our backs. Our own tent. Our own cooking setup. No guide. No porter.

I knew Parvati Valley. I’d been back many times, walked around Kalga and hiked through Kheerganga. Beyond Kheerganga was new ground. This time, we wanted to find our own way.

  1. 01 / The beginningKalga
  2. 02 / A day to restKheerganga
  3. 03 / Three days beyondInto the wilderness
  4. 04 / Before the lakeWe turned back

01 / The three of us

New ground.
All of us.

I was recovering from a broken shoulder bone. One friend was in the mountains for the first time. The other was new too: tough, and extremely adventurous.

We had the equipment. Experience was a little less evenly distributed. And none of us had done this particular walk before.

My two friends seated outdoors at night, with a small light illuminating their faces and hands
My friends, a little light, and no need to make much of the evening.June 2023
Friends pause with a large backpack on a forest trail; a close foreground face and another friend resting behind
My friends, between the walking. These are the frames I want to keep.June 2023

A last-minute yes.
Three very different starting points.

Warm low sunlight above village roofs, conifers and the deep folds of a mountain valley
A few roofs below, and my mind already further up the valley.June 2023
A green forested valley beneath snow-streaked mountains and a large bank of white cloud
The plan was a lake. This was already enough reason to go.June 2023

From Kalga, we walked up to Kheerganga.
We rested there for a day. Then we kept going.

02 / Beyond Kheerganga

Past the path
I knew.

The familiar valley became something else.
More green. More space. Fewer signs of anyone.

A vast steep rocky mountain wall rises above a green meadow, a lone foreground tree and a forested valley
A mountain wall, and enough space beneath it to feel at ease.June 2023
Yellow flowers in the foreground of a deep green valley beneath conifers and a cloud-wrapped mountain
A few flowers at our feet, and a whole valley ahead.June 2023
Shafts of sunlight break through dark cloud above a steep green mountain valley
An afternoon worth leaving unplanned.June 2023

Put a person in the frame.
The mountains get bigger.

A friend on a narrow path through a green valley, dwarfed by a huge rocky cliff
A friend ahead, a mountain filling the rest of the frame.June 2023

The valley, moving

Water everywhere.
A way through.

Across a log bridge.
Below walls streaked with waterfalls.
Further into the green.

Water rushes beneath a log bridge, with tiny trekkers on the path beyond.
My friends beyond the bridge, the river below. We crossed, and kept going.00:03 · Sound in the player

A green meadow trail runs beneath a massive rocky wall streaked with waterfalls, with conifers and snowy peaks beyond
Waterfalls kept us company along the rock walls.June 2023
Small yellow flowers beside a sparkling stream, with a green meadow and forest softly blurred behind
I came for the mountains. The small things kept interrupting.June 2023

03 / Everything we carried

Home was
what we unpacked.

Three days beyond Kheerganga, camping on our own.
A tent for the night. A stove for a meal.
Everything else was the valley.

An arched tent doorway frames a green boulder meadow, conifers, a small hut and snow-streaked mountains
Unzip the tent. Nothing else needed arranging.June 2023
A tent doorway opens past backpacks, a blue water carrier and cooking equipment onto a green meadow
Everything we needed, in the space between a tent door and a meadow.June 2023
A short Live Photo moment from the tent doorway shows camping equipment and a friend entering the edge of the frame.
A shared effort00:03 · Sound in the player

A small kitchen / A very big view

Make a meal.
Make a place.

Two friends sit beneath the trees beside a small cooking stove, a pot and their supplies.
My friends making a meal with what we’d carried in. Our own little routine in the forest.00:09 · Sound in the player

We chose to carry our own gear and cook for ourselves. For those days, setting up camp was as much a part of the journey as the walking.

An outstretched arm holds a blue water carrier beneath falling water.
Looking after ourselves00:05 · Sound in the player

Golden light reaches conifers across a wide meadow with a small pale blue tent near the lower right
Our tent nearly lost in the green. I liked the scale of that.June 2023

A tiny patch of blue.
That was our place.

An evening with the herd

For a while,
we had company.

A herd of long-haired goats gathers on a green slope beneath a glowing backlit evening sky
The goats had the meadow. We were happy to share.June 2023
Goats graze and wander across a sunlit green mountain meadow in a long handheld shot.
We had nowhere to hurry to. The herd set a perfectly good pace.01:04 · Sound in the player

A full minute with the herd, if you have nowhere else to be.

A grey tent on a blue groundsheet stands among large boulders and conifers below a huge cliff and distant mountain
A friend seated beside our grey tent and a small warm glow among boulders and misty conifers

One evening / The mist came in

The same valley.
A smaller world.

Some days gave us blue skies and all that green.
One evening, heavy mist closed around camp.

A place we made

See the full frame ↗︎

Daylight / We carried our shelter into the valley and made a place for the night.

Mist / My friend beside camp as the mist came in. Our small bit of warmth.

A luminous band of stars spans the night sky above a dark mountain ridge with faint snow on its highest peaks

04 / After dark

And then,
the whole sky.

Open the night ↗︎

The mountains became outlines.
Everything above them opened up.

Five photographs / One sky to keep
A pale band of the Milky Way crosses a dense star field above a dark mountain silhouette
No roof between us and any of this.June 2023
A dense band of stars rises diagonally across the night sky above the dark outline of a mountain ridge
One dark ridge. More sky than I knew what to do with.June 2023
The Milky Way rises above a dark jagged mountain range with faint snow visible on the peaks
The mountains after dark. I felt no need to be anywhere else.June 2023
Thousands of stars and the mottled pale band of the Milky Way fill an unbroken dark sky
For once, looking up was the whole plan.June 2023

05 / The way back

We didn’t
reach the lake.

There wasn’t one dramatic moment that made the decision for us. One of us was exhausted. I was carrying the worry that my shoulder could get worse.

We had gone three days beyond Kheerganga. Continuing didn’t feel right. So we turned back, before Mantalai Lake.

That was part of this journey too: deciding we had gone far enough.

A friend seated near the lower right of a green boulder meadow, below snowy mountains and tall conifers
A friend at rest. All that space to sit with.June 2023
Hazy sunlight fills a deep conifer-covered valley between huge rocky mountain walls and glowing clouds
A valley worth going into, even when you don’t reach the lake.June 2023

The lake stayed
further up the valley.

What I remember about the timing

One day after I got back,
massive floods hit the route.

We had made it out. Turning back ended up being a very good decision.

My friends resting together under blankets in a room with turquoise walls and wooden panelling
A soft place to land, with the same friends who shared the hard ground.June 2023

The moving memories

A little longer
in the valley.

Eleven films and Live Photo moments.
Open any film for the full clip.
Sound starts with you.

The complete photo collection

Forty-six frames.
All the way back.

The grand views. The small details.
The goats. The stars. The three of us.
Open a photograph to see the full frame.

46 photographs

Towards Mantalai / Parvati Valley

A different ending.
Still our story.

Three friends. Our own camp.
A whole valley on the way to a lake we didn’t reach.

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Moving memories

Parvati Valley / June 2023

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