There's really a thing about this life of ours that makes us crave for exploration. No matter where or how we live, we can always find ourselves in the outdoors seeking Adventure, an expedition that can perhaps change, change the way we think, it can be an accomplishment not much for one but a whole world to another. And I believe we all can agree to this .
A Billion Lives experiencing the same thing in a billion ways. The most fascinating part is that we get to share all this life, all these stories. And one of such stories is of our Journey to Kedarkantha! It was an experience i could best portray through the series on my YouTube Channel. If you watch it i'd love to Hear from you.
Coming to this trek, Kedarkantha is a peak situated in the westers valleys of Uttarakhand at an elevation of 12,500ft. Its has a history for people believe that if Lord Shiva had not left this place, we would see Shri Kedarnath itself, standing here today. One can hear different stories from a mouth but sure they all end with Mahadev!
Itinerary and About this trek
This is a 5-6 Days trek and can be done in any season but the Winters can surprise you in a million ways. That is why its so often referred as "Winter Trek". If you're an absolute beginner in trekking then working on your fitness and exercising a few days before your trip would really help you.
In this Trip you will first travel from Dehradun to Sankri, Sankri is like a gateway to paradise leading to so many treks in the Himalayas, a Distance of about 200km from Dehradun and sankri is the base village for kedarkantha trek, youll be spending 2-3 days on the mountain making your way from the base village to base camp and then finally after summiting come back here.
Day 1 - Dehradun to Sankri / Reach Dehradun via any means
Day 2 - After spending a night in the beautiful village of Sankri you'll start your trek next day and reach your first checkpoint which is Juda ka Talab, a lake mostly frozen during the winters.
Day 3 - You'll Move from Juda to the Base camp and spend the night there, this day will be an important one because you're gonna wake up as early as 2-3 am to leave for the summit,
Day 4 - Summit Push and down to a campsite, preferably the Hargaon campsite for the stay there.
Day 5 & 6 - Trek back to Sankri and safely reach home with memoriesss!
The entire journey covers roughly 20^ kilometers but its done slowly in a span of 2-3 days, hence being "Beginner friendly". A trek like this is advised to be done with a Guide or a Company especially if this is one of your first treks. The precautions , gear and things to take care of will all be informed well to you if you're booking yourself a package.
Our Journey
We were a group of few... we started from Dehradun and reached Sankri late in the evening, it was a cold night, and it only brought us a surprise next morning. We got out of our tents to see a completely different place, everything was covered in snow, it powdered all night long and what a bliss it was.. Here's a Bigger Picture!
Sankri brought us a surprise in ways we could not think of, the place completely transformed itself into a white heaven. Stunning the views were, but little did we realize that this trek would also bring some restrictions. Well snowfall not only makes your trek beautiful but it might make it undoable in so many cases! same happened here heavy snowfall levels brought some restrictions straight from DFO. We were not going anywhere from sankri for the day, and could only hope for the weather to get better by the next day.
Honestly it was a a win win for we were getting more time to spend in this beautiful village. After all we travel for the journey not just the destination!
It was a clear sky by eve, we could see the sun and we had hopes that things would turn in our favor, and the next day turned out to be a bright one indeed. We started our trek early morning and OH what a trail it was! Snowy trails and breathtaking views all around us!
I tried my best to make a viewer feel our journey in this Last episode of the series here.
As of the trek, we first reached Juda ka talab a frozen lake which was our first checkpoint and a place where people camp for the day although we could not since we were short on one day because of the snowfall earlier. Juda is also full of stories, people say it got its name because there once used to be a pair of two lakes here and some even believe that this used to be the resting place for Lord Shiva.
We continued the trek and reached basecamp by twilight! A beautiful sunset welcomed us there. the place was huge, after all the season brings a lot of people and a lot of camps here.
It was cold there and the temperatures dropped even more as the night started falling ! the Big day was waiting for us just a few hours away, waking up at 3am was a tough doing but our souls were well prepared.
Winds were strong in the morning and the base camp was a rush, Evevryone was trying to leave as early as possible. Lanes of people with blinking lights making their way up to the top, as we rose to higher ground winds became a light blizzard. It was the thrill of it all that drived us.
When we finally reached there. We were speechless, watching the sunrise from summit and the feeling of being on very peak , all of it was worth a feeling one can never forget.
We could only imagine what it would look like from the top until we were actually there, Strong winds and the cold there reminded us of all we had been through. Kedarkantha was one hell of an adventure
And at the end we were left with memories to relive again!
This blog is just a fraction of this journey for my efforts wanted it to be felt through the videos i made ! If you are reading this and like the story then the video series might just surprise you hahah!
Hope you'll like them and Thank you so much for reading this! Happy Travels
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