Speed-hiking Kedarkantha

Slow Travel

Chai, chai, Chaaai.. - The mere sound of the tea vendor calling out to people interested in drinking tea, carrying the tea container in one hand, and throw-away cups in the other, coupled with the slow moving huge mass of steel called “Jhelum Express” that moved in and grinded to a halt, onto the Pune Railway Station platform took me back in time.

Time when I and my family used to travel every summer from Delhi to Pune, time when we couldn’t afford an A/c compartment, hence traveled in second-class, time when despite all odds, we as a family had great time hogging on whatever food that whichever vendor got with him to sell, and drinking water by filling up water bottles from practically all train stations that we used to halt at. Those were the times when time was plenty, food was unadulterated, people were nice, water was potable, and railway journey was the ONLY journey possible, negating all other options. 

This year, my colleague, friend and hiking partner, Rajib-Da was going to come with me to the Bali Pass hike, he had insisted that we go the “slow route”, enjoying the journey, and hence, he had booked train tickets for us to go from Pune to Delhi and further to Dehradun. And, by slow - I mean, really slow. Slow which defines us reaching Delhi in the morning, us spending the entire day in Delhi, and then taking a night train to Dehradun, so that we can sleep peacefully in the train, arriving at Dehradun the next morning. 

Now, with him having dropped off due to an injury, I was left all alone to do the entire journey. I had traveled by train before, but a journey which usually takes 2 hours on a flight was going to take 27 hours - this was something I wasn’t prepared for, although I had done this for a large part of my life.

There was no way that I could change the train tickets and buy flight tickets a day before the journey, as the flights had become too expensive.

So, I carried on with the train journey, which proved to be very relaxing. I caught up with my reading on the journey, with a fantastic book on a yogi who is revered across the world! A few scenes outside the window (like the thumb-shaped pinnacle at Manmad)  again made me reminisce of the hundreds of times I’d seen that earlier. As much as I enjoyed the journey to Delhi, I wasn’t really interested in spending the entire next day in the sweltering heat of Delhi, so I ensured that I cancel my Delhi - Dehradun train journey, and headed straight to Kashmere Gate ISBT, to board the next available bus to Dehradun.

Seeing the “Gajab Ghaziabad” board reminded me of Rajib-Da, when we had a good laugh on this board just last year. Traveling throughout the day saved one day for me, which I would utilize towards the Kedarkantha Trek, which I had planned to squeeze in, if time permits, before the Bali Pass trek begins with the entire group. 

Good friend Manav has arranged accommodation in the famous Doon Club of Dehradun, one of the oldest existing clubs from the British era. Since Pune, I had pushed for getting details of any cab driver’s number who would take me to Sankri by leaving Dehradun in the early morning. This was because I didn’t want to wait till the 1st bus leaves from the bus station at 7 am, which reaches Sankri at around 5 pm. I wouldn’t have had enough time to do the Kedarkantha trek then. So, after speaking with a couple of my friends in Dehradun, I finally caught hold of a guy who leaves Dehradun in his Bolero cab at 6 am, and would drop me off at Naugaon, the diversion where people going to Yamunorti go east, while those going to Sankri go North. I thought I would get a good cab/bus from Naugaon to Purola and further to Sankri, but boy - I was disappointed!

The cabs don’t leave until they get full, and the bus which left Dehradun at 7 am was just a few kms away. I waited at Naugaon for almost an hour, and eventually gave in, and boarded the bus which would eventually take me to Sankri at 5 pm. The purpose of leaving early from Dehradun didn’t serve any purpose whatsoever! 

Maggi, Maggi and Maggi

Having lost most of the day, I was at Sankri at 5 pm, where I immediately called Ajay, the group’s Sankri contact, who had promised to provide me with a local guy who would know the route up to Kedarkantha. Getting to speak with him, and getting him to agree to provide somebody was a different story altogether. 

Whosoever I spoke with advised against doing the Kedarkantha trek, even if I had two days, as it was a strenuous one, which would be followed by Bali Pass, another strenuous trek, at a higher altitude. But my thought was simple - why sit in Sankri for 2 days or even 1 day - might as well see what’s up there!

Ajay gave me a local kid named Suki, who was from the same village. It was 5.30 pm when we started the hike up to Juda Ka Talaab, the first campsite besides a pretty lake. The trail meandered through thick forests, interspersed with openings where locals had put up tents/canteens, which they used for serving trekkers during the season of Nov - Jan, when the entire area is snowed out, and everything becomes very pretty.

This is a trek which was famous for the winter times, as there is hardly any danger of glaciers or crevasses. A few of the cabins, which serve the trekkers were quite colorful, giving a different vibe in the mountains, while some were in a dilapidated state, waiting for a rebuild, when the season begins again. 

Like on all himalayan treks, a dog accompanied us right from the beginning, and stayed on till we reached the Juda Ka Talaab campsite at around 7 pm.

As soon as we reached the campsite, it started raining, so we had to pitch our tent immediately. The campsite was a pretty one with the lake on one side of the trail, and dense forest on the other side. The trail ran parallel to the lake, into a forest where it vanished! 

As soon as the tent was set up, we got some wood together to cook Maggi on it. Along with a spare set of clothes (if we get wet), a tent, sleeping bags, carry mats, maggi packets and a cooking utensil were all that we carried. Water was available on the way at multiple places. Before the slight rain intensified, the small valley that we were in started getting filled with clouds. Clouds would come in from the top of the trees. Within minutes, the pretty scenery around our tent looked something as if it was right out of a horror movie. Trees swooning with the wind while the clouds crept onto us, bringing rain with it. Little did we know that the rain at night was going to be the reason for our Bali Pass trek getting canceled the next day. As it was raining, it was difficult to get the flame to burn, once the fire was kindled.

However, as we had a little bit of cooking fuel, we managed to cook Maggi for dinner, just in time, before the rain intensified. I don’t know where the dog went, as we slipped inside our sleeping bags in the tent. Once we were in the tents, we could hear rain splattering against our tent fly, and thoughts of whether we shall make it to the summit the next day, started taking shape in my mind. The sounds of lightning were so loud that the next day, I heard some locals tell me that it felt that some part of the mountain had given way. The sounds literally woke me up from my deep sleep in the tent, with me thinking of when to leave the next day.

Summit and back

The local told me the previous day that had we left a bit early, we could have camped at the base of Kedarkantha peak, which was the final campsite from where everybody attempts the summit. However, I told him about the unfortunate delay in my travel, which made me reach Sankri so late. Had it been earlier, we would’ve had better chances of summiting the peak.

But, I wasn’t going to get dissuaded from the rain, or the climb. I had the entire day to go to the summit, and head back to the base village of Sankri. 

We were supposed to get up early and leave at 4 am, but when we got up at that time, we could hear heavy rains outside, so we slept in for some more time till the rain subsided. The alarm on my watch went off at 6 am, and we saw the weather had cleared up a bit. We headed out of the tent, packed the wet tent as it was, and had yet another round of Maggi for breakfast before we left the campsite. However, the sight of the Maggi being prepared at the campsite was surreal, when looked at, from a distance.

The smoke from the burning wood which we were using for preparing Maggi seemed to be emanating from the middle of the tent. A constant plume of smoke rose into the air, as if through the tent, with the trail visible on one side, and dense forest on the other. 

We packed up the tent, and hid it close-by in the forest, as we weren’t going to need it for the remaining part of the climb.

My partner said - we shall try going till the base camp of Kedarkantha, and decide whether to go ahead or not, and our decision will be dependent on both my condition (he would take a call whether I was fine to go further), and of course - the weather. When we decided to leave, or rather when we were packing our tent, it started to rain.

As we entered the forest, I was reminded of the poem by Robert Frost, which talks of two roads diverging into the woods, and I took the one less-treaded, and that has made all the difference.

As I climbed up the mountain, all of a sudden my partner stopped at a point, and told me - “This is the point where you get a signal, so if you want to call someone, please do, as you won’t get it anywhere after this point. I immediately took the opportunity to call my family and tell them I was doing fine, and there was no need to worry. 

Soon, we reached the base camp site of Kedarkantha, where there were three dilapidated shepherd huts, made by locals for use when they are out with their sheep. Plus, they are used by them as places to serve the trekkers that throng this place in the winters.

When I looked up from the campsite to see if I could see the summit, I didn’t see anything but fog and trees through which the trail moved ahead. A few switchbacks later, when we arrived at a clearing in the woods, I was shown the summit by Suki. It looked far away and I wondered if the ridge that I saw was the one to be taken, but we continued walking on the trail which was not exactly going towards that ridge. Around half an hour from the base camp, we were completely out in the open, with the peak clearly visible for us to go climb. The trail was also very clearly marked, and there were no chances of getting drifted anywhere on the trail. 

As much as the summit seems near, it takes a bit of effort to reach the top. We climbed for almost forty five minutes before I reached the top, and my partner came after about fifteen minutes. He had sat down to take a rest, while I continued on the trail, and reached the top where a temporary structure was prepared by the locals by keeping stones on top of each other like Cairns. There were many flags on the top of these stone structures, and in the middle was a shivling and a trishul which was being worshiped. I just sat there for a while, taking in all the beauty around. There were rapid cloud movements happening around, with multiple snow-clad peaks surrounding us. It truly felt like being on the top of the world, with clouds beneath us. There are many treks in this region which people do, out of which Phulara Ridge is one, which is at a lower altitude than this one. It is said that during the trek to Phulara Ridge, one can see the Kedarkantha peak throughout, and many aspire to return to climb this peak one day. 

After some time, Suki told me of another small temple a few feet below this main summit, so we climbed down to the temple to see the Ganesh idol installed in this small temple. After spending some time at the Ganesh temple, we started our descent, as I could see clouds gathering in the sky. In fact, within half an hour of our descent, the entire peak was in clouds.

This trek offers splendid views of the surrounding ranges through the various clearings that it has on the trail, which otherwise goes through dense forests. Once we crossed the base camp, Suki took me down through another route, which was a short cut to the Juda ka Talaab campsite.

This was a scenic route through dense forest, but one had to be cautious of not slipping on the wet trail, which was ridden by wet leaves, mud and occasional stones - a combination on which there are high chances of slipping and falling down. Once we got to the Juda ka Talaab campsite, we would see the lake in all its splendor from a vantage point.

There are these two islands on the lake, which continuously move around the lake, and Suki told me that nobody has measured the depth of this lake. As we reached the campsite, we could see horses grazing around, and as we waited to drink a few sips of water along with munching on some biscuits, I could see the rapidly descending clouds into the valley below as well as the campsite. Within no time, the entire campsite was engulfed in clouds. 

Without wasting any time, we picked up the tent, and headed straight down to Sankri, through the trail that we had taken while climbing up. It was fun descending down the same day of summiting the mountain, but I could sense that it was taking a bit of a toll on my knees, as it was quite a descent. Plus, the next day itself, we were to embark on the Bali Pass trek. I was a bit concerned, but thought that a night’s rest would help, and I should be fine the next day. The last stretch of the trail was completely on concrete, which was terrible - to say the least.

But, as I walked into Sankri, I was a satisfied and happy man, having speed-hiked 6,100 feet of climb up to Kedarkantha and back within a span of approximately 20 hours, with a hiking time of close to 6 hours 21 mins, including both ascent and descent.