Roopkund trek
“There is a voice that doesn’t use words” – Rumi. I believe it is our inner voice most of the time. Sometimes the subsonic voice in you becomes too loud for you to handle and you got to listen to it. So what was my inner me craving for ? Freedom from everything routine.
So what is not routine my mind pondered, as I was in my yoga class with my head between my legs bending down and secretly looking at the watch upside down. The person behind me was wearing an ‘India Hikes’ T shirt with ‘Chandar Thal’ on it. Interesting I thought and questioned my abilities as I walked back home. The vegetable vendor came by and gave me a pack of greens for that day, wrapped in a newspaper. “Travel to Live” says an ad of a travel agency. Smiling to my self wondering if was that a sign, I heard my phone cling with an FB notification. The first image I come across was that of a place called ” Roop Kund “. It was love at first sight. My heart rate raised seeing the beauty of the place. Before I could change my mind I was booking my trip and sending enquiries to trekking groups for my first Solo trek.
My first stop was ‘#IndiaHikes‘ as it seems to be the more popular one. As I filled in the basic questionnaire there was a question on MY BMI, and a note that any one above 26 BMI is not eligible for the Trek. I was not 26. I am a 33 BMI. I was really hurt. I tried calling them and they said they would check the BMI of people just before the trek and disqualify them for a trek if found otherwise. I told them I am a trekker, and I have trekked a 37 kms before, but they refused to accommodate. I was totally pissed. I know I am capable and these people won’t let me. Another day of search led me to #Thrillophilia. I spoke to the team first and raised the BMI issue before they did. A heart warming response saying you can do the trip if you have the will power to do it set the wheels going. I booked my trip one month away from then giving myself time to prepare myself for the trip and of course my family for being away from there 24/7 helpline that’s me;-).A one month training guideline came from #Thrillophilia next day and I that was my only Mantra for the next month to come. I started carrying my loaded backpack with a 10 kg weight, and climbing up my little granite rock at Lalbagh.My teen son was my partner for my walks and runs most of the days. Made loads of new friends in the process as I was the loan backpacker climbing the great Lalbagh Rock.Now I am all set to go. Bangalore – Delhi – Kathgodam.
Day 2 : Yes ! This is my first solo trip. I am travelling through Delhi to a god forsaken Kathgodam in a train which reaches at 10:45 PM raised a lot of eyebrows at home which I am sure are still stuck there. I have a list of emergency contact numbers of the trekking company, contact number of another girl who would be my companion during the Trek “Subhashree” printed and stuck on the fridge. My elder one was very supportive, so was my helpless husband who could not say No to me. My little one who is not yet 5, though she put on a brave face, I know is going to miss me a lot. I hope she is Ok. Leaving Bangalore at 20 Deg early in the morning and sitting at Old Delhi Station at 2:00 PM at 45 Degree is like a huge shock to the system. Glad I was not alone. Connected with another hiker a 23 year old from Bangalore and was happy to know he was trekking to Roopkund too. Let me describe him in one sentence. He is India Hikes worthy 
Day 3 :
“Travel not to find yourself, but to remember who you have been all along”.
The sudden silence from your daily chaos of life, the non existent routine day after day, and the serenity of the most amazing nature – “You meet yourself!!”
My team Sharath, Teja, Subhashree, Santosh selvraj, me and Pramod Sharma our guide for the trek were all ready for our day after a delicious breakfast of Poori and chana. Pramod Sharma pointed us to our destination today – “Didna” a few hills across, like a quick hop and jump away. But rolling hills as we know are very deceiving in there distance
;-). 10 KM. 8045 ft altitude.
A easy stroll along the road for 2k let us to the nearest village with terraced fields. We descended along the terraced fields and reached the steam in the valley.
I met many enthusiastic teams on the way – sojourners for the rest of the trip to come. Meeting at regular intervals at rest points we made our way uphill towards Didna. Ours was the only group with just 5 people, lucky for us as we got to know the others well and watch out of each other all along. Out first stop was Maggi point. A small shack with two people making Maggi for all us hikers. We had no other stream as we climbed uphill and we could buy water for Rs.30.00. The local shopkeeper there was embarrassed as he charged us Rs.30.00 and in a coy way said “Madam hamko ithna door panni lekar aana padtha hai na”. I told him about the rip off we city people face in theatres when the same water is charged Rs.100 and I was more than happy to pay him Rs.30 for a bottle of water.
Walking along the tall pines and Rhododendron forests with barely any flowers, we climbed uphill and reached Didna at around 2:00 PM. A very warm welcome awaited us there with Rhododendron juice. Our team was allocated one room with 9 beds. Had a bad lunch as the food was uncooked.
Pramod Sharma strictly advised us not to sleep in the afternoon so as to adjust to the place and altitude. Sleeping would make us groggy and sleepless in the night we were told. So I took this opportunity to chat with all the other teams lodging close to me.
Our guide called us for a short outing in the evening giving us a briefing of the next days trek and showing us the village arround. He spoke of the legend of Chokamba kadu – “A Four Horned Ram.
Here is the legend in gist from Pramod Sharma and ofcourse Google .
A four horned Ram is born every 12 years in one of the nearby villages of Kumauon. ( They are born with two horns and they sprout out two more as they grow). The Ram is identified to be of that family by a group of brahmins. Celebrating the rare ram birth a three-week long Nanda Devi Raj Jat festival is celebrated. The Jat starts from Nauti village about 25 kms from Karnprayag and goes up to the heights of Roopkund and Homekund with a four horned sheep in the lead. After the Yagna is over, the sheep is freed with decorated ornaments, food and clothing’s into the sacred forest.
Hope you guys liked the story today. Tomorrow we are off to Bedni Bugyal.
Day 4:
After a good night’s sleep with the bells of the mules ringing all night like a background music, we woke up to a crisp and bright day. After a not so great breakfast and and a very sad looking packed lunch given in our hands we left Didna at 8:30 hoping to see a Maggi point enroute. Walking along pine trees and beautiful green paths we saw some dark clouds congregating above us. It is going to be a messy wet walk uphill we thought and we hurried up. We were going from 8000 ft to 11000 ft today over a distance of 7 k and a plesant 3 k in the meadows.
Hiking with the 20 year olds I was reliving my college days all over again. Instant humour ,spontaneity ,carefree talk and lots of energy. Met a wonderful women Sureka (46) at Didna. Very inspired by her achievements, Mt.Kilimanjaro being her latest.
Now I have really gone far from civilisation where even Airtel cannot reach me. As we walked up the hill which seemed to be tougher than yesterday, we reached the top at about 10000 ft. All of a sudden the landscape changed. The pine trees were not above us. We are above them. It was quite a site to see. We could see the hill we came from two days ago. We could see the untouched green beautiful meadows as far as our eyes could see. A horse or two grazing on the fresh grass and a few wild flowers. The wind speed was higher than expected. The winds had blown the clouds far away leaving behind a pleasant sunny day. We rested for a short while in the meadow and had our packed lunch. A beautiful Hindi old favourite song of mine by Mukesh ” Ohore tall mile nadhi ke jal me ” played in the tape recorder of a small sack selling water. I was in the state of euphoria.
Far ahead we saw our tents for the day. Bedhni Bugyal our home for tonight. One of the most romantic spots in the Himalayas, this Bugyal (meaning meadow ) had the most beautiful sunset and mountains all around it. We saw Trishul mountain and the Nanda Ghunti (Parvathi’s veil) just as we look up. I was amused by the beautiful name of the mountain itself. Parvathi’s veil – It looked like a beautiful bride’s veil spread across with a peak as the head of the bride and the other shorter peaks as the extended veil.
There were tents of four other groups. 40 tents in total spread over the vast meadow. Met Sureka again at the campsite. We shared the tent for the night.
Just as we prepared to sleep, me and Surekha heard a women scream saying she was having a heart attack. We ran out of the tent to check on her. She was wearing a normal churidhar kurtha and an unzipped jacket. The temperature outside was 4 degrees. She told us she was feeling warm and she was getting a heart attack. I smiled and told her – ‘No you are feeling cold and you are shivering. Please wear a thermal and zip up your jacket’. Sureka was smiling too. That women had come with her husband was totally unprepared. She had come from a local town with just her daily clothes. Her husband gave his extra jacket and in five minutes she settled down. It was just cold air causing spasm in the lungs, and only getting your body warmer will help. I guess being older and wiser has its benefits
Day 5 : All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware of – Martin Buber
My journey by foot would lead me to the destination, but I know I have changed. I have changed from within. I am in a new state of mind, which I have never been before. This is a destination which is secretly mine.
Today’s trek was a not so high hill at 13200 ft, followed by a meadow walk to Pathar-Nachauni which was at 12700ft. Our team was up and ready for the day. As we prepared to leave we heard a few people from other groups had dropped out due to altitude sickness. Some dropped out due to shear lack of will power to see it to the end.The wind speeds picked up, as we climbed up. Reaching the top of 13200ft, we had a panoramic view of the valley before us. Mt.Trisul ahead of us was breath taking. We rested at the top for a while, as we had a lot of time at our leisure.We reached Pathar-nachauni by noon. It was cold already as it had snowed on the mountain next to us Kalu Vinayak. Had really good hot food sitting inside the shed protecting us from the chill wind outside.Now I will be showing you today the inside of the bathroom near our tent. Now this particular one was a fancy one with a western comod style arrangement. But mostly it is just a pit , but with the ploughed mud and the plough kept right next to the pit and given a privacy of a 3X3 ft space, with a zip enclosure. So we use it, cover it with the unearthed mud, come out clean and happy :)This temporary toilet is shifted everyday to a different fresh pit. This definitely is a luxury when you have done a real camping abroad walk-in behind bushes with shovels and paper towels.As days passed with us( my mini team) being together, we knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses to a certain extent. Subhashree a sweet girl at 25 was in her final stage of OCD – she was a Germaphobe. She was in charge of the hand sanitizer . Period. Did you wash your hands before food ? Diid you brush ? Did you &?@ …… . In two days we were all like trained puppies in front of her. As we sit next to food eager to eat, we know someone is giving this the look of disgust and doubt. We prove to her our current cleanliness status and we get the nod. She is a very caring, fun person to be with as long as you have the sanitiser handy:) Will write about my other two friends in the next few episodes to come 
Day 6:
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.
Seeing the black mountain going straight up ahead of me, I had no other thoughts than to endure it and climb it.
Ready by 8:00 as we were having breakfast, our guide Pramod Sharma told us that, we would be accompanied by a technical team who would guide us till the summit, and he would not come with us for the next two days. That was a bummer. He was just perfect for us. He was a story teller, a quiet and mature hiker. He took great care of us making sure we were taken care all through out. We will miss him. He introduced us to two more guides. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Our destination today was Bhagwabasa via Kalu Vinayak. A climb of 2000 ft over 4 kms, followed by a decent to the base camp of the summit – Bhagwabasa.
The black mountain Kalu Vinayak was as expected a tough climb. It was a zig-zag right till the top. Our approach – Stop at every zig and every zag
;-). Teja was the fastest of us all. He found his soul mate for climbing in the new Sherpa / guide who came with us. He climbed up like a mountain goat cutting across the paved ways, while the rest of us dragged ourselves up. I was actually bored and tired. ” All the best ….. All the best” came voices from above I imagined, only to lift my head up too see people who were returning from the trek with an end to end smile trying to pep us up
😉 A sheepish grin is all I could return walking uphill a never ending road.
Two hours later, we were at Kalu Vimayak looking down at the camp site we came from. We got our first glimpse of Roop Kund from here.
Our exhaustion magically vanished. Awe, wonder and contentment are the emotions that engulfed me when I sat sat on top of this mountain with a temple next to me and a deep valley ahead of me. The temple is made of bare sheet stones stacked on another, decked with bells all around. Here at the temple is an auspicious counch. “Blow the counch and your hearts deepest desires would be fulfilled” said the guide of an adjacent group. I had to try it. See the video for my edited version of failed attempts to do it. Please don’t miss the hand sanitiser on Subhashree’s insistence.
We descended down the hill towards Bhagwabasa with our two guides, one a nit wit and the other no were to be found in our vicinity.
Reached our basecamp for a late lunch and at around 2:00. It is pretty cold already. We experienced our first snow at 4:00 PM. Light feathery snow flakes kissed our bare faces and melted into nothingness. We saw the tents slowly getting covered with snow. Wind speeds picked up again and we had to retire to our tents for sometime.
We were called for a orientation by our guide at around 6:00 PM about do’s and dont’s during tomorrow trek. We were given our spikes to be carried for tomorrow. We were also told that if the snow fall doesnt stop by night they would abruptly cancel the hike up Roopkund and send us back home. We have just one chance to make it, and weather is the only obstacle.
We were promised a very early dinner at 7:00 by the guide, and we reached the dining tent by then. The oaf of a guide we were stuck with was busy singing with no symphony or harmony with any of the instrumnts he was trying to use. I could not take the noise levels much, and could not bluntly ask him to shut up. I started a conversation with hm hoping he would shut his harmony box during the time. He boasted himself of being a quick learner. He asked me to give him the song I would love to hear and promised to catch the tune instantaniously. Anything to keep him shut I thought. I played him ” Maruvarthi Pesadhe ” – By Sid Sriram on my phone. He connected it to the speaker. In minutes I saw the tent flooding with people who walked in to listen to it. Lot of chatter and several repeats of the same song later, we were served dinner. We came back to the tent to prepare us for tomorrow.
Day 7
Day 7 :
“There are two kinds of pain – the sort pf pain that makes you strong, and the sort that’s only suffering and is useless.” Life has given me taste of both and now I am mature enough to choose the former anytime.
We started at 3:30 AM (me, Santosh and Teja) for our last leg – Roop Kund Summit. It was a 4 km hike up hill at 40 Degree incline. We had our day bags with 2 litre water, a small bag of dry fruits, crampons and head torch ready. I was feeling terribly cold and hence layered us with 6 layers of clothing. (Big mistake). We were given wheat (Dhalia ) Porridge with very little sugar, one cup. Could not get anything else in to the stomach at 3:00 AM. We started with our guides for the summit at 3:30 AM.
It was dark, and there were about 150 people with us from all groups together. Like ants walking to its nest, we were all marching up the summit slowly and steadily. Our body took the strain, our hearts felt elated as we stepped forward hoping Roop Kund was closer than before by every step. Thirty minutes in to the trek I felt miserable, I could not walk. I was sweating, I was going breathless. I stopped more often than before. I gave myself time to recognise what exactly was the problem. I figured I was overly covered with clothes. Against my idiot guide’s advice I stooped took of two layers of my jackets, packed into my backpack and was on my way.
My dear friends Santosh Selvaraj and Teja were with me all through out. I was not running up the hill, but was steadily walking up at my own pace. Santosh Selvaraj and Teja could have easily gone ahead leaving me at my pace. The guide hinted them to do too. But they refused to do so. They stood for the team, worked as a team. We reached the summit at 7:15 AM as a TEAM. I am super proud of them and consider myself to be lucky to have gone with such wonderful people. Other teams also reached on top at about the same time. We were at 16500 ft and we were absolutely fine. We were super thrilled, I don’t remember any more thoughts coming in my mind sitting on top of the summit. My mind was calm, content and at peace.
A little bit about the mystery stories and one among many myths associated with Roop Kund Lake. It is also called a mystery lake. One of the stories is that It is said that once the King and his troop took some dancers to this sacred place due to which heavy snow fell and every one died. Another version of the story is that the skeletons are of people in 9th century Indian tribe who died due to hail storm. End result we get to see skeletons even today. As the lake was frozen we saw some around it. we could not see anything inside. Even though Teja desperately wanted to go to Junnargalli, which was another 500 ft above us, our guide said it had snowed and discouraged us. Among all the people who climbed with us, one independent trekker made it to Junnargalli right in front of us.
We started our descent at 7:50 AM. It was not as easy as I thought, the snow had milted a bit because of so many people walking up the hill, and it was slippery all the way. We reached the base camp at 9:45AM. We were starving, we had dhal and rice as brunch at 10:00 AM, and started our trek to Begni Bugyal which was our home for tonight. It was a good 11 km from here, crossing Kalu Vinayak and Patharnochini on the way.
We had enough adrenaline and enthu to come back to our beautiful meadow after making it to Roop Kund. We reached Begni at 5:00 PM after finishing our 18 KM trek for the day. We were pleasantly welcomed with hot pakoda and chai. The best ever, served at the right time and the best location. We all cramped into my tent and chatted away till our dinner call. I will cherish this day all my life. Having dinner and waiting to crash into my sleeping bag.
What a wonderful day!!
Each journey changes you, and your story ahead. The new you has a very different perspective of the world, and what you perceive of it.
Woke up at 7:00 AM, and guess what? Our body was fresh and active. No pain, no sore parts. Stretching every day after the trek makes all the difference. Our trek today is a 13 km down hill from my favourite meadow Bedni Bugyal. Loving the sun, and the greenery after freezing our asses for 3 days up in the mountains. Our dear guide Pramod was back to our team again.
We came down from 11500ft to 7000 ft, walking through cyprus trees, beautiful dandilions and their floating seeds and got to the fresh stream of water called Neel Ganga. Our tired feet (especially toes) enjoyed the chill water. Had lunch and we started our chimb from 6000 ft to 7000 ft . We stopped by for some Rhododendron juice on the way. Our destination was “WAN”. Playing music, chatting and counting miles, we reached the top faster than most of the other teams who started with us. We were picked up from ‘WAN’ by jeep for the next 15 kms, and we reached Lauchung by 2:00 PM.We see beds, roof on top, and above all hot water shower and a good bathroom after 8 days. Super thrilled to speak to my family after several days.I have changed, so has my world and my life. I embrace the new me and am stepping back to civilisation 8 days and 7 nights later, a bit lighter, and a whole lot happier.
Lohajung – kathgodam – Delhi – Bangalore . Jeep – Bus – Flight , 27 hours later I have Bangalored. A grand welcome from my whole family at the airport. Maya sees me and stares at me for few seconds and runs to me. How I missed my both brats. My mom gives a sigh of relief. Mahesh knows he had to wait, as the kids bombarded me with words from bothering sides:). We drive back home as I silently listen to Arya and Maya and smile at Mahesh as the waiting continues to get a moment with me. Glad to be home again.
A special thanks to Mahesh and my mom for managing the home front letting me have a peaceful trip all through out, and for many more to come in the future.
Will miss you all Subhasree, Santosh and Teja. Hope to see you all soon.
Naturally Hema 