Roopkund Trek - Day 7: An attempt to reach Roopkund and down to Bedni Bugyal

This post is part of Roopkund Trek - An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 6: Reaching the highest campsite - Bhagwabhasa (altitude: 14100 ft).

Two of the staff members left before dawn to go and get first-hand information about the weather at Roopkund. They came back with a report that it was snowing and an attempt could be made to reach Roopkund. However, considering the severity of the weather, some of us were either asked or ourselves decided to stay back. About 16 of the group members decided to go ahead and attempt to reach Roopkund. I was among those who decided to stay back, as I felt my body was strained and wanted to preserve energy for the return journey.

While the group left for their ascent to Roopkund, I hanged out in a nearby Dhaba with some of the other trekkers who stayed back. We chit-chatted about our next options were. After a couple of hours, the group who went up came back. Unfortunately, they couldn't make the final destination and just fell short 800m of their final destination. The weather beyond this point was pretty bad and it wasn't worth the risk.

After some discussion, it was finally decided that a descent would now be made to Bedni Budyal, where we would stay for the night and descend to our base camp the next day. We began the descent to Bedni Budyal. The rains had gotten worse and the winds stronger. But the fact that we are now on our journey back home, to a safer and warmer place, kept our motivation levels high.

After trekking for a few hours, we finally reached Bedni Bugyal. And we were in for a total surprise here. All our sleeping tents, including the dining and toilet tents, were blown away by the wind.

Luckily, there were also some solid structures which were stronger than the tents and provided us shelter. We split into two groups and made ourselves cosy in two of such shelters.

We were so tired towards the end of the day and the unceasing rains made us reluctant to step out of this shelter even for dinner. This is where Indiahikes staff truly shined. They took the extra pain of getting all the food from the kitchen to our shelters and serving us food, while we were refusing to even come out of the sleeping bags, in which we warmly wrapped ourselves. Today, for the first time, they didn't feel like Indiahikes staff, but like family!

We all went to bed, hoping that the rains would stop for the final descent the next day!

Go on to the next article in the series: Day 8: Return to basecamp Lohajung.