Mountains Calling – Part I: A Detailed Account of Our Trekking Experience

“Hi! Shailesh Kaka is planning a Himalayan Trek in May – do you want to come? I got a text from my cousin a few months ago. I was skeptical.  While I have done a few day treks before, I am not someone who is known for her stamina or trekking skills & it is certainly not my idea of a great summer vacation. But the idea of a long trip with my cousin after many years was too attractive to resist. “Yes sure!” I replied. The 3 months before the trip were full of physical preparations & mental dilemmas. Trekking was not so much the fear as high altitude & almost every day I asked myself what possessed me to say yes to a trek which I was mentally not prepared for.

The starting point of the trek was 2 days of flight & road travel into the mountains & by that time we had begun to enjoy the cold weather, the nature around & each other’s company. It was a group of fifteen & while some of us were family, the rest were mere acquaintances with whom 2 days were quite enough to start to bond over. The first day of trek was an exercise in finding my rhythm with the trek, the route & the group. A walk & a climb across serene meadows, mountains, rivers – among some furry dogs, multitude of mountain goats & nonchalant cows. We stopped on the way for a picnic lunch – the cold weather & climb giving us welcome appetites. The last 30 mins of that trek were a trial, as we huffed & puffed our way to our first camp – exhausted at having spent more than half a day in travel & walk that first day. 

But the sight of that first camp was more than enough to dissipate the fatigue at a glance. Having grown up & lived in ‘per sqft’ flats in Mumbai, the expanse of the camp sight, our stay for the night was almost a dream. Endlessly spread flat meadow atop a hill, our bright coloured tents perched pretty on it, mountains around, clear blue skies. You read it vividly in novels – never know how to take it all in when blessed with it in real. We basked in the setting sunlight for a while, resting our tired bodies, & then played around with a Frisbee for quite some time. Of course clicked a multitude of pictures till we had the light & played with the 2 furry Himalayan friends who had decided to accompany us through the trek from some village. That night post dinner, we - the 9 youngsters of the group cozied up in one small tent to play an almost never ending game of UNO, ending in obvious fights, laughter & unlimited fun before retiring to our tents, cuddled up into sleeping bags.

I will never forget my first night & morning of the first campsite. About 10 mins after we had gone into our tents to sleep there was thunder and then what appeared to be a drizzle. “It is a Himalayan rain”, I thought to myself, “It will stop in 10 mins.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. The rain & the winds lashed against the flapping tents almost all night long, leaving me sleepless & wishing I was safe in my bed in Mumbai instead. At one point the wind was so strong, I feared the tents will fly away, leaving us drenched & defenseless in the Himalayan landscape. Thankfully, the tents stayed put & towards early morning the rain & winds died down and I drifted off to sleep for a couple of hours before sunrise. And when we woke up & came out of the tents for freshening up, we discovered that the rains had done the most marvelous thing. They had cleared the skies and blessed us with our first sight of snow clad mountains on one side of the camp & a gorgeous rainbow across the bright blue skies on the other side. It was a breathtaking & surreal moment!

Over the next couple of days we trekked to some other camp sites, enjoying the cool, nippy weather, the endless landscape, the views around & each other’s company. From always being surrounded by a crowd within 2ft distance all day to finding family, friends & warmth in a compact group of 15 while otherwise alone for miles was a refreshing change. Additionally, Himalayan weather was highly unpredictable. Sunny in a moment & thunderstorms the next. And those thunderstorms actually played a huge role in the bonding. The entire group huddled up into 1 tent playing cards, singing songs, sharing memories & food while it rained incessantly outside, was a novelty experience. The rains dropped temperatures further & out came the layers we cuddled up into in search of warmth. Every morning we had a clear view of the snow clad mountains beyond, a view we never really tired ourselves of. Blessed were we to be having a hearty breakfast on the hill side with a breezy weather while watching the sun peep out from behind a mountain out front.

This was a trip stretched across 2 separate trekking routes, with a pit stop in cute town called Munsiyari in the middle. We had a hotel with a view of an entire Himalayan range from end to end, where after freshening up, we chose to spend the entire evening in 1 balcony despite having spacious rooms to rest in. The next day we set off for our second trek – Khaliya Top, with a final height of around 13000 ft (The actual height is still in discussion :p).

This trek was an experience of a different sort. Unlike our first trek, this one was a popular tourist spot. Hence, there was a proper carved route with rocky steps and a continuous influx & outflux of other tourists. It kind of made me miss the privacy & intimacy our group had over the Ramganga Valley trekking route (that was the previous trek). It was quite sunny & hot that morning so by the time we reached our campsite (which was actually a dilapidated & low maintained stay+food facility on the grounds of which our tents had been erected) we were sweaty & exhausted, cooled by a strong breeze that had just started blowing around. We had just parked our luggage in some of the tents & were exploring the area around when the rain started. The drizzle changed into a full blown storm which soon turned into an incessant pitter patter of small, tapioca shaped pebbles – yes, HAIL! My first experience of a proper hailstorm! It was beautiful sight as the hail began to collect on the grounds in front of us as we sheltered ourselves in the lobby of the poorly constructed dormitories behind. Beautiful, till the wind led to tearing up of the set of tents & another couple of tents fell flat. The hail changed to rain again & swept up our tents with water. It was a scary sight. Fortunately, we got rooms in the dormitories & were saved from the prospect of staying the night in wet tents, fearful of another storm sweeping them away.

But the rain & hail had done their job. So while the sun did come out soon after & clear the skies and the view, the temperature was so low that all our layers of thermals, sweaters, jackets, socks & gloves were not enough to stop us from shivering. But the view was too darling to resist a photography session. So our ace photographers happily turned paparazzi as we spent the next couple of hours clicking about a 1000 pictures (NOT an Exaggeration!) in different poses, with different partners, with the Himalayan range shining & shimmering in the background.

The next day marked our final trek – a climb to Khaliya Top Zero Point & a descent back to the camp. We had an early start at 6:30 am and began at a gradual pace. This was actually the most difficult & tiring climb we had in all of 8 days. We were at a height of 10000 ft, so there was already a paucity of oxygen in the atmosphere. And we were climbing higher so air was getting thinner, and it was a continuous climb. We were significantly tired out. Additionally we wanted to return to the camp before afternoon so we don’t get caught in another afternoon shower, so the photography & resting pit stops were few & far between. The peak seemed to be farther, no matter how much further we kept climbing.

I will not forget the last few minutes of climb that day. It was a steep hill, no steps, no flat resting points. It would have been barely a couple 100 ft of height – in Mumbai, could have done that in 5 mins probably. There it took me 20 mins, each step taken with an effort & resolve. I could see the top, some of my group had already reached there, and all I wanted to do was end the climb. With a final effort I took the last step to the top, wrapped my dad (who was already there) in a hug & flopped down on the grass there to collect my breath. Once I was well rested I took in the view around me.

It was what dreams are made of! An endless smatter of green & brown meadows leading down the hill in front of me; ranges of snow clad mountains on my left & right, a few other green & blue mountains behind, deep down valleys around separating us from them; bright blue skies above with white fluffy clouds like cotton balls spread across – some casting a shadow on the hills below; a cool nippy breeze cooling us while the light sunshine filled us with warmth. And in the midst of this perfect, painting-like landscape stood our group, blessed with something so serene, so beautiful, so Godlike, so dreamy!

The descent there-on was of course easier. After a breakfast with that view we indulged ourselves for another hour clicking pictures, making reels & then headed straight down, pausing at various points now to click pictures of the landscape & us. Believe it or not, our girls’ gang also did a dance choreography at a height of about 11-12k ft on a Kumauni song, with our trip organizers playing the DJ & the other members being the camera crew. 

That night marked the last night of our camping and we youngsters made the best of it. The facility had an open balcony overlooking the mountains above & the forest below. We stood in that balcony, in the cold, freezing air & played old Bollywood songs & sang along. The choice of the songs was exemplary – they had the ability to create a hypnotic trance-like vibe, throwing us into an atmosphere evoking emotions from the depth of hearts, & making us feel happy to be just there, that moment, One Hundred Percent, lilting along to the songs. No campfire, no source of heat – just the company of each other – people we had met just about a week ago provided the warmth in that cold night. In their own ways, the first & the last nights of camping turned out extremely memorable – a perfect way to bookend the 8 day long trek!

Thereafter, the next day was our final descent followed by 2 days of exhausting road travel (trust me, trekking was lesser exertion than the bus travel) to reach Bhimtal – our last tourist destination before our flight back to Mumbai. It was where we took a stroll around the lake that last evening, went boating for some time, had a leisurely dinner & ended the trip with my birthday celebrations the next morning. A birthday which felt more special after having successfully done my first ever Himalayan Trek than because of anything else.

To be Contd in Part II