And So I Went!

Quite a few people asked me how I figured this place out. I do know that my reference point was the trip that Prashant, Subhadip, and others made a few years ago, but I cannot seem to recall when I decided that I want to do it. The idea of doing the trek had not even crossed my mind when I first read their respective blog posts. But I did think about it recently enough and planned it for the Good Friday weekend. 

After the regular back and forth over emails, it was finally a mixed group of seven people ready to rough it out to Chopta, Tungnath, and potentially Chandrashila top in Uttarakhand. The Chandrashila stretch would have been a factor of things like strength/capacity remaining, weather conditions, time, et cetera. 

The Gang - Sumit, Nidhi, Samridhi, Maria, Arya, Varun

We left in a train from Delhi on Thursday night and reached Haridwar at 4:00 am. The car that we had booked from there to Chopta did not work out for us because the driver turned up drunk. His boss tried to convince us that 'woh shudh ho ke chala hai' but that obviously didn't work. My super sense of smell won! So we tried figuring some other options and finally managed a car from Rishikesh. The journey from Haridwar to Rishikesh was covered in an auto. There was a chill in the morning air and somehow that was enough to figure that Chopta was going to be colder than what we all imagined. 

We were right. It kept getting colder as we ascended, and was freezing in Chopta. In fact, it started raining even before we checked in at the sole lodge (Hotel Neelkanth) over there. But the view also got more and more scenic as we moved higher up. Chopta was covered in pink flowers and fresh snow. The air was clean, cold and thin. And we all knew that we were at the perfect place for the weekend.

The first time that I saw these flowers

First views

 

I have rarely challenged myself physically. I got a rush when I saw the snow-covered peaks and thought that I'd be very proud of myself if I manage to climb successfully. But the first challenge was to manage the temperature. There was no electricity. Our so-called hotel obviously had no facilities. We were told we could get hot water but even that wasn't available. The caretaker tried to get a bonfire going but the wood was too wet. I layered myself up, had a lot of soup at the dhaba across the street, and took Varun's blanket as well, but none of that seemed to help. At night, I even thought that I may never go to Ladakh if it was as cold or more. But finally I managed some sleep and got up at 5:00 am for the trek.

Base camp

The sun appeared for a short while in the evening

Nobody could get enough of these flowers

6 am moon

We didn't leave before 8:30 am. Time was wasted in a lot of slow prep and some more slow prep. I was already at 60 per cent lung capacity and my nose was leaking. The first ten steps were hard. I knew I had to walk slow, concentrate on the breathing, and just focus on not giving up. The leg held up rather well. We had a clear track to walk on for only the first 300 metres or so. After that the snow cover kept getting heavier. We trudged along. Varun helped me climb quite a bit. I saw some other group of guys give up midway. That gave me a strangely good feeling about myself. And the strategy of not letting the mind think that the body is tired always works. Yes, I have selective control over my mind. After all, I had myself to beat at the challenge. With many a stops and a terrible cramp in a toe, it took 3.5 hours to reach Tungnath. I, technically, stopped a few steps before the temple. The highest of all the Kedars. I had little energy left and I was concerned about making it back to Chopta. A part of me was extremely disappointed when I admitted to myself that I would not be able to do the Chandrashila stretch. That is what I was aiming for. I even unrealistically believed that if I did not have to come down the same day, I could have managed to go all the way. But that was just me imagining things. And so I stopped. Others reiterated that it was still an accomplishment. I believed them. Finally nobody could go up because heavy clouds started approaching us. It was too late to begin climbing Chandrashila. One should leave at 5:30 am for that.

Poser!

The only meadow

Goofy was scared of me :)

Maria got cold feet (not) :P

During one of the many stops to catch a breath

It was tiring, but I was happy :)

This first-timer was the underdog. Climbed quietly and steadily!

When they took a short cut and went from last position to first position

I sat holding my cramped toe, and she got a stranger to click her picture from my camera

You see, we all had an agenda. :P

When he didn't pose

When I admitted I was losing energy

All of us. Varun clicked

The view from where I stopped

The descend was far harder on the back. It killed me. And the snow was slippery enough to get the pulse racing at every half a step that I tended to lose control of at that incline. 

With the friendly couple we met on the way back

The sisters! :D

It started raining (with hail) while we were still on our way back but this time I didn't feel a thing. Had finally warmed up. :)

So, I don't know if I completed the challenge (selective judgment), but I certainly feel good. It was the bravest thing I ever did. We were on the edge the whole time. The experience was so unreal that I cannot believe I was actually there three days ago. I don't even know if I can do it again. 

All of us, by the dhaba that saved our lives

We wished to do the Deorital hike too, but the fact that we couldn't get train tickets to get back to Delhi meant way too long a drive the next day. So we chose to come down some distance on Saturday itself and managed to get till Rudraprayag by the evening. The hotel here felt like a palace after the previous day's experience. The balcony had a good view too.

From the balcony

While someone else was puking :P

Next morning we left early so that we could at least make use of having Rishikesh on the way. Five of us went rafting. I have done it before, but I was still a little scared. Apparently the Ganges was kind to us, but all I know is that I managed this one smoothly too. :D

The kids!

The drive back to Delhi was an expected nightmare. Reached home only by 11 pm. The skin was burnt, the head was spinning, muscles were aching, but the sense of having done 13000 feet was overwhelming. Still is. 

Last year, Keylong at 11000 feet was hard enough to walk around in. Did not imagine even then that I could do it. 

And I came back with my own picture of the place!

Can I reach the Valley of Flowers? I have more hope today than I did till a week ago.

Source: Google 

The Winter Trip to Kumaon

Continuing from where I left, I was on a very tight seven-day road trip on the following route.

Delhi>Bilaspur>Rudrapur>Nainital>Sitla>Mukteshwar>Almora>Patal Devi>Kasar Devi>Chitai>Jageshwar>Almora>Kasar Devi>Kausani>Mohlidhar>Ranikhet>Kathgodam>Delhi

So while I was working, the little and the lot that I experienced and managed to absorb (cannot claim to explore at all) would be the following.

# Sitting in the front seat can help avoid a lot of winding-roads-motion-sickness.

# Sitting in the front can be very taxing for your otherwise overworked brain if the driver wants to talk non-stop in order to keep himself awake.

# I can love the smell of freshly sanitized hotel rooms. And then suddenly hate them.

# More cities growing the Rudrapur or Almora way will really ruin our country.

# I love the defence forces. I just do. And I love how they maintain the places they live in. Ranikhet being the case in point.

# Sitla is a cold place. Very very cold place.

# The 50 km aerial distance between Kausani and the Himalyan peaks does not feel good. The force wants you to be on the other side. But that is also a cold place. Very very cold place. Especially if you are doing sunrise/sunset photo shoots.

# I met at least 10 new people and covered the previous 11 months' deficit of that in my life.

# The new things I saw/did: eat methi ka laddoo, bhatt ke dubke, maduey ki roti, and bal mithai, have fresh cow's milk, stand in a smelly cold storage, live in a building built in 1880, get overwhelmed by the artificialness of floriculture, watch the process of flower tissue culture, trek an unbelievable amount with my half dysfunctional legs, visit the Sun Temple at Katarmal, the Golu Devta Temple at Chitai, get the stories of both, meet some people who are doing some absolutely brilliant work in the region, understand that the thousands of pine trees are just ruining the ecology of the region, that kiwis are now being grown indigenously, learn about the art called aipan, see-touch-step on-and-freeze thanks to frost, among many other things.

# Gods were nice enough to keep the weather sunny through our entire trip. But I still know now what a solar eclipse apparently feels like.

# I had a bold ice cream in Nainital. And I had a bolder ice cream in colder Ranikhet. :D

# I had more tea in those seven days than I had cumulatively had over the past 24 years. And the last one somehow knew that it was the last one. I could just not have taken any more of it.

# Like a cool dude I decided to not carry the extra weight of a hair brush. That made me realise that my hair isn't after all so short.

# After the first two days, my colleague and I had become completely oblivious of the way we looked. It felt less of an official trip and more of a backpacking tour across the region. The same shoes, socks, coat, cap, neck warmer, gloves, and the self... without any accessories, basic kajal, or any other form of formality, we just trudged along - town to town, hotel to hotel.

# I am not a heater/hot water bottle person. At all. I just need my multiple layers of blankets in place.

# The region offers very good food.

# Airtel acts very idiotic through most part of the region. I had to dial every number at least 4-5 times before connecting through.

# Most natives' looks were deceiving vis-a-vis their age. They all looked unbelievably younger than what they really were.

# I saw lemons that were 10 times the size of what we get in our cities.

# Got blessings I did not expect, got compliments I did not expect, and had a trip more awesome than I expected.