Preface :
It's all started with our western ghat treks, enjoying splendid lush green mountains, taking dip in pristine water falls, exploring the beauty of Karnataka with bunch of enthusiast fellow Trailblazers. Finally it was time to move north this time. Guess the place, where all young trekkers want to be there once in their life time. Of course,its none other than majestic Himalayas. You should not simply dream about Himalayas and keep quite, unless having the zeal of conquering it some day. It was that moment for all of us(pax of 7). It took almost one month to prepare ourselves for the arduous task ahead. We quickly gathered all the necessary materials and information regarding altitudes , guide and campsites etc. Fortunately we got hold of local guide from Joshimath who agreed to take us to the Kuaripass with nominal trek charge. Humble, enthusiast and extrovert person, owns a local trekking agency called Eskimos Adventures. This agency is one of the top in Joshimath surroundings and known for its legacy. Recently they won the best trekking agency award from Uttarakhand government. Honestly, I did bit of research before contacting Eskimos and that worked out to be beneficial for us in terms of negotiation and finally booked our itinerary with Eskimos.
Jan 2nd, finally the D day had arrived and all of us were ready to enter the land of GOD(Deva Bhoomi) with high energy to conquer the queen 😋 Kuari. Boarded the flight from KIAL Bangalore and arrived at Delhi by 10 am. We did book our bus to Haridwar from Delhi and Joshimath from Haridwar well in advance. After a long journey of almost 18 hrs we landed in Deva Bhoomi , Joshimath on 3rd Jan evening. It was very cold and awesome weather at Joshimath which added new flavors to our pre-adventure walk in the city. Believe it or not, we never experienced such cold back in South part of India. That fact gave us goosebumps when we started thinking about temperature at 4k meters altitude which we were targeting for next couple of days. We did shopping in Joshimath and settled for the day at a decent hotel with heater facility and good hygiene bathroom.
Haridwar - Joshimath
View from our room
Sunset, as seen from our room
Joshimath Town
First Leg :
It was cool and silent morning at the Joshimath valley. Workers rushing for their daily routine work, children running with their buddies for the school, louvers of the shops were being opened, fumes from the chaiwala's tea kettle started to spill and still we were not in the mood to get up from the bed. Some how managed to step out of our room and it was splendid weather outside waiting to greet us. Some where at the distant we could able to see the snow dust hovering around the peak and dawn made it look like golden fumes playing with the peak. It was already 9am by the time we got ready and packed all necessary items for the adventure. Our guide, cook and helper were already ready and waiting for our arrival. We met our guide , cook and helper and had a small introductory session, do's and don'ts, rules to follow . There are many routes to Kuari pass which you can decide according to the weather and intensity of snow. Our guide suggested the route Dhak-gulling-Chitrakhana top-Tali top -Kuaripass-tali top- Gorson bugyal- auli.
We agreed to his words as they are most experienced and our safety is their first motto. It would require 4 days and total 40+ km to be covered. Our first camp site was Chitrakhana top. It is 8km from Dhak village and requires 5hrs of good trek. Joshimath to Dhak one has to travel by road, Eskimos had arranged travel for us. We dumped our luggages on top of the Jeep and we were ready for the 12 km bumpy ride😋. Soon we arrived at Dhak village and had our breakfast at the starting point of our trek. It was 10 am, our mules also arrived at the same time. Mules are used to carry the tents, groceries and cooking vessels.
We started our trek by 10:30 am and it was sunny at the initial part of the trek. The open vista of the village surrounding made us to enjoy our initial trek . There was a well built path which connects the small villages en-route. After good 2 hours of trekking we reached one small village where there was a small stream beside the path. We took small power nap before we started our next trek. It was a wow moment for all of us when we encountered first snow of the trek. We started playing at the snow fields, making ball out of it and throwing at each other 😂😄. Though snow was not in abundance,we enjoyed thoroughly as that was our first encounter. After playing some time we proceeded towards the first campsite, Chitrakhana top via Gulling village.
Our group
Initial path
We saw some other group pitching their tents at Gulling top. And came to know that they are not coming in the route which we had decided . We went ahead of them and finally reached our campsite, Chitrakhana top by 4 - 4:30pm. It was not as cold as we experienced last night at Joshimath. But got to know from guide that during night it would touch 0 deg. By the time we reached Chitrakhana top, mules had already arrived and cook, helper were pitching the tents. We did help them in doing so, and dumped all our luggage inside the tent. It was still bright outside, our heart did not listen to the voice of our legs, went on playing in the snow and had a small photo session. Totally we enjoyed our first leg of trek very much. By the time we returned to tent, delicious hot soup was ready. Imagine, having a mug of hot soup in chilling weather enjoying the sunset amidst himalayan range. Omg...!!! I am out of words to explain that enjoyment that we had. Now we came to know that why everyone's heart throb to visit the Himalayas once in their life time. Finally we bid adieu for the day after having sumptuous rice,roti and daal prepared by the cook.
Camp site
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