Folks, this winter i went to Abbottabad with family/ little kids and never actually had a plan to venture any major snow terrain; however, just to have a slight taste of snow we made a plan to go to Nathigali from Abbottabad on 6th Feb 2014. It is worth mentioning that it was raining in Abbottabad for the last 12 hours so we had this apprehension that we may come across live snowfall too in addition to snow embankments on both sides of road. However, despite being ill equipped for the snow travel we left and trust me what we came across was never anticipated and the extent of which words alone can never explain. One more thing you need to bear in mind is the gradient of Nathigali from Abbottabad is very steep as compared from Murree, going up and getting down in snow can be a major scare. The snaps taken at the occassion are entailed as an eye opener so you must never understimate the nature:
The one below is the stage where the 4x4 simply was not able to go on "unchained". 4x4 was simply able to hold the vehicle at the gradient and once acceleration was applied, the vehicle was simply swinging sideways.
This is another view of the spot where we were stuck at such gradient that even turning back was not the option as it could have just helped in slipping. But out of nowhere we were lucky to find a guy who was doing the rent-a-chain business, ofcourse he had small chains for cars, but he doubled them and we were able to chain our two tyres diagonally. And from there on we moved and moved till we found a level ground to take a u-turn, which was in Nathiagali.
Checking the chains integrity as you can see the intensity of snow is on the rise.
Finally our level ground and the snowfall was turning into a blizzard.
Snow at its best!!!!!
This double cabin tripped in front of our eyes even with the chains on. However, fortunately it hit the snow embankment and stopped with no major loss.
Helping the people by simply letting them pass on clear track...
Finally landed on earth....and trust me the vehicle covered with snow explains all as to what we went through. though we enjoyed at the end of the day but trust me you must be careful while venturing any terrain thought to be easy as the nature can prove you wrong at any given instance.
Happy viewing. Thank you.