Smitten by the mountains, the weather behaves like a jealous beloved. Rain, snow, storm, thunder, landslide, avalanche – you name it – the weather uses all at its disposal to thwart any attempt at getting any closer to the mountains. It doesn’t want anyone to come near the white chadar hiding its beloved. While the romantic mountains enchant and hypnotize, the frigid weather dissuades, warns and even threatens to keep one away. Precisely that’s what happened with us this time between Mana (via Ghastoli & Deotaal) and Niti Passes (via Tapovan, Reni, Lata & Malari) on the Indo-Tibetan borders. Five days of incessant rain, lost trails, a near white-out and an absolute No from the ITBP deprived us of some of the finest trails and views in this part of the world. However, we did explore some other valleys in lower Himal and some touristy locations. The saving grace was the bewitching full moon – Sharad Poornima – and the chandni-soaked kheer. (picture: the mountain range extending beyond Mana village towards Satopanth and Swargarohini peaks)