Gauchar, Uttarakhand: Almost a decade ago, Suneet Sohal, then a Major in the Army, was flying me on a tiny Cheetah helicopter from Partapur, a Brigade Headquarters in North Ladakh, to the Army's Siachen base camp, the hub of all operations along the Siachen glacier. We were flying low over a valley above the Nubra river alongside the mighty Saltoro range dominated by soldiers of the Indian Army.
Everything was fine. The weather seemed clear and we would reach our destination in minutes. Then, all hell broke loose.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, we flew into a snow storm and the good visibility we had was reduced to zero visibility in a matter of seconds. This was a complete white-out, nothing at all could be seen, not even the skids of the helicopter just a few feet to my side. There was no perception of depth whatsoever. Beneath us, there was a river. On the sides, there were vertical cliff faces and no one had a precise idea of just how close we were to their jagged edges. We were flying blind.
Cool as a cucumber, Suneet brought his Cheetah to a hover. And waited. "We are just a few hundred metres from the base camp. I'm looking for an opening in the weather," he told me. But there was none to be found.
We couldn't hover at one spot indefinitely. Fuel was running low. Suneet took a decision. Abort the mission. Fly back.
I learnt a lesson that day. When pilots tell you that weather changes in the high Himalaya in moments, they're deadly serious.
04/07/13 Vishnu Som/NDTV.com
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