When summer comes, I always head towards mountains to find some cool. As you know our Himalayas are spread across Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh, the tedious job of sorting thousand possible options to find the perfect destination to spend my holidays gives me nightmares. But this time I had already made up my mind. I was looking for a challenge to stretch myself beyond my ability, something which would give me goosebumps even when I think about it. So, I planned to trek to Goecha La, Sikkim. There were three reasons for me to select this place. The first one is the culture of humility. Sikkimese are nurtured under the calm nature of thousands of monasteries and temples which also reflects in their uncommon hospitality. Second reason is the grand view of high mountains of Himalayas with Mt Kanchenjunga dominating the most. Attending the Darbar of 12 big summits with the third highest mountain in the world has been a long-awaited dream for me. The last reason was my personal idea of intentionally upscaling the challenge barometer by converting a 10days trek into 5 days trek.
I knew the challenge was not a cakewalk but I had to try. I had to break myself to assemble a new personality within. I consulted all my trekker friends and my running mates. Almost everyone suggested me to drop this crazy idea and choose something simpler but I was stubborn. I had read that people do Goecha La marathon in one day, so why couldn’t I do a 10 days trek in 5 days. Of course, I needed to shape my physique and psyche for the challenge but I could definitely do it and hence, I got into it. First thing I did was that I calculated my BMI which was above 27. So, I set my first objective of the plan to bring my BMI close to 20.
I started my daily routine of 5km run with strength training exercise for 30 mins and then gradually increased the distance to 10-15 km while increasing the pace. A month of strict formal training gave me enough confidence to book my flight tickets to Goecha La.
Travelling on concise budget was another add on challenge for me so I reserved luxury for post trek duration. The morning flight via Kolkata were cheaper but the layover time increases my arrival time at Bagdogra. I reached Bagdogra at noon and booked a 2 pm jeep to Yuksam from SNT jeep stand. Please note this is the cheapest transport option to travel any destination in Sikkim. You can also book a private SUV which will cost you around Rs 5000 but as I was traveling alone, I preferred the public transport. I reached Yuksam at 7 pm and straight away went to my hotel Demosong Inn. I had already booked a room here online with limited expectation but room turned out to be far better. There was TV, double bed, hot water geyser in the bathroom and a glimpse of Mt Pandim from the window. What more could I wish for?
I met my guide in the morning and we explored the beautiful Dubdi Monastery and Norbu gang garden. These places are excellent for meditating and for observing ancient Buddhist architecture. As per my guide suggestion we also visited the local police station of Yuksam to register my trek dates of Goecha La. It's not mandatory but strongly advised. The evening of my first day at Yuksam was equally exciting as I played football with the local kids and had tea with the older chaps cheering the goals of the game. The delicious local cuisine for dinner gave me a relaxing sleep at night.
Next morning, I woke up early and took a refreshing bath as it was the first day of my Goecha La trek. While packing the backpack I was reevaluating the things I would be needing on the trek. I always follow the ABC technique to pack my backpack. ABC stands for Accessibility, Balance and Compression. You need Accessibility to take all the things out quickly, Balance is very important for safety and comfort (you don’t want to get the weight load to fall in one direction in the bag) and Compression makes it possible to take all the things you want to carry. A standard technique to pack you bag is to place the frequently used items on the top, heavy items near to my back and lighter items in the front. This way the bag weight load falls on your back and not in any other direction. To check if you have packed the backpack correctly, place the bag on floor upright and see if the bag balances itself straight. If I fall in any direction then the bag is loaded heavy to the direction it falls.
My guide was already waiting for me at the when I was checking out the hotel. We greeted each other and started walking towards Forest Check Post of Kanchenjunga National Park. After completing the formalities, we picked up our bags and started our Goecha La Trek. Initially the tar road takes you to the last peas and corn fields of the village till you reach the well paved stone path. The dense cover of tall trees, curvy mountain trail with a river flowing at one end provided a beautiful ambience for the initial path of the trail. In next 10km of the trek, we crossed three iron bridge, one large Kanchenjunga National Park gate and multiple water source point. Our first rest point of the day was at the last bridge of the trail. It was a beautiful valley setup of tall trees with river Rathong Chuu flowing below a large iron bridge. It gave immense satisfaction to dip my legs into the fresh cold water of the river. My guide was kind enough to bring us boiled eggs and potatoes for lunch. While having my lunch, he showed me an old 100 rupee note and told that the view printed in the note is the actual view from Goechala. Surprisingly, this trek will help me strike out an item from another list I made “destinations printed on Indian rupee notes”.
After the bridge, the trail only goes up with an inclination of 45-60 degrees. People usually trek this section on the second day but as I was on a time crunch, I decided to do the 16km trek to Tshoka on the first day itself. After 11 hours starting from Yuksam I finally reached my first destination of the trek I.e., Tshoka. Surely the ascent reminded me of my grandmother but someone has said, “The best view comes only after the hardest climb”. Tshoka is a small village of 5-6 trekkers hut, a small pond and a small monastery. From here you could spot four snowcapped mountains with Mt. Pandim dominating the skyline. If you trek to this distance, do not forget to visit the monastery as the place has the most calming divine aura of all. An hour of rest at the footsteps of the monastery will take away all the tiredness from the trek. Also, do wear thermals when you are resting so that you will not lose much body heat.
Next morning, I woke up early to witness the mountains in sunlight, the white mountains were shining like silver. The view charged me enough for the next part of the trek I.e., to Dzongri. Initially the trek is little steep climb with muddy trail till we reach the single paved over wooden log which helps you maintain a firm grip for your shoes. Also, I didn’t realize that I was trekking in the spring season of year until I saw red carpet of rhododendron flowers on the trail. Spring is the flowering season of the region. People say you would witness 48 different varieties & color of rhododendron flower on the trail during this season and also get to taste the wine made from these flowers.
After 30-40 mins of trek, we reached Phedang. This stop is important for two reasons. One that it’s a cross section of three roads (One from Tshoka, One from Dzongri and One from Kockchurang) and another that it will be last diversion we will take while coming back from Kockchurang. My guide took some of my photos while me posing like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was really enjoying the camera. Doing macro photography of flowers and insects, capturing colorful birds and of course me jumping in air. In fact, even I was enjoying his efforts with the camera.
The next part of the trail is a daunting zig zag uphill trek till we reach the tree line. You will surely need some energy bars for this section of the trek. After the tree line, the view opens up with high mountains on one side and tall trees on the other and the trail turns into camel hump till Dzongri. It took me 6-7 hours to complete trek from Tshoka to Dzongri. After reaching, we offloaded our backpack and stretched our muscles with some heavy breathing exercise. It is very important to do warm and cool down after every trek you do on this trail. It helps you to relax your muscles and prevents muscles cramp. I would also suggest to trek with pre-used trekking shoes with ankle support so that you will avoid blisters and ankle injury.
After exploring the surrounding and watching snow pigeons, we came back to trekkers huts for a hot cup of wai-wai soup. It is a delicious hot noodle soup with thick egg gravy. Of course any food will taste delicious after a hard climb but this soup was something I have never tasted before. It was enough to fill my stomach and make me sleepy. I tuck myself into the sleeping bag and slept in minutes.
Next morning, the trek to Dzongri top was not that difficult as I was trekking without backpack. We started our climb an hour before sunrise to catch the shining peaks and oh boy, if heaven had door, it would surely look like the view in front of me. The sunrays were shining bright over each peak of the range. Luckily my guide knew all the peaks of the range and was helping me identify mountain by point at each peak. Watching the Kachenjunga and Singalila range was surely an inspiring moment of the trek and the sunrise was just cherry on top.
After returning from Dzongri Top, we had breakfast and continued our trek to our next stop I.e., Thansing. The initial trek of this region was a meadow walk over mushy grass. There were thousands of sheep grazing the early morning soft grass. My guide informs me that these mountain sheep are very valuable for their wool, which is sold to the highest bidder in the market. The reason being that in spring these sheep secrete some form of oil into their wool which works as an additional insulator to the cold weather. Also considering the tremendous effort for sustaining in this wild for months watching these sheep is another level of hard work for this valuable wool.
While talking to each other we didn’t realize that we have reached the edge of the mountain, from here it is 500ft descent to Kockchurang. The descent was little tricky because of the steep nature of the trail. To avoid full pressure on my knees, I started using a technique I call “bouldering technique” which I learned in Hampi while hopping over big boulders of Tungabhadra river. What you do in this technique is that you try to balance all your weight on your toes while hoping over big rocks. It is an easy learning and fun activity to do which does not require much energy but only balance. We took our first rest of the day at Kockchurang beside the river. It seemed the snow in the mountains is melting at higher rate which has raised the water level and flow of the river. We waited while eating our boiled eggs and potatoes and then cross the river from the bridge and continued our trek to Thansing.
It took us almost 6 hours to reach Thansing starting from Dzongri. The initial part after the river was little climb but then it is an easy meadow walk till Thansing. Always remember of wear your thermal as soon as you reach your destination which will help you avoid loss of body heat. After I did my warm down exercises, I quickly got into the kitchen and cuddled up beside the wooden stove. Helping the kitchen team was also a lot fun activity. They complimented me for my onion chopping skills. We exchanged some laughs and spent the evening. I barely slept that night and woke up at 2.00 am. It was dense dark outside almost impossible to see beyond ten meter even with a torch. Still, I picked up my camera and started following my guide. Thankfully I was not carrying my backpack, I felt 10kg light. Our goal was to catch the morning sunrise from Goecha La. This section of the trek is moderate till you reach Samiti Lake (also called Sungmoteng Lake) afterwards its continuous ascent for 2 hours till Goecha La. It was difficult to climb in the dark but I did not want to lose my chance of witnessing sunrise. My guide was constantly helping me while carrying my camera.
It was 15 min to sunrise when I reach Goecha La. Things started getting visible now. The valley seemed like a vast wave of tsunami of gravels and moraines. The high mountains were still under their own shadow and I was getting impatient while chewing my energy bar. Exactly at 5.53 the first sun ray touched the dark shadow of Mt. Kanchenjunga. It felt like a moment of eureka. Gradually the mighty lord presented itself with a colorful rainbow of morning dew in the air. He was standing in his simplistic form making the whole valley divine with his aura. My heart started feeling heavy, my eyes started getting numb and tears started to gather around my eyelashes. I felt like the view was overwhelming me and then I couldn’t hold myself. I never cry so easily but the hard work to reach this point made me weak. whatever be the reason, it was a cry of victory. My guide consoled me and I shook his hand thanking him to be part of my journey. He handed me some sugar and we sat there for couple of minutes till the sun brightened the whole valley. After taking some crazy photos, we said our good bye to the view and started our descent. I was laughing without jokes, smiling like a hanger in my mouth and hopping over moraines like I was five-year-old kid. I understood the true meaning of happiness here.
I was constantly turning back to see Mt. Kanchenjunga, trying to register the moment into my permanent memory so that when I write about it, my words don’t fall short in describing my experience at Goecha La. I still do not feel my writing skills are capable enough to describe the moment accurately but I tried my best. Hopefully it will inspire you to come here to experience the same.
In no time I reached Samiti lake, maybe I was highly charged by the view and there it was, another worthy moment to witness, the reflection of Mt Pandim over the dense blue water of Samiti lake. Just beautiful. I was out of battery so I couldn’t capture the scene but do look out for it when you are on your journey to Goecha La. The wild yaks are also worth capturing in your return journey.
We reached Thansing by noon and started our return journey after a stomach full of oatmeal. I was all out of my energy bars. luckily, I had some Sona Papdi in my bag which we had in Phedang. The actual descent actually starts after Phedang to Tshoka. We reached Tshoka at 5.30pm after 16 hours of continues trek. I was completely drained out like my phone and my camera. I slept like crazy that night and started our descent to Yuksam in the morning. I reached Yuksam almost at 4.30pm. My guide took me to his house and treated me with chicken rice his mother cooked. It was the most delicious chicken rice I ever had in my life. From there, I went to my hotel, took bath and slept till next morning. I felt a change in me in the morning. I felt like I have become humbler to other people. Greeting everyone with a big smile, tipping more then I should, laughing louder than I used too. I felt the cloud over my head has vanished somehow. I was observing while enjoying this change in me. I had my breakfast and headed towards the jeep stand to say my adieus to the beautiful journey I had last week. Anush came to send me off. I hopped on the jeep, said my bon voyage to Anush and promised to return again with my family and kid.
Guide Name: Anush Limboo
12 mountains for Kanchenjunga Range.
1. Kanchenjunga (8586m),
2. Talung (7349m),
3. Rathong (6679m),
4. Kabru N (7353m),
5. Koktang (6147m),
6. Simvo (6812m),
7. Kabru S (7318m),
8. Kabru Dome (6600m),
9. Kabru Forked (6100m),
10. Pandim (6691m),
11. Tenchenkhang (6010m),
12. Jupono (5650m)
10 Things to Note:
1. The trek can be managed in 5 days but you need to have good fitness and tremendous patience and mental strength.
2. Things to Carry:
Trek pole if necessary. I didn’t carry any.
One pant
Two t-shirts
Two pair of socks
One sweater
One jacket
One sunglass
One torch
One balaclava
One pair of thermals
One cap
One pair of gloves and
Five under wears (one for each day).
Carry two camera batteries, One power bank full charged. Roll up the batteries in socks and keep inside your jacket. Batteries drain faster in subzero temperature.
3. Distance in Km:
Yuksam to Tshoka – 16km,
Tshoka to Dzongri - 10km,
Dzongri to Dzongri Top – 2km,
Dzongri to Thansing – 7km
Thansing to Goechala view point – 4.5km
4. Jeep ride from Siliguri to Yuksom – 5 to 6 hours, Cost Rs,500. Do not book private vehicle, instead travel in shared one from SNT.
5. Carry cash of Rs, 10,000 on Trek for food and stay.
6. Guide Charges are Rs, 800 per day.
7. Medicine to Carry:
Loperamide for loose motions
Ondansetron for nausea and vomiting
8. Consult your doctor to help you make HAM (High Altitude Medical) kit.
9. No ATM in Yuksam. Nearest ATM Jorethang (80kms away) Better to withdraw at Siliguri itself.
10. Carry enough energy bars and dry fruits.