kamal in Uttaranchal himalayas

Day three ( 1 Oct. ) and Day 4 : Sobla to Sela and Sela to Dugtu

2006-12-18T22:14:00.000+05:30

We got up at early morning at 6 to move to Sela.
Nothing goes as per original plan in hills ;) . As agreed yesterday, my guide Arjun did not report to me at 6.00 and finaly I had to get hold of him by barginb ginto his house. to my surpise, he had reported sick and was doubtful of coming with me.
What a gr888 day to start the trek !!!
Now, we thought of selecting other people around, but there were none to be found in such short time. After many rounds of discussions, I finally agreed to pursuade him to accompany me.
Hence, we had a quick breakfast of maggie and set forth for the loong trek to Nagling(around 16 kms )
We crossed the villge of Dar and there was this beautiful bugyal in the left hand side. Just as we crossed the river, the wonderful sight of the snow covered himalays came on left hand which was amazing. The sight of the lush green bugyals and peaks made me run upto them ;)

We turned right and were treading along the left hand side of the dhauli Ganga river .There was this high wall of mountains on the right of the river . We could see some distant peaks beyond the high wall at times !

Now comes the little scary part of trek. This is the narrow goat track with huge drop.

This is the dense jungle along the route from Bungling to Sela.

The entire trek is full of the narrow water streams. I was told by my guide , that this route id difficult to trek till June as the glaceirs do not melt till that time. I guess this inaccesibility and remoteness is one of the reasons for the non poppularity of darma as a trekking destination. But that the reason why this region is so beautiful .
I am trying not slip from a huge rock on the way ;)

We had planned to reach Baaling by the night .So we were hurrying all the way !
We had a quick lunch at Urthiling where luckily we could find the shop still open. It was so cold sitting beside the river in the run down shop and having the dal - chawal ( I still dont know what I was eating !). I guess the exhaustion made me forget all that ! These are small little things which give so much of joy while trekking in the hills.
We reached little late than we had anticipated to sela and had just crossed the villege when the ITBP jawan came running to tell us that we were not permitted to move beyond the check past. Then came the frustrating time with the ITBP post when we were told that we could not go further as we did not have the permit. I was told that one does not need permit till Dugtu villege. But, ITBP was adamant and they sent a telex message to their headquarters at Pithoragarh seeking permission.

We stayed in the only hotel which was so comfortable I could not even imagine. We slept in a good and clean bed with rajai and it was so peaceful as night was being echoed from the running river water !

DAY FOUR : SELA TO DUGTU

I was surprised that I had a comfortable and good sleep and I was releived that the hotel had decent toilet facalities.
We got up in the anticiption that the ITBP will be able to give permission to us to move forward. Damn the ITBP , they did not allow Jan to go forward as he did not have permit and I was allowed to go. I gave Jan farewell with a heavy heart and moved forward waiting to reach Dugtu by evening.
The person who runs the hotel seemed very helping and friendly. I was told that Sela is the last villege in the darma which does not do migration. All villagers beyond Sela , come down to their another house with cattle and food to lower altitudes.

Trek from Sela to We were walking beside the river and its a simple trek .

The real steep ascent started from this point where we could see the villege Nagling from a distance.

We reached Nagling and had chai at the shop. There is a huge glacier ( 2 kms from villege ) coming down from hills near the villege. I was compelled to go and have a dekko at it, but did not have the time. You can see the glacier hills from the pic I took from the chai shop.

There is a very interesting tale attached according ot which the huge white streaks in the hills are marks of the huge snake which was killed by a sage several yeags ago by beating him against the hills !!

Beyond Nagling there is straight path and then descent till Baaling where we had our lunch ,tea and noodles.
The actual darma valley is visible from Baling. The river is running in the form of a gorge with huge fields on both sides of the river.
This is the beautiful Darma valley from Baling.

There is continupus descent from Baaling and after a curve , the great himalayas come in to view. The high snow covered mountains in the right of the river area treat to the eyes.
I am told beyond these mountains is the Kuthi valley.

We finally managed to reach Dugtu. Oh my god, it was such a relief !You can see my guide taking rest just before the Sher Singh shop.

We had the garama garam chai at Sher singh shop. He even managed to give us Villege panchayat rest house room which was so clean. Sher singh suggested that we take a 2 km trek to Villege Daantu and the the Shiva temple on top of the hill. Although we were tired of the trel all day, still the hill stop temple seemed challenging and it could provide good views of the Panch achuli.
I was too excited to run upto the bridge and view the sun setting on the great Panch chuli hills !

This is the view from Daantu villege and on the right is the Dugtu and across the river on left is Bon.

We came across the villege ladies who seemed very friendly. The lady on the left kept asking me if I knew her son who lived in Hydrabad ! I wanted to say yes( as it would have given he rhappiness), but then couldnt lie to such an elderly lady.

It was an unfogetting sight to see the sun setting behind the Panchchuli peaks. Although, it was little cloudy as the sun set,but the huge glacier was too beautiful.

This is the view from the Shiva temple towards tibet on the other side of the valley towards Sipu and Tedang .
I wanted to go further to Anchari taal beyong Sipu , but did not have permit and ITBP would have stopped me at tedang post. I was told that tedang is the last ITBP post . There is another ITBP post at bedang and Dawe ( last post before Tibet ) , but both are vacated in OCt. and only Tedang is occupied for the entire winter. God know how our jawans battle the cold in the region all 12 months . I guess its love for country and sheer courage whcih maked them survive in such harsh winters.
This is my guide at Daantu villege.In the background one can see the Panchuli peaks and the strem of river coming from Panchuli glaceir.

After sunset it was time of the moon to come over the himalayas ! This photo moon is coming over the other side of valley (from Sinla pass , the Chota Kaislash and Jolingkong).

Trek to Chandrashila Summit ( 4000 mtr ) in 11th Nov - 13th Nov 2006

2006-11-14T01:32:00.000+05:30

Chandrashila peak is located near the Upper Himalayas range in Gharwal region near Chopta.
It is 500 km (approx.) from Del.
I had heard of the winter summit Chandrashila peak a lot from my friends. Prashant Joshi(my most trusted trekker friend) had also suggested that this is a must do for trekker !! So, I was adamant to scale the summit in year 2006 itself and did not wish to postpone it any longer :)
I got in touch with Girish Upadhaya and Arvind Negi who were interested in trekking. I could sence the craving for trekking in them and both were raring to go to hills !!! Wow,that was such a good sign !!
The timing was crucial. I was told that it had snowed earlier in 15th Oct in the area and more snow was expected. After more telecons ,we finally zeroed for the weekend 11- 13 Nov, for OPERATION CHANDRASHILA !!

We booked the taxi(Indica)for the entire stretch for Del - Rishikesh- Chopta - Rishikesh - Del. We were expected to travel 1000 kms at the rate of Rs 5 per Kilometer and it seemed to be good deal to me.
We planned to camp at Tungnath, hence camping gear(4 men Tent and carrimats, sleeping bag)were obtained from my favourate place IMF, Delhi.

Day 1( Delhi to Tungnath):

Day 2( Tungnath to Chandrashila to Tehri):

Day 2( 11th Nov., 2006) : Tungnath to Chandrashila to Chopta to Tehri

2006-11-12T01:51:00.000+05:30

We got up with a lot of effort at 4.30 and promptly set forth for the long climb to the summit. It was pitch dark and we had to use our torches to see the path. There was a lot of snow on the way which had become dangerously splipping due to the continuous hail(paala)dropping which froze during nights.
Arvind was not feeling well from the previous night, so he gace us company halfway to summit and preferred to wait and rest. Hence, Girish me and guide went further to the scale summit. We finally managed to reach the summit at 6.00 when it was still dark and we all set to welcome the sun pateintly.

This is the scene for which we came on way 500 kms from Del.!! The ever so beautiful Sunrising behind the great himalayas.

As the sun rose above the snow capped hills, the actual hills were not visible so clearly, but the various formations made by sun were mindbongling . We could never ever imagine that the sun could be so imaginative and innovative while coming up from behind the hills, I guess they were the himalayas hence Sun was also giving special treatment to them :-)

The 360 dregree view from the summit was just out of the world and one has to be there only to witness the grand panorama. I was there just gazing and admiring the himalayas and wondered that that was the reason why Himalayas have been everybody dream destination over the centuries !!

Northern and Western Hills

The view of the northern and western snow capped himalayas was absolutely clear. I just couldnt stop clickling the pics :-)

Cloer view of the Chaukhamba peaks

Seen from Right to Left: Chaukhamba/ unnamed peaks/ Shivling and Neelkanth

Closer view of the Neelkanth and shivling(as seen from right to left)

Closer view of the Kedarnath peak and Kedarnath Dome

This is my most favourate pic, the sun rays kissing the peaks of the great Himalayan range.

I wonder what the crow is uttering or is it the messenger of God trying to convey us sumthing :-)

Eastern Hills

The eastern hills were not so clear due to brightness, after the sun rose from east.

Southern Hills

The southern view comprised of the hills which were slowly going down in elevation and somewhere distant making connection with the land.

Me and Girish have finbally scaled the summit .

Me standing infront of the small temple at summit with the sun forming an arc in the background.

I am enjoying the view at the top

We are coming down the snowly slopes to Tungnath.

These are the fresh footholds of an unknown animal(what could it be ???)

The eagle soaring high into the unlimited skyline across the mighty hiamlayas
By the time we reached back to our tent, we found that clouds were reaching around the himalayas .

Our tent (we camped at tungnath)which managed to stay intact even during the snowfall at night.

This is the Tungnath temple(one of the Panch Kedars)and the highest Lord Shiva temple in the world !!

View of Tungnath villege from the temple

We are making impressions in snow

The whether had taken a turn since morning and the entire himalayas were now enveloped in fog and clouds. We are coming down the foggy slopes.

We are rolling down and taking rest on way back to Chopta.

We have finally come back to Chopta from Summit in one piece :-)

We were damn tired had a quick cup of tea .
We were feeling bad leaving Chopta and left with a heavy heart, but we will come again and till then bye bye Chopta :-)
We wanted to have a little better lunch, hence started off from Chopta immediately and had lunch near Augustmuni.And yes the lunch tasted so good and we ate as if we had been on hunger strike for ages :-)

We bid Bye bye to the great himalayas with promise to come again and again and again :-)

Day 1( 11th Nov., 2006) : Delhi to Tungnath

2006-11-11T01:47:00.000+05:30

We set out from Del. at around 9 pm and after halts at Merrut, we reached Rishikesh at 3.30 am. We were told to wait till 5 am at the Rishikesh Laxman Jhula Police barrier. I am told these days, night driving is not permissible in hills due to the accident prone areas. But,I confidently held out my Times Of India, Press Identity -card and was given prompt entry :-)
It meant that luck was with us and we would have a good trek !!!!

We crossed Devprayag in nite and could not take any pics as it was pitch dark.
Devpraprayg is one of the holy towns being the place of confluence of river Bhagirathi(coming from Gangotri)and Alaknanda(coming from Rudrapyayag. Infact the river actually becomes known as Gangaji from this point onwards as this is the point where last of the tributaries if Gangaji meet and holy Gangages is formed.

Finaly, Surya bhagwaan(Sun god)came in and we took few pics of the most reverred river on this earth Gangaji. Gangaji was shining in the dark green colour and looked so grand in its approach.

We are somewhere near Srinagar.

We drove across Srinagar(a small picturescue town along river Ganga)and popular for being centre for the only University in Gharwal i.e. Gharwal University.
Rudrapraprayg is one of the holy towns being the place of confluence of river Mandakni(coming from Kedarnathji)and Alaknanda(coming from Karnprayag)

We were expected to meet our guide which took little while giving us oppertunity to go down to meet Gangaji :-).

You can see Girish and Arvind on the riverside at Rudraprayag.

Madakini coming from Kedarnath.

It was Girish idea to go down to the river Ganga and we happily enjoyed chilly waters of Gangaji. I got too adventerous and ventured into the wrong side of river stepping over slippery stones and had a small fall onto the rocks/ water and thankfully did not get hurt!! again luck was on our side and we thanked Gangaji for the same. After breakfast, we finally managed to locate our guide and drove off from Rudraprayag to Chopta at 10 am eagerly awating the sight of the himalayas. We wanted to touch and kiss the magnificant himalayas :-)

The ever beautiful valleys and cultivated lands were a feast for our eyes and welcome relief from concrete jungles we all view in Delhi. After all, we are in the Dev Bhoomi(land of Gods)where all the simple things are full of beauty and energy.

This is our first view of the himalayas (the mighty Chaukhamba)which I was told would be pefectly visible from Chandrashila peak. I cudnt wait to reach the summit anymore !!
The himalayan view were amazing and we took a break to admire the valley and the surroundings.

As we drove further, the view of the himalayas become better.
The cimate in Nov. is little late to witness lush greenary, but himalayas as are too grandeur and the greenary that greeted us was just too good. We came accross the GVMN rest House at Chandrapur which seemed to be a great place to relax / stay as it is being beside the river providing good himalayan views. Its very surprising to see excellent himalayan views even from the low altitute valleys along the route.

The route from Rudraprayg till Kund is all along the lush green valleys very rich in flora(we hadn't seen any animal till now)and fauna and providing continuous Himalayan views. The actual ascent starts from Kund when we head towards Ukhimath.
From Kund, one roads runs onto Kedarnath via Gupkashi and other is towards our destination Chopta via Ukhimath.

We saw several waterfalls along the way, but had to stop at this one to take pics

You can see the green finely terraced farmlands at Ukhimath.
Ukhimath is the winter seat of the pandit of Kedarnathji for winter season when the doors of Kedarnath temple are closed till next season.

Somewhere near Ukhimath, we entered Kedarnath wild life Sanctuary, meaning that there would be abundance of wild life / trees. From here till Gopeshwar, there is nothing but dense dense forests for 70 kms !!

Huge rocks were jutting out into the road which seemed kind of scary !!
We were feeling hungry on the way and Girish(the impossible guy who makes everything possible :-))suggested that we venture into the fields and just pluck the tasty Oranges(known as Malta in local language). My god they were so yummy :-)

Here Girish is happily stealing the oranges from the fields, good the owner was nowhere to be seen :-)

True to its word, the entire stretch till Chopta was very dense forest and we were struggling to see the sunrays venture into the road. The trees seemed very green as if they were hand painted. We were all desperately looking for the sighting of the elusive Tiger/ Leapord, but at the end we did come across some lone Fox and jungle Rabbit :-)

When we were near Chopta, we got disappointed when our guide told us that there is no snow at Chandrashila summit. We had come so far see the snow and all of us stood in silence for few minutes. But, still we were enthusoistic to scale the peak !!

We were happy to see many people camping near Chopta. Chopta directly overlooks the Himalayan peaks and a very dense forest area. All the hotels were closed as this was the near end of the tourist season and it were only few die hard trekkers like us who would dare in such extreme climate. The whether gods were playing hide and seek with us due to which Himalayan views were lost.

We had a quick lunch at one of the very few dhabas and proceeded for Tungnath. It was was difficult climb from Chopta(2800 mtr.)to Tungnath(3800 mtr.)of 4 kms meaning that we had to ascent nearly 1000 mtrs, phew !!!

This is the gate at Chopta for Tungnath which was the starting point the trek.
The climb is a mix of steep and gradual ascent. The good thing is that path is well laid and maintained (unlike ones I encountered at Roopkund / Panchachuli Glaceir). It crosses bugyals(green meadows/grasslands) which start immediately after Chopta and continue till Tungnath.
There were several patches of solid snow settled from the previous snowfall indicating the high altitude of the place.

We could not see the snow peaks due to bad clouds, but what we saw on the way to Tungnath was nothing short of spectacular beauty.
We saw several junglee chickens along the way, but they managed to vanish by the time I took out the camera !!

This is known as Ravanshila(just 1 km before Tungnath), the rock where Ravana is said to have done penance to please Lord Shiva !! Tungnath was now finally visible from this point and we had solace that we are so near to our base camp !!!

We had to reach fast as it was getting dark and we had to quickly make further ascent which we did rather easily !!
There was so much of snow at Tungnath which set us thinking of the snow up to Summit, but we were on the roll and had no time to think on those lines !!!

We quickly pitched our tent after a lot of effort as we could not find any plain areas nearby and had to pitch tent near a hut. We noticed that we were the only species in the Tungnath tonight, apart from any animal lingering(or snow leapord ??) behind ths hills around us :-)
We had the luxurious dinner of Sambar rice(yummy :-))made out of the MTR readymade meals packets I carried with me.
We quickly went to sleep by 9 pm with full knowledge that this would be one of our coldest nights of our lives. It was very cold night with lots of strong chilly winds.

Panchchuli Glacier and Darma Valley

2006-10-07T15:23:00.000+05:30

I had somehow managed to get 4 days off further to the 2nd Oct. So I decided to go to the higher Himalayas for trek. Now, choosing the trek is the single most difficult thing. After hectic rounds of discussion with Prashant and lots and lots of googling, we finally zeroed on Panchchuli Glacier in Darma Valley,(in district Pithoragarh) in Kumaon. I had been to Gharwal hills last time ( Roopkund), hence I selected Kumaon to be my next destination, crazy logic ;)
After lots of telecoms with Prashant, we finally decided to travel together to Munsyari and then I would go further to Panchchuli glacier and he had to come back (as he had no leaves).
My plan as usual start going wrong from day one !!! I could not get leave for 29th Sept which meant that I would reach Munsyari one day late than Prashant.
The google earth has the most explicit path to the Darma valley which was of great help in understanding the terrain. So, loaded with bits of information, I decided to venture for OPERATION PANCHCHULI GLACIER

Panchchuli Glacier: It is one of the most beautiful glaciers originating from Panchchuli set of 5 peak and unexplored treks in district Pithoragarh, Kumaon and along one of the most picturescue valleys and villages.
It gives way to Darma valley and flows into Dhauli ganga which emerges from the glaciers of Panchchuli and other hills around Tibet and flows across Darma valley and finally meets Kali river at Tawaghat.

Day 1( Delhi to Munsyari):

Day 3( Sobla to Sela):

Day 1 and two : Delhi to Munsyari to Sobla

2006-09-25T02:44:00.000+05:30

DAY ONE (30TH SEPT.2006) : DELHI TO MUNSYARI

Delhi to Munsyari is around 630 kms and takes around 24 hrs from Del. which includes 13 – 15 hrs of hilly terrain. I always prefer taking the local transport, since its good fun traveling with fellow passengers and it helps understand the local culture as well. Hence, I finished my work at office and promptly reached Anand Vihar Bus Station, Delhi at 5 pm., wow that an achievement :). I found that Del- Munsyari bus had left at 4.45, but I was lucky as I was told that the Del – Dharchula bus which would take me till Thal from where I could change bus / jeep and reach Munsyari even before the original bus !!! wow, that a strange co incidence !!

We crossed Haldwani at around 1.30 and I suddenly felt wiff of chilled air once the ascent started from Kathgodam.
The driver was an old man who did not look in a hurry while driving in plains from Del to kathgodam. But, once, we crossed Kathgodam, I was amazed to see the speed at which he was moving .Man we were going were moving at speed of over 40 kms per hour in State transport bus in the hills !!!! He seemed to be in hurry to reach Almora( from where the driver change occurs. We promptly reached at Almora around 4 am.
Now, the confusion started as conductor told us that driver is to be replaced at Almora and the other driver who is supposed to take over has not reported. Which meant that the bus could not move at all!!! In the meantime, someone told us that the driver may come and would definitely report. I was hard pressed for time as I had ot reach Munsyari before daylight. Hence I promptly alighted with my baggage and got into the next alternative bus which happened to be Del – Munsyari, yohooo  .

This is the bus I originally boarded from Del. till Almora

The beautiful Bageshwar valley

This was the first view of the Himalayas soaring high into the sky !!Although ther were clouds, the snowbound peaks behind the green valleys were just too good to be true

I took this pic of the bus (I took from Almora to Munsyari ) as we stopped for lunch at Thal
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The beautiful valleys along the route from to Munsyari

This is the famous Birthi water fall (130 metere ) awesome place. There is a rest house near the waterfall which provides amazing view of the falls as well as the valley below.

The dangerous route to Munsyari with 1000 feet plus drops which could unnerve just anybody on this earth !!

This is the view that greeted us when we reached Munsyari which was out of the world !!

DAY TWO ( 1st OCT. 2006): MUNSYARI TO SOBLA

I had a good night sleep and got up at 5.30 to take pics of the sunrise behind the mountains on the East of Panchchuli.

I started off from rest house after quick breakfast and took the local route of changing the jeeps enroute.
The first was Munsyari to Madkot(22 kms), which is very bad road which is non existant at times !!

There is continuous descent from Munsyari along the Goriganga river (coming from Milam glaceir)and beautiful valleys and waterfalls provide pelasent company.

I caught this cat and dog playing and enjoying the morning sun

There are many such wooden bridges due to which this route is only jeepable as it cannot take the load of buses/ trucks.

Its not wrong , if we say that these jeeps have now become the lifeline of hills as they are used for all sundry purposes including transporting cattle !!!

I got into another jeep for Jauljibi from Madkot(50kms)and the driver drove merrily packing jeep to max.(including roof)making sure that he did not leave a single soul unattended on the route !!

I changed jeep from Jauljibi and finally Dharchula around 1 pm. It was pain moving the rucksack everytime from one jeep to another.
I was told to contact the Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN) rest house at Dharchula who could help me with porter/ arrangement for trek. To my bad luck, there was nobody who could help me.
Hence, I quickly had lunch there and proceeded for Nepal !!! Dharchula is the border town connected to Nepal through age old bridge on Kali river and its 10 meters from KMVN rest house. I could see so many Nepali shopping/moving in dharchula as the border between India - Nepal is free and does not require any passport/ visa.

Wow, I am reached foreign land ;).You can c me standing in Nepal and across the Kali river is India !!!

You can see the bridge which goes to Kailash Mansarover along Kali river to China via Lipulekh Pass( 5000 mtr).

Sobla(50 kms)by share jeep. I was told my jeepdriver that I could get porter from Sobla. I had tent/ sleeping bag with me , so I only needed porter/guide for the trek. The road to Sobla is also very bad , but the driver was as ususal regular and hence managed to cross it all over the small rivers along the hills.

This is the Chirkhala reservoir which provides water for NHPC Hydel plant which is currently producing 230 Megawatt of electricity.

I managed to reach Sobla( base camp) for Darma valley around 5 pm.
tTen began, the difficult work of arranging the trek. I got in touch with the driver who quickly got me to few guys who have been to Panchachuli ealrier.Some of the guys had work in fields, hence declined. I could not find anybody who had done camping/ preparing food etc. I was earlier plannig to take stove and ration as I wanted to camp along the route, but was told that the villege hotels are all open and camping was not essential except for the final camp near the the glacier. I assessed the situation and finally chose Arjun who had been to Panchchuli glaceir earlier with trkeker camps.

I stayed in the house of my driver sharIng room with his co worker.

Trek to Roopkund - The mystry lake ( 12th August to 18 August 2006 )

2006-08-17T00:28:00.000+05:30

Trek to Roopkund

Hello friendzzzz,

So here I am attempting to write up my first ever blog !! Please wish me loads and loads of luck.

Preparing for Trek

I always wanted to go to the upper Himalayas. Hence after lots of research and advice from friends, I finally managed to zero on Roopkund. Although, after reading through the comments from friends at Orkut, I realised that this will be a difficult trek as all of them gave the impression that it a high altitude trek and a difficult one. But, then me, being a pahadi guy had to venture out and take the challenge.So finally, after hectic rounds of discussion with my boss, I finally got the leave for the entire week of 14th to 18th August, phew that was difficult !!!
This was a high altitude trip, which meant that I also had to arrange for the equipment. Hence, I checked at Orkut and then finally hired Sleeping bags, rucksack and carrimat from India Mountaineering Federation (IMF) for which I had to deposit Rs 8,500. The daily hire charges are very cheap at around Rs 15-20 per day. For those who do not know, IMF is right on a narrow road which head upwards near the main South Campus gate.

Day 1( Haldwani to Lohajung):

Day 2( Lohajung to Bedni Bugyal):

Day 3(Bedni Bugyal to Kurmotolli Bugyal):

Day 4(Kurmotolli Bugyal to Roopkund and back):

Day 5(Kurmotolli Bugyal to Lohajung):

Day 5 ( 16th August, 2006 ) : Kurmotolli Bugyal to Lohajung

2006-08-16T22:17:00.000+05:30

This is the shephard hut where we stayed for the night after our hut was washed out in previous night. There were 5 of us who stayed put for the night.

Our savour for the night, the shephard with the Bhotiya dog ( sheep gaurding dog)

Last of the pics before the views of trishul got lost in clouds.

The route down to Bedni with the sunrising above us was too beautiful. Seen are the lower hills across bedni which extend upto Kausani !!

View of Nandaghunti from top of Bedni bugyal

I am almost near Bedni (which can be seen far below)when the clouds again started closing in.

We reached Bedni by 9 am and had Tea and breakfast at the only dhaba which was still open.

This is the boy from Wan villege who gave us interesting company while coming down from Bedni bugyal.

This is the route back to Wan from bugyal. Can you see the route which had washed away due to the continuous rains !!!

I am trying to quench my thirst near Wan after the tough day of trek from Pathanachoni !!

This is Niitn at the end of the trek at Wan. Thank god we have completed the trek !!

This is pic of Nandaghunti from rest house at Lohajung. This was to be our parting shots of the himalayas as we were leaving in morning with a promise to come again and again !!!

The bus that took us back to civilisation ! This is the daily bus service which connects Lohajung with Hardwar (leaves at 4.30 in morning). The road near Mundoli was broken due to which we had to come down to Mundoli to catch the bus for Karnprayag as Hardwar bus cud not make it to Mundoli also.

Day 4 ( 15th August, 2006) : Kurmotolli Bugyal to Roopkund and back

2006-08-15T00:57:00.000+05:30

DAY FOUR: KURMOTOLLI BUGYAL TO ROOPKUND AND BACK

We got up at around 6 am and had some biscuits for breakfast and went ahead with the trek to Roopkund
We are gonna have a very tough day. We had to go to the Roopkund and back an aggregate of 13- 14 kms which included very steep ascent first to Kaluavinayak Pass (1.5 km) and then final ascent to Roopkund (4 km). Phew !!

Wow what scene that greeted us in the early morning. This is towards Pindar valley. We could not see the sun as it was lost somewhere in the clouds and we were happy that whether is clearing .

Fresh snow had come over the mountains behind me which was a feast to the eyes.

Wow what fantastic views were all along the way.
We are moving towards Kaluvinayak.
The whether gods finally relented and there was sunshine and there was oppertuniy to see the mighty Himalayas. Hence, I was rushing towards Kaluvinayak leaving Nitin and Inder Singh behind me.

Nitin is walking towards Kaluvinayak. In the background the Kurmotolli Bugyal can be seen which was our base camp.

By the time, Nitin and Inder singh reached Kalvavinayak, clouds had again enveloped the Himalayas and the views were lost. I managed to take few quick pics before clouds came in !!

The view of Trishul from kaluvinayak . Roopkund is present just below the right most peaks.

The fantastic view of Nandaghunti

The Kalvavinayak temple: The Ganesh temple standing tall at around 4700 m.

This is Brahma Kamal, the state flower of Uttaranchal. It is found at altitudes higher than 12,000 feet only. It is considered very auspicious by hilly people, as it is said to be offered to Lord Badrinath and Kedarnath temples.

These are two huts ay Baguabassa ( 4600 mtr.)the popular base camp for Roopkund. Baguabaasa in local language means the place which is frequented by the leopard !!
We desperately wanted to see animal species, but then it is very rare at such high altitudes.

This place is called Charia Nag from where the very hard and very steep (of almost 60 degree) ascent starts for Roopkund.
Now we realsied that we were walking on a very small path with steel drops below us. The path was direclty below the huge rocky mountains and there was fear of stones/ boulders rolling down.

This is another vareity of Bhahma Kamal found at heights more than 13,000 ft.

This cute looking flower is called as Bish( poison ) by local people as its effects are deadly in nature. Its said to have very strong smell which makes ppl inconsious and it actually resulted in nauscea to me and my guide.

Soon it started raining which made our ascent difficult as there were chilly winds as well, but we were raring to go and determined to scale the summit.

As we were gaining altitude, there were many such glaceirs along the way where the actual path had been washed away.

Nitin was not feeling well since last night. He was puffing and panting at every turn and taking frequent breaks. Hence, he finally decided to call it quits and take rest 1 km before Roopkund.
It is always advisable to plan to make a return from Roopkund before 12 am as the whether can take adverse turns at anytime after noon and there could be fear of getting struck at top.

We set out for the summit.
The final leg to the summit was most strenuous as there was no path and we were walking on the rocky mountain slope( with gradeints as high as 60 -70 degree at times) with looses pebbles/ stones all around which got slippery due to rain.

We were gaining continuous altitude which made breathing very difficuly and my body was being drained of all its energy. We finally reached the summit around 11.30 and I dropped dead on reaching the summit !!But, what I saw from the top was nothing short of a spectacle. The small kund with bright green water and snow around. I prayed to god to give me an oppertunity to reach this place and witness the sight which very few people are able to see.
After breif rest, I got about clicking many pics !!

These are the 1000 year old remains of the human being. The remains also included chappal( sandals), skull and bones of the dead people

This is the small kund with brozen ice on corners and several Brahm Kamal blooming in the periphery.

I was told that there are several full blown dead bodies still intact and preserved by nature which have been pushed by Army inside the snow deposits at the corners of the kund.

More human remains along the kund. There were many more remains/ bones inside the kund

We were walking on the straight faced rocks. It was good that there was rain and fog, or else we would have seen the dangerous drops and got afraid.

The descent from the summit was done quickly, but still dangerous.
We were delighted to meet Nitin at the same place where we had left him !!

We saw a family of 4 dears(kasturi Mrig- endangoured specie)along the way.But they imemdiately scaled the nearby mountain peak before I could out take my camera !!

Steep drops along Kurmotolli bugyal

We reached back to our base camp just before it was begining to get dark.
We could not sleep in our camp as it had beenwashed away and all wet. Hence, out huide quickly arranged our stay in the nearby shephard hut. The small hut was to be our savious for th enight and we could now think sleeping peacefully without bing washed with water.
The shephard man was a friendly person who served us with tea and food.

Day 3 ( 14th august, 2006) : Bedni Bugyal to Kurmotolli Bugyal

2006-08-14T02:08:00.000+05:30

We had a good night sleep in the tent, although my dear friend Prashant was snoring heavily. It rained in the night which did terrify us as we were wondering that water wud come in, but luckily nothing of that sort happened.

Next morning,, we were little disapointed that it was still drizzling and views of Nandaghuiti and Trishal cud not been seen.

There was one dhaaba still operational so we parantha - aaloo from there and also sum khichdi. Fortunately, the whether cleared around 9 am and we dedeided to move on. Prashant had to get back to his office to Chennei next day , so he made move back to Wan with his porter .

We clicked the parting snap with the Trishul and Nandaghunti before they cud again vanish in clouds.

We than started our trek to Baggubaasa . We were told my guide that, this is th emost difficult leg as we were to gain heights from 3300 mt to 4500 at Baguabassa.
The whethere was not clear and the clouds enveloped the hills again. Maybe tom. we will get good himalayan views.

As we were ascending from Bedni, we came across Ali bugyal. What a sight it was. Ali bugyal was also at it sfull glory and the treleine below grasslands were to good to be true .

As we gained height and reached over Bedni, the sight of Bedni bugyal was awesome
As we were moving on , Nitin was not feeling well and felt weak .

We had to drop our plan to reach Baguabassa decided to camp at Kurmotilli Bugyal.

The flowers at Kurmotolli bugyal were beautiful and freash from the current monsoon.

We also found many horses gazing nearby .It was begining to get dusk and all the animals were returning to their respective sheltors.

The shephard managed to catch hold for us the sheep with the biggest horns !!!

There were few hundred sheeps which were gazing and they came and literally went across our camp. Later on we came to know that the shephard also had a shed near our camp which meant that we were not all alone in the wilderness.

The stove that we were carrying malfunctioned at night as the pressure stick got free !! Luckily, Inder singh still managed to prepare dinner of Khichdi.
This meant that we would not have the luxury of breakfast tom. morning when we had to trek tour final destination i.e. Roopkund. That was such a bad sign.

We had a nightmarish night and a night which I will never forget in my life.
We were carrying a small tent which was just big enough to accommodate three people. We were, hence went to sleep around 7 pm even while it was pouring outside. Then at around 1 am , Nitin shouted that water has come inside the tent. And as bad luck would have it, the water had drifted inside our tent, it had soaked the carrimats and was making our sleeping bags wet so much so that even my jacket, trousers also got wet !!! We had some polythene bags which we cut thru and spread across the floor over our wet carriamts. We tried to get sleep, but how cud one possibly sleep with wet everything inside /outside and the near freezing temperatures with chilly winds outside. This was one of the moments when I have felt so helpless in my life at the destiny of the mother nature !! Anyways, wasnt this supposed to be the adventure for which I had come trekking !!!
The tent was not of a very fine quality and all our guide sahib had not cut the line in ground right above the upper portion of tent which could provide water outlet and thus prevent water from coming inside . Further, out tent was on the slope which meant that the water would eventually drift towards us in good flow.

Day 2 (13 August ,2006 ): Lohajung to Bedni Bugyal

2006-08-13T00:46:00.000+05:30

The day began early (as it usually does on treks) and quickly Prashant and I set out to take the early morning pics of the hills. We were disappointed that Trishul / Nandaghunti peaks were not visible. But, no worries, we are gonna touch them anyways :-)

The early morning cloud views were still to good.
Prashant had the guts to take cold water bath, while me and Nitin skipped the same easily.
We were disappointed when Mr Rana told us that porter and tent cannot be arranged from Lohajung, and now shall have to be done from Waan. Still, he was helpful enough to pass on message to Waan and assured us that desired help shall be arranged at Waan.
We hired a jeep to Waan (15 kms away) and set out after breakfast of Aloo key paranthey at Mr rana café .
We reached waan after seeing our driver take sum breaktaking stunts on the route which is just stony and kaccha raasta for all 15 kms. He shud get some medal for doing the ritual everyday :-).

We crossed the Kuling on way and saw the distant Deedna villege and the long view of Ali Bugyal above Deedna villege.

On taxi on way to Wan, we gave lift to 3 ladies who wanted to reach Wan, but ended up giving lifts to few more guys who promprly settled down on top of the jeep !!!

We met Mr. Bugyal (the lone shop owner) at Waan who quickly arranged two porters, rations, tent and utensils and we set out to Bedni Bugyal around 9.30 am.
We are the three trekkers ready and full of energy to take on the world.

There were 5 of us :
Prashant
kamal
Nitin
Inder Singh - porter one
Porter two

Three of us ready to start trek to Roopkund above the Wan river.
We set out climbing up immediately fully aware that it would be difficult trek, full uphill trek for 13 kms till Bedni Bugyal.

This , I am told is a local vegetable absolutely fit for eating !!

Our porter Inder Singh Bisht had to pick up utensils from his home number one ( he had three homes in Waan !!) .
We were tired from uphill climb of 1 km. and needed rest. We had water and few minutes of rest at his home .

Next we took rest at Ran Ki Dhaar – as you can see it’s a dhaar ( meaning plain area ) on top of the hill.

This is one of the top most points of Waan and we were delighted that we shall now be going down hill for 1 km till the river :-).

Our porter insisted that we take tea and daal bhaat at his house number 2 . So we sat down to have daal bhaat .

You can see Inder Singh family .

Nitin and Prashant had daal bhaat( rice ) , the daal was a local pahari daal and looked/ tasted Ghaaut.Prashant shared dry fruits with few village kids who were delighted .

We crossed the rive that comes from Bedni , and were terrified to see the long climb we had to take further up to Bedni Bugyal. As we were climbing, we wer egetitn ghuingey,,havin had th eearly breakfast, so we rested at Gaaroni Patal . We had to take another rest. Inder singh promply got few dry woods / water and made delcisous maggie for all of us.

View from the place where we had maggie !

As we were going uphill, it started raining drizzling and then finally heavily. We promply took out our raincoats(thank god, we were cayying them !!)

The climb got even more steep from Garoni Patal , but now we cud c the bugyals on top of the hills .

We were delighted to have finally reached a point from where, the snow hills were visible

We have finally managed to reach the entrance to the Bedni Bugyal.

There were so small grass and bright flowers of varied colors such as blue/ pink .

Absolutely lush green fields greete dus , which were a tret to the eyes and we quickly forgot the pain in the legs due to continuous ascent !!!

We also met the security guard ( aaponited by Bugyal sakrashan samiti ) who resides at Bedni Bugyal and stays in the guest house on the way and was more than eager to show us the bugyal which was lush green and devoid of aniamls gazing.

There is a small bedni kund which has accumulated water from rains.

Day 1 ( 12th August, 2006) : Delhi to Lohajung

2006-08-12T00:45:00.000+05:30

Day Zero (11th August 2006 : Delhi – Haldwani, Overnight

I quickly to finalised my report in office and rushed to boss to say Goodbye. Around 6.15 pm and drove back home. I reached home at around 7.30 and thus had only 15 – 20 minutes to complete my packing.
I was carrying two rucksacks to Nanitaal ( one for myself and another for Nitin, my companion for the trek to Roopkund ) I reached Anand Vihar station at 9.15 to find out that the last direct bus (Del – Almora) for Bhowali had left 5 minutes back! Anyways, I was raring to go, so promptly took the 9.30 bus for Haldwani. It seemed as if the driver was also in a hurry like me to reach the destination. So, after halts at Mela dabha (gajraula), Rudrapur and then finally reached Haldwani at 5.00 am.

Day one
Having reached Haldwani at 5.00 am, I felt a chill of cold air reminding me promptly that I had reached the land of Himalayas, the dev bhoomi . and I was ready to kiss the hills ! I took a bus for Bhowali and reached there by 6.30. We had little time on hand, hence got into the act of repacking our rucksacks. I had a luxurious breakfast of aaloo key parathans (I cant say no to aaloo key paranthas from my mausi which are so yummy). The whether in Bhowali was kind of chilly which set me thinking about the whether in the Himalayas.

We had little time on hand, hence got into the act of repacking our rucksacks.

I then called and informed my guide Mr. Jawahar Singh Bisht at Gwaldam about my plan to reach Gwaldam by 3-4 pm.
We took the cheap way of picking up the jeeps as we are comfortable about the places (I had been to Kausani – Baijnath last month). We changed 3 jeeps/ bus at Almora/ Kausani and Garur and finally reached Gwaldam.
It was rather hot till Garur, but then as we set out in bus to Gwaldam, the air got little chilly with the ascent and it was a continuous ascent of 25 kms till Gwaldam. I was amazed at the beauty enroute Garur to Gwaldam, we were enjoying being with the mother nature, the green trees and the hills were just awesome. We saw at the hills on the right/ other of the Pindar river and were counting/ imagining the hills that we had to conquer to reach Roopkund !!!

We reached Gwaldam at 4.30 pm. My guide promptly recognized me at the bus station. I was surprised to see Prashant Joshi at the restaurant near the station. He had also reached from Chennai via Haldwani and Almora, the same route I took !! We immediately negotiated a jeep for Lohajung for Rs 1,600 which did seem rather steep, but then we thot it better to reach as much closer the base camp as quickly as possible and planned to set out. But, there was a problem with my guide, he had all his equipment of tent/ utensils/ etc. at his house and he did not have keys to the house. We waited for him to arrange stuff for 1.5 hours and then as it was getting dark, so finally we set out to our last road base camp Lohajung without the guide thinking that we cud manage that tomorrow.

Gwaldum was a beautiful small hill contonment town which is famous for the regional headquarters of SSB ( Secret Service beureu ).

I am told that on clear day, gwaldam has clear views of Trishul and handaghunti , but today was cloudy day we had to be satisfied with the greenary only !!

We were driving along the Pindar river ( whihc originates from Pindari glaceir in Kumaon)
The ride to Lohajung was good and we could feel the difference in altitude / temperature as we were constantly gaining height from Tharali. We reached Lohajung around 8pm, were too tired after a long day (and previous night) of travel and retired at Zila Parishad guest house. The room was nice and cozy with attached loos!! Food seemed gud due to hunger and we slept peacefully fully aware that such luxury may not be available in coming days. The caretaker Mr. Rana seemed nice person who quickly arranged the dinner to be served in our room only.

Valley of flowers and Hemkund

2004-10-17T02:47:00.000+05:30

Sorry guys !!

I am still uploading my pics.