Trek in Himalayas : Gangotri-Kedartal

Date: Sep 26-Oct 5, 2008

Mission: Trek Gangotri to Kedartal. Kedartal is a high altitude glacial lake situated at 4912 mts above sea level in the Gharwal Himalayan region and accessible by a 17 km trek from Gangotri.

Prologue: I had been day-dreaming about a trek in Himalayas for a long time. Late September and October is known for weather with clear skies in Himalayas although colder than summer. This along with a 3 working-day week in October first week made us plan a grand trek to Gangotri-Gaumukh-Tapovan. The foremost thing to be done was to find a reliable guide. We fixed Bal-bahadur from Uttarkashi whom my friend Prasad had hired last year to Tapovan. After making all our travel reservations, the retreating monsoon in mid September brought a bad weather in that region which resulted in death of 5 porters in Kalindi Khal, a pass at 5900 mts asl (above sea level) between Gangotri and Badrinath. As a result local authorities promptly decided to close Gangotri - Gaumukh - Tapovan completely (no idea why, as Tapovan is considered safe) and we couldn't get permits through our guide in Uttarkashi till the day we were about to leave Bangalore. I googled other trails around Gangotri and got mesmerized by breathtaking photos of Kedartal, an enchanting glacial lake at 4900 mts asl. Since this was our first trek to Himalayas I was hesitant in the begining as I thought trying to reach 4900 mts asl in the limited time we had may lead to acclimitization probelms. For this trek we discouraged some first timers which turned out to be a good decision and finally formed a group of 8 (me, Raghu, Vamshi, Karthik, Vasantha, Hari, Murali and Sachin) all ex-students from IITB. Kedartal was not a place where first timers could go. With temperature expected to dip to -10 deg above 4000 mts asl, we equipped ourselves with thermals, gloves, sweater, woolen jacket and monkey caps while we relied on Bata-weinbrenner and Woodlands shoes to negotiate moraine and snowy regions. Since we were going by ourselves instead through an agency, for a week or two before leaving most of us could think nothing but Himalayas as the planning and logistics consumed all our time.

Day 1 (Sep 26): Travel Bangalore-Delhi

We had booked second-class sleepers in Sampark Kranti express that leaves Yeswantpur at 10.20 pm. It takes 35 hrs to reach Delhi.

Day 2 (Sep 27): Travel Bangalore-Delhi

Sampark Kranti is a fast train with fewer stops than Rajdhani. But railways ploy of adding an extra side middle-berth meant 9 people sitting in a compartment with suffocation. With the soaring heat from Hyderabad and all the sleeper-class drama we regretted of not having booked in AC 3-tier. Some of my friends had brought novels but I doubt whether they made any progress. Few card games brought some relief though. Fewer stops for the train meant I had to depend on the food from pantry-car which I usually avoid at any cost but had no other options here.

Day 3 (Sep 28): Arrival at Delhi, Travel Delhi-Haridwar-Rishikesh

The train reached Nizamuddin at 9.45 am. Our train to Haridwar was at 3.25 pm from New-Delhi station. Comesum was the only restaurant inside Nizamuddin, so we had our breakfast there. We took taxis to New-Delhi station for Rs 150. I and Vasantha had lunch at a small place outside the New-Delhi station and settled to wait inside the station while the rest six with 15-20 kg rucksacks on their back went out to explore Connaught place in 40 deg Celsius heat. They all returned after an hour and told that they hardly ventured outside the station premises. Jan-Shatabdi reached Haridwar at 8.30 pm, an hour late. We had planned to halt at Rishikesh which was 24 km on road from Haridwar. This was necessary so that we could start very early from Rishikesh next day from where shared-jeeps to Uttarkashi start and reach Gangotri before nightfall. Rishikesh to Gangotri is 270 kms and takes 11-12 hrs. No vehicles are allowed in the hills beyond Rishikesh after 8 pm. Buses to Rishikesh can be boarded right outside the Haridwar station. But it was a special day and there was no such convenience. We were a group of 8 which meant slow decision making. With each of us thinking smartly of a convenient way to get to Rishikesh it took us another hour to get a taxi who agreed to take us for Rs. 300. We found another guy going to Rishikesh who enlightened Karthik with Yoga, Amarnath issue, Cosmic karmas etc on the way and reached Rishikesh at 10.30 pm. At this late hour our taxi-driver came to our rescue in finding a hotel to have dinner, book a taxi to Uttarkashi next day and get a place to sleep (The shady rooms had bugs to keep us awake in the night). Out of our generosity we paid Rs. 100 more to the taxi-driver.

Day 4 (Sep 29): Travel Rishikesh-Uttarkashi (1158 mts)-Gangotri (3048 mts)

We had booked a whole jeep for Rs. 1800 to Uttarkashi and left at 6 am with an intention of reaching Gangotri before nightfall. The lower Himalayan ranges start soon after Rishikesh with steep curves and bends which increases as you near Gangotri. Most of us had a good breakfast on the way without realizing the consequence of it. Soon after Chamba for the first time we saw the glimpse of mighty snow-capped peaks at a distance of ~100 kms. Next notable sight was huge volume of backwaters created by Tehri dam. By this time motion-sickness caught all of us and few of us puked. For the last half of the journey, the Bhagirathi (Ganges) river runs parallel to the road and we reached Uttarkashi just after 12 pm. I was in touch with Bal-Bahadur, our guide a day before and we met him in Uttarkashi. We had guide (Bal-Bahadur's brother Tej-bahadur), 5 porters, 1 cook and 1 cook-helper accompanying us from Uttarkashi. Rations, stove, kerosine, tents and sleeping bags from NIM (Nehru Institude of Mountaneering) were all arranged by our guide. After a lunch and paying advance amount to Bal-bahadur, 16 of us left to Gangotri in 2 jeeps at 3.30 pm. Uttarkashi to Gangotri is 100 km and is known for narrow-bad-dangerous roads and steep-beautiful valleys created by Bhagirathi river as the road runs parallel to Bhagirathi all the way till Gangotri. This entire road stretch is maintained by ITBP (Indo Tibetian Border Police) and no doubt they have their plate's full. For most of this stretch, we have a deep gorge on one side without any parapet and landslide prone huge mountain slopes on the other. Your life truly depends on the driver's skills here. Jeeps and sumos are the only ideal vehicles I thought. There was a huge powerproject construction going on enroute which was an eyesore and also contributed to bad roads. Our driver was a no-nonsense type of guy and drove non-stop to Gangotri within 4 hours in-order to reach Gangotri by 8 pm and hardly gave us any opportunities to shoot the picturesque valleys. An hour before Gangotri we reached Harshil which is famous for apples and also the place where Bhagirathi flows with a beautiful formation. When we reached Gangotri at 7.15 pm we were greeted by the chilly weather at 5 deg. The second jeep was an hour late. We booked two rooms at a lodge which also had a kitchen attached so that our cook could make dinner for us. Gangotri is 3048 mts asl and the effect of altitude like low temperature and thin air becomes evident. Night temperature might have hit 0 deg, but blankets in the rooms provided good warmth.

Day 5 (Sep 30): Trek Gangotri (3048 mts)-Bhojkharak (3780 mts)

We were all excited and enthusiastic about our first trek in Himalayas. So inspite of the chilly weather we were up early in the morning and visited the 150 year old Gangaa Maa temple and bathing-ghat. We had parathas made by our cook and left to Bhojkharak at 10 am after off-loading some unwanted stuff from our rucksack in the lodge's locker to make room for sleeping bags in our rucksack. Once we leave Gangotri to Kedartal we are on our own and no tea-stalls or houses are to be found anywhere. This along with steepness and the scary landslide zones keep most of the people away who visit Gangotri unlike Gaumukh. The trail is always ascending without any respite with Kedarganga gorge to our left. My last one months activity of running 2 km/day saved me upto some extent while on the other hand most of us thought Vasantha will call it a day today itself ! After we gained some altitude we saw the glimpse of Mt. Thalaysagar (6984 mts asl) for the first time. Kedartal is located near the base of this mountain. Looking back towards Gangotri also gave some breathtaking sights. The Himalayan mountains are truly huge, tall and steep and one needs to see it to believe. These huge mountains were there on all directions wherever we looked. We spotted some mountain goats (Bharals) on the way. The landslide zone around 1 km before Bhojkharak was the first scary part with more to come. It was a 100 mts long walk on loose mud and stones inclined at 60 deg. We had debris that may fall from the right and the Kedarganga gorge ~200 mts below to the left where one would fall if the mud under your feet collapses. Just before Bhojkharak was another risky rock-slab to negotiate where we had just 6 cm to keep our foot and a 200 mts deep gorge to stare at. If my heart was beating at twice the normal rate during ascent it definitely did miss few beats at the landslide and rock-slab zone. We reached Bhojkharak at 2.45 pm. Our army of porters who had reached before us had started putting up tents and our cook had prepared hot garlic soup which is good for altitude sickness. Our lunch was biscuits and some bread-slices as our cook found out cooking for 16 people at high altitudes and cold weather is time consuming and this became the routine for the next 3 days. A group of mountain dogs visited us in the evening ! At Bhojkharak to our left beyond Kedarganga gorge was fantastic view of snow-capped Mt. Bhriguparbat standing at 6040 mts asl. As the sunrays vanished the temperature plummetted to near-zero within few minutes which sent us scurrying for winter clothing. We had dinner in the form of roti-curry and dhal-rice at 6 pm and retired for the day into the tents and sleeping bags in anticipation of a night with sub-zero temperature. We also had the luxury of having hot bournvita before sleeping. We were not alone in Bhojkharak as there was a mid-30 aged Bengali man with his guide who had laboriously reached Bhojkharak, 4 Czech nationals going themselves and another group who were trying to go beyond Kedartal. One of the porters in the later group had lived to tell the tale of Kalindi Khal accident where there was a snow-blizzard and very low temperature during night resulting in 5 deaths and around 40 people getting rescued. During night we heard rocks falling but learnt next day that it fortunately occurs on the other side of Kedarganga.

Day 6 (Oct 1): Trek Bhojkharak(3780 mts)-Kedarkharak(4270 mts)

We woke up to a freezing but bright morning. The temperature remains below zero till the sunrays touch the ground after which it suddenly increases. We had an oat-meal and buns with hot tea for breakfast and started towards day's destination Kedarkharak at 9.30 am. Kedarkharak is at 4270 mts asl and 5 kms from Bhojkharak. Our guide said it easily takes 4-5 hrs due to steepness and landslide zones. The trail offered some splendid sights of mighty Manda group, Bhrighupanth and Thalaysagar peaks and the Kedarganga valley glittering in autumn bloom. We took short breaks to drink ice-cold water flowing from the top of snow-capped mountains to refresh ourselves till we came across the scariest part of the trek, the rockfall/landslide zone. Just before this, we met the Bengali man who had been to Tapovan-Nandanavan before and had decided to return back to Gangotri because at the rockfall zone a falling rock went over his head which nearly killed him. It was an amplified version of the landslide zone we crossed before Bhojkharak with this one being atleast 0.5 km long. Here the trail ceased to exist and we had to walk on the mountain slope made of loose mud and stones inclined at 50-60 deg with rocks that keep falling down from the right and Kedarganga gorge 25-50 mts below to the left. The earth under our feet was so loose that we think it may collapse any time along with us. I had my heart in the mouth and thought my number may come any time. This zone occasionally kills people and the luckier ones who fall down may escape with just broken bones. It took us 30 tiresome-scary mins to cross this and we reached Kedarkharak at 1.30 pm. After a hot-garlic soup it was time to doze for everyone. Manda, Bhrigupanth and Thalaysagar peaks form the backdrop in Kedarkharak meadow, but don't be disillusioned with the distance. Even though it looks like an hour walk, they were atleast 10 kms away. Watching the fading reddish sunrays on Bhrigupanth and Thalaysagar peaks during sunset is worth every paisa and effort you spend to get here. Late evening we almost thought we had lost Sachin and Murali as they went to a nearby ridge without any torch and didn't return to the camp till 7 pm when it was dark and freezing. We thought they had lost the way while returning and also discussed various kinds of punishment to be given if at all they came back. Even our guide refused to send a search party to find them, not wanting to risk his life for two people who had taken panga with Himalayas. At this altitude, due to paucity of oxygen and freezing temperature we were huffing and puffing to do even basic activities like walking, removing shoes, getting inside tents, having food etc. We never get a decent sleep in the night often waking up due to breathing problems, coldness etc. The freezing temperature is bound to affect you irrespecitive of number of layers of clothing you are wearing. As a precaution against getting altitude sickness most of us had taken Diamox tablets for the last two days. That night I also saw Vamshi consuming 3-4 different kind of tablets one each for altitude sickness, cold, headache and so on !

Day 7 (Oct 2): Trek Kedarkharak (4270 mts)-Kedartal(4912 mts)-Kedarkharak(4270 mts)

Kedarkharak was even colder than Bhojkharak is what we found out when we came out of the tent in the morning. The night temperature might have dipped to less than -5 deg Celcius as the water in the bucket had frozen and we felt our hands and feet also becoming numb even when completely covered untill the sunrays warmed us by 8.30 am. We needed hot water even for abulitions and brushing our teeth ! Today was the D-day as we had planned to reach the summit, Kedartal lake another 5 km from Kedarkharak. But Vasanth's health had detoriated due to altitude sickness and cold (aided by Hari who forgot to close their tent in the night !) and he puked in the morning, but was somehow determined to see Kedartal at any cost ! So 8 of us and Tej-bahadur left to Kedartal at 9 am after having hot-tea and maggie for breakfast. Sunglasses were mandatory for today's trek to prevent snowblindness. After a steady ascent of a kilometre or so the snow-zone begins. Here we found a pool of frozen water so thick that a ball-of-snow when thrown went sliding on it. The rest 3 km to Kedartal was steep and we were walking on almost 2 feet deep snow. Even though we were not carrying our rucksacks the paucity of oxygen and walk on snow made it more strenous than previous day's hikes. Just before the Kedartal we also got a breathtaking panoramic view with Kedarbamak glacier to our left and all the magnificient peaks around it. It was 12.30 pm when we reached Kedartal and we realized why Kedartal is considered as one of the most enchanting glacial lake in the Gharwal Himalayas. Kedartal is sorrounded by Manda group of peaks (6531 mts asl) to the left, Bhrighupantha (6772 mts asl) and Thalaysagar (6984 mts asl) beyond and Jogin group (6031 mts asl) to the right. Out of these Thalaysagar stands out with its steep slopes which are completely covered by snow and the picture remains etched in memory forever. On a day when the lake water is calm, we can also see the reflection of these magnificient peaks on water which completes the feeling of being in Heaven. The emerald blue waters of Kedartal with all these peaks is a sight to savour for lifetime but we had a little more than an hour to do so and left back to Kedarkharak at 2 pm. The other group who were trying to find routes beyond Kedartal had plans to camp here for the night, with night temperature expected to dip below -10 deg and a definite snowfall. Most of us had headaches while I had a splitting one when we started back and together with nausea and giddiness started walking back like a drunkard. I avoided taking Diamox for that day thinking as I was anyway returning to Kedarkarak the same day the altitude gain (or no-gain) would not affect me, but I was wrong. Fortunately this part of the trail didn't have any cliffs or gorges. A kilometre before Kedarkharak I got added to list of people who had puked and arrived at Kedarkharak at 3.30 pm in pretty bad-shape hit by altitude sickness. A dose of Diamox, hot-garlic soup and a 3 hour sleep later I did recover although I had lost all apettite for dinner. It was a night with very clear skies where we thought we spotted our own galaxy, Milky-way ! Recollecting our last 3 days hike, the trail to Kedartal had offered varied terrains: Our first day's hike to Bhojkharak was mostly through vegetation like Bhoj trees, while on second day's trail to Kedarkharak the vegetation dissapeared, and on third day it was mostly on snow.

Day 8 (Oct 3): Trek Kedarkharak (4270 mts)-Gangotri (3048 mts), Travel Gangotri-Uttarkashi

Due to time constraints we had a tight schedule. We had to trek 12 km back to Gangotri and travel Gangotri to Uttarkashi as well. No physical activity was possible till sunrays touched our feet at 8.30 am and it was 10 am when we started towards Gangotri. Our immediate hurdle was the landslide zone. Few us narrowly missed falling rocks, one porter narrowly missed falling down to gorge and Karthik stood rooted before the landslide zone until he was literally pulled by Tej-bahadur. My legs were literally shaking while negotiating this. I learnt the best way to negotiate this was to keep walking at a steady rate without looking on either side while ignoring the collapsing earth under you and hoping that falling rocks won't hit you. The descent further was easy and we reached Bhojkharak by 12 pm. The descent after Bhojkharak was steeper and harder on knees. Particularly the landslide zones were trickier to negotiate while returning as we had to lean to the left to get whatever support to preven sliding down and I believe normal humans like me have lesser control and strength on the left side of the body than on the right. There were no water sources for the last 1 hr and I arrived in Gangotri at 2.45 pm a little dehydrated with screwed up knees. Karthik had lost all confidence in himself and his shoes and had to be dragged by Tej-bahadur till Gangotri. Raghu who prides himself in reaching first everywhere had arrived an hour before with two others and had already booked 2 taxis to Uttarkashi. After a lunch and collecting the holy Ganga water in a bottle we left Gangotri at 4 pm. Again a non-stop jeep ride brought us to Uttarkashi at 7.30 pm. We took 2 decent rooms for Rs. 300 each at a lodge and had a very good sleep without getting troubled by coldness or bed-bugs. A proper sun-burnt face and cracked lips were the testimony of having conquered Kedartal !

Day 9 (Oct 4): Travel Uttarkashi-Rishikesh-Haridwar

After a visit to Vishwanath temple and paying our dues to Bal-bahadur we left to Rishikesh at 10 am in a sumo we had booked for Rs 1800. This stretch is also scenic but a tiresome journey. No matter whether you consume anything or not you are found to feel motion-sick and there is always a competition amongst ourselves to not sit at the back of the jeep. We arrived at Rishikesh at 3.30 pm and became aware Sachin's plans to visit each and every temple at Rishikesh and Haridwar and do river rafting as well in the limited time we had before night. We visited Lakshman-jula and arrived at Haridwar by a 8-seater tuk-tuk auto by 7 pm. After a frentic search for lodges outside the station we got a decent one. A 30-min walk took us to Har-ki-paudi, where except Vasantha all of us took dips in (polluted) waters of Ganges to clear all the sins we had accumulated till now. I guess it cleans only our inner soul ! We had an authentic heavy north-indian dinner at a restaurant called Hoshyarpuri on the way back to our lodge.

Day 10 (Oct 5): Travel Haridwar-Delhi, Fly Delhi-Bangalore

Our train to Delhi was at 7.40 am. As soon as we entered the station it started raining cat-and-dogs. It was then we realized how lucky we were to have got a nice weather window during travel as well as trek as a downpour increases your chance of getting stuck for hours or even days due to landslides while a heavy snowfall would make Kedartal unreachable. The train arrived at New-Delhi station at 1.45 pm and having missed our breakfast we rushed to Connaught place to have our lunch. After lunch we went out in different ways as our flight to Bangalore was at 8.15 pm. Me and Vasantha decided to go and sleep in airport lounge, Sachin decided to do solo-roaming and the rest went sight-seeing to India gate etc in 40 deg heat. The IndiGo flight arrived at Bangalore 30 mins late and it was past midnight when we reached our homes.

Due to time constraints we had a tight schedule and with an extra day we could have spent a memorable but challenging night at Kedartal. It was nevertheless a truly memorable and an amazing trek and has brought on, an addiction to Himalayas. However the first one is always special and I don't know if I can visit that enchanting place called Kedartal again !

I have posted pics here

Cost per person : Rs ~11,000 (Travel Bangalore-Delhi-Haridwar: 700, Guide/equipment rent charges from Uttarkashi: 3200, Travel/food/lodges: 2100, Travel Haridwar-Delhi-Bangalore: 5100)