To all the adventures with Tripoto Mindful Retreats, How exciting SKI-ing in Manali turns out to be?

In the search to get a rush of Adrenaline junk, adventure sports and crisp snow-covered landscapes over mountains is what I was looking for. And, with the best of my research, Tripoto in the Mid Feb was organizing a Mindful retreat which involved learning skiing and a stay at one of the best offbeat homestays. I was thrilled with what Manali has for the overexcited amateur traveler kid.

So, let's virtually travel Manali and the perfectly excited Solang Valley and hear the story of skiing downfalls.

Day 1 - Reaching Manali

From Delhi to Manali, as we were about to reach Manali, I sneaked through the windows in the bus to get the best possible sight of the snow-crisped mountains. And with all my heart, I prayed to almighty God for the snow to not disturb the skiing learnings.

As soon as we reached a homestay, the balcony view was perfect. That Chai ki chuski on a cold Manali morning is a feeling we all have for the ideal vacation.

While we enjoyed the Jogini Waterfall trek in the evening and was scary as it was snowing and the landscapes were quite slippery, I almost was about to fall twice off the cliffs. With all the over-enthusiasm on the Jogini trek, the group was tired of waking up the following day.

Day 2 - Get Set Ready for Skiing lessons

Morning 8 am, an uncle with a van, skiing skates, and shoes were waiting and honking outside the destination for us to get in the cab. That Driver was our go-to buddy for everything we wanted to know about Skiing, Manali, and the culture.

He took us to the small shop where we were to choose the skiing costumes. Well, since it was the First Day of skiing, not giving importance to the ensemble, the group made sure that we were comfortable, got in our costumes within just a few minutes, and were ready to travel to Solang valley.

It was a 20 min ride every day from there. When we put on the skiing shoes for the first time, I remember that the legs felt like a whole load of kgs and weren't comfortable walking with the shoes.

The trainer made sure that we were comfortable enough to walk. Practicing walking with shoes and using the skiing sticks, we all were ready with the boots in the skiing skates and the ski poles to protect us from falls.

In a group of 6, a friend began and fell within a few meters. Again another teammate was confident and better, but hit the snow terribly. Well, it was my turn, and not to my surprise, I just fell with my head directly on the snow and leg above the sky. It was funny, but this motivated me to begin, and I did get up. Getting up with the skiing skates on was a different battle. With the crispy melted snow in the February spring sunshine, we all tried and tried, and this feeling will deserve to remain special when it was the first time that we all completed even 100 meters without any downfall.

With this achievement, we all were blooming with joy, and to the trainer's surprise, we all were getting better and better hour by hour. We performed this activity twice for a couple of hours with many funny moments.

The shoes for skiing are too skin-tight, and getting off those boots was a task of 15 min in itself.

Informed strictly by the trainer, we should be at the valley before 9 am the following day and carry our skiing skates and shoes.

Day 3 - Ready to rock the Ski sessions

At precisely 8.00 am, with the rush hour, the Cab vale bhaiya was honking continuously for us to make sure we were not late for the skiing sessions.

As it was our second day, we were damn excited for the costumes and to get captured as we had the essential insights of skiing and were confident enough to take that ride from a bit higher slope.

And selecting the costume every day, with different colors, was such a wonderful memory. Well, with that day in red skiing costume, heading towards the valley, capturing the scenic views and bridge across the journey, we reached Solang. Carrying the skiing shoes, we were ready for the new lessons, prepared to experience falling down the slope from the height.

To our surprise, the downfall number decreased, and we all were putting our best efforts to excel. We wanted to make sure we made all of it and will next time be here for the entire skiing course for 15-20 days—those kids from the government school were smooth as jelly sliding on the snow. Kids on snowboards and skiing skates with minimal support took goosebumps off our hearts and motivated us.

Day 4 -The Ski Competition and Nostalgia

On the third day, we had a competition to be smooth enough and cover the maximum distance without experiencing a downfall. As it was the last day of ski sessions, we were over-excited and feeling nostalgic about selecting costumes, being with that super comfy cab driver and the trainer, Bhagat Singh, we learned and practiced a lot.

After excelling in the practice, all 6 of us failed terribly at the competition. The way we slipped off the snow felt like we all were using our bumps for breaks over the snow slides. We exchanged a lot of videos, and pictures, fell terrible from higher slopes, and with all the information about Bhagat Singh ram and his team, we weren't ready to bid goodbye to this.

Last day, we had snow sledding. We enjoyed ourselves from 8 in the morning to 5 in the evening, played with the snow, and created a chapter in our lives that we will always cherish for the experiences we lived and the people we met.

This vacation was one hell of a journey where we were out of the comfort zone for learning a sport that was never going to be helpful in our corporates, but the spark in the eyes of all 6 of us was ready to fall 100 times and end up the lesson till 4 in the evening.

To all the readers, Make sure that once in a lifetime, you experience one hell of an adventure sport, skiing, and this feeling does not remain alien to you anymore.

You can find the details of the Homestay here.

If you, like me, are looking forward to meaningful travel in a more mindful and immersive way, then do check out Tripoto's Mindful Retreats.

Have a similar experience to share? Mention it in the comments below or write about it here on Tripoto and earn Tripoto credits to travel for free!