Sikkim Stories: Zero Point

First Snowfall of our lives,,,

Zero point/ Yumesamdong is further 1.5 hours ride from the Yumthang Valley. Zero point- as the names suggests, is the place where the road ends-is the last outpost of civilization and there is no road after this. It is situated at an altitude of 15,300 ft. The place very close to the Indo Chinese border & hence special permit is required in advance to visit this place. Again your tour guide will help you with the same.Zero Point is also the place where three rivers meet with snow-clad mountains in the vicinity offering some thrilling views.

The ride between Yumthang valley & zero point is just 25 kms but still takes more than an hour due to the difficult terrain & unpredictable weather.Due to the high altitude of Zero Point, oxygen in the air is low and there can be breathing problems for few. There is hardly any vegetation in Zero point as it remains snow covered for the most of the year but still, you can see yaks grazing in the snow in search of vegetation.

On the way we stopped for breakfast where everyone kept telling us that we might just get lucky & witness the first snowfall of the season as it had been drizzling since last night. Witnessing a snowfall was a dream & God was kind enough to make it a reality. Yes, we all saw the first snowfall of our lives at zero point! (I can still feel dramatic music playing when I say that). First snowfall is always special, it is exciting, blissful, satisfying, words will fail to describe how it felt to see the fresh soft snow fall from the sky.

After experiencing the white fairly land we started our journey to Gangtok& were back to hotel by 7:30 p.m.