Bhubaneswar: A city-based cycling group, Bhubaneswar Cycling and Adventure Club (BCAC), has successfully completed its Himalayan trip, ascending an elevation of more than 18,000 ft on the mighty snow-capped mountains.
The 13-member group embarked on their 11-day-long expedition August 2 and rode through Marrhi, Sissu, Jispa, Zhing-Zhing Bar, Sarchu, Pang, Debring, Rumtse before ending the trip at the top of Khardung La, returned to the city Monday.
The cyclists, on their mountain bikes, pedalled under scorching heat, shivering cold, sandstorm and spine-chilling hailstorm, gravel and almost non-existent roads, glaciers to complete 550 km in 10 days.
The participants covered six high-altitude passes namely, Rohtang Pass (13,050ft), Barlacha La pass (16,150ft), Nakee La Pass (15,547ft), Lachung La Pass (16,616ft), Tanglang La Pass (17,582ft), and Khardung La Pass (17,982ft). Apart from these passes, the cyclists also covered different glacier-driven water bodies (Nalas) namely, Raani Naala, Whiskey Naala, Brandy Naala and Deepak Taal and Suraj Taal lakes.
Sharing his experience, ex-IPS and president of BCAC-cum-team leader Sanjeeb Panda said, “The Manali-Leh-Khardung La route is considered to be one of the most challenging terrains, the Leh-Manali Highway is also one of the highest motorable roads in the world. It is full of uphill and downhill hairpins, sometimes on tarmac but often on gravel roads.” He added that though the conditions were “the harshest with sometimes minimal oxygen available” still it was worth the effort.
Sanjeeb Panda, Lalit Das, Ajay Nanda, Gopal Krushna Sahu, Abhimanyu Sahu, Srinivas Sahu, Sibasis Mohanty, Sudhanwa Das, Sipra Hota, Bibhu Prasad Kar, Jay Narayan Pujapanda, Manoj Kumar Prusty and Santosh Kumar Rout were the other group members who participated in this cycling adventure.
It may be worth mentioning here that in 2015, six riders of BCAC pedalled 1,102 km from Bhubaneswar to Bhutan. The following year, seven cyclists of the group rode 2,002 km from Vietnam to Cambodia and in 2017, eight members cycled from Cuttack to Kathmandu in Nepal.