I bet you cant Count my Sheep this time Photo

Photographer’s Note

On the route to Chandratal, we came across many Gaddi shepherds. These Gaddi shepherds migrate annually with their flocks of sheep and goats and some horses in search of grazing areas, a search that will entail covering mountainous terrain and crossing high passes for six months of the year.

Rohtang La

Rohtang means "a pile of dead bodies" in Tibetan and La means "pass". This photo might not do justice to its nomenclature but that is how Rohtang Pass is... totally unpredictable and surprising...

At an height of almost 4000 mts(13000 feet), Rohtang Pass separates the lush green Beas Valley from the barren Chandra Valley. It is one of the two gateways to the Himalayan deserts of Leh-Ladakh and Lahaul-Spiti from Kullu-Manali region. The Pass is closed due to heavy snow for almost 6 months in a year. In summer, when road is cut through snow and the pass is reopened, you travel between many feets high walls of snow on both sides, which is quite an experience.

Rohtang stands true to its notorious name. In Oct 2004, hundreds of people and vehicles were stranded there for a couple of days due to the sudden deterioration of weather and untimely snowfall.

The summit of the pass turns into lush green meadow in summer studded with violets and varieties of wild Himalayan and Alpine flowers. You can also see beautiful horses n sheep grazing on the pastures...

That is Rohtang for you...

dhurjati, savask, bibs69, delkoo, everlasting, quetzal, ramesh_lalwani, rima, sayan, asr, Delfin, HIRAKZ, Rychach has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

simpul (259) 2006-09-08 5:59

Haha, this is quite incredible, we've uploaded pictures about the same thing exactly at the same time :) Congratulations and best regards : ))))

dhurjati (2827) 2006-09-08 6:04

Hi Amol,
Fantastic landscape.Little whitish but this is understandable.I can see some scratches at the sky.....also there are some spots visible in the sky.May be these are post-processing effects but these should be taken care of.The sky has nothing to offer and hence I feel it is overexposed.I would love to see more of the sheeps.I would have been tempted to extend this snap to bottom part to get more of the sheeps.......
Nice take though.
TFS,
Dhurjati

savask (1819) 2006-09-08 6:14

apart from the overexposure the shot is really nice!

haya (829) 2006-09-08 6:24 [Comment]

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bibs69 (3243) 2006-09-08 6:48

Hello Amol,

Beautiful image :) Good composition with the sheeps that lead us to the bottom of the valley.

Best regards, Laurent.

delkoo (34990) 2006-09-08 7:12

hi amol
very nice shot, very depth, this pass seems difficult to cross.
what eat the sheeps ? snow and ice!!!!!

regards

didier

sunilshukla (844) 2006-09-08 11:41

This gives a feeling of being like on top of the world. Yet these sheep surive the snow.
This will be in favs Amol.
Sunil

quetzal (3467) 2006-09-08 14:08

Hi Amol,
Very interesting shot mixing beautiful landscapes and animals. The pass is very impressive and the conditions of this seasonal migration seems hard.
Nice composition and framing
Regards
Jean-Louis

sidd_datta (84) 2006-09-08 15:54

I would not even attempt to count your sheeps Amol. With such a lovely lanscape infront, one cannot waste his time counting sheeps.. great shot ..

ramesh_lalwani (3209) 2006-09-09 2:09

Hi Amol
seeing you after long time.Snow clad mountains and blue sky present lovely scene.TFS
Ramesh

rima (265) 2006-09-11 4:53

welcome back on trekearth :)...thats a great pic and very well composed..
increadible looking mountains and amazing landscape...i think there is some problem with the scanning..the sky has not come all that well ...a polarizer would have done a great job..but overall..good pic

sayan (2609) 2006-09-27 11:46

Yeah. I cant count :) anyway.. this is beautiful. Though think the quality is not so good. May be scanned one?

asr (648) 2006-10-22 0:05

Wow! Wonderful perspective with the sheep leading you into the distant mountains. Very nicely framed.

I never knew you were the trekker types (i.e. the idiot who likes to climb tall mountains and sleep in the jungles just because they exist!) I guess we have a lot in common.

I wish to do a trek to the himalayas sometime next year ... your notes have usefull information in them. Thanks for that!

ramthakur (1501) 2006-10-26 15:12

Hi Amol!
I am visiting TE after a long absence. Being a native of Himachal Pradesh, I am drawn to pictures of my state. I have reached your picture through search for Himachal.
I don't want to nit-pick on the technical aspects of your picture; I only wish to say that it captures the ambience of a Gaddi shepherd's solitary journey across this pass beautifully.
That the herd of sheep are dwarved by the scale of mountains around the pass also catches my attention.
I have enjoyed looking at your picture for which I thank you sincerely.
Ram

Delfin (1501) 2006-11-02 7:59 [Comment]

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HIRAKZ (168) 2006-11-22 0:29

Amol,

Breathtaking photograph. Really Awesome and it saddens me. Why? Cuz this year I was heading towards Chandrataal on my Royal Enfield and the crank broke. With wife along, I hired another at Manali which too broke down before Rohtang and I had to come back.
Thanks for the photograph, next year, Chandrataal it will be. Try, try and try again, as the shepherds do all the time.
HIRAK

mzmehr (917) 2008-11-26 22:13

Hi Amol,

Intresting winter shot in clear fresh mountain air. what food exist for sheeps in this frozen target?( maybe dry stoked plants)
I like dept, Cold colors and composition here

thanks for sharing
mzmher