“Getting to the top of any given mountain was considered much less important than how one got there: prestige was earned by tackling the most unforgiving routes with minimal equipment, in the boldest style imaginable.”- Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt.Everest Disaster.
This one sentence accurately defines the trekking experience 8 of us had in our recent trip to Kedarkantha. Kedarkantha peak at 12500ft. Seem to be too remarkable, but as the name says shaped like Shiva’s Neck(Kedar means Lord Shiva and Kantha means neck), actually one of the most scenic treks and offers great views to the Himalayan ranges, reason behind making it to one of the Top 10 treks in India by Conde Nast.
The plan:
20th November: Pick up from Dehra Dun railway station. Drive to Sankri (10-12 hours)
21st November: 3km trek starts from Sankri 6450ft to Juda ka Talab 9100ft.
22nd November: 3km trek from juda ka talab 9100ft to kedarkantha base 11250ft.
23rd November: 4km Kedar Kantha base 11250ft to Kedar Kantha peak 12500ft and down to Sankri
24th November: NO plan buffer
25th November: Drive from Sankri to Shimla and train from Kalka.
The team:
Rajesh pandit(60),
Uttam Chakraborty(35)
Mukesh Dutta(30)
Sudebi Chakraborty(30)
Aparesh Sannigrahi(28)
Dipankar Das(23)
Puja Baral(20)
Simran Chanda(19)
Sankri
Around 200kms from Dehra Dun via NH123, crisscrossing over the hills and valleys this is a place where the experience is not just in the destination, the road to the place is all part of it. In some ways, the area hacks back to the ‘old hill stations’ before they became overbuilt messes- a few scattered houses, the little Bazar, patches of forest and wide-open views.
The late evening arrived in the Hotel Wild Orchid, with all the dust, most of us directly headed for a quick shower/nap with all the questions and answers in our mind regarding next day trek.
Reaching Juda ka Talab
JKT as locals call it, is a small mystic land surrounded by snow-capped mountains, beautiful scenery and picturesque landscapes. A 3km trek started around 10:30 am with all of us full of energy and spirit even to win over the Everest and the same seemed to have eloped after a short while. Kept on encouraging each other after each fall.and at about 2:00pm we reached Kedarkantha base camp.
Kedarkantha base camp
Some of us decided to go back to Sankri due to injury and the rest of us made two groups and one group started for the summit post breakfast and the other group followed us. The enclosing deodar forest and fresh snow made it difficult to follow the trail and we had to make our own paths however offered remarkable views of snow peaks and valleys. A maiden dressed in white, this is how the base camp looked after approx 3km of the trek and the white radiance of the land had a mesmerising ambience.
The summit yatra
Early morning hour was spent in dilemma to go or not to go ahead until our team captain asked us to get ready, that brought us back to the reality, and a glance to the top energized us. We quickly got ready with our tractions and gaiters and started to what we refer now as “ The journey to another World”. it does become more strenuous as you start to reach the top. The views afforded on-route were phenomenal, and every turn was a must-stop and soak in the view location!
Finally, we reached and each one of us shouted….YES…!!!
The large flat hilltop presents a 360degree view of the area. Besides the perennial snow-capped chan of the greater Himalayan
ranges, very few peaks in the vicinity match the grandeur on display here.
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