Manali

Manali is located in northern India between the Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal mountain ranges. It is a small town with a river flowing through the middle of it. Tourists and backpackers come to Manali for the beauty of the mountains and for the outdoor adventure activities.

According to legend, Manu, the Hindu equivalent of Noah, aligned his boat here to recreate human life after floods destroyed the world.

I stayed in Old Manali, which still has the feel of an Indian mountain village with beautiful old wood houses.

Missing my Canadian winter I thought that I would take the opportunity to go snowboarding in Manali since it was possible. On my second day in Manali I left at 6:30 in the morning to head out to the mountain. I was not expecting how physically challenging the day would be but it was a really great experience. We drove half an hour out of Manali and up part of a mountain then I had to walk the rest of the way up with a guide.

I was wearing my full snowboard gear with my board attached to my backpack. I remember at one point after we had been walking for about 20 minutes straight up the mountain I asked the guide how long we would have to walk because it was really tiring and he causally said that we would probably walk for another two to three hours! Along the way I needed to take tons of breaks- much more than the guide who does this three to four times a week.

The best part of the day was every time that I took a break and looked at the mountains around me and they looked so much more impressive the higher that we got. We got above the tree line and finally started to ski and board down at 4300 feet.

I met another group on the way up who were camping on the snow for three days and skiing during the day. They joined us walking up for the last 45 minutes and we skied and boarded down together. It took us about 30 minutes to get down.