Kedar Kantha : Kedar Kantha Summit

Lovely Morning

Still not much sleep and the first one to get up around 6. The sunrise happened around 6:30 and the sky again filled with various colours. The sunrise was matching the sunset second by second and I was relishing each moment.

I got ready and could see the summit within reach. I was also happy because we were not going to carry any stuff with us and no extra backpack which would make the walk much easier. Today was the day of a tough snow climb and we were asked to walk closely in the group and all of us followed RajMohan.  Breakfast today was Maggie and its always welcome. We did the warm up exercises and were ready to start by around 8 AM.

Look at the tiny dots, thats us ascending

It would have been 15 minutes into the walk and the summit seems much closer, this adds on to the enthusiasm, and we carry on, the approach was to go from the other side which would be more sunny and would have less ice/snow. The ascent was a bit tougher now and we were moving staright up on narrow paths. Things were starting to get tough and I was getting a bit scared, and then we hit the scariest patch, we have to cross from the side where the fall would be atleast 3-4K feet down andas soon as I looked at it, it got on to me, I was scared. Ashu bhai helped me get through that patch, and I was going to stick by him for the rest of the climb.

There were other similar paths and if it wasn’t for Praveen and Ashu Bhai, it would have been really difficult for me. I cant really say what exactly it was, scared of the height, the fall, the narrow path, but believe me the fall was so great that I could hardly see where it ends and the path was as inclined as it always was.

My misery was not to get over soon, and next was an inclined patch of snow almost 70 degrees and we got on all fours to keep climbing up. Adi (6feet 4) was behind me and ashu bhai was behind him, as Adi was trying to climb up he straightened his leg and whaaaammm, straight on the face of Ashu bhai, Ashu bhai blanked out for a moment but thankfully did not loose his grip and fall. Thankfully nothing major had happened.

Praveen Standing on the Summit

By this time I am more worried on how am I going to come down on this steep slope as looking down was the more difficult part, and it had really got me worried. But then we kept moving and reached the summit. Being on the summit was a great feeling J, a bit of relief for me, and it was really beautiful. We relaxed and njoied the view for some time, everyone clicked pictures. Visited the temple up top and njoied the view some more.

It was time to descend down and as we started it wasn’t seeming as difficult as I thought it would be and within 10-15 minutes the fear had gone away and I was descending comfortably. We were going through a different route and the route was really beautiful, snow patches and meadows and the peaks coming in between the misty layers looked amazing, it was not like the regular cloud cover, it was like thin layers of mist like waves covering the mountains.

Cant Walk, time to slide 

We approached some snowy patches now and I was comfortable getting down, there came a patch with extreme slope and Raj mohan told us to slide down, that’s the fun that was needed. I slid down th first path and Mehta was behind me, Mehta overshot the mark and was almost at the edge of the slope. It gave him the shivers and I continued on the slide down, we had a fun filled 5 minutes sliding down the snow and everyone quite njoied it. We stopped for a minute to remove the snow from our clothes and shoes. I really wanted to do that again, it really was great fun.

We continued to descend down slowly and now we didn’t require to take breathers keep walking slowly and you will reach. By afternoon we had reached the base camp and everyone was overjoyed. All of us had made it to the summit and was back safely. Lunch was served and everyone had it. We collected our stuff together and had a few group photographs. I bid adieu to Kedar Kantha.

We start descending again after lunch, its just afternoon and we need to reach somewhere around 9000 feet before nightfall which might happen as early as 5 and it was time to push the paddle and speed on. The initial part of the descent (now with the back pack) was ok, and we keep moving on without much stoppages. After half an hour my body was giving up and I started to slow down a bit.

Soon most of the trekkers had overtaken us and it was me ashu bhai and Praveen. At one point I could see two trails and couldnot not see any one on any of the trails, I started descending on one of the trails and asked ashu bhai to look at the other and unluckily I was on the wrong one and retreated to move on in the right direction.

Mayukh posing at the stream

We could hear a stream of river and thought there was a waterfall near by, immediately I thot of Gladston (my collegue, loves taking bath in a waterfall) and was excited to see it. As we turned we found out that it was a stream of river. As we approached the first thing I see is Imran slipping and falling hard, luckily he was not injured and just made everyone else aware to take a bit of precaution. As we came across the stream was frozen from above and the water was flowing from beneath, it was a lovely site to watch. Above all that it was fresh water, unbelievably fresh water. We had been drinking smoked water (the ice was cut or collected in pans and was heated in the fire made from burning wood, so it made the water taste like smoke and we named it smoked water) for the past three days and fresh water tasted tooooooo gud.

There were steep snow patches and with the back pack it was a bit difficult to walk across them, but then that’s what I was there for, to test my limits (between its not testing my limits, its just telling me that I sit on my ass too much and I need to start working out). We stopped at the same place where we had rested while going up and seen the summit for the first time. I was tired by now and the my knees, calf muscles and especially my toes were hurting bad. Arjun said it’s a decent of another 40 minutes and we should be there.

We now started descending along an empty river bed, which might be filled with water in summers and for long we kept following it. Every time I saw a meadow I thought it’s the place we camp today and no RajMohan asked us to descend some more. My toes were hurting real bad and I was loosing all energy. I was starting to slip backwards and now people were going out of sight.

I don’t know what took over me, and I decided to take on the challenge and I started to quicken my pace and seriously started to walk like a mad man, now I did not care about slipping or sliding and I just kept walking as fast as I could and believe me I overtook a lot of people, and reached near RajMohan. And we finally made a stop, oh I couldn’t walk anymore, Aditya was mad at RajMohan as to why we need to go so fast, and except for 4-5 of us no one was in near sight, we waited for 10-15 minutes and still there was no sign of anyone and I didn’t even want to move from there.

RajMohan told us that the camp was very near and asked us to move ahead, and the camp was in breathing distance and as I reached I crashed on the ground. It was a great relief to reach and rest. And as the camp fire was on everyone gathered along. Others started coming in and we found  out that one of the groups had lost its way and took time to find their way back.

Another important development was that LA had got cuts in his legs and he was unable to walk. As everyone was trying to give him support and encouragement, Imran said that if you are unable to wlak then they will bring the stretcher and u ll be carried along, and after hearing this who would want to move J. So it took a lot of effort from others and a lot of will power and strength on the part of LA that he slowly and steadily made back to the camp. It was a job well done.

It was around 7 and everyone gathered around the fire and Aditya wanted RajMohan to tell some ghost stories, and RajMohan tried his best. Aditya actually bet everyone to go in the jungle for half an hour in the dark and he wont be afraid, but then we weren’t so lucky that he would go J.

Antaksri Time :)

And the only thing to do was to play Antakshri, we got divided into 2 groups and started off, it was fun, our team had mainly myself, Sandhya, samyuktha, ashu bhai, Kuldeep and believe me the other team was headed entirely by sirlaxmi. My song knowledge goes backs 15-20 years and she was singing songs of 50’s, none of the people had heard 70% of the songs she was singing, but then she would keep singing, one after the other. Believe me you cant win against her, ever. In between the session dinner was served and todays dinner was egg curry and rajma ..yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmyyyy. loved the food the preparation and the quality of food that we had was just amazing, I loved each diet I had there.

The fire was going out and Arjun asked us to retreat in our tents. We decided to keep on playing and invited everyone to our tent, well then it was 8 people in one tent playing antaksri in freezing temperatures. It was a great experience. If it wasn’t for our protective Arjun who asked us to disperse we wouldn’t have stopped playing and yes Sri would have never run out of songs. Well then it was time to doze off with a day extremely well spent J .