Winter is here!!!

View from Kedarkantha

That night, I had a restless sleep. I was tossing and turning inside those compact sleeping bags. Outside the tent, the temperature was probably between -15 to -10. I finally got up and made my way out of the sleeping bag when Ghost, the dog started barking .I lighted the headlamp which was hanging at the top of the tent. I piled up some three rucksacks together and rested myself leaning back on it and trying to get little more sleep.

As I closed my eyes, I was remembering our first moments of this trek in Sankri. Sankri is a small hamlet in northern Uttarakand. We reached Sankri on Dec 27th around 5 PM. Weather was very cold and windy. Temperature was around 8 to 10 degrees. We were welcome by Rohan, our trek leader from Renok Adventures. He took us to our first campsite in that small village. The campsite was located in a beautiful location surrounded by never ending mountain ranges, farmlands, small streams and it also gave us the view of Swarga Rohini, one of the high altitude peaks in Uttarakand. We went around the camp site for a while and then settled for camp fire. Soon we had more people joining us in the camp fire. There were 24 of us by the time we started dinner and we had our introduction session over the dinner. As the darkness grew, it was getting much colder and we were reminding ourselves that it was just the beginning of the winter that was ahead.

Sankri camp site

Next day morning when we got up, people were already doing warm ups. Sankri looked too lively with men and women both starting to work, and the Sankri Kids playing around. They were even trying to talk with us in their own local language and passing comments about us and giggling among themselves. Soon we got ready and then we were introduced to Kamaji who is our other trek leader and also to Raju Bhai and other support staff. We started the Day 1 trek around 9 30 AM. Initial climb was quite steep but on a proper trail. After two hours of climbing, we started to see the first patches of snow. Many of us were already tired and exhausted because of the steep climb and the altitude gain. We were all running for the ORS sachets at one stage. As we climbed further up, we started trekking between snow covered woods. Finally after 6 hours of climbing through the woods with pine and dried apple trees, we were able to see a plain surface fully covered with snow and amidst the snow was our next camp site. We walked fast towards the campsite, dropped our bags and rushed for tea. We were having tea and biscuits and looking at the snow covered woods around us. And then we notice a golden furry dog running down to the campsite through the woods in a completely different trail. Being a person who is dead scared of dogs, I initially was taking back steps whenever that dog came close. But slowly I realized how adorable the dog was. Later that day we named it “Ghost”.

After lunch, we spent the whole evening playing games which included some kindergarten games too. Some of us were making some confessions which made us all laugh. All of these we were able to do in that weather just because of the campfire that our group made. And that made the difference between the other trekking organizations and Renok. As the whole area was covered with snow, it was really difficult to find wood. We had to either climb up or down to get some wood to get the fire running all day and night. So our leader suggested us to form a human chain passing the wood all the way up to the campsite. And that way we got the camp fire running till the next morning.Finally we all retired to sleep around 11 PM. The temperature was around -5 to -7 degrees that time. Thanks to the campfire and the quality sleeping bags and at last the tents.

Next day morning when I got up, I was able to hear people already involved in early morning conversations. Two of my friends from my tent were already out. And I knew the temperature must be really cold already. So added up one more layer and decided to move out and that’s when I realized that there was already a group waiting near the tent. As soon as I got out, 8 of them were there and some of them were throwing snow at me and few really tried to put the snow inside my jacket. And they were shouting “Happy birthday”. Yes, I had just turned 26 that day and It was good to be there with eight of my friends from different phases of my life. Some of them were from school, some from my first work place and one from my college days.

Later that morning we had tea, breakfast and some medical checkup followed by warm up sessions. Soon we started the trek. The first one hour climb was extremely slippery and steep. For major part of that stretch, I was not at all confident on just the two legs that we were all manufactured with. It was extremely slippery at most places because of the icy path. It was like, if one of us had fallen, it would have resulted in a cascading effect. Our trek leaders and the support staff did an amazing job in helping us all do it. After almost an hour's climb, we reached Juda-ka-talab a small lake on the way to the next camp site. The lake was completely frozen and covered by snow filled woods. We sat there resting for a while and admiring it for some time and then we continued our climb which was even more tedious. The whole path was very narrow that we all had to move in a line, one after the other. Sometimes we had these mules with huge load crossing us and hiking up in full speed to overtake us and we had to push and crush ourselves towards the hill side holding on to something.

On the way to talab

Juda-ka-talab

Finally after 3 hours of struggle, we saw a huge campsite with India hikes, YHAI and everybody else. Renok had their tents in the best spot on a corner of that hill top from where you can see many hill ranges of the Himalayas and also the majestic Kedarkantha peak which looked very close from its base camp. This campsite was situated at 11000+ feet and the temperature was hitting 0 in the late afternoon only. This campsite was the real test for our tolerance to the Himalayan winters. After grabbing some rest, we went around the campsite taking pictures and collecting wood for the next two days and we met some friends who had come through India hikes.

Kedarkantha basecamp

We spent most part of the evening and night around the campfire and the kitchen:-P Team Renok was providing us yummy pakodas, soups and finally the dinner. This night they asked us to sleep early as we had to start trekking early in the morning around 4 AM. So we retired to sleep around 10 PM but then there I was sitting back against those rucksacks trying different ways to sleep. As nothing could help and as the Ghost kept barking, I decided to walk out of the tent. The time was around 3 AM and I came out to witness the most spectacular view of this whole trek and even my whole life till then. Sky was fully lit with Stars and the Moon. It was a perfect twilight. And the headlamp seemed useless. The snow was glowing because of the twilight and the Kedarkantha peak was still visible even at that time of the night. There was very less noise and it was just the sound of the night and those of the mountains and of course the sound of Ghost too:-D

Finally everybody was up and ready by 4 AM. We all had some parathas and oats. And we started to hike again and in dark this time. For the summit climb, we all got our crampons as it was expected to be extremely slippery. We were walking in a line. I was at the end of the line walking slowly accompanied by Aman and Ganesh who actually helped me summit the peak despite the back pain that I had acquired over the past few days. Sometimes they even made me forget the manufacturing defect and fact that we all have only two legs ;-)

Summit climb 

The summit trek was really tiring and it was damn cold as well. Many of us had our first snow fall as well on the way to the peak. The wind was strong and cold and it was pushing us. Whenever there was heavy wind, we had to hold on to our trekking poles firmly. After hours of climbing, the peak started to appear closer. The closer we moved, it looked as though the peak kept moving away. At one point, I was not sure whether I would be able to make it up and even the guide asked me that directly. But there were a lot of positive vibe from the people around. People were encouraging each other. There were guys who could have done it with ease and much faster but waiting for others to help them do it. A guy who was walking all alone, taking rest once in a while and then start hiking again like a mad man. There was this adorable couple helping each other and also others throughout the journey. A guy stuck with mountain sickness still wanting to do it. There was a whole group hiking without the crampons on the shoes. And there was a guy from the previous day who was actually a porter carrying around 45 Kg on his back and still running up and down the hill helping people to climb. This whole trek had many flavors. May be all these motivated every one of us made our way to the peak to witness the spectacular views of the never ending Himalayan ranges of the Himachal and Uttarakand.

View from kedarkantha

After summiting Kedarkantha

We spent some quality time in the peak and then started descending to the base camp. The downhill was quite easy and fun. We had good fun sliding in the snow. Wherever we found an opportunity, we tried sliding down and finally after we lost all our energy we reached back to our tents and rushed for food .We spent this evening inside the tents only. It was the coldest day of the trip. Even holding the plate for dinner was extremely difficult. But we all somehow managed to get a decent sleep because of the tiring trek we had that day.

Next day, we had to go downhill all the way up to Sankri in a single stretch. But in a different route through Hargaon. Half of the downhill trek was tricky due to the icy trails. But we all reached back safely and it was a happy ending that all of us from our group completed the trek. Soon people started leaving after sharing good byes and sharing the hope that we may meet each other in some trek some day.