I had a fear. The fear made me tremble at times. The fear was nothing hysterical but enough to send shivers down my spine.
I had a plan to overcome the fear.
Dear wifey wanted to do a high altitude Himalayan trek. Sounded good to me.
We went on a preparatory trek. And climbed the peak of Triund in Dhauladhar. 18 km in a day with an ascent of over 1000 metres and we thought we were ready.
With hearts full of courage we followed more stringent exercise routines to make ourselves more fit for the RoopKund trek. Touted as the one of the most scenic treks in India, this one takes an individual to dizzying heights of 5000 m. Needless to say one needs to be ultra fit to do the summit. The fact that this higher than the highest peak in entire Europe should put the trek in right perspective.
Day 1 – The trek started from Lohajung, a small village in the Himalayas. The first day was a nice easy walk of around 12 km, which for the most part was through lush green jungles to a village called Didina. Only the last 3-4 km were an uphill walk. Walking through the rhododendron and oak forests amidst streams is surely relaxing. Made it nice and easy. It rained cats and dogs that evening when we wanted to do another small hike for acclimatizing to greater heights. No problems though, the rest was welcome.
Day 2 – The trek begins in real earnest. The days’s trek was kind of divided in two parts. First being a trek to Ali Bugyal which lies above the treeline. A real steep climb done with much effort took us above the tree line to Ali Bugyal. It would be days before we would be back to the tree line. Ali Bugyal to Bedni Bugyal the day’s destination was an amazing walk over undulating meadows. Needless to say Bedni Bugyal is an amazing place for you to spend a night. It is as good a camp site as you can imagine. The water though was icy cold and it answered all the wifey’s questions about where we will take bath on the trek and so on. Your’s truly didn’t had to even explain it. God is kind and merciful sometimes.
Day 3 – Now the heights were to increase rapidly. In order to acclimatize the days trek were designed more so as not to climb too fast to the summit. A short trek this day and we ended up in the Pathar Nachauni camp site. Comfortable camp site, however the cold was starting to get to us.
Day 4 – A pivotal day. This day we had to stop for the night before the final summit assault. The trek was not tough rather sort of gradual but persistent. The icing on cake was literally the ice. As we were few kilometers away from the campsite it started to snow. Walking with wifey in snow was simply magical. God was kind again as wifey really wanted to experience snowfall having not had a chance in all her years on the earth. I promptly ended up collecting brownie points for arranging the snowfall. However it snowed a lot that day. Lot of energy was spent in keeping the tent from sagging under the weight of the snow. It was too cold, not an ideal preparation for the summit attempt in the morning.
Day 5 – Summit Attempt – Waking up at 3’o clock, stuffing yourself up with whatever you think would provide energy. Wearing a headlamp, looking like overstuffed mining bears we trudged along. The going was tough, the altitude was high, the snow fresh. With every passing step it became more tougher. Distance that we gobbled up easily on day 1 and 2 didn’t seem to finish. It was becoming especially excruciating stuff for wifey as it was her first trek and she courageously took the decision to accompany me on this tough trek. However she has nerves of steel and didn’t gave up. Step by step we reached the summit. Tremendous performance. Salutes to you my wifey. You proved it and made my resolve stronger that come nothing we would not yield an inch in pursuit of our goals.
Now not for nothing RoopKund is famous as the mystery lake or the skeleton lake. The lake has hundreds of human skeletons in it and that makes it an eerie site in the beautiful pristine background of 5000 metres altitude. The fear that I have of the human remains was something that I wanted to overcome by reaching the summit. Every step that I took towards the summit that day was also a heavy step in direction to overcome my fear. However as it snowed a lot the previous day, the lake was completely frozen and only white snow was visible in the lake.
The descent back from the summit was equally tough. The fresh snow had become slushy and slippery by the time descent time arrived. We made it to the base camp with great difficulty. Dear wife was in really a bad shape unable to move further to Pathar Nachauni camp. I was really afraid that day. The conditions required us to move down to Pathar Nachauni and the same conditions were preventing us from doing so. Thanks to a kind soul who helped us both morally and by his sheer presence we were able to make it to Pathar Nachauni camp.
Day 6 – Descent to LohaJung – A really long walk down the hills. Nothing eventful. Beautiful but very tiring walk. Lohajung was where we bathed after 6 days to prepare ourselves for the post trek celebrations.
The plan to overcome the fear had failed though. I still have the fear. However the courage to overcome the fear has become much stronger.