Air pollution is intrinsically linked with meteorological parameters and this linkage further strengthens over complex mountainous terrain, an attempt to understand this association over a mountain ridge in the central Himalayas through measurements of aerosol vertical distribution, surface layer characteristics and local boundary layer (LBL) evolution is being made. This study presents ground based measurements taken at ARIES, Nainital (Manora Peak, 79.5oE, 29.4oN and 1958 m AMSL) over a period of October 2011 to February 2014. Intermittent LiDAR observations were made during March 2012 to May 2013 out of which 57 suitable cases have been subjected to analysis. A comparison of ground based LiDAR observations with the CALIPSO satellite derived aerosol backscatter profiles has been carried out for 37 suitable cases. The mean percent bias for different seasons are found to be +18±42%, +22±28%, +32±36% and +18±51% for MAMJ-2012, SON-2012, DJF-2012-13 and MAM-2013 respectively. Surface layer characteristics have been studied during spring (2013) and winter (2013-14) season, utilizing the 3-D wind components and virtual temperature observed with sonic anemometers (sampling at 25 Hz) mounted at 12-m and 27-m height on a meteorological tower. A new criterion of SNR > 6 dB for the LBL characterization has been implemented; the resulting estimations are found to be in agreement with radiosonde measurements over the site. The daytime average observed LBL height ranges from 440±197 m in November (late autumn) to 766±317 m in March (early spring). The observations revealed a pronounced impact of mountain-topography on the LBL dynamics during March, when strong winds (> 5.6 m s-1) lead to LBL height of 650 m during nighttime. The RWP measurements of LBL are further utilized to evaluate biases in model simulated boundary layer and the implications of these biases in context with trace species model simulations.