A Memorable Trek to Mt. Kedarkantha

 

Chapter 1:- The Journey Begins

 

We landed in Delhi. FINALLY. After months of waiting and preparing, weather playing villain till the last minute, flights getting cancelled and the memories of our previously cancelled trek haunting us all the time.  This time we made it.

Like many Himalayan trekkers, the first leg of journey usually brings one to Delhi. One can also fly directly to Dehradun. However, tickets to the national capital from major Indian cities are reasonably priced as compared with Dehradun. We boarded the metro which took us to the city center at Connaught place. After exploring a bit, we chose a south Indian joint to have our most important meal of the day. After having our fill of some Idli with delicious chutneys, we visited the charkha museum, spent some time at Starbucks, grabbed a few burgers for our lunch and again rode the trusted metro to Kashmere Gate. This was the next leg of journey and our boarding point for the bus to Rishikesh. After a 6 hours uneventful travel, A shared open auto ride followed... From Nepali Farms to Tapovan.... Around 40 mins in chilly winds at around 10 pm. On the way met a Solo traveller from Brazil, who like many come to find solace in the land of gods. Reached our hostel dwelling which was teeming with lot of trekkers/backpackers like ourselves. The terrace café served us the last meal and we called it a day.

 

Chapter 2:- Rishikesh

 A glace at weather app in morning told us that its 3 degrees outside. And this was our cue to go out and have a roadside chai with toasted maska-bun. We rented a scooter from our hostel and hurtled towards the next fun activity... India's highest Bungy. The 19km ride in freezing cold was unbearable on the fingers. We were forced to take a detour and buy some gloves before continuing further ahead. The jump was done by wifey and skipped by me for two reasons…One, I had done it before. Two, there was a kink in my neck which I feared might worsen with the shock of the jump. And the last thing I wanted to do was jeopardize our trek due to my health. I watched on a CCTV as Vishva jumped into the abyss held by nothing but an elastic rope tied up at the ankles. The adrenaline rush is incomparable to anything else. We bought some souvenir enamel mugs. (These were immensely useful in trek).

Our next destination was a quaint little cafe overlooking the River Ganges... Sipping a hot cuppa in the cold winds and hearing the river flow was almost meditative. After a long wait, we had a hearty meal of Mushroom-Tomato-Cheese sandwich and amazing lasagne. We then headed straight to the famous Ganga Aarti at Parmarth Niketan Ashram ghat. Watching the Shiva idol seated in padmasana posture and River Ganga flowing in backdrop. A divine calmness in his demeanour was infectious. We were fortunate enough to perform aarti too as the crowd was less. The divine experience ended on a sweet note as we had the famed Gulab-jamuns at the ashram which were highly recommended by wife. We left for Dehradun in public transport bus for a short 1 hr ride. Reached our hostel, took a short walk around the block and settled in for the night.

 

Chapter 3:- Serpentine Roads to Basecamp

The day started early at 5:30 AM... After finishing our daily routine we headed to the pickup point and joined rest of trek mates. Transportation was arranged by the trek group. After a round of introduction and briefing, We headed to Kotgaon via Mussoorie, phulora and few other villages. The road was twisting in a pine forest with 100 ft tall trees as we entered the Govind wildlife sanctuary. Got to have delicious motichur laddus on the way. Reason - Our bus was stopped by some enthusiastic villagers who like most of India were celebrating the consecration of Ram mandir at Ayodhya. We reached base camp at 5pm. And what a beautiful wooden structure it was. The altitude at this point was 6455ft. We had tea, our documentation and medical was done followed by a briefing. We had a hearty meal of paneer mutter and joined forces to repack and segregation of stuff to keep at the base camp. We then retired for the night.

 

Chapter 4:- Snowy Khujjai

This was going to be our first day of the actual trek. For the next 4 days, till the day we return back to the basecamp, there was no mobile network, no electricity, no screen time and no connection with outside world. The trek started from Kotgaon basecamp. There was a very small lane winding up from the village towards a patch of pucca road that eventually led us to the entrance of the forest. 2-3 mountain dogs joined our caravan and were with us for the entire duration of 4 day trek. After walking for a bit, huge oak trees welcome, enchant and intimidate you little, all at the same time. The trek leads shared information on the flora and fauna on the way. How the forest gives us telltale signs of an aging tree just by the color of fungus growing on it. The delicate intertwined eco-system of the microbes, insects, birds, trees, animals and us humans. Got to hold the exoskeleton of a Cicada, observed a fungus as huge as my foot. We kept ascending for about an hour and half to reach a clearing. The first views of the hills on one side and tall pine trees on the other. There was a small stream of fresh cold drinking water which followed us until just before reaching our first basecamp Khujjai at 10,190 ft.

The basecamp was very neat and organized in two distinct areas. One each for ascending and descending groups. Each set had about 10-15 twin sharing tents, one dining tent, one kitchen tent, wash areas & toilet tents. We occupied one such tent and after a quick lunch, we went to explore the camp, roam around, socialize…. basically, anything else other than lying down and taking a nap. Although it may be very tempting to catch a wink, its not advised since it could trigger Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). The next day’s trail was visible from the camp. And honestly it put me in a little bit of self-doubt looking at the ascent and sheer grandeur of the mountain which we had just started to climb. We retired for the day post dinner.

This is where began the struggle with my inner demons of claustrophobia. Sleeping in tents in the negative temperatures comes with lot of challenges. We were given a fleece liner and two sleeping bags each.  We were to tuck ourselves in the liner followed by one sleeping bag over the other. This turned out to be a task. And the moment I went in and zipped up the bags, I felt a strong urge to spread and move my legs. Given the anatomy of sleeping bag, its not possible. I tried to divert my thoughts and did by best…however after a while the claustrophobia got the better of me. I was breathless and despite being tired and cold, I ripped myself out of the bags and the tent and busted out in the open. Without my jacket. After taking a few deep breaths and looking at the open sky, the claustrophobia was put to rest…and I started feeling cold. So I jumped back in the tent. However, I couldn’t muster the courage to get myself in those dreaded sleeping bags, lest it trigger another claustrophobic experience. I tried using them as blanket, tried sleeping with zip open…but nothing protected from the freezing cold.  Eventually I figured that if I can keep my legs moving, I can still sleep in the bag without claustrophobia. That’s when I thought of an ingenious way of putting each leg in a different sleeping bag and zipping up to crotch. Rest of the sleeping bag was kept open and I wrapped them around to cocoon myself. That seemed to work if I would not move much during sleep and expose myself to the cold. This is the way I slept all through the remaining nights.

 

At about 3 or 4 am, we heard some commotion at the campsite and upon waking up, realized that it was snowing. This was a pleasant surprise because although Kedarkantha is known as winter trek, the snowfall in this season was scanty and earlier in the day we were greeted by brown grounds of dried grass around the campsite. Although excited, we were too tired and sleepy to go out and have a look. Someone came to our tent and shook it from outside so as to avoid the tent collapsing under snow’s weight.

 

Chapter 5: Hike to Bhoja Dadhi

At morning, when we stepped out of the tent, it was as if we’ve time travelled through a portal. All the colours of brown grass, olive and yellow tents, green trees were replaced by gleaming white snow. It was a treat to the eyes. We all were discussing the probability of weather sabotaging our summit climb or atleast make it exponentially difficult. However, that was a worry for another day as the summit was still 1 day away.

After finishing our breakfasts, briefing, health check-up and warm-up activities, we started the trek. As per the itinerary, this day we had to trek for around 3.5 hrs covering a distance of 3.5 km and gaining altitude of around 1200 ft. The tall oak and pine trees constantly kept company. Sun was mellow owing to the broken cloud cover. However, it also meant that the snowfall might get more intense as the trek progresses. As a group of comparatively fit trekkers, we were keeping good pace. Couple of trekkers were showing signs of AMS with symptoms like nausea, appetite loss and extreme fatigue. However, they powered through on their strong will power and the able guidance of our trek leads.

After a gradual but steady ascent of about one kilometre, we reached a large clearing. Here we played games, ran around, clicked photographs. All of seemingly unassuming activities, but immensely helpful in acclimatizing our bodies to the high altitudes. We resumed hiking and were cautioned about black ice (Clear slippery ice formed on rocks and grass). This is formed by the combination of afternoon sun, last night’s snowfall and lower temperatures leading to the snow melting and then re-freezing to form the clear ice. Setting a foot on this is a surefire way to come down crashing and probably injure oneself. Hence extra caution is required to navigate through such patches. We trekked ahead and crossed a section with huge boulders followed by crossing a stream. An ascent of another 1 km from here brought us to the next campsite – Bhoja Dadhi. We had reached around 1:30 pm and hence headed straight for Lunch. But not before we admired the clear summit view – An intimidating huge wall of snow above which the peak adorned itself like a crown jewel. It again brought back the feelings of self-doubt on how will I manage to climb this and complete the summit.

Rest of the day was quiet routine where we had our meals, played cricket, roamed around, and soaked in the beauty of nature with all 5 senses. We were given an extensive briefing on the Summit day challenges and how to overcome them. We were taught the use of snow-spikes, when to wear them and how to walk cautiously so as to have a good grip in snow but at the same time not fall off by stepping on rocks. We retired for the night in our respective tents as tomorrow is going to be a long day.

Chapter 6:- The Summit Push

Our wake up call was at 3:30 am. We had to energize ourselves for a 2-3 hrs of steep ascent from here gaining 2000 ft of altitude. And descent from summit was a 8-9 km long journey where we had to trace our route all the way down to Khujjai. We carried our backpacks to the dining tent and had a quick breakfast of hot porridge. Then the essentials (torch, Dried fruits, water etc) were shifted in a smaller bag (Daypack). Leaving our rest of luggage in the tent, we started the ascent under a full-moon and starlit sky. The moonlight reflecting on the snow that was all around us. Though still dark, this light combined with our torches was enough to help us navigate the steep ascent.

The snow-spikes which I mentioned earlier were quiet useful in wading through ankle deep snow. However, the same spikes when worn, put a crushing pressure on my forefeet. So much so that the combined effect of the constricted blood flow due to pressure and -11 degrees cold made my toes completely numb. This numbness accompanied me until after 1 month of trek completion.  

We continued the ascent and reached a ridge. Here, all the trek routes converged and moved towards summit. This meant that the other trek groups who had taken different routes were also keeping us company. It was unusual because during last 3 days, the only human contact we had was with our group. (This route is used exclusively by the trek company that we had hired). I had to summon all my physical, mental, emotional and psychological capacities for the final summit push. The temperature kept dropping and strong winds only exacerbated the chill factor. I reached the summit just a couple of minutes after sunrise and therefore missed to witness the glory. However, the sun was still just slightly above the horizon. The hues of morning sky served as perfect backdrop to the snow-white peaks all around. We saw a tiny shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva, prayed there and went back to admiring the vastness of nature. The trek guides showed us peaks like chaukhambha, Mr. Swargarohini, Mr. Bandarpooch and Mt. Kalanag in distance. Once we all had a bit of rest and clicked our hearts out, we headed back down. Some people preferred to slide down the snow while others walked.

We continued walking and the descent was equally steep as the ascent. However, while you prayed during ascent that your lungs don’t blow out, the primary worry during the descent is to ensure your knees don’t pop-out. That’s the kind of weight it feels on the fatigued knees. Trekking poles do help to take some of that weight away though. A few breaks on the way helped to recover, we stopped at Bhoja-dadhi campsite for lunch and continued to Khujjai losing an altitude of around 3500 feet and traversing a total distance of 9 km. On the way our trek lead whipped out some postcards and asked us to write it to ourselves on what we were feeling in that moment. These would be posted by him later and would reach us days after we are back to homes and deep in our routine lives. Serving as a sweet reminder of the awesome experience.

Today’s long day was enough to send us crashing to our sleeps after a hearty dinner and an immense satisfaction of having completed the summit successful without any eventualities.

 

Chapter 7: - Withdrawal Symptoms

By this day you start getting that feeling of not wanting to go back and staying in the mountains forever. The clean air, pristine nature, calmness has grown so much on you that the city life seems less and less worth the toil. While today’s descent of around 3000 ft and around 5km doesn’t present any physical challenges, the mental and emotional challenges needs to be overcome. Knowing that with each step you’re leaving behind these views of giant trees, mountains, boulders and meadows. We reached the basecamp a little early than expected. This meant that we had time to explore the kotgaon village. And that we did….looking at the village temple, watching kids play cricket, occasionally pestering us to share a biscuit of chocolate and looking cute in their sweaters and cherry red cheeks. We circled around hearing more stories from our amazing trek leads. We could sense that although its routine for them, they still felt that little bit of depression on the thoughts of leaving these mountains and heading back to the cities.

We went back to our basecamp, had a nice warm dinner followed by debriefing. As we sat around in that room, everybody was overwhelmed with emotions but lacked words to express themselves. We went around the room and each one slowly opened up about their experience and what this trek did to them. All were presented with some souvenirs and dispersed towards a last good night’s sleep in the mountains.

 

Chapter 8:- Back to Pavilion

The transport vehicles were arranged to take us back to Dehradun. Journey started at 6:00 am and after halting for breakfast, we headed straight to Dehradun to the point where we all were picked from around 4 days ago. We reached our hotel, ordered lunch and while waiting for it, had a long hot relaxing shower after 5 days. After having lunch and resting for afternoon, few of the trek mates decided to meet for dinner and savour the local delicacies along with last few moments together before departing without knowing when we’d meet again. After dinner, on our way back we picked up some sweets, had a good sleep and headed to airport next morning for our flight to Pune. This officially marked the end of journey and the experience. I had lot of pride in my heart on having competed our first trek together as a couple. But also an equally huge amount of gratitude for my life-partner Vishva. She motivated me throughout the trek. Be it my struggles with claustrophobia, the tiredness on long days of trek or the much needed support during the summit push. It was a breeze doing it with her. Not a dull moment in the entire journey. Hope to do it again and keep doing it for as long as possible.