Roopkund was my first high altitude trek in the mighty Himalayas
and boy were people right, it's romanticism at its best. This trek has
everything from forests to unending meadows to storms to snowfall to snow-capped
mountain peaks to a FROZEN lake.
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| Group picture at the start of the trek |
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| Credits : Rushabh Bhide |
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| Sun Streaming through the dense forest cover |
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| Credits : Sai Tilak The beautiful bridge at Neel Ganga |
The second day we
started out and a short ascend later we had left the forest behind and had
entered the bugyals. The meadows were just splendid. Miles and miles of grassy
meadows till as far as the eyes could see. They were simply splendid. From our
first camp site we had a choice of 2 trails, there was a shorter steeper trail
that we did not take and I am so glad we did not because then we would not have
come across the beauty of Ali Bugyal. Our second campsite at Bedni Bugyal was
simply beautiful. We faced a little rainfall but the sunset that followed over
the meadows was fantastic. It was a
clear night and lying down in the meadows stargazing ranked in my top 5
experiences of the trek. It is fantastic where you can actually see all the
constellations clearly. In fact you may even spot Mars and Jupiter with the
naked eye. The night was so beautiful you honestly do not feel like going back
to your tent. Below are some pictures from the second day.
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| Sunset in the Bugyals |
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| Credits : Raj Morbia A fellow trekker mesmerised with the beauty of the Bugyals |
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| Credits : Onil Shah The endless bugyals |
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| Credits : Onil Shah Look at the stars...Look how they shine for you... |
The third day for me was the easiest climb as our bodies
were continuously acclimatising and getting used to the increased regular
physical demands. The trail was also beautiful where we could see our campsite
from miles. Today we camped at Pathar Nachauni . This campsite taught us a lot
where we faced some rough weather. There was a point where we were standing in
the dining tent and our trek lead came running and told us to get out and
minutes after that our tent collapsed. We went and sat in our tents amidst
heavy rainfall. When it seemed to calm down and we exited our tents the trail
and mountains in front of us were covered with snow and it was brilliant. Below is a picture from our third day.
The Fourth day started off with me coming out of the tent
and looking at the trail disappearing beyond the snow-capped mountains at Kaluvinayak.
The thought of climbing it literally took my breath away. We started off and
after a point we had left the lovely meadows and now had reached an altitude
where nothing grew or survived on the rough terrain. After a few hours we
reached the highest point of the day’s climb at Kaluvinayak temple which is a
beautiful temple set amidst the Himalayas there. There was one incident that is
imprinted in my mind which is when we were climbing and our guide reached the
top and blew the conch (shankha) there was a sense of this beautiful positive
energy that seemed to flow all around. Our camp of the day at Bhagwabasa was a
short descent away now. The campsite was beautiful. The tents were literally
pitched on snow. At that high altitude of around 14500 feet when we were having
hot kadhi chawal which was delicious by the way, a friend ran in and asked us
to come out. On walking out I saw my first snowfall. After having lunch I went
and sat in this small dhaba that served Maggi and Tea and sat there enchanted
watching the heavy snowfall for hours. I then went into my tent to layer up
when it had turned into a bit of a snowstorm. When I came out, after a bit the
snowstorm had stopped and there was a beautiful sunset taking place in the
background and what followed was a huge snow fight amongst all of us. We were
then introduced to our technical team of six people who were going to guide us
for our final summit climb tomorrow. We were given spikes and gaiters and
taught how to use them. After an hour of practise we had dinner and retired
early with a plethora of thoughts in our head about the final summit climb. Below are some pictures from our fourth day.
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| Pitcure of my tent with today's trail in the background. |
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| The Beautiful Himalayas |
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| Kaluvinayak Temple |
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| Credits : Romit Stepping out of the tents to have a snowfight. |
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| Credits : Romit All of us practicing how to walk using spikes with help from the technical team and Squadron Leader Amrit |
Fifth day- We were all up and about by 2 am packing and
getting ready. We left at 4 a.m. in pitch darkness with the help of head
torches. We had to be much disciplined on the final ascent and technical team
was very strict and rightly so. The motivation by the team and some people in
the group was superb. We reached the summit at 7.30 am. The last ascent is
superb and a little taxing at the same time for first timers as it is quite a
steep angle and a considerable distance. All this aside when you reach the
summit there is no feeling that can match the exhilaration you feel. If you are
someone who keeps their emotions locked up it all comes out at once and that is
how overwhelming it is. The view is superb and cannot be put into words. There
it was Roopkund right below us sitting there all frozen and beautiful with the
skeletons and souls resting peacefully inside the lake. There is also a temple
built at the summit. After a few celebratory punches in the air we had
breakfast of hot aloo parathas with pickle at the top at 15,750 feet. We
started our descent at sharp 8.45 a.m. because it gets treacherous once the
snow starts melting because of the sun being overhead.Below are some pictures we took at the summit.
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| Team Picture at the summit. |
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| Credits : Rushabh Bhide Roopkund |
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| The Mighty Himalayas |
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| Credits : Rushabh Bhide |
The descent was a lifetime experience for me with some renewed confidence and self-belief. We then had lunch at Bhagwabasa and spent some time listening to music and looking at the snow-capped mountains. Bhagwabasa truly was the most beautiful and stunning campsite. It is absolutely magical. We then continued our descent to Pathar Nachauni. On reaching Pathar Nachauni we continued listening to music and staring up at the beautiful clear skies and the mighty mountains we had just conquered. What followed after that was a huge storm where we had to sit in our individual tents for hours. Our kitchen and dining tents had collapsed and so was the might of nature that it took a few other empty tents with it as well. Why I am mentioning this is because the winds were something I had never experienced. I finally know how powerful a storm can be. A special shout out to the team at Indiahikes and the locals here. There was a point when amidst the heavy storm and the first kitchen tent collapsing, they continued cooking for us in another tent with 14 people holding the tent up while 2 people cooked us hot dinner and that is what is commendable. They were also keeping a watch on all our tents. The spirit of everyone working selflessly in that weather was commendable and something I will never forget. Thank you. Next morning we woke up to find clear weather and we continued with our descent after thanking everyone there. I descended as slowly as possible not wanting to let go and not wanting this beautiful journey to end. Something amazing that I noticed was on the way down every child who I came across folded their hands and greeted us with a smile which was such a treat. Slowly as we descended we left the mountains behind and then the meadows and then the forests but we carried with ourselves renewed belief and memories we made and the lessons we learnt. Below are a few pictures and a video we took during our descent.
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| Credits : Sai Tilak |
The experience was invaluable. I would just like to improve
on what Edmund Hillary once said by saying that we never really just conquer a
mountain but we also conquer our fears, our apprehensions and everything else.
We also start appreciating the small things in life and nothing seems
impossible anymore. A big shoutout to Salman our trek lead, Harsh our assistant
Trek Lead, Yogambar Bisht our head guide, Balbir our sweeper who never left a
man behind and made sure everyone was ahead of him , our technical team, the
whole team from lohajung to Bhagwabasa that helped us, motivated us ,took care
of us no matter what the weather conditions and Bir whose guidance and tips
were superb lifetime lessons and for teaching us Hand Uno as well. I would also
like to thank Indiahikes for the brilliant Green Trails initiative that is
helping to keep our Himalayas clean. To everyone out there who has never
trekked before I hope this motivates them to do it once because you simply just
take back so much but a fair warning that once you do go you will want to go
back again and again. I am signing off with this brilliant picture a friend of mine took during the trek. P.S. : All pictures here have been taken by me unless specified in the captions and is the sole property of the photographer.
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| Credits : Onil Shah |
