Flashbacks: Hailstorm in India

Lately there haven't been many things happening that I've felt inspired to blog about. So today I've decided to share the story behind this photo, which is one of my very favorites.

It was taken towards the beginning of a 30-day backpacking trip in India (I've posted about this trip before here and here). This is the view that followed an intense rain and hail storm.

The storm took us by surprise. The sky had given us minimal warning of what it was to come. Luckily the last of the group had just joined everyone on lower ground near where we planned to set up camp for the night, but the weather did not hold out long enough to put up our tents, or any other sort of shelter.

The rain cam down hard, quickly joined by large pieces of hail. We huddled together under the minimal protection provided by the trees. We had to take turns helping to protect our packs long enough to get out more layers to avoid hypothermia. Many of us were shivering. The ground was muddy and slippery. As someone who has never been very good at dealing with the cold, I was feeling fairly panicked.

When the rain finally showed the first signs of letting up, we jumped at the chance to get our tents set up. We could only do one at a time, with some of us holding the rain flies above others setting up the tent so they would stay dry. As the rain continued to slow, we focused on warming up, some huddled inside sleeping bags, others running laps around the camp.

And when the rain finally stopped, this is the view that greeted us.

The experience which had started of as scary and very stressful became one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen.