Enchanted, ecstatic, enraptured, exhilarated; these words fail miserably at defining the euphoria this Himalayan peak in the Garhwal Ranges of Uttarakhand gifts you. Kedarkantha, thus goes the name of this Himalayan peak, stands unperturbed even in the harshest of winter with howling wind that literally freezes you. The peak stands atop, and gives a view of the Gangothri, the Yamunothri, and many other snow capped Himalayan peaks, insulated from human nomenclature.
Here comes the journey to this heaven on earth, a journey no words can describe, but still...
Catch the only bus to Sankri in the early morning from Mussorie, which takes 10 hours to reach Sankri. (And Mussorie can be reached the previous day by bus which ply frequently from Dehradun. It takes only an hour to reach Mussorie.)
Forget the network, forget the electricity, embrace the nature. Yeah, Sankri connects with the outside world only when the state-run BSNL pays some whimsical visits. Sankri is a remote but pristine Himalayan village in Uttarakhand, with the best of people inhabiting it. This epic trek to the Kedarkantha begins from our base camp at Sankri. Spend a day here in the lapse of Garhwal Himalayas, and you will establish a connection with yourself. Acclimatize yourself and prepare for the most picturesque winter trek of your life not to become the hardest one.
The day two starts with ascending towards the next camp site at Juda ka talab, the frozen lake. You can dance over this frozen lake and slide over the ice but always do after the permission from local guides, else you will end up inside the deadly cold lake that would freeze you to death. This campsite is at a height of 9000 feet and you start feeling the real chilling winter towards night. You could not, however, resist coming out of your tent at night to view the endless starry sky smiling at you. Stars are so closer to you that you feel grabbing them at a jump.
This day, the trek gets tougher and the trail becomes slippery. The blanket of snow covers the entire area and you have to mind for the deep crevices below the snow. A walking pole becomes very handy during the trail. Tread with caution and proceed towards Luhasu, the highest base camp for the Kedarkantha trek.
Luhasu presents you with an opportunity to live in the snow, to play with the snow. The tent is fixed on snow and you sleep over that. Make sure you wear at least three layers to insulate yourself from the cold.
Luhasu is a camp site where heavy snowfall can occur at anytime. So be prepared to remove the fallen snow from the tent roof in the middle of the night, else the tent will collapse.
The D-Day! The summit day! We were informed that if the inclement weather at the peak is too dangerous for us, we would return, without doing the summit. But the heaven only knows, we set off for the final lapse at 3 am in the morning, with our torch lights paving our way through the knee deep snow. The ascend became tough, the slope of the trail changed from an acute to almost perpendicular. The temperature disobeyed the requests of our freezing body to rise above -10 degrees. But the ultimate aim moved us forward, unperturbed, for we have to witness the sun rising above the Great Himalayas. A tough four hour trek took us to the bottom of the Kedarkantha peak, and the final summit stood before us as if challenging us. This final climb, I would say, is very difficult, definitely for the first time trekkers. The cold wind blows heavily, and the trail approaches a nearly ninety degrees. The path, if any, becomes slippery and the only driving force that drives us forward is the desire to see what lies beyond the so close, yet so far destination.
And, finally, we set foot on the summit, the Kedarkantha peak, at 12500 feet above sea level, freezing at a temperature of -15 degrees and the gusty chilling winds would any time uproot us, we felt.
The descend to Sankri took two days for us, which you can even do in a day if determined.
I set off alone for this winter trek from Kerala, but the amazing people I met during this trek ensured that we returned as a group of friends who loved mountains, and would again summon to the calls of the Great Himalayas. NOW, WAIT FOR NONE, PACK YOUR BAGS AND GO. Happy travelling :)