Insignificance

The idea was hatched after a drinking binge at a footballers’ get together. A team mate was narrating his stories of high altitude trekking, and they seemed fairly interesting. Now as MBA students, one of the more interesting activities you indulge in is planning your vacations, however small or far away they may be. So it was way back in early February when Keshav and I registered for the Kedarkanth trek with India Hikes from March 29 to April 3.

The trek trip was soon lost among our other aimless pursuits at WIMWI (read marketing classes, Poker sessions). We used to get constant updates from India Hikes advising us to train physically or to buy trekking equipment, which we shamelessly ignored. The result was that we ended up buying everything one day before our departure at a nearby Wildcraft store, and had to shell out way more than what we had intended to, around 15K each for a trek costing us 8K. For future trekkers, Decathlon is the place to go to.

Day 0: The drive to Sankri

We boarded the Nanda Devi express to Dehradun on 28th night, and reached Dehradun comfortably in the morning at 6. India Hikes had arranged a tempo traveler to transport us to Sankri, which is where the trek begins. At Dehradun we met our would-be co-trekkers, who hailed from all walks of life. There was a 12 year old kid with his mother from Hyderabad, a couple from Bangalore, a trio of bachelors from Gurgaon and two bankers from Bombay. Later we were joined by a gang of six Punjabis (which included two newly-married couples) whose sole intention throughout the trek seemed to be to click selfies with the mountains, almost pushing Mr. Bhansali to gift them a mirror if they were so inclined to look at themselves. More on Mr. Bhansali later.

We had breakfast in Mussoorie, and lunch higher up at Purola. There is something about greeting mountains after a long time, you feel overwhelmed and welcomed at the same time. I am hardly a religious person, but there is something definitely spiritual about Himalayas. Anyway, lunch was sumptuous, and we reached Sankri after a minor delay at 6 in the evening. India Hikes staff was there to welcome us, and we had a mini-orientation session and were handed out further trekking equipment like a trekking pole, poncho and gaiters. Sankri is the highest motor-able village in Uttarakhand, and you’d be lucky to be able to make a phone call from there. Dinner was decent, with the only occupational hazard being that you had to wash your own dishes with freezing water. Temperature at Sankri hovered around 4-5 degrees.

Day 1: From Sankri to Juda ka Talab

The trek began after breakfast around 9. I was slightly apprehensive, since my first school trek in class 9 had resulted in a slip disk. There was significant steepness at some points, but once we got used to it it was pretty fine. Mr. Bhansali led the way with the local guide Shravan, Keshav would be behind him and I used to follow Keshav. We were usually separated by 20 metres or so, with the next person behind me off by 100 metres or more. This pattern stayed true for most parts of the trek.

Mr. Sanjay Bhansali was born in Jaipur but had built his home in Pondicherry. After completing a couple of degrees in commerce, he worked for a few years at HSBC and then at Reuters. After getting bored of it fairly quickly, he decided to invest his savings in a few ventures run by his friends, which worked out well for him. Not having many expenses of his own, he decided to spend the rest of his life conquering mountain peaks and making friends with Sherpas in Ladakh. He had completed nearly 30 treks and had stories to tell which made Keshav and I gape in awe. Finally, he was in no way connected to his namesake, the famous Bollywood director.

The path was strewn with gorgeous waterfalls and interspersed with pine forests. There was not much sign of humanity, although we did encounter a trek gang on their way back. We stopped for lunch at a lush green open meadow by a stream flowing down merrily the hillside. Not much of the trek was left after the lunch, and we reached camp site around 4. Our camp was set up near a lake, known locally as Juda Ka Talab or JKT.

Day 2: From JKT to KK base-camp

This was the easiest day of the trek, and also the most boring. We had spent much of last night shivering inside the tent, and were eager to greet the warm sun. Mr. Bhansali had entertained us with stories of his travails across the entire country. Another challenge was also keeping our clothes dry in all the snow. A few more pairs of woolen socks would have definitely come in handy.

After a light breakfast, we embarked on what would be a four-hour long trek. This was the first day we were using gaiters, which are essentially attached to your tracks to prevent snow from entering your shoes. They proved to be fairly useful. The mountains looked far more intimidating today, although the snow actually made it easier to climb. Mr. Bhansali kept a ferocious pace, and I had to do my best to keep up. Nothing of note happened during the trek, and we reached KK base camp by 1.

This camp site proved to be a far more challenging stay than the one at JKT. For one, it was far colder, and the weather had taken a turn for the worse with occasional raindrops lashing against our faces. Also, the water source (a stream) was located quite far, and so were the toilets. The Punjabis didn’t take anything into account however, and were happily sliding down the mountain slopes without a care in the world, even as Keshav and I watched with suspicious eyes.

By evening, thoughts about abandoning the trek had crept into our heads. We realized that the trek in itself was not very challenging, but the stay at camp-site was. Also, we thought it would be a better idea to get an extra day’s rest before we headed out for our internships. We spoke to the trek-leader Jay about this, but he gave us the option of staying back at the camp-site. He didn’t have any spare men to accompany us down to Sankri, which was sort of strange considering what he said was true even in the case of a medical emergency. Anyhow, there was no point in staying back at the camp-site, so we decided to scale the summit.

Day 3: The final day:

Once we had made up our minds to complete the trek, we became quite excited about it. Well, not about the part where we had to wake up at 4, that still sucked, but other than that there was a sense of achievement that would have eluded us if we had decided to go back.

It was bloody cold when we got about to do our morning business. Packing of sleeping bags had never been my forte, and I just somehow stuffed it into its container with Mr. Bhansali’s help. Using some Listerine, we rinsed our mouths and had some Egg Parathaas. After leaving our rucksacks behind at KK base as the climb was steep, we finally began our ascent around 6 15 AM. Shravan and Mr. Bhansali went on their own trip, with Keshav and I trying our best to keep abreast.

Trek wise, this was the best day ever. The mountains were covered with fresh snow from last night which made the whole thing slightly easier. The key was to not walk on the already made trail, but to implant new steps with our micro-spikes. Micro spikes are essentially clamp-ons which you attach to your shoes to get a better grip on the snow. Anyhow, I continued the trek at my own pace, undeterred by the ferocious pace set by Mr. Bhansali or the the languishing Punjabis. This, I had realized, was the best way to trek. Alone, interspersed only with sips of water and breathtaking views.

We stopped for some rest after one third of our journey was over. This was at the top of a mini-peak we had scaled, and the view from up there was one to behold. There was a cluster of four mountain peaks in the distance, and from here we could also see Kedarkanth in its full might. We left our first resting spot as the Punjabis arrived with their assortment of cameras.

While the first one-third of the journey I traversed alone, I had Keshav for company for the next part. Keshav stayed 50 yards or so ahead while I trooped behind, he pausing after every ridge conquered, every cliff scaled. We were switching out back-pack between us, as we weren’t carrying much except water and our ponchos that day. This phase of our trek that day also went by smoothly, but I was beginning to feel a little light headed as the altitude kept on increasing. The next stop came by at the base of the final frontier, where Keshav and I sat for a while and took in our surroundings. It was there when Keshav said the words I had been feeling the entire day. He looked at me and said, “Insignificance, this is insignificance”. He didn’t have to explain.

The ten-minute break soon got over, and both of us resumed our journey. I have done some adventurous stuff in my life, but I have never felt so close to death as I felt in the final third of our ascent. The climb suddenly became very steep, and falling would have meant a descent into the valley below, which seemed very very far away. Now there were two trails in front of us. One went straight up the mountain peak, while the other zig-zagged its way. We went with the safer latter option. Keshav continued to lead the way, and he soon managed to put quite some distance between himself and me, which would be fine except the fact that the bugger was carrying the only water bottle remaining. I decided to just keep my head down and trudge along step by step. Keshav eventually met me when the final 200 ft. was left, and we scaled the rocks protruding out of the summit to reach our destination. Here, in true Indian style, we came across a temple.

We were at the peak for around an hour, where some were lost in tranquility, some busy taking photographs. The Punjabis came to the summit when we had been there already for an hour, and started playing Honey Singh songs. We knew it was time to leave. The problem was, we weren’t too sure how to.

Mr. Bhansali had already begun his descent, and the man was walking down as if on a plain. Keshav and I were both very apprehensive. We decided to take a leap of faith and follow him, trudging down step by step, Keshav in tow. Ten meters into our journey and I slipped, I slid, my heart skipped a beat, I slid some more, and then there was pure joy. Unadulterated bliss. Trust me on this one, very few activities match up to the joy of sliding down 100 metres of a mountain side in seconds, something which you took more than an hour to climb. Keshav followed in glee once he realized how much fun I was having. The rest of the path didn’t take much time, or rather we didn’t realize how time flew by. Sliding as much as possible, nearly barging into a tree at times, we touched KK base by 12. Of course, others took much longer, and arrived exhausted by 1 30.

The original plan was to camp at a nice camping site one third of the way between KK Base and Sankri. We were slightly pissed by the delay others were causing, because we were still hopeful of making it to Sankri by EOD, which would allow us to reach Delhi a day early. Anyway, we were able to leave KK Base only by 3 30, and reached the camping site around 5 30. Much to our frustration, we were told it is too late to go down to Sankri, which was a further two hours downhill. But as I said, trekking is a lot of fun, but camping with people you are not too fond of is not my thing. We decided to not follow orders then, took a little bit of risk, and made off from the camping site. Luckily for us, Mr Bhansali and a sherpa accompanied us.

What followed was thrilling, exhilarating, beautiful. We completed the downward trek in around seventy five minutes. It was raining lightly, our ponchos were flapping in the wind, the hillside was ablaze in the twilight with a riot of colors. Our pace was brutal, I remember slipping down at least thrice. Somehow, I felt even more in synchrony with nature than when I had scaled the summit hours earlier. We stopped for some excellent black tea at a local’s house, which reaffirmed my belief that mountainous people are the most simple and hospitable people in the country.

With mud dripping from our boots and water trickling off our ponchos, we arrived at the India Hikes accommodation around 7, where most were surprised to see us come back a day earlier. They were even more astonished when they got to know we had scaled the summit and come the entire way down on the same day, which I am guessing doesn’t happen very often.

Anyway, we had food, slept early, and left by the early morning bus around 5. We reached Dehradun at around 4, and in the next six hours managed to gobble down a lot of unhealthy fast food, downed two bottles of beer each, scored a little weed, and fine dined before finally leaving for home by the 11 30 train.

There is a bit of Chris McCandless in all of us, and I met mine on that trek. I think he is going to live on inside me for some time. Mountains, I will be back.

P.S: Pics credit Vinay Khebbar, who trekked with us.