A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas

Tripoto
24th Dec 2016

A view worth dying for.

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Busy making future plans in the mountains

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Ocean of clouds

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Abode of Shiva

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Every picture tells a story, which to each is his own.

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

When mountains smoke.

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - Gandalf

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur
Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

She never gave up.

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Snow desert.

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Swarag rohini Peaks in all glory

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

A quant evening at Kedarkanth basecamp

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Soliloquy!

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

The pano from the base camp of Kedarkanth

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

A sequence from one of the timelapse I created on the second morning

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Sunrise over Garhwal Himalayas.

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

light my fire!

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

Moonrise near Juda ka Talab. Shot this long exposure without the tripod.

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

camping on first day near Juda ka Talab. The menu was Kadi Chawal in Lunch!

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

because a travel is incomplete without making new friends

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

The backbone of this trek

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

playing snowball

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

The energetic one.

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas by Nitish Thakur

#TripototakemetoSandakphu

"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after." - J.R.R Tolkien from The Hobbit. 
  
Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 1/23 by Nitish Thakur 
You don't always go out to travel looking for something but sometimes you return back with things you didn't know were in within you. 
I have never really travelled in a group before but this Christmas I was in for a surprise.I joined a group of 6 people who I didn't know before for the Christmas trek to Kedarkanth in Uttrakashi region of Uttrakhand. 
Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 2/23 by Nitish Thakur 
Day 1 was spent reaching Sankri which is around 8-10 hours from Dehradun. It also serves as a base camp for other treks such as Har ki Doon valley. We spent overnight in a local place.

 Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 3/23 by Nitish Thakur 
Day 2 was when we started our trek ascending our mountain through the jungle and snowy paths till we reached a serene place near Juda Ka Talab. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 4/23 by Nitish Thakur 

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 5/23 by Nitish Thakur
After campfire we setup our tents and we were served with Kadi chawal in Lunch and Matar paneer in dinner. All thanks to the amazing team of Rise on Himalayas. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 6/23 by Nitish Thakur 
Over dinner we all shared something about why we were there. It was one of those nights where you sit in a jungle near the campfire with a group of people you hardly knew before but you feel the most comfortable with those people sitting there in a jungle in the open sky in the white landscape around us. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 7/23 by Nitish Thakur 
The moonrise at our campsite looked something like this.

 Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 8/23 by Nitish Thakur 
We spent sometime taking self portraits with the moonlit background. It brought out the amazing skies of the mountains. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 9/23 by Nitish Thakur 
Day 3 brought more slippery and snowy paths but the view with the ascent kept getting better.Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 10/23 by Nitish Thakur 

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 11/23 by Nitish Thakur 
 Our stop today was at Luhasa, the base camp before the summit over 2-3 feet snow. We had to shovel the snow to setup our camping tents here.Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 12/23 by Nitish Thakur 
 
 Afterwards was spent basking in the last rays of sun till the sky started to glow with different colors. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 13/23 by Nitish Thakur 

This evening was even more interactive and we all shared some parts and stories of our life. It's amazing how we keep to ourselves in our monotonous city life but open up at a place like this out in the lap of mountains, the rawness of this place somehow find its way to connect to us and allows us to open up in a way we are not used to.

 Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 14/23 by Nitish Thakur 
Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 15/23 by Nitish Thakur 
Day 4 was summit day. It took the best out of us to reach the summit since the mountain slopes were steep and we were losing our breath after every 10-20 steps. 
Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 16/23 by Nitish Thakur 
After 3-4 hours we were able to reach the summit and the view is always greatest at the summit as you can see. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 17/23 by Nitish Thakur 
Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 18/23 by Nitish Thakur   
After spending 2 hours at the summit and admiring the view of Garhwal Himalayas we descended down. The way down was the best when we slided over the snow and felt like a free spirit. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 19/23 by Nitish Thakur 

Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 20/23 by Nitish Thakur 
By the time we reached the base camp we realised it was getting dark but we had to keep moving forward. We did our trekking for a few hours in complete dark in the shadow of stars with our torch lights lighting the way. We spent the night in a wooden hut with delicious gajar ka halwa. 
The next day we were off to dehradun to catch our train to New Delhi. After this trip was done the strangers I met 5 days ago surely had become my favorite set of people. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 21/23 by Nitish Thakur 
Travel teaches you a lot, we all know but one of things I learnt in this trip is to accept every soul you meet for who they are, for all of them are deep inside going through the same things in life that you have been going and more you dig down you feel like you are just looking into a mirror. Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 22/23 by Nitish Thakur 


P.S : Thank you Ankit, Harleen, Sangeeta, Kanan, Kanika, Sourabh, Sandeep and Mahesh. 
Photo of A maiden trek to Garhwal Himalayas 23/23 by Nitish Thakur