When a city girl from Bombay (where the weather is humid & hot all year round) whose coldest endeavor was to experience artificial snow in the city itself decides to do a trek in the (biting cold) Himalayas, you’d tend to question her sanity.
What’s life without a bit of craziness?
Hopped onto an afternoon flight from Bombay to Delhi, wherefrom I was to travel with a group of young, angsty teenagers to Uttarkashi – a district found in the beautiful state of Uttarakhand. Our tempo traveler rumbled all through the night, as we crossed state borders and took to the hills. The trail for the Kedarkantha trek starts from a small, crazily populated town called Sankri. Tourists on their way to the ‘chaar dham yatra’ are always flocking in for refreshments, while holding their phones up in the air – hoping to connect to some far-off cell tower for the network. A decent, not-so-hard trek of 3 to 4 odd hours from Sankri – with a rucksack weighing almost as much as half of me – we made it to our first stop for the night. Juda ka Talab.
As the name suggests, this campsite lies at the banks of a lake – hidden in the depths of the woods. It is believed that Lord Shiva came in search of a place to meditate, and while doing so, in order to quench his thirst he pulled out a strand of hair from his bun (judaa) – which created the water body that trekkers are the happiest to see after a long climb! The rest of the day is spent pitching tents, making some strong coffee to beat the cold, collection of firewood for snuggly bonfires and sharing of camp stories. The next morning, a simple but vast breakfast of bread, butter, jam, chocolate spread, biscuits, muesli, cereal, tea/coffee, hot chocolate and ready-to-eat baked beans were whipped out of our bags and set upon a log of wood which served as our breakfast table! Onwards we moved – through lush green forests and unending meadows, fumbling & falling, leaping & bounding (well while it lasted!). Another 3 hours of some serious trekking, we finally made it to the Kedarkantha Base Camp. At this height of 11,200ft above sea level, we’d left the last of the trees far behind – to be greeted by wild, funny-looking bushes and shrubs. Post a quick lunch at base camp, I pulled out my mat and marked my territory on a hill a few hundred meters away from our cluster of tents.
Here I lay, basking in the sun (or what I managed to get of it, at this altitude) and woke up straight 3 hours later – like a typical bollywood film scene, scratching my head for a second or two while I processed my surroundings! It was about 7pm now, and while we prepped for dinner we were briefed about our plan of action to summit the peak. We were to push off from basecamp at about 1am the same night, and trek in the dark for about 3 to 4 hours in order to summit at sunrise. Thus, we did. Torches and headlamps set, we precariously trekked for hours. Trust me, in the dead of the night, the mountains tend to get you looking behind your back for ghosts and what not! Flying squirrels do not stop shrilling, and the winds of the mountain come at you harder than ever. Through the night, upwards we trudged. The mountain finally allowed us to summit at 5.28 am on 19th June 2022 was when I lost all sense of time. It was a mix pot of emotions. The summit humbled me, while also made my chest swell with pride at my first Himalayan conquest.
The summit brought forward to me the value of life, while starting a fire to pursue more such risks. Once I went up there, I knew this was just the beginning. They say the mountains have a calling; one that cannot be put into words. A calling that goes out to only those the mountain wishes to allow, to those souls who are fortunate enough to comprehend its strength & mightiness.
