Uttarakhand is an amazing state, full of Lush green forest, beautiful valleys, undulating hills, sparkling mountain streams and spiritual rivers. While the mystic Himalayas are a treat to the eyes, the lush greenery and chilling weather revives you from within. Living here for years, people generally ask me, Have you visited many places?
Yes!
There are lot of places to visit in Uttarakhand and see the majestic nature. I love traveling. I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list. One of my best experience was the kedarkantha trek.
Kedarkantha is a mountain peak of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand, India. It is at an elevation of 12,500 ft. Kedarkantha is located within Govind Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttarkashi district.
At the end of December’16, Himalayan explorer club, IIT Roorkee planned a short trek to kedarkantha peak and the group of 20 travel enthusiast from IIT Roorkee left to experience the serenity of nature.
The First Day
Camping is a great way to escape into nature and forget about the mundane and hectic daily life. After traveling for 13 hours we reached sankri, the first campsite. The woods always look different at night. Even with the glasses, everything has an unfamiliar slant to it. The bright sky and the twinkling stars made the first day amazing.
Road Ahead
Next morning, I rolled out of my sleeping bag and stood up and stretched in the direction of the sun just shining its warm golden light over the mountain. It was amazing. Early in the morning we headed towards the second camp site. Hiking is not easy and it being the first trek, it was more tough for me. After few hours of trekking we experienced the first snowfall of season. Snow falling soundlessly on me filled my heart with sweet clarity. I will never outgrow the excitement of seeing the snowfall.
The campsite was still far and I was exhausted. Snowfall made it more difficult to find the right path. After trekking for hours we reached the base camp and the happiness of reaching the base camp was unexplainable. But the hard time was still to come. Hunger and cold are the worst combination ever and working in those situation is more difficult.
Experience is a dim lamp which lights the one who bears it. Nights are difficult in mountains they say, that day I had an experience . Surviving -13°C in those sleeping bags was difficult but the next day made it worth.
Heyday
Next morning, I woke up with sore back and tired legs, the Cold wasn’t helping either!. The aim of the day was to reach the peak and descend back to sankri by evening. I was excited to complete the summit and see the world from the top.
With a new day comes new strength and new thoughts
We started our journey early in the morning and experiencing the purity of nature. The steepness increased as we were close to the target and the melting snow made it worst to move on. Slowly and steadily we reached the peak and it was amazing. Standing on the top felt satisfying and exhilarating. On the top, the mountains were vampire white. They were sky-stabbing and the air was chilling and numbing. Completing the summit gave me a feeling of deep joy and absolute contentment, "no questions asked and no answers given, everything is crystal clear the way it should be".
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this hardship. I can take the next thing that comes along
What i learnt
Chocolates are elixir
Maggi is the best food ever
Go prepared
Try to keep your backpack lighter
Stretch your limits
There are other ways to get High ????
Go for a trek once and you will know yourself better.