Roopkund

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About Roopkund:

Roopkund is a glacial lake in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state of India. Though it is popular among the locals for the very spritual reasons but for others it is famous due to more than five hundred skeletons found at the edge of a lake. The location is uninhabited and is located in Himalaya at an altitude of about 5,029 metres (16,499 feet).

Participants:
Mr. Rangaram, Arjun, Deepak, Husein, Salil, Neel, Fayaz & Vishal.
We were joined by one spiritual being from Didna, whom we addressed as ‘Mahatama ji’.

Awe-inspiring, Stunning, Mind boggling, Astonishing.
These are the words which come to my mind when I remember my trip to Roopkund.

Though the planned trek was for 6 days but there was an added adventure of 3 more days! For which I am not going to pay Indiahikes ;-)

I left Pune on 10th morning for Delhi and had full day to oblige some of my relatives and friends. Evening was more of a turn off as I had to wait for the delayed Ranikhet Express for almost 2 hrs. Thanks to the rising waters in the Yamuna!

Day-01 (11th Sept 2010):
I reached Kathgodam around 7.30am. Two vehicles booked in advance by Indiahikes was waiting for us. The MUV vehicles looked pretty rugged & overused. The journey from Kathgodam was pretty coarse because of rough seats inside the vehicle. It was a full day drive to our base camp ‘Lohajung’, reaching around 7pm. We were greeted by Dinesh, our first guide from the Indiahikes! He greeted us with warmth and courtesy.

Day-02 (12th Sept 2010):
In the morning after the trek briefing and some packed lunch we were on our way to the ‘Didna’ village at 8550 feet. It was a good walk initially then steep descend and then a challenging ascend of about an hour to reach Didna. It was close to 5 hrs of trek on the day and it layed a good foundation for the things to follow on the following days!

I enjoyed the small village setting, had some raw fruits straight from the tree’s.
Ofcourse! It was organic and packed with lots of vitamin ‘C’ ;-)

This was the first settlement without the electricity and other necessities of life which we are used to in our city life. Village folk were simple & non-complex.

Day-03 (13th Sept 2010):
Hearty breakfast with hot liquids and a good packed breakfast – courtesy Indiahikes!
We were on our way to one of the longest treks of the whole trip guided by Mr. Narinder Singh, another veteran & friendly guide from Indiahikes.
Dense forest, steep ascent, green meadows, magnificent & spectacular views were our company throughout the trek.

Ofcourse! It was a paramount test of my physical ability. Each muscle in my body was gasping for the oxygen as it was getting thin with the rising altitude. The most beating was taken by the legs especially calfs and shoulders were screaming with pain, which were loaded with 12 kilos of bagpack.

Ali Bugyal to me looked like a heaven on earth. I was experiencing extreme bliss and spent some time there grasping the breathtaking views in my permanent memory.
It was absolutely heavenly feeling at 11000 feet’s. I was informed that Ali Bugyal along with Bedni Bugyal is the largest green meadows in Asia.

We were greeted at Bedni with a big grin by Mr. Rakesh Pant, a hugely talented guide from Indiahikes! It was 2.30pm and we had clocked almost 7 hours of trek.

Rakesh checked everyone of us for any symptoms of AMS.
Phew! He found none and my tentmate, Hussain was allowed to take a small nap.

We were all lucky to be there on 13th September as there was a ‘Nanda Devi’ mela at Beedni on the same day! This mela is held once a year in September. We had a gala time dancing at the mela and performing on the stage too!

Day-04 (14th Sept 2010):
All morning rituals done and we were on our way to ‘Ghora Lotani’ also known as ‘Patal Nachani’. It was the very first day when we experienced long spell of rains during the trek. Though it was a 3 hrs trek but we all were wet from top to bottom. Shoes were the most affected. Rest of the day went in managing & drying the wet clothes.

Our senior most trekker Mr. Rangaram could not withstand the harshness of the weather and returned back to the Bedni campsite.

Day-05 (15th Sept 2010):
We were off to our final campsite at Bhagwabasa before ascending to Roopkund.
Rains made sure that we never felt missing the bath.
Reaching ‘Kalu Vinayak’ at 14500 feet felt like a blessing amid fierce winds and heavy rainfall.

From Kalu Vinayak it was all descend uptill Bhagwabasa.
I was overwhelmed with the multiple view of ‘Brahma Kamal’ spread over large area.
‘Brahma Kamal’, ‘Fern Kamal’ & ‘Neel Kamal’ are fast eloping and are only found at altitudes beyond 13000 feet’s.

Though locals are still not sensitive to this fact and leave no chance to pluck the sacred flower for prayer and decorative purposes.

We had a fun time in the evening!
Though campfire was not possible here, we decided to play ‘Antakshari’ and everyone contributed whole heartedly participating in it.

Day-06 (16th Sept 2010):
I was up early in the morning by 5am as directed by Rakesh.
We all wanted to reach Junargali before the weather went bad.
I was dressed in all white as a snowman as I expected some snow at this altitude.
This was my last pair of completely dry clothes.

Sad news was that Neel was not feeling well and decided not to try for the final ascend.

Most of us made to the Roopkund by 8am, all within 2 hrs much before what Rakesh anticipated!
I felt at peace within and with the surroundings.

Though there were skulls and bones scattered around the place but I felt the place was very positive and magical like. There were patches of snow around the Roopkund with Fern kamal in the vicinity. Mahatmaji performed the rituals and distributed the Prasad among us.

Snow fall started by 8.30am and the plan to goto Juargali had to be cancelled.
We started our descend back to Bedni via Bhawabasa & Ghora Latauni and made it by 2pm.

Day-07 (17th Sept 2010):
Emotionally it was difficult to say goodbye to Bedni but we had no option but to carry ourselves back to the materialistic world.

Rains kept us company throughout the way back. On the way back I was privileged to see 400 years old oak tree. We reached Wan by 12.30pm, almost 2 hrs early.

Now here we experienced the first bad omen!
The car could not reach the Wan because of the landslide and after waiting in the rain for 2 hrs we decided to walk again. This time it was easy as we walked on the tar road.
We found the vehicle waiting after walking for almost 4 kms.

We all retired to our beds as soon as we reached Lohajung.

Next day my plan was to goto Dehradun via Karanparyag to meet my uncle. But that route was already blocked with multiple landslides. Rakesh suggested to goto Haldvani and catch a bus from there to Dehradun. Though originally it would take just 6 hrs to reach Dehradun but from the suggested route it would take 18 hrs.

Day-08 (18th Sept 2010):
Breaking News was that most of the road was broken due to the unabashed rainfall happening for the last 3 days. We all had to reach Kathgodam & Haldavani the same day via Almora. We left at 8.20am.

We were all packed into one MUV, which would drop us at Tharali. At Tharali eight of us will form a team of four & will occupy two vehicles each. I will call them as vehicle A and B. This was the similar arrangement while coming from Kathgodam. The vehicles were booked by Rajushah.

The main road to Tharali had caved in from the other side and therefore we were required to climb one small mountain to get to the vehicles. It took us 20 mins to reach the vehicles by foot. The rains continued.

Four of us got into vehicle B. We were Fayaz, Neel, Husein & Vishal.
Arjun, Deepak, Rangaram & Salil got into vehicle A.

The driver of our vehicle ‘Jeevan’ was slightly built, short and carried a big attitude!
Two hours into the journey we had to stop because of the landslide and road was blocked with a huge tree. The local administration was at the job of cutting the tree but their effort will take at least 2 hrs because they were using the primitive way of cutting the huge log.

I had maggi noodles for lunch here. It was a small hamlet mostly populated around the highway. Husein had a new look here, managing his overgrown mane!

Vehicle A managed to start first as soon as the way got cleared just enough for the vehicle to cross. Our vehicle missed it by a whisker and some tempo managed to get struck with the tree under its wheel. We had no option but to wait for the clearing of the way. Finally after more than one hour of wait we could get through. Important to mention that we got two more people in our vehicle from this village, Vicky and Dilip to give us company till Kathgodam.

The biggest challenge in these mountains was the digital communication!
Very very poor mobile phone signals. One can hardly get through the phones.
We were able to contact the vehicle ‘A’ twice in the next four hours of ordeal which followed.

Oops! Another landslide. Now this was a real big one and the part of the road was missing. It was impossible to repair it in next 2 weeks! We decided to go back to ‘Garud’ for the alternative route to Almora.

From ‘Garud’ we were on our way to ‘Bagheswar’, another district headquarters in the state of Uttrakhand. Upon reaching ‘Bagheswar’ we came to know that part of the road was washed way enroute to Almora!

We felt entrapped and saddened by the events.
Driver ‘Jeevan’s bad attitude further damp our already sagging spirits.
Jeevan was forced to drive till we found the huge gush of water flowing on the road. Boulders of all sizes were being flown down with the forceful water running down stream. As we were finding our way to cross this stream, one over enthusiastic Alto driver ran into the running stream and almost got his vehicle drowned.

Many onlookers rushed to his rescue and with some effort the car was able to pull back.
The earth mover machine put some earth back and we were able to pullout without much fuss. For next almost twenty kilometers we were happily striding towards our destination, with woven plans in our heads, when there was an abrupt halt.

My Gosh!
Four large trees were lying on the wet road and they had pulled enough earth with them to dampen our hopes of making it to Almora! We wondered where should we go!

Roughly hundred meters back there was one roadside ‘Dhaba’, located at the foothill and seated in the middle of a thick pine tree forest overseeing not a very deep valley. To me it looked like a picture perfect setting. It was getting dark and we dared not go back to Bagheswar for the risk of getting struck in some landslide.

We decided to stay back at the Dhaba for the night.
It was well past 7 and we were almost done with our dinner when we saw three vehicles going towards the fallen trees. We were sure that they will retreat to the dhaba as other three vehicles had done before them. Thirty minutes passed and there was no retreat of the vehicles. I was anxious, when Husein and Fayaz decided to go and check them out.
In fifteen minutes they were back with a grin, those people were cutting down the trees and clearing the way for the vehicles!

Wow! I was delighted and all my sleepy senses were awake again. This excitement was short lived as ‘Jeevan’ declared that the duty had ended for him and he does not drive after 6pm!

Phew! Everyone tried to comprehend him with the current situation and requested to follow the tree cutting party. But he was unmoved. Instead Jeevan along with Vicky & Dilip locked themselves in the car. It was still raining unabashed. Our request to Jeevan to shift our bagpacks from the top of the car fell on deaf ears. Gosh! Every cloth in the bagpacks would be soaked in water by the morning.

Dhaba owner was quite human and he gave his bed and bedding to us for the night. Ofcourse! he charged us for this olive branch. But we were more than happy to pay him for his help.


Day-09 (19th Sept 2010):
After the face wash we started at 7am.
We managed to move three trees on the road for our vehicle pass but then almost after two hundred meters we gave up. There was one humongous landslide with almost 10 trees fallen in line on the road and we tiny humans were no match for it.

Going ahead in the car was impossible. After a brief discussion we decided to leave the car and bide goodbye to Jeevan & Vicky. Dilip decided to come along with us, probably he guessed that we were far more wiser than the duo.

Once again we were trekking with the bagpacks but this time on the tar road. We were not bothered much for this exercise, it was just like another day in the office 

Our destination Almora was still fifty kilometers from where we were!
Locals thought we were insane people, when they came to know that we were walking till Almora!

After walking for five kilometers and seeing at least ten road blocks because of the landslides and fallen trees we took some refreshments from a shop located in a small town. After consulting at least half a dozen local people we decided to goto ‘Takula’, a small town via a shortcut route which would go through a private road meant for the employee’s of the ‘Manganese company’ and also going through a forest which also included an hour of ascend. This would have saved us atleast five kilometers. This may sound miniscule to the people living in the plains but it is a big distance by hilly region standards.

Well by this moment all my plans to go to Dehradun were deflated badly, same way as hundred nails would deflate a ballon! The mobile phone signal was like a luxury here and Husein’s phone enjoyed that. I called up my uncle and told him about the fiasco, he was more worried for me now than anytime before this moment. He further called up my Dad & brother to tell my whereabouts. Everyone close to me was nervous after watching the news on television about Uttrakhand disaster. There were already two cloud brust in the last three days and at least hundred lives were lost and many were untraceable. The situation was indeed grim!

We gathered ourselves and started walking again after replenishing some snacks and water. We had pledged to reach Almora anyhow.
We went through the running water on the road, streams, wet mud, boulders but our moral and spirit remained high. Even our water drenched shoes and socks could not dampen our spirits.

Going through the forest and hunting for our way we lost our way by a whisker. We were almost twenty minutes into the wrong path when Dilip alerted Husein about the view of the road fence which he saw right on the top of our heads. Husein alerted me as I was leading the group and we made an about turn and started the ascend. Though it looked like very nearby but it was almost hundred feet higher from where we stood at that moment.

Hitting the road was like home coming. There was this small roadside temple of Goddess Kali where I immediately kneeled upon reaching and said thanks and asked for her blessings!

Husein had his feet bleeding profusely which made me nervous for a moment. It was a leech attack. This bloodsucking parasite is known for sucking the blood from the body until their tummy’s are full. I had one sticking to my feet and other one had miraculously survived inside of my wet shoe and under the sock. This made me remove both my socks and examine thoroughly before restarting the journey. We decided not to take any more shortcuts and follow the road only.

We reached ‘Takula’ town around 2pm. There was only one dhaba providing the meals. Locals insisted that we should put up for a night in that town as there were multiple landslides further ahead. The next town ‘Basoli’ was approximately five kilometers away. No local or otherwise could bet on the road condition as the landslides were happening every other moment. We decided to walk till the next town and break the journey. After a good meal and an hour of rest we started again by 4 pm.

By 5.15pm we hit ‘Basoli’ which was a town of some ten thousand habitats. It took us some time hunting for a place and by 7pm we had the most beautiful cottage to us for the night. It was a private place and magnificently done and up kept by the lady owner.
There was no power in the town for the last two days and we were provided vision by our indefatigable ‘LED’ powered torches. We hit the bed by 9.45 immediately after our uncomplicated dinner.


Day-10 (20th Sept 2010):
Had Aloo-Puri for the breakfast and settling the account with the lady, we were back on the road to Almora by 9.30am. The destination was still thirty kilometers away. After crossing ‘Mahindra Club Holidays’ hotel and walking for two kilometers we met two policemen who were going to ‘Kabadkhan’, another small town on the route to Almora. They asked us to join them till Kabadkhan via a shortcut through the forest and some more hiking adventure. Well this shortcut would have saved us at least three kilometers and by this time we knew how precious it was to preserve maximum energy.

By 12.30pm we were on the periphery of ‘Kabadkhan’ when we saw an Alto car about to take a U turn towards Almora. It was on the other side of a huge landslide and we were shouting in unison to draw the attention of the car driver. It worked and he asked for five hundred bucks for a distance of roughly 17kms. We instantly agreed to pay the asked price. By foot it would have taken us at least four hours or maybe more.
We touched Almora by 1.20pm and left the car at the “Glory” restaurant for food. Rakesh had suggested to eat at this restaurant and also many more things but they were all buried under the multiple landslides!

Oh yes! There was plenty of signal available here and I had the luxury of using my cell phone at will, first time in the last ten days! I informed all my immediate family and my uncle at Dehradun about this feat of reaching Almora! Uncle had been a senior bureaucrat in the past being posted at Almora and he had enough influence even now to get me enough comfort at Almora. But now my aim was to reach Haldavani and then from there to Delhi via Ranikhet express.

We were escorted to the taxi stand via numerous galis and market place. It was a colorful town. One vehicle was leaving for Haldavani via some alternative route and would take five hours than usual two hours. We were more than eager to reach Haldavani than investigate the distance and travel time.

We started from Almora at about 3pm. The road condition was horrible. At many places it was more similar to the scenes from a Hollywood movie – 2012, earth sinking, no roads, mountains breaking down and people missing!

We managed to reach Haldvani at around 8pm. Hunted for the railway station for almost 20 minutes. Three of us Husein, Fayaz & myself were to board Ranikhet Express to New Delhi, whereas Neel & Dilip went to Kathgodam to catch a train to Patna. We bought the current ticket and got on to the train at 9pm. I got down at Sahibabad station at 6am and went to my brother’s place with him. In the afternoon I took a flight back to Pune.

Conclusion:

It was a wonderful trip despite the extra adventure and physical agony!
I thank Indiahikes for the pro kind of approach to their profession.
My sincere thanks to Rakesh, Narinder, Dinesh, Pradhuman and all the other people who were part of the support group.

Ofcourse! My gratitude to Husein, Neel & Fayaz for being supportive and being a part of the team at all times during the crisis.

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Photos

Didna village!
At 8550 feet. We were at par with the clouds.

Bedni Mela
Locals from the nearby villages flocking to the 'Nanda Devi' mela (fair).

On the way to..
Ali Bugyal. Taking a break.

Team
Ali Bugyal.

Meadows
Vast green meadows!

Bramha Kamal
The fast disappearing flower!

Bhagwabhasa
Camp site.

Bhagwabhasa
In the hut.

Kalu Vinayak
Ganpati Bapa Moreya!

Snow Man
At Roopkund.

Roopkund
Playing with the dead ;-)

Roopkund
With Babaji.