The Making of KedarKantha-Hrishikesh trip & Pre-trek Hues
A common question gets asked in “This or that” type of a questionnaire- Mountain or Beach. Each person has his/her own unique sense, reasoning and logic for choosing and liking mountain or beach. Moreover, each one is correct in their own way. Personally speaking, I would always prefer a mountain over the beaches. Every time I have needed a new perspective & new ideas, the mountains have provided me with exactly what I have wanted. I have always looked upon the mighty mountains to provide a path whenever I am stuck or obsessed about anything. The mountains always seem to sneak a way out to remove the obstacles that I face anytime. I must confess that I have been lucky to have found great solidarity in the mighty mountains, showing a figure that always radiates innovative ideas, giving absolute clarity & clear vision to me.
The scorching sucking summer heat takes a toll on us, consuming a lot of energy from our body. Walk the mountains; I can assure that they would embrace you as nobody did. They are so enthralling, and the atmosphere around is extremely dynamic. Nobody becomes as lively as the mountains do- in monsoon with lush greenery & white heaven of snow in winter. Two majestic seasons with two entirely different landscapes and backgrounds wherein the aura of the mountains is such that it will make you skip a breath for sure. For a night owl like me who relishes the calmness of the night, every sunset at dusk which brings peace and serenity has something beautiful to offer: The Night. Sunsets with water backgrounds are soothing, but it is challenging to let go of those spectacular sunsets that seem to paint the snow-capped Healing Himalayas with their magical display of various colours. One day, I am sure everyone would find the same joy I find when you walk the mountains.
There are innumerable lessons that I get to learn every time we are in the mountains. Although gigantic and mighty, the mountains display their humble nature by offering shelter to the infinite rain clouds that travel thousands of miles to provide rainwater to different parts of the Universe. This in itself is a gentle reminder for us to keep our roots grounded despite growing and becoming towering personalities and scaling greater heights. Humility is the second word that can easily associate with mountains.
No other season brings joy to my heart the way winter does. Nothing like winter and nothing, absolutely nothing that can beat the serenity created by the calmness and coolness of the winds blowing in the winter. If your spine does not shiver by cold, you are not experiencing the real magic of winter. If you are not surrounded by white heaven of snow, you haven’t experienced what true winter feels like. If you want to experience real winter, go climbing at the summit of any mountain in the Himalayas where freezing winds at the peak in temperatures as low as -25 degrees Celsius blowing from all directions will give you real winter vibes.
What is winter without snow? It is like food without salt, a body without a shadow, Solar System without the Sun, or Team India without the great Sachin Tendulkar. Did you know that each winter one septillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) snow crystals drop from the sky and that it takes about a million little droplets to make one snowflake? It can never be too cold to snow. Actually, it can snow even at incredibly low temperatures as long as there are some moisture source and some way to lift or cool the air — enough facts to describe my love for snow.
I have always been fascinated by the winter wonderland of North India, the snow-capped peaks of the healing Himalayan Ranges more so especially after doing a 14-day adventure trek that included activities such as rock climbing and river crossing in Manali, Solang during the first big vacation of everyone’s lives- 10th standard vacations. After doing that trek, I had vowed to make annual visits to the Himalayas undertaking different treks at different points of the year to experience different vibes and beauty of the mountains. But life had some different plans in store. A two letter prefix was in the store which changed all the plans, and I had to make my plans according to various requirements and moods to respect this prefix which was supposed to change my life for the better. To embrace this, prefix requires a certain level of dedication and commitment according to which you have to adjust your plans only after which it will let you embrace it. Accordingly, as the journey towards attaining this prefix began, my vow of annual visits to the Himalayas took a back seat for quite a long time.
My dream vacation has to be a triplet — a combination of winter+ snow + mountains. As mentioned above, it felt like ages since I had last paid my visits to the Himalayas. As the pandemic struck the world, everyone’s lives changed upside down. All plans were cancelled, and the struggle for survival was on. In the lockdown that happened as a preventive measure to prepare our country with the necessary health infrastructure, which led to our final exams’ eventual cancellation wherein we were one step away from embracing the prefix, I happened to watch Kedarnath movie. While watching this movie, I was blown away by the surreal beauty of the healing Himalayas. It was too difficult to take an eye off that heavenly adore that made me suddenly realize my vow, which I had taken many years ago. As the journey towards the prefix was finally coming to a close with this chapter of life coming to its logical conclusion, a thought popped up in my mind- “Why not spend the vacation in the Himalayas? No better timing than winter to make my dream vacation come true. The timing seemed perfect. All boxes were ticking- Winter, Mountains & Snow. Sometimes while watching different movies, our mind travels to that place. We start imagining ourselves in that location as if we have already reached it and are enjoying the vacation. This power of our mind was perfectly captured in that movie after which I decided that the time had finally arrived to fulfil that long made vow of making an annual visit to the Himalayas.
I usually have this habit of making sure that the start to any new year is not at home or in Mumbai whenever possible. I have observed that the year is a surreal one every time I am not in Mumbai at the start of it. Pure coincidences. Also, welcoming any new year in different places creates different memories which are usually long-lasting because they are the first & fresh memories created at the start of that respective year. In the past years, I have been at different places creating memories that are fresh until date. I had welcomed 2015 with camel safari & desert camping in Jaisalmer — The Golden City of India in the land of Maharajas- Rajasthan. 2018 began on a high note with school buddies in one of my favourite cities- Pune, the Queen of the Deccan. I had ended 2018 by being in one of my dream destinations- a grand tour of the Sydney Cricket Ground and welcomed 2019 with the spectacular Sydney fireworks — a night to cherish for ages. 2020 started inside a library and turned out to be a terrible year. That was more of a compulsion- one of the countless sacrifices made in the journey of embracing the prefix. Therefore, I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to repeat the same error in 2021.
2020 -The year that just passed by turned our lives upside down & was terrible for innumerable reasons- it probably deserves another blog on this, but that is a matter for some another day. In fact, 2020 as one year has taught so many invaluable life lessons that even the combined 21 years summed up together couldn’t. But the larger picture was that it was a terrible year with me, just like the whole world, being very eager to send goodbyes forever to it. After such a frustrating year, I hunted for a gateway resulting in its anxiety and unending uncertainty. As I had expected, I was not the only one looking for it. On my birthday, I got a proposal from a couple of my office mates(Ashish and Tanvi) who had a brilliant idea to go for a winter trek to Kasol- Kheerganga in Himachal Pradesh. To find suitable travel dates for 3–4 people and building consensus is quite a difficult task on hand. After many deliberations, last week of December was the date that was frozen for the trek. Prima facie, the plan was looked pretty exciting to the eye and tempting as well. But as we were just a step away from embracing the prefix, we decided to discuss and plan in detail post the exams. As the exams finally happened after lots of speculation, we were saddened by the governmental authorities’ changes in regulatory rules that derailed this trek.
Destiny had other plans for us. It wanted us to go from one Devbhoomi to another- Himachal Pradesh to neighbouring Uttarakhand. Surprisingly, we were engrossed searching for Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh's options that we had almost forgotten to take notice of this Devbhoomi. It was always present on the map, but it was shameful not to take its notice. Many-a-times, it happens that those who are not in the limelight are often in front of our eyes, but we as individuals fail to identify their presence. A similar situation arose in this case. It went unnoticed despite lying just to the East of Himachal Pradesh.
Uttarakhand aptly called Devbhoomi- Gods' land is truly a heaven on Earth where even the Gods couldn't resist their temptation to descend on Earth to soak in the surreal beauty of the landscape. From the Char Dhams to the serene lakes of Nainital, from the scenic views of hill-stations like Auli to the mesmerizing Valley of Flowers, from the jovial jungles of Jim Corbett to the scenic Kemdy Falls of Mussorie, from the iconic Lakshman Jhula to the various thrilling adventure sports like bungee jumping, river rafting etc. in Hrishikesh, from the picturesque Hemkund Lake to the peaceful brass belled temples, from the most beautiful ridges and scenic glaciers at various locations in the state to winter treks like KedarKantha, Uttarakhand as a state, is so majestic that every visit to the state makes you fall in more love with it. You always end up planning your next trip in the Pahadi region.
After Kasol plan got derailed, I was a bit disappointed on the plan not taking off. To shrug off the disappointment, I decided to explore more and make the most of the city I was currently in- the Temple Town of Maharashtra- Nashik. After my exams ended, I was immediate, with a mission to practice my hobby of travelling & exploring the different dams, mountains & tourist spots in the Wine Capital of India- Nashik. As this exploration was coming to an end, I was again feeling sad for not making it to the snowy mountains this winter. But I wasn’t aware that a call from supposed to turn this disappointment into excitement. The day I got a call from our trek expert Tanvi stating the proposed itinerary for KedarKantha trek, my joy knew no bounds. All of a sudden, there was hope regenerated. Things started to fall in place. The abandoned mission was back on track.
My initial reaction to the proposed trek was confusion. But there was one thing that was holding me back. I felt that my mind was ready, but the body was not. Having not trekked for the previous 6 years and body stamina being at an all-time low because of the lockdown, I was unsure if my body would cooperate in the way I expected it to be. I was quite nervous about my chances for the trek. Prima facie, a 6-day long trek looked too exhausting to the naked eye. I was very sceptical about an 8-hour climb on day 4 that looked very tiring. My biggest worry was exhaustion level and body energy levels. I thought a balance ought to be created between thrill( emotions) and psyche ( practical situation). Nobody could push their body just because of the high excitement levels to reach the top as the probability of body breakdown usually becomes high in such cases. If it were to be a group of people, the threat level looms large. Also, I felt larger the bunch of people, greater the risk of one person possibly spoiling the whole fun because of body breakdown.
There was no point in having so many thoughts pouring in mind. The best way to check was to do a small trek. So I trekked a small hillock of Pandavleni in Nashik. My worst fears had come true. I was completely drained out climbing just 150 steps. I was convinced that my body wouldn't cooperate for Kedarkantha. It was beyond my comfort level. I wondered how any person who has done no trek in the last 6 years, without any practice whatsoever, directly go for a professional 6-day long KedarKantha trek could?? Altitude, weather changes, and climate acclimatization were the primary considerations before making the final call. Secondary considerations would have been stamina, resilience, agility with luggage on the back.
I messaged a big NO to both my fellow mates who were supposed to accompany me. A few days later, another message popped up with a revised itinerary that included river rafting and exploring Hrishikesh by our planning expert Tanvi who made a brilliant plan. I also got the detailed itinerary of the Kedarkantha trek. After reading the same, I realized what a big mistake I had made. I had not noticed that of the 6 days, 2 days were the exciting 8–9 hour road trips with the entire journey being in the scenic Ghats and mountains. The total upward climb was also equally divided between two days giving adequate and sufficient time for rest to the body. I had a heavy sigh of relief after reading this. I was cursing myself for a big mistake I was on the verge of committing by saying NO to this trek. As I write this blog now, I realize that the cost of opportunity loss would have been extremely high had I not gone there. A combination of convincing and assurances from Tanvi, a professional trekker, and reading the detailed itinerary put the trek back on track.
Now that the trek was as per schedule, I decided to test my stamina by planning to ascend Maharashtra’s largest peak- Kalsubai exactly a week before our flight to Dehradun. Credits to my cousin brother Sushrut for pulling off a brilliant plan to trek Kalsubai, a perfect mock test before the final ascend at much chillier, cooler places with higher altitudes. The first 20% while climbing Kalsubai was a real pain. I felt like I couldn't reach the peak. All the rustiness of the body which had long got away from the habit of trekking was beginning to show its signs. The rustiness was coming off beautifully on the body. Eventually, as the climb progressed, when the rust was finally gone, things returned to normal, and then the rest of the trek was easily manageable. The mock test was cleared with albeit, flying colours.
Having bid goodbye with a heavy heart to Maharashtra's most beautiful city, it was time to do final packing back home before boarding the flight. A long list of items to carry as provided by the trekkers was available on hand, and I had to buy some of the unavailable items at home. After ticking all the boxes, the packing was finally completed with just the mandatory web check-in formalities & regulatory requirements pending.
I experienced some last-minute scares before actual boarding the flight. Since the past 3 days, our SpiceJet flight to Delhi was getting cancelled. The same was visible on the Flight Status Tab on the airline website. I just hoped and prayed that our flight does not get cancelled. Also, a mandatory negative RT-PCR COVID-19 report 72 hours before the flight was a mandatory requirement by the governmental authorities in Dehradun. All the trip information was filled on their government website. I was waiting for this last hurdle to get cleared before boarding the flight. This last hurdle too got cleared the next day with a negative report as expected. Luckily, the flight was also on time & the flight did not get cancelled. We had a heavy sigh of relief.
I was pumped up for the trip with excitement levels sky-high. We were all set to travel to Devbhoomi Uttarakhand. A trip to remember for ages was in the offing. I was ready. An exciting trip awaited us.
