As I came out of the tent at midnight at Auden’s base, the moon was shining at its best, the snow peaks of Gangotri and Jogin range were silvery bright. The sky was dark with very little space for other stars as it was a full moon. The winds had stopped and it was very cold. I took out my camera and stand to grab pictures of the mountains, my hands were frozen in that attempt that went is vain. But I was all alone to experience that heavenly moment. Very selfish to be frank, I did not want to wake up others sleeping in the tents to enjoy and be part of the moment; I wanted to be part of the moment only myself. I stood enthralled for about 10 minutes in that very atmosphere when my intellect reminded about my freezing body and I went back to the sleeping bag.
The same night, I woke up again at 4 AM, came out of the tent. The moon had set behind Gangotri peaks and on the east, I could see Venus. Bright Venus is fond of poets and is a symbol of love. I remembered home looking at that site. Once again attempt to grab pictures went in vain and I went back to sleeping bag in the freezing cold.”
-Satyajit Chitale
Sitting here at the base of Auden’s Col is an experience like never before. When I feel the cold, the wind and the altitude of 16000 ft, I wonder what brings us here. For one, I always wanted to experience a long hike with my experienced climber dad. And so glad to have attempted the Col and back safe. Today morning we woke up at 0530 AM. The plan was to start climbing to the top of the Col and continue the hike to Kedarnath. But due to some problem with our organizer, technical help did not show up, which we waited from beginning of the trek on 25th Sept. Hence we decided to go as far as possible and return. But even that turned out to be a challenge today morning. The subzero temperature and gusty winds made every step painful. With frozen hands and feet, all I wanted was Sun to heat us up. After an hour the Sun warmed us up. By that time we were climbing on the glacier towards Auden’s Col which we could distinctly see right in-front of us. It looked so close yet so far. Our estimate was that the Col would be at 18,500 ft. At 0930, after almost 2.5 hrs of climb we were close to a mine of crevices. They were all over the glacier calmly lying across. We all, porters and members, roped ourselves and continued to walk. After another half an hour it was hard to know where exactly the crevices were starting and if we were over one of them. The Col would have been hard to climb with the terrain and we had to get back to BC before noon due to expected snow fall in the afternoon. We all decided to head back and reached the BC at 1200 hrs. Nikhil’s GPS indicated that we reached the altitude of 17,000 ft. Tomorrow we will go back the same way, we came here from Gangotri.We four reached Gangotri last Sunday, the 23rd Sep, from Uttarkashi. At Gangotri, one of the four pilgrimage places (Char Dham) there is a temple at 9,900 ft. It is considered as the origin of holy river Bhagirathi, which eventually becomes Ganga at Dev Prayag with confluence with Alaknanda. Gangotri is a small place with a few tourists at this time of the year. It had started to get cold and within a month, the whole place would be drowning in snow. We attended the evening prayer of holy Bhagirathi. Next morning, we started acclimatization walk on the same route as our hike to Auden’s Col. The trail was through the woods and we climbed up to 10,700 ft.We got back and spent rest of the day waiting for the crew to show up. We were a team of me,dad, Satyajeet & Nikhil (leader) and supposedly, 15 porters, a guide and a lead of porters. It was 0600 pm and we did not hear about the crew. The cell phones were not working. We had no choice but to wait. We finally got connected from one of the locals (Jai Prakash) and came to know that everyone was on the way. Later at 9 PM we met a few porters. There were 8 porters but no guide, mate and equipment. Next day, we spoke to Himalaya Sherpa, the organizer and we had to start our hike. He promised to send the remaining team the next day since we were to climb slower than them, to get acclimatized. After walking the first day for 4.5 hrs, we decided to camp at Bhoj Kharg at 11,800 ft so that the rest of the crew could catch up with us. Even the next morning we did not see the crew but decided to go little ahead to the next camp and wait. It had to be short distance so that they could cover it in one day and also get us acclimatized. We walked for 1.5 hrs and camped at 12, 200 ft. By that time we realized that one of the porters (Chandra Ravat) dropped the load and was on his way back. The remaining had to go back and pick up the bags. But by then, Chandra was back with Naya Bahadur (Himalaya’s brother in law) and 5 more porters. Naya assured us that one of the porters, Nand Bahadur, knew the route and Himalaya, the experienced climber, will join us at Col BC. This was a slight relief. But within two hrs, two porters had headache and difficulty in breathing. We gave them aspirin and asked them to go back considering that it is AMS.Next day we headed to Nalla Camp at 13,000 13,750 ft. The route was pretty but a number of times we were walking on land slides. I have done a number of hikes before, but this terrain was new to me. Climbing straight up without a place to stop, with the waterfall on the side and the river at the bottom was scary. I could feel the burn in my calf muscles. After a few such climbs the gradient of the trail reduced. After 3.5 hrs walk we were at Nalla Camp. The requirements for setting up a camp were source of water, safety from land-slide and leveled ground for tents. Although the definition of leveled was quite different here. In reality it was rocky and many a times sloping. The water source could be a narrow stream from mountains or a spring. At this camp, two more porters reported sick and decided to head back. The load was heavy and remaining could not have carried it. Hence we decided to leave heavy and extra items like aata, rice & dal at this camp. This weight almost 30 Kg. We hoped that the remaining porters with Himalaya Sherpa would bring that up. If not, we will go to Ghuttoo instead of Kedarnath in 7 days.From Nalla Camp, we reached Rudragaira BC (14,750 ft) in 3.5 hrs. There were very steep climbs of 1200 ft with no spot to rest. It reminded dad and others of Tapovan climb. The camp was beautiful. We would see all the Jogin, Gangotri and Rudragaira peaks. However the water had to be brought from a stream 300-400 ft down.After a night halt at this camp, we headed towards what we thought would be Col BC. Not knowing where water source would be in this season, and lack of proper guide, it was hard to decide a camp location. But Nikhil and Satya mapped the route on their GPS helped and it us to know the altitudes. After walking for 2.5 hrs from Rudragaira camp we reached BSF (Border Security Force) BC. On the way, three women and a few men members were returning after climbing Rudragaira peak. The rest of team was attempting Gangotri Peaks. The camp was a huge establishment. We were offered tea and biscuits. It was a pleasure to meet and talk to them. They asked about our hike & informed us that the crevices on the glacier to Col had opened. A Singaporian trekker & his 4-5 porters had returned a couple of day’s back. At this point, we only had two ropes and hope that Himalaya will show up with his experience and a few more porters and equipment like ladders.We continued to walk on the trail crossing number of ridges created by landslides. After two hours of crossing them we reached a potential camp site. This was hardly Col BC since we could not see the Col. Nand Bahadur was not sure whether there would be water at Col BC & hence decided to camp at this place at 15,500 ft. The source of water here also was tricky. The porters brought water from a pond 300 ft down. We did not quite like the idea. So started exploring the mountain ridges around for streams. Dad & Nikhil managed to put a pipe in some flowing water, which was from melting ice at the top. The water was muddy but we would let it settle and for use for purposes other than drinking. We settled in the tents and it started to snow. The wind was so strong that I thought we would bet blown away with our tent. By this day we expected to see Himalaya but there was no sign of him. The next day, we decided to walk and camp as close to the Col as possible. This was the last day we would wait for Himalaya. If we do not cross the Col day after, we would return the same way we came. I was feeling little tired and sleepy. Luckily, after walking for 1.5 hrs we could see Auden’s Col. This was actually the BC where we should have camped yesterday. Here plenty of clean water was available. Anyways, since Himalaya has not shown up, we considered this as an extra day to wait for him. After that the porters went ahead to see if we could camp even closer to the Col. But the whole terrain had crevices and hence we decided to camp where we were at 16,000 ft. We would start the next day and attempt to climb Col as much as possible. Not having enough equipment and skilled guide, it was not a good idea to risk much. Having reached an altitude of 17, 050 ft, we will be heading back tomorrow.It was actually a good feeling as we would finish two days earlier and I will get a week end at Pune. Being on 3week vacation, every extra day I get at Pune counts. I am glad to have made it here after numerous obstacles. Took hell lot of planning vacation, visa stamping, and recovery from tick bite infection, viral flue and diarrhea in Pune. I do feel that the mountains fix you. As scary and isolated I might feel, I am sure the moment I get back to Pune would want to plan another hike. It is sad that Himalayas are so far from USA but I am sure this is just a beginning. It is hard not to miss the magnificent mountains; the people here who work so hard and almost risk their lives for basic earnings. For now, I am going to wait for my dinner, which are yummy noodles
On the way back
I was all set in my mind to be back in Pune, two days ahead of schedule. We started walking back from Col BC towards our previous camp, Rudragaira BC. This is descent from 16,000 to 14,600 ft. On the way back, at our Pre BC, I saw a man walking towards us. I barely recognized him as I had met him only once. Himalaya ! Who was supposed to be with us two days back was running towards us. He wanted us to go back and attempt Col again. That was impossible. For one, going back in that cold and wind was not something we were looking forward to. Secondly, we told him how bad the crevices were. Nand Bahadur explained him the situation in Nepali. We also explained him that even if we crossed the Col, we did not have enough food and time to get back from the other side. All the porters did not have goggles, shoes, hand gloves etc to sustain the cold and wind. He was pretty disappointed and was determined to take us somewhere within the available time. His reason for not showing up on time was that the mate (leader) ran away with his money and porters.He told us that after reaching Rudragaira BC, we should head towards Rudragaira ABC. It would take 3-4 hours to reach BC and further 3-4 hrs for ABC. We reached R-BC at 1330 hrs. Even though the walk was climbing down, we had to climb up and down several ridges, which was exhausting given that we had attempted the Col on the previous day. After that we would be climbing another 2000 ft to R-ABC at 16,500 ft. And try summit at 19,100 ft the next day. I was skeptical, but Nikhil loved the idea. We all decided to go to R-BC and see how it goes. Dad and Satya opted to stay back at R-BC as they felt they would slow down progress of others. After 2.5 hrs we (me, Nikhil, Himalaya & 4 porters with tents, ropes and food) reached R_BC. Now was the time to decide if we want to spend an extra day and attempt the summit. I was skeptical as in my mind I was in Pune eating mom’s food. Also the summit sounded very optimistic. We would have to climb 2000 ft now and 3000 ft the next day and return back not only to R-ABC but to R-BC, a descent of 5.500 ft. This meant a walk of 10 hrs on the summit day! This was a big IF. I was beginning to get tired and a climb of 3000 ft above 16K was tough. I thought I would make all the effort and lose day in Pune.Meanwhile dad said he would not go. Satya was not sure either. He was fighting cold and thought he would slow us down. We asked our most experienced hiker, dad, what his opinion was. He said safety was not an issue. If we wanted, it is a lifetime opportunity to summit with nothing to lose. He did not want to bias my decision and told me what it would take to climb and also the fact that chances don’t always come along. I think I was pretending to decide. Back of my mind I knew I would go else I would think of a missed chance all the time.Nikhil said lets go. It was done. We had a heavy lunch and topped it with Maggie noodles. We started walking towards R-ABC at 230 pm. It started to snow. Himalaya said as long as the snow is tiny balls there is nothing to worry about. If it becomes “chiwda” (an Indian snack which looks like flakes) then there is trouble.I shut my brains and kept walking. I expected to walk for another 3 hours atleast. Himalaya was amazing guide. He was completely confident about us. I knew I would definitely make it to R-ABC. What happens tomorrow will be seen.We were pretty surprised with ourseleves. Other than effects of over eating there were no issues. We were at R-ABC in little over 2 hours. At 430 pm we were at the camp and the porters started burning some trash at the camp for warmth. There was no water at this camp. There was some snow, which they would melt for food. I had carried 1.5 lt of clean water in my camelbak. Nikhil had another 1.5 lt of muddy water. We put some electrolytes in that to make it taste better. We were good with almost 3 lt water between us. It was not a lot but we could survive going up.We decided to stay in the tent as it had started getting cold. BSF team had told us that the camp would get winds. But it was fine. No winds and we expected it to be less cold than Auden’s Col BC being away from the glacier. Himalaya visited us and told us we would have to wake up at 3 am and start walking. I was used to the idea because of long day hikes in USA. Immediately we decided to start resting.We were served dinner soon. We decided to stop looking at the time. Dinner was Maggie noodles again. By now I already had a heartburn with Maggie and could not even look at it again. I knew I should eat but I was also afraid of messing my system. I decided to eat some packed food we got with us. We had roti made from jaggery. Something that tasted so good a few days ago felt really dry and I could not eat much. I had some hot chocolate and we decided to sleep. Himalaya came back to check on us. He wanted to make we were warm. Well I was never warm in the nights. My feet would always freeze. Nikhil had given me his sweater to lay on the mat to prevent cold from creeping in from the base. Himalaya kept insisting it was imp to be warm. He gave us some huge pants to wear over ours. I used them as additional layer on my feet. I was decently warm.Not sure when but I woke up and the entire tent was shaking. It was windier than any of our camps. BSF team was right! I was not sure what time it was and thought it could be time to wake up and start walking. I hated the idea so much that I secretly wished that Himalaya would cancel the hike. There was possibly no way I could go out of my tent. I can never sleep before the D day. The anxiety, the excitement and the thoughts never stop. I was going to rely on adrenaline to push me. I think it works. After what felt like hours of tossing and turning I convinced myself that the winds would stop in the morning and got some sleep.Soon someone got us tea. It’s great to get tea in the tent but it also means a wake up call. Himalaya said it was 4 am. He let us sleep an hour extra because of the weather. It was still windy and snowing a bit. I asked Nikhil if it’s even possible to go. We spoke to Himalaya and he said it would clear up. He was determined to go and we now had no option. Breakfast was Maggie again. Again I could not eat it. I had more of hot chocolate to hydrate and a small protein bar.I went to brush my teeth and walking 5 steps made my heart race. It always happened in the morning. But today was one of the hardest days. By the time we started it was 6am and there was light. Himalaya was again concerned about warmth. I realized that it was really important to start on a warm body. He put a scarf around my neck and put his huge jacket over my 4 layers.We started walking really slowly. It was freezing and the sky was cloudy. I doubted if we would get any Sun and it would be hard to warm up. We slowly set a pace and kept walking.Himalaya mentioned that the Summit was actually not visible but there were 3 domes to cross. Once done 4th would be very easy and we would be almost there. That sounded easy.The first break was just in 500 feet. My feet were frozen. I had waited to warm up but my toes were hurting. I decided to tell Himalaya since we had hours to go and the Sun was not going to show up. He immediately told me to remove my shoes. I had one cotton and one woolen pair of socks. He said my socks were damp. Could be because of snow. He removed his extra pair and put them on my feet.We started walking again. I kept moving my toes inside my shoes to keep blood circulating but they hurt. I kept thinking how my dad would have felt during frost bite. I remembered him telling once it gets really frozen they wont even hurt.I tried to take a few sips of water from my camelbak. There was no water. The water in the tube was frozen. I should have locked the tip and finished the water in the tube so it would not freeze. But I had not realized this would happen. I knew it would not defrost during todays hike since the temperature was below freezing and the magical Sun was missing. Now we only had Nikhil’s water. Once his got over I would pour the water from my camelbak into his bottle since only the tube was frozen. We realized the porters were not carrying water either. They never did. I did not understand why. We would offer them water from ours and now we had Nikhil’s water among all (five) of us.We had crossed the second dome. As Himalaya said just one more to go and things would get easy. It made no sense since we had climbed only 1200 feet.After few hours of walking I realized the dome calculation was fake. But atleast we could see the Summit with a red flag. We were close to 18,000 feet and I told Nikhil it was tiring. He said it had nothing to do with 18,000. I would be tired even at sea level after climbing so much the fact was we were really well acclimatized. Our stay at 16,000 for last 3 nights and climb to Auden’s Col at 17,000 had definitely helped. People usually plan this summit and stay at the R-ABC for a few days with load ferry. We would do it in a day just because of being at the Col. Himalaya was very happy and sure that it was almost done. Now I had started to believe in that it could really happen. Until now I just thought of one step at a time and just walking. Not of summit, not of cold, not of getting back. I think that’s what I like most about hiking. Set a big goal but just focus on small steps and basic thing like breathing and if things go right we get there.
I could see the summit over a huge climb of rocks. The hike until now had not been an easy trail. With rock scramble all over it would take the extra muscle strength and break the breathing pace. But o well I could not expect it to be walk in the garden. Looking at the climb we thought we were almost an hour away. But we would make it. Himalaya told Tarka ( our porter) to drop his bag of ropes. We would not need them. He just led us with his ice axe and started creating steps to walk on in ice. All we had to do was walk in the line on those steps following him. I was right behind him followed by Hiamalaya, Nikhil and Nanda.
We climbed non stop for 20 min and we were almost there! what I thought was an hour hike was almost done. I could literally see a few steps to the Summit. It was really happening. I was going to be over 19,000 feet.
We made it. Himalaya first took me to the flag and a pile of rocks, which was Shiva temple. He put my head on the temple and asked me to pray. They told us they thanks Shiv and Ganga to let them summit. He also said it is important to pray for safe return. The view was magnificent. I could get a top view of some of the distant mountains we could see all along.
We clicked some pictures and it was time to head back. No wonder they say enjoy the journey than the destination. There is no time on destination and we think of what next. My feet were still frozen. But now it mattered even less. Himalaya said they would warm on the way down.
Way down was steep. It’s always while going we realize what we did. Nikhil had started to feel loss of energy. We opened my camelbak and poured all my water in his bottles. I also gave him a protein bar. On the way down I slipped a few times. I was carrying my hiking poles but not using them. I never used them in this hike because the I always needed my hands in addition to the legs. Himalaya was teaching me to walk without using my hands. They never use their hands. Same was the case with dad, Nikhil and Satya. However steep it got the practice was proper stepping. I had to learn this. Maybe now was not the time. Its even harder when the legs are tired. I was going to be safe than sorry. By now Tarka was convinced I needed help. He would hold on to my bag strap just in case I fell. It was awkward to walk and I told him I would be fine. Then I would almost slip. Finally I let him help me Nikhil took help too. We just wanted to get back to R-ABC and then we had another hour and a half to go to the base camp the same day.
After a few hours we were back at ABC. All Nikhil wanted to do was sleep. I was still excited. Got tea and they made “kheer” instead of Maggie. I was happy. I woke up Nikhil and asked him to eat. He was actually dehydrated and we had another short hike left to do to go to the base camp. It started snowing again. After sometime Himalaya mentioned we should leave soon. We agreed. The walk down was relatively very pleasant. We could see our base camp now and with more number of tents. I could now see Satya walking towards us to greet us and dad waiting by the kitchen tent. We all hugged and met few other people who had camped there. I realized there was another group from Mumbai who was going to cross Auden’s Col. One of the guys spoke to me and in the conversation realized I worked for Symantec. He asked if it was the same company acquired by Google recently! I said I did not think so and I was definitely not gone away for that long
The next we decided to go back to Gangotri and then drive to UttarKashi in a day. That meant skipping 3 camps on the way up. It would be around 22 km to climb down almost 5000 feet. We crossed all those steep landslides. Honestly this was the scariest day for me in the hike. Everytime someone in our team slipped I would miss a beat. The porters were going fast because of momentum with bad shoes and weight on their head.
We made it back! Now the rest of the journey would be jeep travel all the way to Rishikesh. We met Jai Prakash again. I wanted to call mom and let her know we made it. She was delighted to hear my voice. I would miss this place. The people like our porter and Jai Prakash who made simple living by selling water bottles to the tourist to carry Ganga water. Even though he would haggle in his shop for 5 RS he would refuse to take money from us for making calls just because we called home. Tarka wanted a bottle of Rum, which we would arrange for him in UttarKashi. Moment we drove back to Uttarkashi I heard from Uttara and Prasad. It was good to be back. But there will be hopefully many such hikes to come with dad, Nikhil, Satya and my hiking group in US.
muksvaidya 