The Whiteout Coaster: Weekend Escape Trek to Chopta | Tungnath | Deoria Tal Lake
BREAD DOESN'T HELP WHEN IT'S THE SOUL THAT'S STARVING.
Over 8 months since getting out of college life, diving into the corporate urban jungle and the ride to being independent, smoking hard earned cash on fancies or "Treat yourself!?" is what they call it which could get boring pretty soon, sure felt like a lack of something of a break.
Cue in, the almighty borderline burn out, left me wondering how soon it hit me, barely 3 quarters down the line. No amount of booze, weekend parties, socializing or fine purchases could extinguish the flame. Much needed pause was imminent and a wider perspective to figure out the source of rebellion within, a legit necessity and that I did. Your true good friend, your true self, which usually chills out for the most part but, when it's restless, it's important to deal with it instead of sideling it and continuing the daily grind. This wasn't the first time that I've stumbled upon it; it's just that with each occurrence the pattern gets clearer. It was about time to patch up the core, or what you'd deeply call, feed the soul.
Extended weekends, as fancy as they sound, are pretty rare and a mighty boon to folks who work 5 days a week and I've been guilty to letting those rare breaks go into vain. For once I wanted to get out of the comfort of boozing around and waking up wasted only to head back to the grind of life and go out for some good air.
Cue in, the long AF weekend, March 1, 2019 to March 4, 2019 was in my mind for the longest time ever, reading the date off attendance portal twice a day sure does plug certain keys into the subconscious memory.
So, not 4 days before the time frame, I started putting things into motion, called up folks to check for availability and the like but halfway through it clicked me, that I didn't know what was I even briefing them about. I was absolutely unsure of where should I go. Being a rider of bandwagon (or trips) that is all organized before by one of those sorted friend is one thing and placing your own bet is a whole another.
One fine evening, sharing a cold one, killing time, I came across a sponsored post on IG. "Trek to the Peak at 3,682 m (12,080 ft)" it said and the best part was the dates were a perfect match for me. Without much ado, I made an informed and logical choice of booking a slot disregarding the facts except the weather forecast which showed rains of the days I'd be there, or even my fitness level as I've been sitting around the whole day, munching the best of those snacks for over half a year now and didn't need to walk a step for daily commute, Sorted?
2 Days before the Departure – I got the leaves sorted and made necessary changes to the work flow. Being at a fast-growing start up is that, you don't get sweet spare hours to do your own stuff as there's always something important to be done and it's engaging. Post work hours, I headed to Decathlon to grab the gear, having absolutely no idea about the trek or the place I was headed to, didn't help at all to make informed purchase decisions and thus I was done within 30 mins with it and for the day.
1 Day before the Departure – Nothing special, just another day at work and it was over in no time, while heading home it clicked that I missed out of grabbing key trekking gear the previous night and thus I headed to the superstore, grabbed those in time and took out time to sort out the mode of transportation in the midnight.
Day of Departure (Friday)
Well, till this moment, 1 AM in the night, enjoying pasta and music, I had no idea of itinerary or the details of the place or the history behind it. Decided not to spoil the fun by reading about trek and let the secrets unravel itself and as it turns out, I discovered that I'll be joining a group of 10 absolute random folks, the time of departure from Delhi was 7ish post dawn so I had to leave in about 3-4 hours to make it in time. Well, damn. Packed the bag, charged the stuff and it was time.
Took a Metro ride to the place of pickup as I didn't sleep much and wasn't in the mood to deal with stupid speed breakers all over the place but, completely missed out on the fact that the locomotives have announcements for every station it stops at, so I only had to deal with just 25 of those repetitive noises as well as confused and judging eyes of the passengers heading to work, watching me in cargo and down feather jacket with bandana on. Ha, normies.
Being an overclocked introvert, I had to deal with the usual challenge, introductions and getting to know the folks we'll be rolling with. Fortunately, it was easier and smoother than figuring out the pickup point in the giant ISBT block. The folks were excited, lively unlike me as I didn't know anything about the trip so I had no expectation which tossed me in a state of active standby to witness something epic and adventurous.
The journey from Delhi to Sari Village took over 16 hours due to dense traffic and unpaved roads while heading uphill. It was meal breaks, smokes, UNO, sharing knowledge and just fun in a nutshell. We arrived at Sari Village at around 2 in the chilly night, with the spotty network connection; we grabbed the supper and hit the bed for the day.
D-Day (Saturday)
Well, as I stepped out of the room, the snowy peaks caught my attention followed the green AF stepped farm valley and dynamic clouds. I was kinda pumped up for trek, there was no sunlight, the sky was all cloudy and the probability of snowfall was pretty high. We had our breakfast, had fun with furry mountain doggos and left for the Chandrashila Basecamp (Chopta?). On the way, the snow started to appear on the sides of the road, then it on road and then it was just snow and no road.The views of chopta meadows were surreal. The air was crisp and the journey felt never ending as the landscapes were quite tempting. And finally, when it was over, the first thing which caught my attention was a car completely covered in snow. I knew for sure, the difficulty of this trek mentioned as easy definitely was invalid for this weather and conditions. We were let know that the region saw the heaviest snowfall in over 19 years, the summit couldn't be reached due to over 7ft of snow and nobody had done it in weeks. It was kinda disappointing but, that faded away as soon as we were handed the poles (walking sticks) and the climb began at 11 PM.
It didn't take me long to what the damage munching snacks and smokes wrecked on me, it wasn't surprising but out of 3km steep trek, I was barely a couple of 10s of meters in, so yeah. Damn. Taking steps ahead wasn't the difficult part; it was the lack of traction and the low time for the acclimatization which made it a bit challenging.
As the altitude increased, the views continued to get mightier. The sheer desire to feed the eyes with crazier snowy landscapes at even higher altitudes became my driving force. There were times when I'd just take a break, just stood there and admired the views. I'm glad that either I led or lagged behind the group otherwise they would get pretty annoyed for sure: D.
The snow which was till ankle depth at the beginning was now over knee deep, the fine snowflakes were starting to appear out of nowhere. The ground and sky looked the same, the horizon was indistinguishable and the snowfall was healing. Water stored in the bottle started getting frosty and too cold to sip and with every step, the traction lowered, the path steeper and the air cooler.
Cue in, long breaths, overworked muscles and no place to sit and catch a breath, we weren't just standing on plain snowy terrain, it was full blown high steps in the fresh snow, no rigidity underneath and we bid the traction farewell after this new shortcut path one of our skilled guided paved for us. The poles were of no use, it was now the game of smashing the snow to be rigid enough to handle your weight as we took the path which the made into slides by the trekkers heading back to camp.
Every step took a noticeable effort, the light carry bag you once thought on level ground was now heavier than ever and pulling the leg out of deep snow to take the next step felt like tiny wins.
And then there came that one hairpin steep climb that was a bit out of the league, but then views were important so yeah, just step ahead and be done with it was the motto as usual, only to find out that the path was too beaten up and risky to step up. The Metal guard railing was visible on the slope and even that was half a feet under the snow level. With every step forward, small snow chunks rolled down the hill into the absolute nothingness and made the steps not quite confidence inspiring for sure. This wasn't fun and games anymore, the risk was very real and the doom was just an ankle twist or bad step away.
The condition worsened to a snowstorm or a borderline blizzard when I happen to attempt to cover the craziest part of the path. The wind started gushing in from mountain top, the snow particles flying fast enough to scratch the facial skin and the slope on the other side so steeply and clean that it stretched till the foot of the mountain. I knew that the peak is certainly out of reach now; the views were doomed as we were in or above clouds and the temps felt under -3C at 2 PM.
The fresh snow, courtesy of ongoing storm, covered up the existing footsteps, forcing me to make my own ones and now I was operating over my skill level for sure. I was truly in the situation which was out of my control on the God's own land. I can recall listening to the faint holy call "Har Har Mahadev", as the group of 3 experts heading back to base chanted along the way as they passed by me on the path which was too mushy and narrow to deal with any oncoming being. At an altitude over 11500ft(3500m), the oxygen level drops to just 65% when compared to the sea level which is quite noticeable.
The Holy chant was echoing within me, the winds weren't making it any easier and the crazy turbulence was powerful enough to throw me off balance. I stepped on the weaker section of the snow to make the path and the chunk of snow where I stepped gave away due to which my foot went straight through the metal guard railing. Well, well, I manage to plant the pole deep into the snow on the other side and took a second to stabilize, for a moment there, I knew this could have been it, there was no one in sight, and the blizzard lowered the visibility pretty down. I was sure had I slip, they couldn't rescue me. It was quite a glimpse of the absolutely brutality of the nature. It was one of those moment when you and your inner self are on the same page.
The Final Climb – After I got back the grasp on the ground underneath, I continued stepping forward till the sketchy section got over and there it was, Tungnath, the Shiva Temple and the summit that I got here for. Although it appeared close enough but, the climb was never-ending.
The body is indeed just another machine with fitness being the gears and the sheer will being the powerhouse to get things in motion.As I had no strength left in me after the sketchy path to complete the final, the steepest climb, it was just one step at a time that I had to count on. The steps were deeper than ever, the energy required to pull the leg out of the hole to step forward was unreal. All of this while getting pushed back to the slope from the winds hitting me head on. Steps as high as till waist level were getting crazier with the weight of the bag on the back and the pole that stopped serving any purpose. It felt like the longest and most difficult part. The temple was right there and yet I couldn't make the climb.
With absolutely no strength in the body left, I somehow crawled up and took a solid 2 min power nap by the mighty gates near the bells. The snowflakes were getting accumulated on me and it was the softest bed ever.
The mind was at peace, I was, as a whole, at peace. There were no floating thoughts, no ambitions, no desires, no regrets, no pains, and the body felt like floating, numb and easy; I was truly in the moment. Being there, literally freezing at 12073 ft ( 3680 m) under decent snowfall, was truly one of those moment which turned into memory never to fade away.
The Way Back to Camp – The group left and the guide and I stuck around for a while, taking it all in. We decided that sliding is the best course of action to cover the distance as we substantially lagged behind. It took us just 2 slides and 15 steps to cover the whole distance from the temple the sketchy path. Wow, barely 100 seconds. I was pretty pumped up to slide down the slopes whereever possible.
We caught up with the rest of the group pretty quickly and then joined them for lunch which lasted about 30ish mins till everyone was done with it and ready to move up.
Yet again, the guide and I made horn noise (beep beep) to let the leading group know when we needed space to overtake them. It was all Godspeed now. I was jogging down the way; I trusted the path too much and had to take breaks when the rest of the lagging group was left behind. This continued for a while till the slope pathways started to appear again.
It was more or less over then, over 6-7 slides, mad fun, LOLs later, I had to walk just over 700m to get back to base. We're just having too much fun, with every slide; I learned a new thing about snow slide dynamics which helped in controlling the pace and direction while zooming past folks. Just the caveat was the snow was now everywhere inside me, snow inside shoes hurts for sure, but the back? Damn, lol.
The final walk began and it was all quiet and serene, there was just the crunchy sound of snow getting crushed by the shoes and breathing pulse rhythms. The walk felt purposeful, it wasn't the base camp that was the final destination, and it was something completely different which I can't yet comprehend. There was this new signature of energy that I could feel within, it was so significant and enlightening.
By 6 PM, We finally reached the base camp, it was snowing everywhere, the shoes were drenched, as I pulled my feet out of it, and even it was smoking steam. We had the best of Maggi and hot drinks there. We then left for the Sari Village to grab the dinner.
Later after the Dinner, the group sat around, borderline healthily roasted one another, got to know about each other better, especially the modest super skilled guides and soon after we called it the night and slept away.
Day 2 – The Trek to Deoria Tal Lake
I woke up a bit late post-sunrise, I had just missed the sunrise at this fine location yet again but as soon as I got out, it was just so bright that I had to go back inside and grab the Cat 4 Polaroid to deal with it. Another task was to let out shoes and stuff to dry out as much as possible on the roof. They were literally steaming off in the sun, fun eh. Soon after, grabbing breakfast, we left for the trek to lake up above.
One eternity of trekking later, we stopped to grab electrolytes and what a view it was. Sunlight made everything look very dynamic and was good except for me while climbing up the steps, what an energy drain it was. There were kids with their school teacher on a visit to the lake; I had little chat with them and then bid them farewell to continue with the climb. Soon after that, we were there, the lake with insane cloudy high peaks in its background. Totally worth the never-ending climb. The Chaukhamba with 4 peaks standing at astonishing 7138m.
We rested around the lake for a pretty long time, it was pretty sunny until it wasn't, and a patch of cloud hit us.The sunny lake turned into a wild misty lake with very low visibility, the temps dropped from almost 28 to 18C ish in no time. It was chaotic, the weather change was more magical than clouds. We enjoyed it until it got too cold and then we had to leave for the camps uphill for lunch.
As we were served the meal, it started raining. The food was too good, everything tasted better and filling. Soon after the meal and smokes were done, we headed to the eastern part of the hill to grab a different perspective view of the vast valley and Chandrashila Peak, all in the same frame. It was one of the most wonderful views that I ever had the privilege to lay my eyes on. We spent a good hour there and chilled out until it literally started chilling as the sun started to set so we had to get back to the lake to catch the glimpse of it.
Upon reaching the lake, the sun did set for our altitude but not for the mighty Chaukhamba peaks. It was one of those mesmerizing views that one should take it in solitude/isolated. The panoramic view is too majestic not to admire at. The absolute dimension of the mountain end to end couldn't be seen without panning the head around and there it stands ruthlessly right in the front. Luckily the clouds floated away and uncovered the spectacular view whigh was something that one could never get enough of.
As it started to get dark, I headed back to camps to enjoy the warmth of the bonfire for a while followed by dinner after which we headed back to the lake to stargaze. It was a bit cloudy but a few sections were pretty clear at times, it felt like the temps dropped under 0C after spending an hour there which forced us back to the bonfire and there we shared the experiences, got to know the dope tales of one of the guides and were at it until the fire extinguished due to lack of firewood. Rushing to the camp and getting inside the sleeping bag was the only option left when the ice started to freeze above the tent. It was quite something.
Unfortunately, we were under the impression that the group was supposed to head back at 7:30 AM but it actually was 6:30 AM, so yeah. The Guides didn't have such a dope morning. When we reached back to the camps, everyone was gone. Well, well. We packed and rushed down the path. We were jogging down the messy stones and gravel, taking shortcuts which aren't meant to be taken at that speed and somehow getting out of it alright. We covered over 50% of the distance in under 25 mins which were definitely a personal record.
Upon reaching the Sari Village, the guides were indeed bit pissed off but then they were fine afterward: D. We grabbed our final meal there and left for the ride back to Delhi.
It started as just another sunny day except the views are quite a head turner, few hours and sunburns later, we stopped for the lunch in Devprayag and witnessed crazy downpour with a hint of the hailstorm. It made the landscapes looks much more muted and interesting, the chaotic clouds were too dynamic and then we had to pull up as there were landslide occurrences which required maintenance and clearing which took most of time which we didn't have. We reached Delhi at around 1:30 AM and bid the folks farewell till the next adventure.
All in all, this being my first trekking experience, the bar is set way high, it was indeed one of the most dynamic impromptu trips that I've ever made, I didn't expect this degree of dynamic vistas to be offered by just one location over a span of a weekend. The folks were pretty cool as well, ranging from budding engineers, working professionals and modest ambiverts to the ones with perfect mix of EQ and IQ to dope extroverts.
It's comical how little I thought of this weekend getaway before setting sails and how wildly different it turned out to be. It was just what I needed and was looking for.
This whole wall of text was written in one go (no proofreading / QC), do excuse the typos, improper framing and the lack of magnificent vocabulary and I couldn't get the media files placed right, so checkout the album instead for the good stuff. :D
Dope Media:
This whole wall of text was written in one go (no proofreading / QC), do excuse the typos, improper framing and the lack of magnificent vocabulary and I couldn't get the media files placed right, so checkout the album instead for the good stuff. :D
Dope Media:
Cheers folks!
Pratyush signing off.
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