From 15 ft to 12,500 ft (and Back)- Part 1/2

“Better to be in the mountains thinking about God, than to be in church thinking about the mountains” said Ace Kvale, one of the world’s top adventure photographers. This would make absolutely no sense to my wife Maithili, since she’d merrily pose outside a church as she did on a mountain cliff. But for me, trekking the mountains of Uttarakhand was a long-thought dream, I was nurturing past 3 years. I booked the Kedarkantha Trek with Indiahikes (IH) for both of us, as soon as I got a go-ahead from Maithili.

Upon registration, Anuja- a ground coordinator was assigned to prepare us for the upcoming trek. She created a chat group of all the participants of our 17^th – 22^nd March (2017) batch. In the chat group, everybody introduced themselves, indeed a good ice-breaker initiative by IH. We were asked to upload day-to-day exercise results on Google Drive and this marked the beginning of activating the dormant muscles which we never knew could pull off this feat. It took some real efforts to get my clinophile wife regular on the jogging track. Every morning she’d be ready with some novel excuse and I’d have to drag her out, the way actor Aamir Khan does with his two daughters in the movie Dangal. We were recommended to buy (a plethora of) trekking gears well in advance. IH also provided the option of buying from them. I had never thought I’d use a heavy literature word like ‘flabbergasted’, but that was actually the feeling when we stepped in the Decathlon store in Thane. It was huge and massive. You could ride a bike in there and setup your own camp. Everything was so neatly arranged with a great level of detail. We took longer time to explore the store than to buy stuff for which we had actually come for.

Day 0: Mumbai – Dehradun

I had to board my flight from Mumbai airport directly after office. Being a habitual tidsoptimist proved costly as I could manage to reach the airport barely 35mins before departure. A charming front-desk lady skillfully charged us Rs. 2000 extra by forwarding our luggage under express check-in with an undertaking that there’s still no guarantee of it being loaded into our current flight. (Thankfully our luggage was connected timely).

**Fully Loaded! At Aerocity Metro Station**

From Delhi airport’s T1-C airport we took a shuttle bus towards Aerocity Metro station (which is adjoining to T3 airport) and then a metro towards New Delhi Railway Station to board Nanda-Devi Express towards Dehradun. We met a few of our trek-mates there, raising the already sky-rocketing excitement levels past the troposphere.

Day 1: Dehradun – Sankri

IH had arranged transportation for the 10 hour long journey from Dehradun to Sankri- our base village for the trek. Enroute we halted for breakfast at Kempty falls, Mussouri and then for lunch at a nice hill view restaurant in Purola, where few of us were amongst the lucky ones to taste the nutritious pahaadi (mountain) red rice with delicious rajma curry.

**Greenery All Over! No Concrete Jungle**

Even though the bus journey made the lunch dance topsy turvy in our tummy, the alluring and enticing views outside completely made up for it. We passed through numerous villages, some small some big. The pastel colored houses seemed an artist’s rendition on a canvas. The vast green pasture stretching beyond the horizon was a view to behold.

**Houses like these in the midst of nature!**

A young lad Karthik connected his Iphone to the bus’s stereo and melodious songs of 90s & Pop hits of early 2000s immediately caught our attention reminding us of our teenage days. He innocently expressed his affection for the Afreen-Afreen singer Momina Mustehsan, to which Arun, one of the many eligible bachelors of our batch, readily affirmed to. The bus journey helped bond us together on many common platforms. Our driver Yasiin drove adroitly on the narrow curvy road. Every other driver from the vehicles passing in the opposite direction would wave at him and we’d think is the world really so small over here or is he really famous for something. While that query never got resolved, but we enjoyed seeing the amicability between those people. The river Tons accompanied us for most part of our journey after Purola. Tons is a tributary of the Yamuna. It was born from the confluence of two rivers – the Supin, which arose from a glacier near the Har-ki-dun valley in Garhwal and the Rupin, traced to a glacier in the environs of the Rupin Pass on the border of Uttarakhand and Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh.

**The First Of The Many IH Banners: Sankri- 6397 Ft**

Our arrangement for the night was made at Hotel Swargarohini Palace, Sankri. On arrival, rooms were allotted to us and later we assembled in the common hall. The group was an enthusiastic mélange of all age groups & professions who got along very well once they met. Our trek leader & guides were introduced to us- Dashod, Santosh & Roopmohan. We were briefed about various aspects of high altitude trekking and while listening to all the information, I could recollect a line from the movie Everest– “The last word always belongs to the mountain”, which I shared with Maithili and she instantly stared back at me angrily insinuating not to scare her before the trek had even started. Later our fitness checks were done which included pulse rate measure, oxymeter reading and blood pressure, which’d become a daily activity for the next 4 days. That evening was full of energy. For most of us, everything was first of its kind; from trekking in the Himalayas to sharing the trek with new unknown faces. The timeline for the next day was 6.30-7-8 (Tea at 6.30am, breakfast at 7 and trek at 8).

Day 2: Sankri – Juda Ka Talab (JKT)

We woke up to one of the most beautiful mornings; staring through the wooden window panes we got the first glimpse of snow-clad mountains. After having a healthy breakfast, we offloaded our heavy backpacks with the organizers, gathered our trekking paraphernalia, clicked a mandatory group photo and embarked on this venture, full of zeal and enthusiasm. Radhika, a green-trail intern with IH, handed us an Eco-bag each, to collect garbage on our tracks, a solicitous initiative by IH. After all, the onus lies with us to maintain the environment either as an alpine beauty or a mountain misery. Within few minutes we had lost sight of our base village and were hiking through stretches lined with Fir, Pine and Spruce trees and stunning Rhododendrons. Small patches of snow were slowly starting to appear and for many of us who had never seen snow, it was a paisa-vasool moment at that very instant.

The trek was steep at some points. It is common to get struck with vertigo when you have no experience in high altitude trekking and I got that quite a few times on this day of the trek.

But then combine the soothing surroundings with the relaxing temperatures and your mind easily surrenders to the blissful disorientation. After covering close to 2kms, we could whiff the aroma of delectable masala noodles. Right in the midst of nowhere we spotted 2 wooden huts selling a variety of cliché mountain snacks- boiled eggs, omelette, tea and noodles. That was another offbeat Maggi moment for Maithili, previous one being at Matheran. We had Saga noodles, a local substitute of Maggi. Masala noodles had never tasted so delicious and scrumptious!

**Anywhere! Everywhere! Maggi Maggi Maggi**

More than anything else, we were curious how soon we’d be reaching our 1^st camp site. Whenever anybody enquired about the distance left, Dashod would instantaneously respond- “bass 15 mins” (only 15 mins more). That went on for another 2 hours! “Guys, the camp site has arrived”, shouted someone excitedly after seeing the IH banner. The message was passed-on at light speed and the pace of everybody lagging behind soared. The JKT camp site was awe-inspiring. Orange colored Hillman Expedition Tents lined up the snow covered terrain overlooking the beautiful semi-frozen Juda-Ka-Talab Lake.

The legend has it that Lord Shiva opened a little of his hair and water flowed out to form this small pond. Our accommodation was arranged with three people per tent. After having our first high altitude lunch, we had time for leisure. Most of us went by the lake to play with snow. I retired for a quick nap in my tent which proved to be a wrong call as I was then unable to sleep at night before 9pm. After a round of hot cup of tea, Dashod demonstrated how to use a sleeping bag. As easy as it seemed to be at that time, it proved to be quite opposite of that the next morning when I had to squeeze and shove it back in its cover.

In snow when temperature dips to sub-zero numbers, one should sleep before that, else body starts shivering and then onwards it could get worse. Luckily, I managed the night with just a mild headache. As all three of us; Aniruddha, Suhas & I were new to this ultra-comfortable arrangement of 3 in a tent, inside the fluffy sleeping bags, we could barely even get a nap. The threshold time had passed and none of us could sleep. We hung the torch and chatted for sometime, already making plans for our next trek. Suhas heard some funny sounds from a nearby tent and found out in morning that the tent belonged to Dharmesh and Vivek, which gave rise to a new Bromance saga.

To Read About the Next 4 Days Of My Trek Experience, Click On The Following Link

Continue reading Part 2/2 here