Category: Travel

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Arriving at Hyderabad.

Some of the key learnings for me from the trek were:

• Exercise and be physically fit before your trek. People often underestimate the level of fitness required for trekking. A good target for a medium-difficult trek such as Roopkund would be to jog 4 km in 30 mins or brisk walk 5 km in 45 mins (or equivalent aerobic exercises). Equally important is that you focus on stretching so that your body is flexible.
• Give time to break in new shoes. Don’t buy them at the last minute and directly start trekking.
• Don’t rely on a poncho. When it rains, it rains pretty bad and having a raincoat is much better.
• Keep yourself hydrated. It is recommended to drink at least 4-5 litres of water while trekking.
• Keep measuring your oxygen levels and pulse using an oximeter. If your oxygen levels are falling, you should consider going on a course of Diamox.
• Be ready for unexpected events. Not everything might go as planned and accept it. This is the whole point of the trek.
• When trekking with a larger group, you will have to maintain some average pace. If you want to do it at your own pace (either slower or faster), then you can consider forming a private group with a private guide.
• Indiahikes makes your trek safe and comfortable, to an extent where you feel part of a family. I would highly recommend it.

So, what about the experience of going on a holiday all by oneself? Well, there are two things here: one is going on a holiday alone and the second being trekking solo. Frankly speaking, considering that I have always been with a group except for my flight to-and-fro from my hometown, it didn’t feel like I was travelling alone. However, at times, it did feel that travelling with a known group of friends or family, would have been much more fun. Trekking solo, however, is a completely different experience, something which I don’t think I want to do anytime soon!

About two years ago, I had done the Valley of flowers trek and also went on my first international holiday to Thailand. I’ve always been wanting to blog about them but somehow never did it and have completely stopped blogging. With the Roopkund trek blog, I hope to restart blogging and blog more frequently going ahead!

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 8: Return to basecamp Lohajung.

The descent continued the next day, although, this time it was by vehicle and no longer by foot. At this point, group members began to split. Kapil, along with his buddies, decided to leave the earlier day itself. Others decided to proceed to their own destinations. However, a majority of us, including me, decided to head to Kahtgodam and catch the train to Delhi.

As we descended, we could see the clouds float in the air. And as we began to gain lower altitude, we came across wide paddy fields. At this point, the heart really feels like quitting the city life and to relocate to the mountains.

After a long 11 hour journey, including a stop at a restaurant for lunch, we reached Kahtgodam. We had a dinner at a restaurant, which was run by the brother-in-law of one of the group members. Post dinner, we boarded the train for an overnight journey to Delhi.

Go on to the next article in the series: Arriving at Hyderabad.

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 9: Driving back to Kathgodam and heading for home.

We reached Delhi railway station before sunrise. Having a flight to catch in a few hours, I headed to the airport with few other trek mates who had a flight to catch as well.

Upon reaching the airport, I had a quick breakfast at the Domestic Lounge and hoped on to the flight to Hyderabad. As I flew through the clouds, I recollected about the events in the past few days and how true what Shivam, our trek lead said was – “When we have a lot of new experiences, time feels to slow down”. And the last one week certainly felt a whole longer. I think it was also a moment of realization that I need to focus on having more newer experiences to continue to keep me motivated and energetic in life.

After a couple of hours, I finally landed in my hometown, Hyderabad and was back with my wife and kid.

Go on to the next article in the series: Summing up my experience

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 7: An attempt to reach Roopkund and down to Bedni Bugyal.

And, our prayers finally seem to be answered. We got up to realize that the rains had finally stopped after three days and the skies were clear. Not wanting to lose any time, we had a quick breakfast and began our descent to Wan. As mentioned earlier, our base camp, Lohajung was a 1-hour drive from Wan.

Having trekked in the rain for two consecutive days, the descent now felt pretty pleasant. The clear views of the mountains were a treat to the eyes compared to the fog that covered them during the past couple of days. We reached Wan after a few hours, where vehicles were readily waiting to take us to our base camp, Lohajung.

Upon reaching Lohajung, we got into our rooms and settled down. I realized that this was actually the first time after 7 days that I stepped into a concrete building.

Post dinner, we returned some of the things that Indiahikes had provided us and then had a quick debrief. All the trekkers shared their individual experiences and what their takeaways were from the trek. Our trek lead, Shivam, too shared his experiences. Among the many points he shared, three of them have definitely stuck in my mind.

The first thing he told us is that although none of us made it to Roopkund, the weather conditions under which we trekked was much more difficult compared to the ascent to Roopkund under normal weather conditions. He went on to say that the unexpected harsh weather was what made the trek so much more interesting and that the next time when we’d do a trek which is predictable, this element of adventure will be missed.

The second thing he told us is what another trek lead told us at Bhagwabhasa. Doing a trek with IndiaHikes is pretty comfortable but for a truly enriching experience, one must do a solo-trek. A solo-trek helps a person see life differently. When he said this, I sure decided to do a solo-trip, at least if not solo, maybe with a couple of friends and a personal guide.

And finally, he told us that for him, these treks were mainly about human connections. The greenery, the waterfalls and the mountains all become routine once you being to live in them but it is for the new connections that he finds his job as a trek lead so exciting!

That was indeed some good takeaways, something which I’ll definitely remember. For me, the fact that we faced adverse conditions and were able to embrace and overcome it successfully defined the true human spirit!

Finally, as a memento, we were given a certificate and had the option of buying a shirt mentiong that we had been on the Roopkund high altitude trek.

Go on to the next article in the series: Day 9: Driving back to Kathgodam and heading for home.

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 5: Heading for the next higher campsite – Patar Nachauni (altitude: 12700 ft).

This was the day where we would experience first-hand the harshness of the mountains! The rains that started the previous night showed no signs of stopping and while the rains were only sort of an inconvenience the previous night, today, they turned out to be really painful as we had to trek in the rain to our highest campsite. My water-proof gloves proved useless against the rain and I began to experience some sort of numbness in my fingers. I was extremely concerned by the numbness as I was feeling that prolonged numbness could lead to dead fingers (However, I later learnt that the temperatures have to be much lower and exposure much longer for something like this to happen). Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t much goofing around today and everybody just kept walking until they reached the campsite.

The incessant rains had by now began to take a toll on us. Our shoes, clothes, gloves, everything was drenched. The terrain was extremely rocky, which meant that if we were less likely to skid, but if we did, we’d hurt ourselves pretty bad. The toilets here also were dry compared to those at the other campsites, which was sort of an inconvenience. Almost all of us started to miss home at this point in time!

For the most of the day, we stayed in our tents and towards evening, gathered in the dinner tent. Here we started conversing with the Indiahikes staff. Of particular interest was a trek lead, who was stationed at this campsite for few weeks to take care of it. He had a lot of interesting stories to share, especially related to paranormal activities experienced by other trek leads. He also told us that he considered the facilities provided by IndiaHikes to be luxurious and to actually experience difficulties of trekking first-hand, one should attempt a solo trek. Among everything we discussed, the most interesting was the story of an endurance runner, Kilian Jornet. Climbing without fixed ropes or oxygen, he reached the Mount Everest summit via a new route in 26 hours. Now that’s quite a feat!

The next day, was the day when we would actually be trekking to Roopkund. However, the rains at our campsite indicated that there would be snow falling at Roopkund and hence the decision to actually trek to Roopkund would only be taken the next day.

Go on to the next article in the series: 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.

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 4: Short visit to Ali Bugyal (altitude: 12200 ft).

Today’s trek to the next higher campsite started by going past the lake that we had visited the last day.

As we trekked through the mountains, we realized that the landscapes encountered today were drastically different from what we had seen during the earlier days.

As soon as we reached our campsite around afternoon, it began to rain. It continued to rain for a while.

However, the rain had not yet dampened our spirits. While some of them preferred to stay in tents, a couple of us decided to put on our raincoats and go closer to others’ tents so that all of us could play a game of antakshari, a spoken parlour game.

After a couple of hours, the rain stopped for a short while and the sun came out. And now is when I saw the most beautiful site of the trek so far. A dual rainbow, one of them so close that I could almost feel like I could touch it. This was one of those moments where you feel words cannot describe your emotions.

The campsite, Patar Nachauni was harsher than we expected. It was a muddy terrain and the rains just made the situation worse as it became extremely slippery. Because of the altitude, the winds were chillier and the water was much much colder. It was hard washing our cutlery in this weather.

Towards evening, it was continuing to drizzle and we went to bed, hoping that we would have a clear sky the next day for our trek to the highest campsite. But little did we realize that not only was that from happening, we actually had something totally different in store for us!

Go on to the next article in the series: Day 6: Reaching the highest campsite – Bhagwabhasa (altitude: 14100 ft).

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 3: Trekking to the most beautiful campsite – Bedni Bugyal (altitude: 11500 ft).

Got up in the morning with the following view from my tent. Now, how often do we get to see something like this?

Although this was a break day, implying that we wouldn’t be heading for the next campsite, there was still a short trek planned to the top of Bedni, known as Ali Bugyal. Part of the reason for this was also to allow for acclimatization. Here is a picturesque view from the top of Ali Bugyal.

On our way back from Bedni Top to the campsite, we dropped by at a lake nearby, where one of our guides Devender narrated a story related to the lake.

We returned pretty early to our campsite and it was a relaxed day. This campsite actually had the facility to hold two trekking groups, and we had another group today who had just arrived from Ghairoli Patal. Consisting mostly of footballers, this group was much fit than ours. We came up with a new game wherein you have a person standing in the centre of the cril and you got to hit him with the frisbee. And it took quite some effort to get some of the other group’ trekkers out.

And who says a cricket stadium is needed for playing cricket?

Later in the evening, I was having a discussion with Amarnath, Siddharth and Rahul. Coincidentally, all four of us were travelling solo and somehow the conversation steered in this direction. Siddharth, a software engineer from Hyderabad, seemed to be quite in favour of travelling solo as one tends to mingle considerably more with others. He was discussing his experiences of his travel in U.K. when he had been there for work. I, on the other hand, felt that travelling solo vs. a group, both of them had their pros-and-cons. For me, it was sort of a funny experience. I did leave solo from Hyderabad, but all through the trek, I had the company of the trekking batch, although I had known none of them before.

As was the daily routine, we had soup followed by dinner. I decided to watch a movie before calling it a day and going to sleep!

Go on to the next article in the series: Day 5: Heading for the next higher campsite – Patar Nachauni (altitude: 12700 ft).

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 2: Get, Set, Go! Heading to our first campsite – Ghairoli Patal (altitude: 10000 ft).

Unlike my life back home, where I get up with the ring of the alarm clock, I got up by a wake-up call from one of the batch members, Kapil. Going ahead, I realized that I could sleep peacefully as I could always rely on Kapil giving a wake-up call. Kapil, along with Ameya and Vishal was a group working for Nomura in Mumbai. Encouraged by Ameya, they decided to take up this trek. Kapil also deserves a special mention for being the most-energetic member of the batch. All through the trek, even when the ascent was difficult, he used to sing to keep everyone motivated.

Just like the previous day, we got up, freshened up, had our Oximeter readings taken, had our breakfast and started trekking. One thing that did differ today was the number of people who decided to offload their backpacks. From 2 the previous day, it went up to 11 today.

The trek to Bedni Bugyal was relatively easy compared to our ascent the previous trek. The route did vary considerably compared to that of the previous day, as in, instead of forests, we came across a whole lot of meadows.

On our way to the campsite, we stopped at a small Dhaba for having some quick snacks. To find food at an altitude of 11000 ft, in the middle of nowhere, is extremely welcoming. And when I looked at the folks cook food with smoke from the wood burning the eyes, it reminded me the difficulties that the villagers have to go through to make their ends meet!

Perhaps, the second best photograph of the trek was taken here, which was of a flock of sheep grazing in the open meadows, with a shepherd watching over them. The baa of the sheep mingled with the sound of the bells around their neck, even when recollected today, continues to have a very soothing effect.

We continued our trek and finally reached Bedni Bugyal campsite. On reaching there, I was completely speechless and I will let this campsite picture speak for itself.

Covered with green meadows on all the four sides with mountain peaks such as Trishul and Chowkamba visible in the distance, it literally felt like I was in a different world.

Just like the previous day, we did a few stretching exercises followed by lunch. Then all of us relaxed for the rest of the day. Some of them took a stroll and went quite a distance away from the campsite but this was later strongly condemned by the trek lead and the guides as there was the risk of getting lost and Indiahikes was responsible for ensuring the safety of the trek members. I spent a few hours reading the book “Sapiens” lying in the grass before unknowingly falling asleep.

After a quick nap, I got up to realize that it was time for snacks. I had my snacks in the company of two doctors Abeer and Gaurav. Currently working in a Delhi hospital, they were discussing some of the difficulties of the profession. Coming from a family of doctors myself (although I’m not one), I could relate to some of the things that they were saying. There also seemed to be marked differences between how doctors in a private hospital are perceived compared to doctors running their own private clinics. Because of the commercialized nature of private hospitals, doctors in these hospitals seem to be approached by patients with a lot of scepticism compared to doctors running their own clinic, who on the contrary get a lot of respect from their patients.

As we were discussing all this, it was time for sunset, and the sun-rays falling on the Trishul peak made it look as if was covered with gold.

Shortly after snacks, soup and dinner followed. I watched an offline downloaded movie and went to bed relaxed knowing that the next day was a break day.

Go on to the next article in the series: Day 4: Short visit to Ali Bugyal (altitude: 12200 ft).

This post is part of Roopkund Trek – An unforgettable adventure!. The previous article in the series is Day 1: Arriving at Kathgodam, meeting the group and heading to Lohajung, the base camp (altitude: 7700 ft).

Every night, when we go to bed, we are told about when to get ready for the next day. We are given three timings. For instance, for the first day, it was 6.00, 7.00 and 8.00. What this means is that tea would be served at 6.00, breakfast at 7.00 and the trek would commence at 8.00. So, waking up to a beautiful morning in the Himalayas, all of us had breakfast and were ready to leave the base camp by 8.00. We were given some light snacks to carry along with us. Also, we were given the option of offloading our backpacks. And as far as I remember, only two of us (including me) decided to offload our backpacks on the first day.

The actual trek was to start from a village Wan, which was a 45 mins drive from Lohajung. Apart from the 23 trekkers and the trek lead, we also had two guides to assist us – Dhansingh and Devender. While Devender was from Wan, Dhansingh was from a different village. I ended up interacting with Dhansingh more and got to know that this was the 204th time that he was doing the Roopkund trek. He was initially working as a private guide and then joined Indiahikes a few years ago.

Once we reached Wan, we finally commenced the trek to our first campsite – Ghairoli Patal. The trek started with an initial steep ascent, towards the end of which was a temple.

It continued into a forest and on the way, we got to see a variety of flora and often got to see the Neel Ganga river.

We also took frequent breaks at small shops which were en-route to our campsite.

For almost the entire trek, I was trekking with Smitha. She was having difficulty during ascent and hence often we two ended up trekking separately, either starting early or lagging behind. Smitha, a CA by profession, and unmarried by choice was trekking for the first time in life. I got to know a lot about her personality through the trek and realized how she never hesitated from doing what was right or what her heart told, even when the society strongly discouraged it. She fondly spoke of her late father, who loved the Himalayas and how this trek was sort of a dedication to him. Accompanying both of us, often was the guide Dhansingh. While we often missed the stories narrated by the other guide, Devender who was with the front trekkers, we had the advantage of some special fruit treats by Dhansingh and experiencing nature at a more relaxed pace.

After a good 8 km trek for about 5 hours, we finally reached our campsite – Ghairoli Patal. We quickly did a few stretching exercises, after which we received instructions about staying in the campsite. We were to stay in tents. Each tent was to be occupied by 3 persons. The trek leader and the guides slept in a separate tent. And there was a separate tent for the 3 ladies in the batch. We were not supposed to keep our trekking shoes or poles inside the tent. The tent had two layers, the outer layer to protect from rain and the inner layer to protect from wind. We were supposed to keep it closed at all times. Toilet tents were about 100 metres away from the sleeping tents. Lunch was to be served immediately, snacks were to be served at 4.00, soup at 6.00 and dinner at 8.00. We were to supposed to wash our own utensils, which became quite excruciating at higher altitudes.

My tent mates turned out to be two IISC PhD students – Hari and Harish. They were pretty cool and the three of us adjusted pretty well. Both of them had done the Hampta pass trek last year. While Hari was still pursuing his PhD, Harish had completed his PhD a while back, worked at IBM and was now due to join IIT-Delhi as an assistant professor. As nerdy as his qualifications might sound, Harish had a pretty good sense of humour. I remember asking him if I’d wake up a bit more smarter as were sleeping in the same tent, to which he replied that the probability of me waking up a bit more crazier was higher as it was his crazier side rather than his academic side that was active currently.

Along with Hari and Harish, there were three more IISC students, who had come with them – Chaitu, Arun and Nishant. Arun had already graduated from IISC but Chaitu and Nishant were still studying. The youngest among the ladies in the batch, Chaitu seemed like always wanting more action. And I’ll remember Nishant for his account of leech trouble that he and his friend faced during one of their treks. They had ended up with leeches inside the mouth and the ear. While I wasn’t petrified by it, it certainly made me cautious and I always made it a point to check my shoes every day morning before putting them on for any hidden insects.

After lunch, some of us decided to have a quick nap while other whiled away the time by gossiping. I decided to read my book “Sapiens”, which I got my hands on just a couple of books. I felt reading about our evolutionary history while being close to nature would be quite situational.

We all gathered together post snacks at 4.00 to introduce ourselves, for which we didn’t have time during the previous day at our base camp. The trek leader also suggested that we give ourselves nicknames so that it would be easier for others to remember the names. I decided to name myself “Rowdy Rahul” for apparently no good reason. I guess that was the first adjective that came to my mind starting with ‘R’ and I just decided to stick to it. Part of that exercise was also to repeat the nicknames that other had given to themselves. And it was fun watching how the nicknames were often goofed up by others while repeating. For instance, one of the trekkers named Ameya, nicknamed himself “Awesome Ameya” with a lot of pride, only to be confused it with “Awful Ameya” by another trekker.

Post a fulfilling dinner at 7.00, some of us went back to sleep in our tents. I, along with some others, spent some time gazing at the clear skies. I tried to capture a few pictures of the milky way, but my basic point and shoot wasn’t good enough for capturing it. This was captured by other trekkers, who had DSLR. And here is one of the photographs that a fellow trekker, Rahul, had shared in the group.

Rahul, an avid biker, had decided to drive down from Delhi to Lohajung (a whopping 500 km). He was travelling next to Valley of Flowers for another trek. He had a 2-week leave, and he intended to make the most of it. Rahul is alos interested in photography and the milky way photography that you have seen above is his courtesy.

I went back to my bed once I felt I had my fill of the night sky and as I fell asleep, I wondered how the next day would turn out to be!

Go on to the next article in the series: Day 3: Trekking to the most beautiful campsite – Bedni Bugyal (altitude: 11500 ft).