Kalindi Khal – August September 2007

To Gangotri

2007-09-30T23:59:00.004+05:30

23 - 24 August 2007

Once you've lived with mountains
You will return
You will come back
To touch the tress and grass
And climb once more the windswept mountain pass.
- Ruskin Bond

After our last adventurous trek to Bara Bhangal in the October of 2006, we had decided that we would choose a moderate trek for our next adventure. However as I was recounting the Bara Bhangal experiences to one of our trekker friends JP, in the November of 2006, he suddenly asked me "Kalindi Chaloge? (Want to join us for Kalindi?)". Kalindi was in there in our list but I had never thought it would be added to my trekking resume so early. I was but three Himalayan treks old.

I had a discussion with Sandeep that evening and he was more than eager for Kalindi.

Kalindi Khal (“Khal” is a mountain pass in the local Garhwali language) is at an awesome altitude of 5947 meters (19600 feet). The trek connects the two Hindu holy shrines of Gangotri and Badrinath. The trek itself is in a very remote part of the Greater Himalayas in Garhwal. The legendary mountaineers Shipton and Tilman had discovered this route in 1934. Traversing the Kalindi Khal requires a fundamental understanding of mountains, glaciers and high altitude trekking in general.

So Kalindi Khal it was, for this year’s adventure, that’s what we decided.

Finally after all the preparation, we started for our dream trek on the 23rd of August 2007. The following people were to be the “Super Six” team as we called ourselves.

JP, Harsh, Sandeep and Shilpa from Bangalore, Moiz from Mumbai and Yogesh from Delhi.

From left to right.

JP : Our leader - fondly called JP Bhai Yahoo waley , is a very experienced trekker.
Harsh : Our resident glacier expert .
Moiz : He is the boulder man, a mountain goat. He gets his energy from the surrounding boulders.
Sandeep : My husband - the motivator but always paranoid about AMS.
Yogesh : Our CFO and manager. Very enthusiastic about trekking.
Shilpa : Thats me.

All the members met in Delhi at the Comesum Food Plaza at Nizamuddin Station. We started for Haridwar by train the same night and reached very early in the morning the next day. The plan was to reach Uttarkashi the same day before 12 PM, get our “Inner-Line Permits” from the District Magistrate’s office and start for Gangotri by 2 PM.

We hired a Vikram (a six seater auto rickshaw) from Haridwar for Rishikesh, the foothills of Himalayas. It was five in the morning, and we realized that the auto did not have it’s headlight on. It was quite funny; we traveled the entire one hour in pitch darkness while discussing the ghosts that haunt the Kalindi Khal trail. Finally at about 7 in the morning, we hired a jeep, Mahindra Marshal, from Natraj Chowk at Rishikesh and started for Uttarkashi. Even this process was not without incidences. Harsh angered the driver of the jeep by making some really funny comments about the condition of the vehicle. The angry driver almost stopped short of telling us “Go take a hike” (no pun). After some coaxing, the driver did agree and we were on our way to Uttarkashi.

One of the things that had kept bothering us always had been the weather. We used to see reports of heavy rains in Uttarakhand. There were reports of landslides after Uttarkashi on the way to Gangotri, cutting of Gangotri from rest of India. The weather itself was not looking good from Rishikesh. It had rained the whole night and dark clouds still abounded a plenty. Everyone was keeping his fingers crossed.

Because of the new Tehri Dam construction, there is now a new route from Rishikesh to Uttarkashi increasing the distance between the two towns by 40 km. On our way we stopped to admire the massive man made reservoir.

We reached Uttarkashi at 2 PM sharp where we were met by Budhi Gusain who was to be our guide for the trek. Budhi was a smart young lad of about 25. I had spoken to him on phone before and knew that he had a Basic, Advanced and a Rescue course from NIM. Harsh,JP and Moiz had already been on a trek with Budhi and we were assured that we were in able hands.

Shambhuji hugged JP and started talking to him in a manner as if he was his son-in-law. From this time, we started calling JP, "Uttarkashi kay jamai raja". This added to the one more moniker which JP had - "JP Bhai Yahoowaley" since he always carried the Yahoo flag with him.

We had to visit the district magistrate’s office for the permit. This process did not turnout to be complicated and we got our permits on the same day.

The next day was a protest strike in Uttarkashi because of construction of the Tehri Dam (this is quite a contentious issue in Uttarkhand with opinions divided as to whether the construction of the dam will bring prosperity to the local people). The six of us got on to another jeep for Gangotri. This route is really breath taking, but at quite a few places, the road had washed off due to the recent heavy rains in the region. Thankfully there were no road blocks due to landslides. We reached the scenic village of Harsil as it started getting dark. Harsh, who had been to Gangotri earlier, had repeatedly been telling us about the famous apple orchards of Dharali, another small village after Harsil. So we took a small halt at Dharali and tried the “famous” apples. By the time we reached Gangotri, it was already 8 PM. We checked into a small hotel and went to deep slumber as everybody was really tired after the bone rattling rides of the entire day.

(Next)

Acclimatizing in Gangotri

2007-09-30T23:59:00.003+05:30

25th August

Gangotri is at an altitude of about 3048 meters (10150 feet). The plan was to utilize this day for acclimatization. We had breakfast, roamed about in town, which was surprisingly empty in spite of the pilgrim season and then started for the acclimatization walk. We crossed the Bhagirathi at Surajkund, and started on the trail towards Kedar Taal. The intention was to climb up the route for about 2 to 3 hours and then turn back.

We started around 11AM along the trail, did quite some climbing for 3 hours and then decided to descend down to Gangotri. By the time we came to Gangotri, it was around 3 PM. Our guides and porters had also reached Gangotri by then.

After lunch it was time to get some rest. We attended the evening “Aarti” at the Gangotri temple and prayed to Mother Ganga for a successful trip ahead.

(Next)

On the easy trail to Bhojbasa

2007-09-30T23:58:00.008+05:30

26th August

The actual trek started on this day. We had intended to start early and by the time we hit the trail, it was 7:30 AM. The destination was Bhojbasa which literally means “abode of Bhoj (birch) trees”, about 14 kilometers. The trail starts from near the temple and is quite well marked as it is used by lot of pilgrims who visit Gaumukh. It moves all the way up till Gaumukh on the true right of the Bhagirathi valley. We stopped at the check post after about 2 kilometers, where we had to pay some the forest fees. We got to see the Himalayan Goat - Bharal feeding on a ridge

We took our first break and had our breakfast at one of the dhabas on the trail. There are a few streams to be crossed on the trail and we were lucky since all the log bridges were quite intact in spite of the heavy rains.

We took our next break at Chirbasa (3500 meters, 11600 feet) literally “abode of chir or pine trees” and had some tea. As we proceeded towards Bhojbasa, the majestic triumvirate of the Bhagirathi peaks (6856 meters, 22624 feet) appeared on the horizon.

We were now in true Himalayan country surrounded by majestic peaks on all sides. From Chirbasa to Bhojbasa there was overhanging moraine and sometimes there was a danger of loose rocks falling on the trail. Finally we reached Bhojbasa (3775 meters, 12500 feet) around 1.30 PM covering the distance of 14km in about 6 hours.

The camps were pitched in the valley by the river. There was the Lal Baba Ashram and GMVN TRH on one side, while near the river, there was a meteorological center which apparently studies the Gangotri Glacier. JP knew a local who used to work at this center and with whom he had trekked earlier. He was quite keen on meeting this guy again but apparently the guy was off duty for some days. While having tea, we discussed a few other hard treks with our porters. Some of them had been on the “Auden’s Col”, “Dhumdhar Kandi” etc and it was quite a thrill as we listened to their stories.

During the evening we went for a stroll around the camp and suddenly on one of the mountains, Sandeep saw a formation in snow which closely resembled the holy “OM” character. Everyone was quite surprised and being skeptical, didn’t want to believe it at first. But then it did look like “OM”. Budhi later told us that the mountain itself is the holy Hanuman Tibba.

We had been told that the camp site would be quite windy as we were not closely surrounded by any mountains. This turned out to be true and the evening was quite cold, more so because of the heavy wind.

The first day trek was easy and all us knew the toughest days are yet to come. With these thoughts we decided to hit the sack.

(Next)

Strenuous climb to Nandanvan

2007-09-30T23:58:00.007+05:30

27th August

Sandeep and I got out of our tents early in the morning. We were expecting to get the excellent views of the Bhagirathi peaks during sunrise. However, the peaks refused to show themselves. They were hidden under a thick curtain of clouds and all we could do was wait.

All of us started for Nandanvan (4370 meters, 14420 feet) at about 7:30. I was a little excited at the thought of seeing Gaumukh. Gaumukh (literally “Cow’s mouth”), is the snout of the huge Gangotri Glacier and is about 2 kilometers from Bhojbasa. This is where the mighty Ganga actually emerges from the glacier as a small stream. The trail till upper part of Gaumukh is quite broad and well marked. Along the trail there are marks indicating where the glacier snout had been in a certain year. The glacier certainly has receded by a lot of distance and whether this is due to global warming or it is the nature of the glacier itself has been a very big matter of debate.

The ice walls at the snout looked quite imposing. We decided to descend till the actual snout and then had to go down on loose rocks and boulders. As we descended, we got a very good look at the glacier face. The face looked like an amphitheater made out of ice walls. There was tons of debris comprising ice and mud that was falling off in the stream frequently. Huge masses of ice were seen floating in the stream and nearby there were “sadhus” who were having a bath in that icy water. We spent some time there and then decided to continue as our campsite was still a long way ahead.

Now started the tough part of the trek. We knew that throughout this trek we had to negotiate glaciers, move on boulders, tackle scree and glacial moraines and this is where it all actually began. The trail (or I should say the route, there was no trail from here on) to Nandanvan climbs up the true right of the Gangotri Glacier and we had to negotiate this part first. We were actually crossing the Gangotri glacier laterally.

I had always imagined glaciers to look like white frozen rivers which flow gently down and this is what I had seen when negotiating the small glaciers during the Bara Bhangal trek. However, I understood that here in true Himalayan country; glaciers are anything but white and anything but gentle. Glaciers here were a total mess! They looked like nuclear test sites rather than gentle snow fields. Glaciers are extremely active as they move slowly creating crevasses and other rubble.

As we climbed, on the way met some porters who were coming down from Nandanvan. They informed us that they are coming back from Vasuki Taal as some of their team members had decided to return after seeing the terrain their.

Now that wasn’t very motivating was it? I think I got a little scared on hearing that account, but then let all those thoughts pass and decided to wait till I saw it myself

We desperately needed a break and some energy, but Budhi kept on pushing us and asked us to continue for some more time. As we reached the point where the Raktvarna (Rakt – Blood, Varna – Color, literally Color of Blood, so called because of the red stones which make up the glacier) glacier joins the Gangotri glacier, we took a short break, had Fruity and some dates. Raktavarna glacier itself looked like it was in a big mess. The glacier had severely cracked at many places. The route for climbing Thelu (6006 meters, 20000 feet), Saife (6161 meters, 20215 feet and Sudarshan Parbat (6507 meters, 21600 feet) was over this glacier and we wondered how would it be possible to negotiate this glacier. There was a stream coming from the Raktavarna glacier (called Raktavarna Dhara, we were to learn later), which had to be crossed.

After this point, started an extremely steep and arduous climb for Nandanvan. We had to put lot of effort for taking even a few steps. Our porters were walking with us and each time they saw me feeling down and tired, some one would motivate saying "Bas madam ji aa hee gaya". The altitude was now taking its toll. We could feel the air thinning and the effect on our lungs and to top it we were also running short of water.

Finally after the tough climb, we reached on the top of the ridge from where we could see our campsite and life suddenly started looking easy again. Much ahead of the camp, we found a big rock and decided to spend some time resting there. We reached the camp site at Nandanvan (4370 meters, 14500 feet) at around 2.30 PM after covering a distance of about 10 km.

The effect of altitude was seen on everyone. All of us had as slight headache and nausea.

Sandeep and I decided to take a walk till a nearby ridge for acclimatizing.

JP and Harsh too had gone for a walk for acclimatizing themselves. We asked Moiz to join us, but he wasn’t feeling like taking a walk and decided to rest near the camp itself.

As we approached the ridge on our walk, we could see the huge Gangotri Glacier down below. The glacier looked really scary as we heard loud sounds made by constant rock fall and glacier activity. Harsh, was the official glacier expert amongst us. He seemed to have a lot of scary information about glacier behavior. I had been ignorant all this while and later thought it would have been better that way. Now that you understand the glaciers more, you can’t help but feel scared as you wonder what might be going on inside the glaciers belly.

The campsite itself was surrounded by some huge mountains from one side. Beyond the Gangotri glacier lay the high altitude meadow of Tapovan. The beautiful and majestic peak of Mt Shivling (6543 meters, 21468 feet) rises from Tapovan. Looking towards Shivling, to its right were the peaks of Meru (6602 meters, 21661 feet) and Bhrigupanth (6772 meters, 22219 feet). To the left of Shivling and towards the Kirti Glacier were the peaks of Kedardom (6831 meters,22542 feet) and Kharchakund (6632 meters, 21885 feet).

Our campsite was at the base of the Bhagirathi peaks and Nandanvan serves as the Base Camp for climbers attempting any of these peaks.

The weather was still not very good and all these majestic peaks were hidden behind a thick cloud cover. We kept our fingers crossed. This campsite was renowned for its views of Himalayan peaks, especially Shivling and we just couldn’t wait to see it.

Finally in the evening, the cloud cover lifted and we got partial views of the mountains around us.

(Next)

The climb to Vasuki Taal

2007-09-30T23:58:00.005+05:30

28th August

Last night, the weather turned bad. It had started raining sometime after midnight. We were woken up by the sound of rain lashing against the tent. I lost all hope of seeing the clear views of Mt Shivling. The rain wasn’t showing any signs of stopping and just for a moment, I thought if we had to use our contingency day here.

But at around 8 AM, it had stopped raining. We got out of our tents and were ready to hit the trail again. Around 9AM, we started for Vasuki Taal (4890 meters,16200 feet).

As we started, I was a little anxious. Almost always when I had read about this stretch, it talked of the last climb which involved ascending using fixed ropes. Since, I had never climbed using ropes, I did not know what to expect and therefore the anxiety.

The start was slow. Walking at this altitude was making a big difference to our speed. Initially when we started, we had to traverse a very long ridge. The Raktvarna glacier was now on our left as we headed towards Upper Nandanvan, which serves as another camp for climbing Bhagirathi II. The slopes of Bhagirathi II were visible from a distance and we wondered how climbers braved these hazardous scree, rock and ice slopes.

On the way, we met a group of climbers who were returning from a successful summit attempt of Mt. Satopanth(7075 meters, 23347 feet ). Satopanth is one of the most popular mountains in this area and has been regularly climbed by different teams. Vasuki Taal serves as a base camp for Mt. Satopanth. As we congratulated them, they wished us luck and asked us to be careful on the treacherous route. At the place where the ridge ended, we had to descend down to the glacier floor. Raktvarna glacier had given way to Vasuki Glacier, another of the tributary glaciers of Gangotri Glacier. We took a small break at this point.

Moiz had a look at the route, came to me and said, “There’s good news and bad news. The good news is we are not far, but the bad news is look where do we have to go from here”.

I could now understand why some teams have returned back from this point. The descent to Vasuki Glacier and the next ascent to Vasuki Taal do look daunting.

The only person amongst us who was comfortable on these boulders and was more than happy to traverse them was our own Mountain Goat - Moiz. It didnt matter to him, if the boulders were big or small, loose or fixed - he just sailed on them.

The descent was indeed very risky. When we were actually negotiating the Vasuki glacier we could hear the sound of glacier cracking. I remember telling myself that I should get used to negotiating glaciers and the scary sounds that it keeps making.

The Vasuki glacier is very small when compared to the Gangotri glacier which we had to cross the day before. Crossing the glacier didn’t turn out to be as difficult as I had thought. The next part looked very tough though. We had to climb a ridge to reach the campsite at Vasuki Taal. There was no visible trail on the ridge. I had also read in all the travelogues that all the members of the group used fixed ropes here. Since it had been raining in the morning, the rocks had become very slippery which added that extra scariness to the climb.

Our guide and one of the porters fixed a rope. The rope was not long enough to reach the top. We had fallen short by at least 20 to 25 meters. Harsh and JP went first, then I and Sandeep followed by Moiz. While climbing, I did dare to look down and got the scare of my life. More than half of the way, we climbed using rope but after that our porters had to help us to reach to the top of the ridge as we did not have enough rope. The climb again was not as difficult as it had seemed.

After we reached the top, we could see our beautiful camp site in the shadow of the mighty Vasuki Parvat (6792 meters, 22413 feet). We also saw that there were few other tents pitched there. After going down till our camps we understood that there was a group from Slovenia on an expedition to climb Mt Satopanth. They had setup their base camp here. We reached our campsite at around 1.20 PM after walking for about 4 hours.

Joining the Slovenian team were a group of Indian climbers as well. One of them, Mr. Suresh Polekar, invited all of us to have tea with their team. Talking to Mr. Suresh and his members was quite an experience. They had a lot of experience in this area and they shared a few stories with us. They were quite motivating as well and told us that we should be able to finish our trek comfortably.

All of us still had a mild headache, and were beginning to worry a little about AMS.

One of our biggest worries was, one of our team members, Yogesh had still not arrived at the camp even after 3 hours. Budhi and two porters had been waiting for him at the point where the ropes had been fixed. Yogesh arrived at the campsite with Budhi after about 4 hours. His condition did not look very good and he was showing all the signs of AMS.

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Acclimatizing at Vasuki Taal

2007-09-30T23:57:00.004+05:30

29th August

Yogesh did not get any better during the night.Early morning around 3 AM, JP and Moiz went to the camps of the Slovenian team to call the expedition doctor. They kept on shouting for Mr.Jha ji and Mr. Suresh ji but did not get any response. Both of them had to return back. After coming back JP gave a reason as to why no one answered their calls. He said that probably on this campsite,nobody would come out for the fear of ghosts. After some time JP and Moiz gave another try and this time Suresh ji instantly came out of tent. Later on we came to that there was no one in the kitchen tent, where JP and Moiz had been shouting earlier. After this fact, we had quite a fun at JP's expense and the ghosts of Vasuki Taal still probably haunt our own dear JP Bhai Yahoowaley.

The doctor from the Slovenian expedition came to have a look at Yogesh and advised an immediate descent. We all felt bad, but that was the best thing for him. We saw him off as three porters went along with him. One of the porters would go all the way to Gangotri with Yogesh and two of them were going to come back from Nandanvan.

So today was our rest and acclimatization day. Everybody was feeling a little bit uneasy because of the altitude. So we thought we would take a good walk around our campsite today to help us acclimatize better. Possibly climb the ridge leading to Vasuki Parbat. Most of the time was spent talking to the other group who were to start for their Mt Satopanth expedition this afternoon.

Harsh was also building up signs of AMS. In the morning he had severe headache and once even vomitted blood. Everybody got really scared after this. Then he alone went for an acclimatization walk towards the Vasuki Parbat, hoping his body acclimatizes.

At this point, I would say that anyone who wishes to do the Kalindi Pass ever, should not take acclimatization lightly. Never overdo things or force yourselves. Then again, different people acclimatize differently and Harsh was one of the fitter members of our team.

We also took some time to explore the beautiful campsite. This was a beautiful campsite surrounded by mountains and the Taal itself was a high altitude lake. Vasuki Parvat, Chandra Parvat and Bhagirathi peaks were visible from this campsite.

As the cloud cover lifted, Vasuki Parbat was visible in its full glory. There was a glacier hanging precariously on one of the faces. Jha sahib, the liaison officer from IMF accompanying the climbers, told us that the glacier could collapse any day as more and more snow accumulates on the top. Vasuki Parbat has been unclimbed for a long time. The vertical face resisted all attempts of climbing.

The previous night was a full moon night and therefore the chances of bad weather for the next 2 -3 days were very high. Although we had plans to do quite a bit of exploration of the nearby ridges, we did not do much and preserved our energy. Budhi had told us that the next coming days are going to be more challenging.

We wished good luck to the Slovenian team and Mr. Suresh as they started for ABC. Mr. Suresh wrote all our names and contact numbers in a small diary he carried. I was surprised to see that some of the names in that diary had a big red mark against them and I couldn’t stop myself from asking Mr. Suresh about it. I wish I hadn’t. He told me that those are his climber and trekker friends, people like us, who he meets on climbs and treks. The red mark indicated, they were no more, they had perished in some or the other expedition. I looked around and saw a look of scare on all the faces. Our names were in the diary too.

The rest of the afternoon was spent talking to Mr. Jha, who had stayed behind at the base camp.

(Next)

Amidst falling rocks

2007-09-30T23:57:00.003+05:30

30th August

In spite of the acclimatization day, the mild headache and nausea was still persistent. The rest day was over and it was time to move on. Khada Patthar (5000 meters, 16600 feet) was to be our home for tonight. Budhi had warned us that the route from this point would be fairly tricky to negotiate and we would need help from all quarters possible. There was a small collection of stones at Vasuki Taal with prayer flags and an idol. This was the designated temple for trekkers and climbers. So we all went up there and prayed to the Mountains for good weather and to always be with us during the rest of the trek.

With Yogesh gone, the “Super Six” were reduced to “Fantastic Five” now. Before we started for Khada Patthar, we all huddled together, much like the Indian cricket team. This was to be our practice at all the following campsites. That was a real confidence booster.

The Chaturangi (literally “Four Colored”, so called because of the four types of colored stones that make up the glacier bed) Glacier was on the ridge adjoining the campsite. As we started on the route, initially Chaturangi glacier was on our left. We had to walk along a long ridge to cross Chaturangi. Walking on glacier was something we had become used to now. It almost looked like a common pattern, ascend on to some ridge, then descend down to some glacier and then climb up to our campsite. The descending part was always very risky and hard on the knees. The ascending part, although hard on your lungs, was still alright.

This long haul ended as the small Satopanth Glacier joined the Chaturangi Glacier. At this point we had to descend down and the descent itself was very risky with some of us descending on all fours. The Satopanth Glacier was flowing down from Mt. Satopanth which was on our right. Mt. Satopanth was one of the most beautiful mountains I had ever seen. It looked like a reclining man supporting his head with his arm. We were all amazed at the beauty of the mountain and took a break there just to appreciate the view. We could see the point where climbers set up an ABC.

The climb from Satopanth Glacier towards Khada Patthar was quite steep. As we climbed up the ridge, Budhi pointed our campsite on the glacier down below. Looking at the campsite from top of the ridge, all of us got quite apprehensive. The campsite was on the glacier ridge amidst rocky mountains. There were huge rocks on the mountains around us which looked like were just waiting to fall. After a small downward haul, we reached the campsite fairly early, at around 11.30AM.

One of these mountainous rocks near the campsite is called Khada Patthar (“Standing Rock”). We were still discussing about the risks on this campsite. There was no surface plain enough to pitch the tents. Rocks kept falling from the near mountain tops. This campsite was also very windy; even at afternoon also. However Budhi assured us that it was alright. The wind was horrible now and we just stayed inside our tents.

Later in the night, he told us of some trekkers getting killed on this campsite because of falling rock and avalanches a year ago.

The weather Gods had been with us till now. Generally every evening it would rain or hail for about an hour, never very hard. We were never bothered but were still apprehensive. One can never predict the weather in the mountains.

It was only sometime in the evening, we got out of our tents and decided to explore a bit. Some unknown snow clad peaks were surrounded this camp site.

(Next)

Traversing glaciers that crack

2007-09-30T23:56:00.001+05:30

31st August

The night was horribly cold and the wind kept howling outside the tent. Early morning, I heard Moiz, giving the cook recipe for “Poha” and was wondering if we were going to have Poha for breakfast. We were not disappointed. After breakfast, we started for our destination, Sweta Glacier at about 8:30 AM. We climbed up the adjoining ridge and could immediately see the Suralya glacier flowing below us which we had to cross. Mt. Satopanth and the twin peaks of Mt. Chandra Parvat (6739 meters, 22238 feet) were on our right and looked as if they too were ready to move with us.

We knew we would have to cross razor sharp ridges on this day and would have to probably cross them on all fours. As always, Budhi was leading the pack and I kept alongside him so that I could take his help to cross any sharp ridges today. However, we didn’t encounter any even after walking for some time. Budhi told us that these glaciers courses keep shifting and every year, the route keeps changing with no fixed trail. This was the first time I actually thanked the glaciers for their nature, as they had formed new routes for us. However, the shifting ice in the glaciers belly sometimes leads to huge crevasses. While negotiating the Suralya glacier, many a times we heard the sound of the glacier cracking. Harsh, our designated glacier expert wasn’t making things easy for us by giving us “gyan” on the cracking of glaciers.

At one place, we saw an amazingly beautiful emerald green lake and an equally beautiful ice cave nearby. The cave itself was very large, much like the railway tunnels that you normally get on the Mumbai-Pune route.

We spent some time appreciating the cave and the lake. None of us had the will to go down till the cave and explore it more. We were getting a little late also.

We finally reached the campsite of Sweta Glacier (5200 meters) around 2.30 PM. Although the surrounding was amazingly beautiful, the campsite itself was very scary. The camp was on the glacier bed very near a lake. We could actually see that the ice was very thin in this part. Behind the camps, there was one water stream flowing down from the mountains with a big bang sound. The twin peaks of Chandra Parvat looked imposing on the other side. A little further we could see a large hanging glacier, much like a water fall frozen mid way. There was nothing much around the campsite to explore, as it was all glaciers. In the afternoon, the weather was ok because of the sun but as the evening progressed it started getting cold. Our cook also asked us to have an early dinner so that we could call it a night earlier.

(Next)

Long ridge walks and flowing white glaciers

2007-09-30T23:42:00.001+05:30

1st September

Last night was the first time; I really had a severe headache. I thought, I was not able breathe in the tent at night. At this altitude simple things like getting in to the tent themselves leave you gasping. Thankfully, I was alright the next morning. As I walked out of the tent, I saw that the lake near the campsite was completely frozen. But I was so lazy; didn't have the will to go to the tent again for bringing my camera and click a photo. Our destination was the base of Kalindi Pass. I was excited because I was quite curious about the Avalanche Peak and wanted to see it with my own eyes.

We started around 8.30AM. I thought we would be walking on hard snow today as I saw flowing white glaciers. But I was so wrong. One should never think of avoiding traversing boulders on this trek simply because it is never possible to do so. We were again negotiating Sweta glacier and the thin air made things very difficult.

As we walked, we came to a point where the route splits at the head. There were two routes now, one going to the right and the other sharply turned leftwards. Harsh and Sandeep were discussing the route that turned right, with Budhi and where it would lead to. This told me that we had to go leftwards. The route that went right was essentially a short cut but has never been attempted, at least by trekkers. We could see that there were huge ice walls, crevasses lining
that route. Harsh was telling the group that some day, we would need to do that route as well.

As we reached the glaciers head, we got the first views of Avalanche Peak (6196 meters, 20238 feet) and Kalindi Peak (6070 meters, 20000 feet). The Kalindi Pass is between these two peaks. Budhi pointed out our campsite from this point. It looked very near, but it wasn't. This is always mystery in the mountains, distances can be so misleading. Walking at 5000+ meters was not an easy task and that too it the route wasn’t an easy walk.

I was a little worried about getting fatigued. On our last trek, Sandeep and I had learnt that in the mountains one should never overdo things and that’s exactly what we were trying to follow.

After sometime we could see our campsite and we reached it at around 2.10PM. Our camps were pitched on a small ridge which was separated from the Avalanche peak by wide glacier. The glacier bed was about 30-40m wide glacier bad and it curved a little towards the camp. All of us had read about this Avalanche peak and stories of many camps getting washed away by Avalanches.

It was really surprising to see that all the mountains around Avalanche peak were without snow and irrespective of very high avalanche rate; Avalanche peak is always covered with snow.

When we reached the camp, the sun was out we thought of spending some time outside.. But suddenly the weather changed and it started to snow a little. We huddled in one of the tent as we discussed the stories from the previous treks when suddenly all of us heard a big sound of falling snow. All of us rushed out of the tent immediately to see that there was a big avalanche coming towards us from the Avalanche Peak. It was the first time I was seeing an avalanche and I wanted to take a few pictures, but was really fixed at just watching the massive snow falling of the cliff.

True to its name, in the next few hours, we witnessed many avalanches emanating from the Avalanche peak. After sometime our guide joined us. He had a few boxes and utensils with us. On asking him, he very casually told us that he got them from a nearby campsite which was blown away by avalanches last year. I thought it wasn’t proper to get stuff like this, but refrained from saying anything.

Budhi had got his Koflachs (plastic mountaineering boots) and was trying them out at this campsite.

We had a very early supper and called it a night as we had to start very early, at 4 IS the next day.

(Next)

The D-Day

2007-09-30T23:26:00.001+05:30

2nd September

We were all woken up by a thunderous sound last night at about 2 AM. Actually nobody was sleeping. We just couldn’t sleep what with those avalanche sounds. Sandeep rushed out of the tent without putting any warm clothes. The sound had been so scary and so was the avalanche. The naughty Avalanche peak had been at it again. This was one of the biggest avalanches we had seen in the day and we had seen more than twenty five. The snow landed in the glacier and continued to flow till it stopped just a little distance from our camps. We were saved by the depth of the glacier. If the glacier had not been as deep, the following year some other groups would be picking at our boxes and utensils.

The weather had turned really sour too. It had been snowing the whole night so we decided to postpone our early start by a few hours to let the weather settle down.

Till about 5.30 AM there were no signs of weather clearing and we couldn’t wait any longer. Finally our guide asked us wrap up things and to get ready to leave. We didn't have anything much to do. We had to wear our warm cloths, gaiters, sunglasses, wrap up the sleeping bags, mats etc. But all this took the greater part of the hour and took a great deal of our energy. The porters had already packed up the tents; we had some very light breakfast, did our customary huddle, prayed for good weather and started for the pass at around 6:15 AM.

Today we were walking for the first time on white glacier and no boulders. That was some relief but the altitude was killing. We were negotiating the glacier between the barren Kalindi Peak and the deadly Avalanche peak. Just after some time, we all had to stop and all of us including our guide and few porters had to rope-up. The path was laced with deadly crevasses and we weren’t taking any chances. It did take some time initially for all of us to adjust to climbing with the ropes. After some time I think all of us adjusted to each other’s pace. Our guide and leader porter were finding the way between the crevasses using their ice axes.

While moving towards the pass, I remembered our earlier ascent of the Thamsar Pass ascent and how we had got down with fatigue. I had already prepared my mind not to repeat the same again and take things slowly instead of rushing up.

Loud avalanches were common and by now we had got used to these giants. We were moving slowly but cautiously on the glacier because of crevasses. After climbing a certain distance, our guide asked us to remove the ropes as we had passed the crevasse field.

As we un-roped and climbed on the rocks of the Kalindi Peak, Budhi pointed at the bodies of the climbers from Pune who had died while attempting Avalanche peak.

While we moved on rocks, some of our porters were still following the path on the glacier. After a while, we too joined them on the glacier. Just when we were about 100 meters below the, one of our porters, Govind, fell down in a hidden crevasse. We could see that he was in the crevasse till his shoulders and just then Budhi pulled him up using his ice axe. My heart had missed all it beats till then.

Finally after a long haul, at around 9 AM, we reached the pass. It was really a very emotional moment for me. We were standing at nearly 6000 meters (5947meters, 19600 feet to be exact). It took some time for me before the feeling could sink in.

As all of us congratulated each other on the pass, we couldn’t help but feel emotional. We had negotiated glaciers, trampled on boulders, camped on precarious ridges, battled the thin air and now here we were, on top of Kalindi Khal.

The only thing that upset me was, the weather was still bad and this prevented the grand views that one would expect. It was continuously snowing and even the Kalindi peak was not clearly visible. We didn't get any views from ~6000m. I had read about the views from Kalindi Pass.Kalindi Pass and seen the views from top, there is very little left in the world to be seen", one such article had said. But then it all depends on weather and at such height chances of weather being generous with you were very less. At the top, Sandeep told me not feel to bad about the weather and instead feel good that we could do it.

Everybody was happy. We happily clicked photos in different victorious poses.

Actually hats off to our porters, they are the real heroes. With very minimum or almost no gear, no proper gloves, no proper shoes, no warm clothes and carrying weight with happy faces, singing songs, they had crossed the pass. One of the senior porters offered Pooja” to the Gods.

We spent around 20 to 25 minutes on the top. The snowfall was getting heavier. We still had to go down a very long way. We again roped up for the descent. There was a complete whiteout by now and we knew that the entire snowfield till our next campsite of Raj Padav was heavily crevassed. One of the senior porters and Budhi were our leaders. This time the entire team including all the porters and we had roped up together. It was a very slow moving line and since the porters had the habit of walking fast, initially there was some chaos on the line. But then immediately, it was all sorted out. Budhi and one of the senior porters were checking the crevasses using their ice axes and then generally everyone followed their foot steps

The biggest mistake which we did while starting from the base camp this morning was, we didn't fill our water bottles. Actually there was no water source near the camp and when Harsh and I had gone to fill the bottles, there was no water left in the kitchen ten. All of us were extremely thirsty and getting dehydrated while descending down. I resorted to eating snow and literally ate lots of it before one of the porters asked me not to eat so much snow.

Finally we got some rocks on the way so we decided to take some rest before moving ahead. We ate some chocolates and had some fruit which helped to some extent compensate for the water. All through the descent we were walking on fresh powder snow but now we could see the hard ice field with crevasses. We descended from the slippery rocks and moraines and then the negotiating of ice field was really a difficult part. Again it was the experience of our senior porters and guide. They were opening the path for us.

On the way we found a pair of Koflachs and gloves scattered near a crevasse. I wondered who would throw away his shoes/gloves at this point. It was only later in Ghastoli that we learnt that about10 days ago, in one of the groups, a porter died on the descent to Raj Padav, after falling into a crevasse.

Everybody was now starting to feel tired. For me, I actually had got sick of walking in the shin deep and sometimes knee deep snow. Then ultimately I asked one the porters "Ye snow kab khatam hoga" (“When will this walking on snow end?”) and then with smiling face he replied "madam jaise hi ye snow khatam hoga boulder chalu ho jayenge" (“madam, just after the snow ends, you will have to start walking on boulders”). I didn’t say anything further.

Finally the snow field ended and the boulder zone started. Suddenly I saw a huge chunk of ice, as big as a mid size car fell from a mountain nearby. It made a sound which would have been scary but now we were used to the sounds of avalanches and falling rock. The only part which I didn’t like was, the rock had fallen on the way where we had to descend. The descent appeared very treacherous. I had heard that trekkers rappel using ropes to get down from the snow field to the boulder zone. I asked Budhi, but he said, he would cut steps in the ice and would make way for us. It took a complete one hour for all of us to descent to the boulder zone. We had to descend a further one hour before we could see our campsite. Finally we reached "Raj Padav (4900 meters, 16300 feet)" at around 3.30 PM. We had started at around 6.15 AM so it had indeed been a long day. After reaching the campsite, I really didn't want to move from the place where I was resting but it started raining again and had to forcibly go and arrange the mats inside the tent.

Once inside tent, I sat quietly for sometime and recollected all the moments of the day. I was thinking, was it really such big day? Deep inside my mind I still felt bad as we didn’t get to see any of the famed views from top of the pass. But then, I feel it was indeed a great day. We had been up at nearly 6000 meters and had crossed the pass without any serious incidences. As I talked to the porter who was leading our pack, he told me about the deadly crevassed zone that we had crossed. He was telling JP; "Bas sir ji aaya gaye thik thak varna to aaj thik thak aaney ka chance thoda kam lag raha tha.". (“Sir, we somehow managed to come till here alright. Otherwise the chances of us reaching this place safely were not looking good”).

After sometime, Sandeep and I went the other tent, to join rest of the group. Every day in the evening, we wouldn’t have much to talk to each other except discuss mountains, glaciers, crevasses etc. Today for a big change Harsh, Sandeep and Moiz started discussing Indian Politics, Indian economy etc. After a while the discussion started to border on boredom and at this point I asked them to stop but they didn’t. Even JP who looked to be contemplating on the days moments with his eyes closed all this while, asked them to stop. It was only when he blackmailed them by saying that he would start singing, if they didn’t stop those stupid discussions that they finally stopped.

If you ask any of us, what is the greatest thing you feared on this trek and expect an answer like, Glaciers, Crevasses, Avalanches, you would be thoroughly mistaken. The greatest thing we feared on this trek was JP’s singing. I think no Yeti or Snow Leopard dared venture near our campsite during the nights because of JP’s singing.

It was such a big relief when the guys stopped their discussion. We had our dinner and then decided that we would all start a little late tomorrow since everybody was very tired and wanted good sleep.

(Next)

Negotiating the Arwa Nala

2007-09-30T23:08:00.001+05:30

3rd September

Even though, we had decided on waking up a little late, we ended up waking at 5 AM in the morning. There was a big waterfall near the campsite and every time, the flow in the water increased due to glacial melt, it would make a big thunderous sound, very similar to the avalanches on the Avalanche Peak. This kept us awake in the night. JP and Moiz were also out of their tent and all of us spent some time talking. This was the day when we had to cross the Arwa Nala (“Nala” is a small river). This was to be another challenging task. The river has to be crossed early in the day, as during the afternoon, the flow in the river increases due to increase in the water level from glacial melt. Our guide, Budhi, in one of his earlier treks, had fallen in the river while helping one of the members cross it. Budhi had always been cryptic in his replies on our questions about how we were going to cross Arwa Nala.

To be honest, mentally I was quite reluctant about crossing the Arwa Nala as I knew that there was an alternative way of crossing the Nala. That was over a natural Snow Bridge a little further up the Arwa Glacier. The only other person who was with me on this was Harsh. Sandeep, Moiz and JP didn’t mind crossing the Nala. But today, neither of us knew the route that Budhi was planning to take.

We started a little late, at around 9.15 AM, negotiating – what else boulders again. After one point we reached a complete plain ground where 6 to 7 small water rivulets could be seen. We had to actually cross these water streams. One of our porters said this was the "Chota Arwa Nala". None of us were carrying our sandals with us today and this made things difficult as we had to cross the rivulets with bare feet. Sandals would have helped us while crossing the "Chota Arwa Nala".

I attempted first river stream and oh my God the water was horribly cold. It felt like putting your legs in cold fire. For the first stream, which was the biggest stream, I had to take help from one of the porters. Actually crossing the "Chota Arwa Taal" was trailer of things to come, about crossing "Arwa Nala".

Our guide himself had already decided that the he would be using Snow Bridge. The porters had decided that they would be actually crossing the river. All of us went with Budhi. Although JP, Moiz and Sandeep wanted to go with porters but since Snow bridge route didn't look too far, they came with us.

As we approached near the snow bridge, we found that the snout of the glacier was totally broken. There were huge cracks in the center of the snout. So we had to climb for another hour to find a suitable place from where we could cross the bridge safely.

After sometime I saw some of the porters also behind us. Actually while they were crossing the Nala, one of the porters had slipped into the water and that made rest of the porters to cross the Nala using the snow bridge.

Actually after crossing the pass, we had thought that the rest of the trek would be easier. But a trek like Kalindi will test your strength till last of day. The boulder hopping was not ending at all and I had started to tire of all the boulders.

We climbed around 200m on loose boulders and then we had to cross the glacier on the snow bridge. This was the scariest part. Harsh was after our guide Budhi and Sandeep and I were following him. When Harsh was crossing the glacier on the boulders, one of the porters told him to cross the glacier quickly as it might crack anytime. While crossing we could hear the sound of water flowing below the glacier. The glacier was really very thin and we wondered if it would give away anytime, but all of us crossed it safely.

We had a small lunch break on a rock bed after crossing the bridge. While having lunch, all of us discussed the plans for the next day. We had another campsite after todays but if we pushed a little hard, we could be in Badrinath, our destination by the next day. I wasn’t very keen on finishing the trek a day early, but decided to go with the crowd.

We thought we would decide about it after reaching our campsite for today "Arwa Taal"(4500 meters, 14900 feet). Finally we reached to campsite at around 2.45 PM.

This campsite was on flat ground and there was some greenery around. Budhi told us if we were planning to directly go to Badrinath then we need to inform the porters in advance. We took a poll and decided that tomorrow we would be directly going to Badrinath instead of stopping over at Ghastoli(3900 meters, 12870 feet). We decided that Ghastoli, we would re-look at our decision and if we were tired we would camp at Ghastoli itself.

Normally on a trek like this, one walks for about 4 to 6 hours max and the distance covered is 8 -15 kilometers. However, skipping a campsite would mean walking for 25-30 kilometers and possibly 10 to 12 hours.

The dinner we had today strangely felt more delicious then before. Probably this was going to be our last night in tents for this trek and I felt bad because I could see the trek nearing its end. We went to bed because again tomorrow we had to start early.

(Next)

Long, long haul to Badrinath

2007-09-30T18:40:00.001+05:30

4th September

We had to follow the course of the Arwa River today. We started to ascend a ridge at about 7 in the morning. We had a very long way to go today. Just as the ridge ended, we could see a sea of boulders. Harsh had already moved ahead with the porters and JP, Moiz, Sandeep and I were walking together with our guide. After descending from the ridge on to the boulder field and then to the river bed, we finally got to see some greenery. We had to cross a lot of streams possibly more than fifteen on this day. Most of them were simple jumps across but a few of them really required us to be cautious.

The massive Arwa mountains were around us. These are some of the trickiest peaks in the Himalayas for climbers.

Overall, the route was not as bad as every day and the final few kilometers to Ghastoli were on flat ground. Ghastoli is a very scenic place and I wish we had camped here for the night. There was an amazingly beautiful pond created by melting glaciers near Ghastoli. See the confluence of Araw Naala and Sarswati River at Ghastoli :

It was around 1 PM by the time we had reached Ghastoli. Ghastoli has an ITBP (Indo Tibetan Border Police) check post where our permits were going to be checked by the officials.

We found Harsh and our porters waiting for us at the check post. Usually this process does not take more than a few minutes and the ITBP folks are quite helpful. But in our case, one of us (Yogesh) and a porter had gone back from Vasuki Taal. We had the permits for both of them, and they themselves were not present. This created lot of fuss with the officials. One of the officials even asked Sandeep if Yogesh had run away to China. Finally they managed to let us go, after we gave a written note about Yogesh but the process had taken a better part of the hour. The ITBP folks were quite friendly otherwise and even offered us tea and suggestions on how to reach Badrinath. We had no option of camping at Ghastoli because we did not have any additional ration left with us. The only option was to go to Badrinath.

The road head from Ghastoli is just about 4 km. The terrain was well marked as ITBP people use this route regularly. We could not get a vehicle from the road head and this meant walking the additional 10 kms to Mana. Mana is the last village on the Indian side. We covered the final 10 kms in probably 2 hours as this was the easiest walk of the trek with greenery around. We could see Mana village from the distance and wow it was such big relief to finally see some civilization. On the way to Mana we crossed the mythological "Bhim Pul" which is actually two very big boulders on the Sarswati for crossing the River.

As we got first site of civilization, both Harsh and Moiz shouted, "Are dekho insaan insaan" (“Hey see, humans humans”). We were in civilization after around 12 days.

At around 5.30 PM we reached the village of Mana and we could see the villagers starring at us. I think all of us were in very miserable condition not looking like civilized beings at all.

All of us including porters had tea at "India’s last tea shop” in Mana. This is the place where our cell phones also started working and we called up our respective homes telling them we were safe. We also called up Yogesh and were relieved to find that he too had reached Delhi safe and sound.

As we got into a jeep for Badrinath, our wonderful trek ended. We were all happy that it ended with all us being safe.

With a little help from my friends

It was always sad moment for me at the end of a trek and sadder still when you have to part with your friends with whom you had the honor and joy of trekking. I think Kalindi for me wouldn’t have been possible if I did not have the company of such great friends.

What Next

When we were in the mountains, we all had enough discussions about our next adventure. There, all of us were of the opinion that we have had enough adventure on this tough trek and we would choose a simple trek for next time. As we started descending down and as we reached Badrinath, people have again brought out the tough Auden’s Col, Dhumdhar Kandi, etc. Some of us are even thinking that we should go climbing next.

So keep watching this space for our next adventure details.

I had always been intrigued by this line. I started to understand its meaning only after the trek of Kalindi Khal.

There is always a certain element of risk in being alive, but – The more alive you are the more the risk

- Ibsen.

(References)

References

2007-09-30T18:34:00.000+05:30

Following are the route and altitude chart for the Kalindi Khal trek. Theres also a table which gives the altitude, temperature and pressure readings. Note that we started in the last week of August. Hope that this information is useful for trekkers who wish to do Kalindi Khal sometime.

Checkout some more photographs at http://picasaweb.google.com/harsh.sharma/KalindiKhalTrek