“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Roopkund - A trek to remember
Reminiscing fond memories of my first Himalayan trek. A decade later.
View of Trishul Peak from Bedni Bugyal campsite, Roopkund trek.
“Wow! Is this in India ?”, the three of us exclaimed, staring at the computer screen with eyes wide open, awestruck at what we had just seen.
“Haha, Yes bhai log, and I am going there this June”, said Amol, our teammate at work. He had just shown us an article about the Roopkund trek on the Indiahikes website.
“That's amazing man”, We said to him in unison, still drooling over at the computer screen. Scrolling through the page, pictures of stunning vistas appeared one after the other. Upon reaching the end of the article, there was silence. I looked at Harsh to my left, and Jitesh to my right. Perhaps all of us were thinking the same but wanted someone else to say it out loud.
Finally, I broke the silence.
“Koi aaye na aaye, main toh jaa raha hoon.” (Whether anyone comes or not, I am going)
That was it. It was decided. We are doing the Roopkund trek.
We were concerned about how our manager would react to three of us being "out of network area" for 10 days. Since we were a small team, our absence would mean a lot of extra work for the others, especially our manager. When we approached him with our plan, to our surprise, he smiled and said, "Well, everyone needs a break. Go ahead. Don't worry. We will find a way to work around it!" With his approval, we signed up for the 21st September 2014 batch.
The welcome email contained a couple of links. One of them provided a list of things to get, and the other detailed the fitness requirements and training schedule. We picked the low-hanging fruit first. Got into the car. Drove to Decathlon. Took out the list. Three of each. Done.
Now on to the most crucial task — getting physically fit for the trek. The plan provided by Indiahikes was precise. All one had to do was follow it diligently. This was the first time I felt motivated to exercise. We even did a couple of practice treks to prepare ourselves.
Harsh invited his friend Anshul to join the trek, making it a group of four – three from Pune and one from Nagpur.
Day 0 | 20 September 2014 | Flight to Delhi | Overnight train to Kathgodam
Harsh, Jitesh and I took a flight from Pune to Delhi. We were supposed to meet Anshul there who was flying in from Nagpur. In my head, this airport meeting was reminiscent of the scene from Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. However, in this case, Anshul and I were seeing each other for the first time. And we weren’t headed to Spain. And none of us were getting married after the trip. After our meet and greet, we went to Decathlon as Anshul needed to buy a few things. Later in the evening, my friend Gaurav, who lives in Delhi, took us to Hauz Khas Village to hang out. Since we had to catch a train from Old Delhi Railway Station, we decided to explore the Chandni Chowk area where we enjoyed delicious parathas at Paranthe Wali Gali, followed by Rabdi. With our stomachs about to explode, we somehow managed to walk to the station to catch our train to Kathgodam.
Day 1 | 21 September 2014 | Kathgodam to Lohajung (Base camp, 7600 ft) | 210 km / 10 Hrs drive
We arrived at Kathgodam station early in the morning. Upon our arrival, we were welcomed by a local driver who was patiently waiting for us in his Mahindra Armada. We hopped on to it for what turned out to be a 10-hour journey to Lohajung on winding roads, which was exciting and sometimes nauseating. We encountered some issues in our vehicle and were transferred to another. A couple of hours later, we stopped for lunch. When we were done, we saw that our original driver was back. He had fixed his vehicle in the meantime and had come to pick us up again! Back on the meandering roads, we eventually reached Lohajung, our base camp.
Day 2 | 22 September 2014 | Lohajung to Didina (8050 ft) | 6.5 km trek
Following breakfast, our trek lead, Saranbir, conducted a group circle to brief us about the trek, emphasising safety, hygiene, the green trails pledge, and the code of conduct. I particularly enjoyed when he demonstrated how to fold clothes and pack bags taking weight distribution, accessibility, and usage into account, the techniques I still apply. He humorously dubbed our group of 26 members as “Special Chabbis”. After the session, almost everyone repacked their bags and as we were about to start, Saranbir announced a surprise birthday celebration. My friends had informed him about my birthday and the kitchen staff had lovingly prepared a cake with the available ingredients. It was suji halwa, flattened into a rectangular shape topped with chocolate syrup made using Bournvita and sprinkled with roasted pumpkin seeds. It was a heartwarming gesture. A sweet beginning to our trek!
Kundan chacha, the local trek expert and an excellent storyteller, led our group. During our breaks, he used to share the legends of the area. Although we began walking as one big group, we soon dispersed into several small groups. Some preferred walking with known faces, some wanted to get to know new faces, and some wanted no faces! The walking pace was also a factor. It was natural this would happen on the first day. As a result, some of them reached Didina early, some late, and some were puffing and panting, trying to catch up. Saranbir was observing all this. We likely reached Didina at around 1-2 pm. The crew spent the rest of the day relaxing, listening to stories, or reflecting.
Day 3 | 23 September 2014 | Didina to Bedni Bugyal (11,700 ft) | 10.5 km trek
This day was anticipated to be the most challenging due to the distance and steep incline. However, our lead Saranbir made it relatively easy for us. He assessed the strengths and weaknesses of our group and recognized that following the previous day's pattern would result in fatigue or burnout. To prevent this, he instructed us to walk in a systematic manner as a unit. He appointed the oldest and most experienced person in our group, Mr Shridhar Joshi, as the leader and asked the rest of us to follow in his footsteps.
Slowly and steadily, we made progress on the path. As a reward for crossing the steepest section, we were greeted by beautiful green hills, reminiscent of scenes from the movies or the Windows XP wallpaper.
After taking a break, we continued our walk. We were surrounded by clouds, which limited our visibility to just a few steps ahead. A couple of hours later, we spotted our campsite through the clouds. It was impressively set up by the Indiahikes’ staff, with 10 3-person tents, 1 kitchen tent, 1 dining tent, 2 toilet blocks, and 2 permanent bunkers.
This was my first experience of staying in a tent. Harsh, Jitesh, and Anshul shared a tent. I had to share it with two other members, which was a bit awkward initially, as I had barely interacted with them in the last two days. We were provided with sleeping bags and sleeping bag liners. After having a delicious dinner, I headed towards my tent. I chose to sleep on the left side of the tent as I did not want to be in the centre. Getting into the sleeping bag was not an easy task. I got into the liner, which was like getting into a gunny bag, then wriggled into the sleeping bag, somehow managed to pull the main zip, only to realise I had forgotten to wear my socks! So I followed the steps in the reverse order to get out, wore my socks, and then repeated all the steps to get back in. The liner made it difficult to turn around or change positions which was annoying, but by this time, I was too exhausted to be bothered by it and went off to sleep. Around 3 am, I needed to get out to pee. All those steps again! In addition to that, there was another hurdle. Since I was in the corner, I had to crawl out of the tent without disturbing the person sleeping in the centre. Instead of being in the corner, if I had chosen to be in the centre with my head towards the entrance, it would have been much easier to slide out of the tent without disturbing anyone. Somehow I managed to get out of the tent and without bumping into the horse standing outside our tent, I walked to the toilet and finally relieved myself. Phew! I decided not to go back in again. I noticed Harsh wandering as well. I can’t recall why he was out but since we both had no plans to sleep, we spent the night sitting outside the bunkers, looking at the shooting stars, waiting for the sunrise, and what a sunrise it was!
Day 4 | 24 September 2014 | Bedni Bugyal to Pathar Nachauni (13,000 ft) | 7 km trek
The sunrays broke through the thick clouds and revealed the majestic snow-capped peaks in all their glory. The entire group stopped what they were doing to admire the grand mountains around us. It took a while to sink in that we were camping with this incredible view in the background.
During breakfast, we shared stories of our tent experiences and had a good laugh. It started to feel like we were one cohesive group. We then began our walk towards the next stop, Pathar Nachauni.
The landscape changed distinctly from lush green meadows to solid grey rocks. Following a long, meandering walk along the mountain edges, we finally arrived at our campsite.
Day 5 | 25 September 2014 | Pathar Nachauni to Bhagwabasa (14,163 ft) | 4 km trek
After seeing the snowy mountain peaks yesterday, I wanted snow everywhere! We were told not to expect snow on our trek in September, but I am sure everyone wished for it. It would be just perfect! However, the mountains we were facing at Pathar Nachauni campsite suggested otherwise. The walk to Bhagwabasa was a short one. As we approached our campsite, all our hopes of being able to trek in the snow had vanished. We could see the mountain we had to climb the next day (summit day) with hardly any traces of snow.
But nature surprised us, yet again. It began to rain. Rain was followed by hail, and hail was followed by snow. It snowed all night.
Day 6 | 26 September 2014 | Bhagwabasa to Roopkund (15,696 ft) to Pathar Nachauni | 10 km trek
We were thrilled to hike in the snow but were unprepared for it. Since it wasn't supposed to snow, we didn't have ice cleats for our shoes, so we had to be extra cautious while walking. A decision was made to start descending at a particular time to avoid walking on melting snow, which meant we had to maintain a certain pace to reach the summit. Hoping to reach the summit on time, we began our walk.
Thankfully, we all reached Roopkund.
We enjoyed the scenic views from the top and took a few group pictures.
It was time to leave. After exchanging firm handshakes, sharing warm group hugs, and expressing heartfelt gratitude, we made our way down with mixed emotions. Our first pit stop was Bhagwabasa campsite for a meal, after which we continued marching to Pathar Nachauni to retire for the night.
Day 7 | 27 September 2014 | Pathar Nachauni to Lohajung via Wan | 15 km trek
The following day, we trekked through dense forests. As we neared civilization, we felt a sense of sadness. Our spirits were lifted by the sound of flowing water in the distance. In Wan, we boarded a jeep that transported us to Lohajung Base Camp.
We found ourselves back in the "network area". Trekking poles were replaced by mobile phones. Instead of the chirping of birds, the air was filled with mobile notifications and human chatter. A hot shower at the end of 6 days was gratifying though.
After dinner, the crew gathered for the final circle to share their experiences. We all received a "Certificate of Accomplishment" from Saranbir. There were a couple of special mentions as well. The award for the “Best Trekker” was presented to Mr. Shridhar Joshi and Jagdish (Jaggu) received the “Green Trails Pledge” award for picking up the most amount of trash on the trail.
The next morning we bid farewell to everyone. Heading towards our jeep, we could hear Saranbir, enthusiastically addressing yet another group, as they prepared to take their first steps to Roopkund.
A photo diary of Roopkund trek.
The journey back to Kathgodam felt different, despite the same roads, car, and driver. Perhaps something within me had changed. The brief disconnection from the society allowed me to connect with myself. It was an opportunity to contemplate what truly matters in life. Reaching the summit wasn't just an individual achievement but a collective one. It highlighted the importance of cooperation over competition. We felt motivated, energetic, and safe because of the support from both, the local people and Indiahikes staff. Their actions taught me valuable lessons in love, kindness, selfless service, and empathy. I'll never forget the hot Gulab Jamuns we had in the bunkers while it was snowing outside on the eve of the summit day, prepared by the staff. It was humbling to have them accompany and encourage us with smiles, setting up tents, carrying heavy loads, and preparing delicious food.
The trek was a great equalizer as well. Your occupation and income were irrelevant. What truly mattered was how you treated those around you. The experience not only strengthened my existing friendships but also paved the way for the development of new, long-lasting ones!
So why should someone go on a trek? To me, the line from the song Dil Dhadakne Do perfectly encapsulates the answer: “Khel aisa kyun na koi khele, jisme sabhi ki ho jeet” (Why not play a game in which everyone wins?)
The following year, Anshul and I did play the game. Again.