Saurkundi Pass.

I was a 15 year old lad about to appear for my 10th standard board exams in few months. My dad knowing about the pressure experienced by me and also the love for adventurous treks in me asked me “Shall we go to a trek in Himalayas after your board exams?” I was very much surprised by this but I immediately agreed. In a few days our plans for trek were finalized.
We were to report to the base camp on 1st of May. We were accompanied by two of dad’s colleagues in office. We boarded the train in the evening from Kalyan on 25th of April. In the train we me and my dad were joined by those two friends. They were Eknath Marathe and Ganesh Pol. Among four of us I was the fellow who was doing his first ever trek in Himalayas. The journey by train in the night was very pleasant in evening and night. The morning too passed of without much problems. The problem started in the afternoon. We were to go through the very hot and humid region of North India. The weather was very humid and the temperatures were soaring to something around 37-38 degrees Celsius. The heat was taking its toll. I was feeling drowned. The thirst was unwilling to die down. We were emptying bottle after bottle of mineral water. The heat was just unbearable. We had tied wet towels around our heads to cool of. It brought us some relief but it was short lived we had to wet the towels time and again as they dried off very quickly. At last we reached Delhi in late afternoon. We booked our rooms in Guest houses provided by dad’s office. We rested for sometime and left our hotels for sight seeing in Delhi. We traveled quiet a bit, had our dinner in a local “dhaba”. Let me tell you the people in Delhi are not the ones to be trusted. They all try to fool you to get some money. It is one of the dangerous cities in India even after being the capital of the country. The people are not at all hospitable. We returned to our beds and rested our tired soul carriers. We were up in the morning, had our breakfast and left for booking our seats to reach the base camp of our trek.
Our bus was late in the evening. We packed our bags and went to the bus station after having lunch in the guest house. The bus ride was a bit rough but hailing from Mumbai I was very much used to it. We had a halt in Chandigarh at night. There we had dinner and continued our travel.
We reached our base camp-a small village in Himachal Pradesh-named Babeli. We filled all our required documents and were allotted tents for our stay. We were supposed to stay at the base camp for two days. First day was a free day and we were allowed to do whatever we felt like. We were allowed to leave the base camp but had to return back before 9:30pm. We chose to stay at the base camp and see how the things are being done. First batch of trekkers was about to leave on the same day. We had an army man as our leader. He gave a very motivational speech to them and sent them off. The people at the base camp were very helpful and hospitable and this was a very pleasant surprise after visiting Delhi. On the second day we were taken to an acclimatization walk on some nearby hill. We had our campfire which was an eco friendly one as we just used some tree which had electrical bulbs lighting over it. On the second day we were given lessons in rappelling and rock climbing.
At last the dawn occurred, when we were to start our trek. We had 50 people in our group. 49 men and one 1 girl. Our fellow trekkers who were to start in few days gave us their best wishes. We left our base camp. The trek started. I had to carry my backpack which was something 6kgs. I was not at all used to carry such heavy bags for treks. So I was having a bit rough time but this is a part of the game I was playing at that time. We were to reach our first camp on that day were we would be staying for a night. Its name was Segli. It was my first trek after around 4-5 years and I was having really a hard time. But the scenic beauties of the Himalayan forests cheered me on encouraged me go on. Slowly and steadily I was getting used to the heavy bag and rough terrain.
Everything was going as per the plan but as said by many –expect the unexpected when everything is normal-and unexpected occurred. On our way we encountered a small house. It had beautiful flowers around it. Some of our fellow trekkers stopped to snap some pictures and our group got separated. Thank this all to some nonsensical trekkers from Chhattisgarh. They had some tiff with our route guide and to revenge this misled other trekkers to some other route. We were waiting for other trekkers to proceed further but there was no sign of them for around an hour. Then we guessed something was wrong. Then we started hearing some familiar noises some way above us. We started calling them by their names and they responded. Then our guide took us by some other route which was very tiring and we huffed and puffed to the place where our other group members were. After that everything went as expected and we had no further problems.
We reached our first camp in early evening. It was a beautiful village and one of the only two villages we had our base camps in. Our camp leader was a Guajarati from Mumbai and we connected very well. He was an astronomer. He had also brought along one of his telescopes along with him and we had planned to do some stargazing at night but thanks to heavy showers of rain it was not to be. We even had our dinner turn by turn going into the kitchen and having dinner under a small roof. It was also an experience worth it. Then we retired to our sleeping bags and were dreaming in no timing.
The next day we woke up to a beautiful dawn. The climate was very pleasant. The sun’s rays were making the snow clad mountains look as if they were bearing gold on their tops. A chill mountain breeze was flowing. We had our breakfast and left the camp. We proceeded to our next camp. The way was fine. It was not very difficult but was not easy too. We were witnessing the beauty of nature. It was transforming within minutes. We could feel the freezing snow bearing wind at a moment the very next moment we were wiping sweat from our brows. We were having chocolates at regular intervals. Someone or the other would always have something to eat. We would share it. At regular intervals we were taking breaks to relive our aching legs and gaze at the nature at its best around us.
In this manner the day had almost past. Now it was almost late in the afternoon. We were told by our guide that we would be reaching our next camp in about an hour but for that we had to overcome the last part of our days trek. It didn’t seem to be difficult but soon we realized that it was not to be one. The climb was quite steep and we had to climb literally on our toes. The slope was very steep. It was difficult to keep up with the climb and the slippery muck below our shoe soles. It was taking me all my energy to overcome this stage. It was not very high. We were able to see our new camp leader on top of the ascent. He was waving at us and cheering us to buck up.
At last we reached our second camp. We were huffing and puffing by the climb. It had almost taken away my breath. The name of the camp was Hora thatch. We were served with lemon juice as our welcome drink. We savored it and retired to our tents to change. We changed i.e. put on more clothing. It was very much necessary as the temperature was decreasing very fast. We had been served with tea. We had our lunch in the evening. We were served with hot soup and steaming rice and rotis. After climbing so much our tired souls required some energy. We all ate to the fullest and retired for the night. In the night rain started pouring. It was raining very heavily. We were able to hear the rain drops on our tent tops. I was afraid that the rain water would enter our tents as it was just canvas and permanent housing. But thank goodness we were spared by the rain as our tents were built on some mud platform.
The morning was very beautiful. The rain clouds had drowned away. The climate was now freezing us. When we would rinse our mouth after brushing it felt as if we had no mouth at all. The water available was from the glaciers coming higher up from the mountains. It was freezing cold all around us. I was wearing hand gloves and three shirts above one another in spite of this I was feeling no less cold. Some of my group members were joking that they would give away 1 million bucks to anyone who bathed over here. They knew it very well that no one would do it. When we asked our cook-who was also from the same mountainous region-how they manage to take a bath in such conditions. He told us that they take bath only thrice in their lifetime, first time at birth second at the time of marriage and third after they die. We were shocked to hear this. But it was the truth of the mountains. We now moved on to our third camp.
On our way we were surrounded by the scenic beauty. On this path we first time witnessed snow in our touching distance. We frolicked in the snow and I enjoyed such snow for the first time in my life. We saw snow many times from then on.
This camp was not very far away. We reached there in the afternoon and our camp leader was very much astonished to see us arrive at the camp so early. The campsite was very beautiful. It was on top of a hillock with a glacier flowing besides it. We were able to see a number of birds around us. It was plane surface were our camp was situated. We were able to enjoy open sky above us for the first time as both our former camps were in forests. We enjoyed in the evening and went to sleep. Our day was uneventful but it was not so for our camp leader.
On the same night, a camp leader from our next time came over to our camp. He was running very high temperatures. On the night before he had faced a storm which we had faced on the camp before. We escaped because we were at a lower camp and he was at the topmost camp very the fury of storm blew away some tents even. He somehow stayed on the camp for a day but then his subordinates sent him to our camp as condition was deteriorating by every hour spent on the mountains. He being a camp leader was an experienced climber. In spite of this he had been a victim to the conditions on the mountains. In the night when I was asleep our camp leader and two doctors who were our group members were providing him with first aid. They had decided to send him to the base camp at the dawn as there were no medicines available. But it was not to be. In the morning we received the news that he was no more. He was a veteran trekker of 30 yrs of experience. Our camp was grieved and also shocked at the unavailability of the required medicines at such a higher camp. Some of our group members were known to him as he was a very active person in the youth hostel circuit.
In the morning we observed silence for him and started for the camp were this incident had occurred. We were extra careful as we had recently witnessed the fury of mountains and its climate. Now were to walk through the glaciers and snow laden slopes of the mountains. We were using sticks for support. We used strike the snow with the pointed end of our sticks. The stick would go a bit inside the snow and it would act as a snow pick for us. Thus slowly but steadily we were proceeding to our next camp-Dowra. I was walking on the snow for the first time in my life. It was very difficult. We had to dig our heels in the snow and would only take one step at a time. We were able to see deep valley below us. One single step wrong and we would be traveling down1000mts into the jaws of death. It made chill go down my spine. Due to the digging of heels they were badly aching. My calf muscles had already started to hurt me. In spite of it all we all kept on moving towards our next objective. At last we had left the snowy patch behind us and were walking through scarce forest now. We had lunch in our way and were resting. My dad kept his bag on the ground. We all were having fun. In mid of it his bag got disturbed from its place and started rolling down the slope of the mountain. He had all his clothes in the bag and some other life essentials in it. We all didn’t know what to do? Our guide being an experienced person and a resident of these mountains dared and went down the slope to fetch the bag. At first he was unable to find it. But he spotted it in some bushes. Thanks to him dad got his bag back. As a manner of thanks and gratitude towards his act of courage dad offered him some money but that person didn’t accept it. We forced him to take it by telling him how much of help it had been to him but he was rock stubborn.
Here too we reached our topmost camp Dowra in the afternoon. But no one was in mood to celebrate as we were the people who had witnessed the demise of the camp leader who was to attend us today. The substitute camp leader told us the whole account in detail. On the night day before yesterday, the camp witnessed a heavy storm. There was heavy rain and powerful gusts of wind. The wind blew two tents. They had to be mended within the night as they were home to 16 trekkers and there was no way to know when the storm and rain would pass away. So the camp leader and the people in the camps set the tent alright in midst of that horrifying night. The camp leader provided extra dry sleeping bags to the trekkers and but didn’t have any left for him. So he slept with just a blanket to save him from the cold. To add to it our camp was situated on a glacier which made the cold unbearable. Due to these bad conditions he was struck by fever and mountain sickness. In spite of this all he stayed at the camp for one day and was unwilling to leave the camp. At last his subordinates forced him to leave the camp and go to our previous camp. And rest was as told before.
We had a quite dinner and slept in the night. We were to get up early in the morning. We got up and were rolling our sleeping bags when the sleeping bags of Arun-our partner in our tent-started rolling down the slope of the mountain. We could do nothing but just stare at the bag rolling down. Then we started to figure out were the bag had reached. Then slowly and steadily Arun started climbing down the slope of the mountain we were guiding him from the top as were to look for. Then at last he told us that he had found the bag and was coming up. We were relived and so was Arun. Then the morning passed without any more interesting incidents. We had our breakfast and started climbing towards our final destination” Saurkundi pass”.
We had our new camp leader as our guide. He was taking us safely to the Pass through the glaciers. In our final high climbing trek we had to cross just one part of it now but it was not as easy as it seemed to be. After all the hard work and huffing and puffing we reached the summit. The beauty was overwhelming. At such a breath taking height we had an ascetic feeling. The feeling of being on top of the world was too good and I was not able to believe that we had at last reached the summit that we were pursuing for from few days. After snapping few pictures to keep some memories. Then we started to descend. Now we were to face one of the most exciting part of the trek-snow sliding. In it we were to sit on snow and slide down the even layer of snow slope. Our guide showed us how to slide on it. Then one after another we started to do it. At first, I was very afraid to do it. It required us to slide down some 50m-70m below without any security measures. Then afraid seeing some people do it I gained courage and did it. And whoa! What fun it was! Whizzing through the snow was an experience I would never forget. The adrenaline rush acquired by this means could not be duplicated by anything I went through before. After this slide of we did two more slides. After every slide our all clothes would become wet and cold due to the direct contact with ice but it did not matter as the excitement obtained by the slide outran the inconvienience. After the slide we went through a rock patch. It was full of huge sharp rocks. Below it was a deep valley. There seemed no end to the valley. We climbed down this patch very carefully. After going through the slides and the rocky patch we at last reached our camp for that evening-Longa thatch. This camp was on the edge of a mountain slope. The scenic beauty from this camp was one of the best in our whole trek. We could see green mountain slopes and snow cladden mountain tops both at the same time. That evening there was a feeling of sataisfaction in us. For me this was a very different feeling,the kind of feeling I had never had before as this was my first treking expedition in the Himalyas. The night came early and we all rested our tired souls.
The morning was all the more beautiful. The sun rays seemed very different. There was a new excitement and new encouragement in them. From today we were to start descending. The ascend was finished long before. It is very well known that in any trek descend is way much difficult than the ascend. We started our descend a bit late morning. The next camp was not very far so all treked calmly. The camaradiere among the group was at its best. Everyone was a good time at someones expense. Everyonr was chiled out. The descend was not as difficult as it seemed to be. But being careless can cost us dear when we are at nature's mercy. We stopped for lunch under a big deodar tree. After having our lunch we rested for some tme and then resumed our trek. But this time the difficulty level of the trek had increased it seemed. Now the slope was bit more steep and the way went through dense forest. There were dense shrubs which came upto our chests. We had to cover our faces with hands to avoid getting hurt by the low lying bushes. After this hard patch we were again on plain grounds. Now it was very easy to walk. After going through all this we atlast reached our camp-Lekhni. This was our last camp. This camp was in a village admist of Apple plantations. We were provided with apple juice as the welcome drink. We had a very beautiful bunglow besides our tent. We had the first camp fire at this camp. In every camp before we had some or the obstacle which kept us away from doing it. In the first and the second camp it was rain. In the third camp it was the targedy of the camp leader. In the fourth camp it was the freezing winds and in the fifth camp it was the tired out feeling of everyone. In this camp which we knew was going to be our last camp we enjoyed a lot and everyone was wide awake late in the night enjoying themselves to the fullest. At last the camp leader had to force everyone to go to bed.
In the morning, we all went for bird watching. Our camp leader gave information about various birds found in the area and the lifestyle of the birds. After this we started our descend for the last time in this trek. Now our next destination was going back to the base camp. Today the trek was very less. We completed our trek for the day in around 2hrs. Then we boarded a local bus which took us to our base camp. In the bus, we all were having the goodtime. We were singing songs, shouting like madmen. The feeling of completion in us could not be contained by anything.
After reaching the base camp everything went haywire. There was shouting, screaming, it seemed to be some place in Mumbai. The quite feeling of mountains drowned away in our excitement. We shared our experience with our base camp leader. He also comgrtulated us on our completion of the trek. He also told everyone not to disclose anythings about the tragedy of the camp leader as it would dishearten the trekkers who were to start treking soon. That day went in telling our fellow trekers who were still to start their part of trkking our experienes and the hardships we faced on the treks. It was a bit disheartning for me when some of them didn't belive that I had completed my trek succesfully but when they believed it they asked me for tips and many other things. In the evening after our dinner we had our last campfire. This was going to be the last evening together for our group as we all would be proceeding back home in the morning the day after.
In the morning, we were awarded our certificates for succesfully completing the trek. After bidding our byes and see yous we left our camp with an himalayan expedition under our belts and more than that the satisfaction that we obtained from this trek.