Panwali Kantha

A day by day account of my experiences while hiking Panwali Kantha, which is a high altitude pass and sprawling meadow in Garhwal Himalayas. 

Day 0 Delhi to Rishikesh

I made a random plan to trek to Panwali Kantha. Came home from work, booked a bus seat, packed my bags, bought a few utilities and off I went.

I definitely feel that sense of purpose. The entire journey in the metro, I was immersed in deep thoughts. A visual of what I expect from this trip.

The guy standing next to me in the metro had a tattoo on his right arm.
"Nothing shall be impossible" - Luke 13:7.
Amen to that!

Another guy in the metro was presumably chatting with his wife on Whatsapp
Husband - "Aaj khane mein kya hai?"
Wife - "Dal roti and bhindi"
Husband - "Aaj khane mein maza aayega, kal bhi maza aaya tha"

He kept talking about food for the next 5-6 messages.. Dude must be really hungry.

Yes, I peep into other people's whatsapp messages with no regard to their privacy. It's fun.

Traveling alone is surely a far richer experience. Not that anybody doubts that statement.

The private buses to Rishikesh leave from Kashmere Gate metro station, Gate 2.
I'm here well in advance. As per the plan.

Right now I'm expecting a brutal first day and a cakewalk on Day 2 and if it comes to that, on Day 3.

Expenditure for the day :

Bus to Rishikesh 600 INR

Day 1 Rishikesh to Gutthu

It was a brutal day, just as I expected but not because of the trekking effort.
There was no direct bus available to Gutthu, which is the base village for this trek.
I ended up taking a bus to a place called Ghanshali.
Let's just say, I'm emotionally scarred of traveling in buses for the rest of my life.
It was a private bus (Government buses don't ply on that route) and the conductor kept filling the bus till there was no void left in the bus.
Just humans stockpiled like livestock.

I'm sure that conductor cannot be electrocuted. 

He was a bad conductor.

I did get a seat since I boarded the bus from its starting point but even then it was difficult to breathe, people were puking all around me, I myself felt like puking and the route to Ghanshali isn't exactly a straight road. The bus seats were perpendicular = RIP spine.

Straight roads do not exist in Garhwal. Only twists and turns. I think I did really well to not puke. Losing key nutrients AND being in that bus from hell would've been diabolical.

Not only did the bus give me absolute hell, it also arrived 2 hours late.
It is in moments like these when your inner conflict speaks up.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"You could've just been sleeping in the AC right now"
"You could've chosen an easier place to travel to"

Well, screw all of those thoughts. Nothing worth having is easy to get.

I took a cab from Ghanshali to Ghuttu which took another hour and a half. I split the expenses with a family who also had to reach Ghuttu to attend a wedding.

This is why everything is screwed up. Lots of weddings = all cabs booked = pandemonium in buses = Fuck my life.

Love 1 - Prashant 0

I finally reached the GMVN guest house at 5 PM.

What this meant :

Goodbye Day 1 Trek plans!
Have to finish the trek in 2 days instead of 3.
I have time to explore Ghuttu.
I'm gonna sleep like it's my last night 

After having a dry bath, I headed out for snacks, bought milk for tomorrow's breakfast.

Gutthu in the evening

I came back to the room and instantly fell asleep.

I woke up in a couple of hours feeling extremely groggy. It was 8 and Gutthu had visibly fallen asleep.
I used my torch to guide myself to a nearby dhaba.

Nutrition is one of my key focuses this trek. I have got protein powder along and make sure to have some high protein source every meal.
I had 5 boiled eggs along with the usual dinner.

Later in the night, a forest official came to my room and collected camping and permission fee.

Expenses for the day

Hellish Bus ride to Ghanshali from Rishikesh - 185 INR
Lunch at Ghanshali - 80 INR
Cab from Ghanshali to Ghattu - 250 INR
Ration for the trek - 620 INR
Tea and juice - 40 INR
GMVN guest house room - 500 INR
Forest permit - 70 INR
Dinner - 90 INR

Day 2 Gutthu to Panwali Kantha

I woke up at around 6, reasonably rested. Today was supposed to be a long trekking day.
Panwali Kantha is a meadow which is at 3400 m altitude. Gutthu is at an altitude of 1400m.

I met my guide Sajjan Singh early in the morning. We made a round of the market to pick up a few essentials for the trek. We had already bought all the ration yesterday. 

We started to walk at 815 from Gutthu. The initial stretch was a cakewalk. There wasn't too much climb to begin with.

Gutthu and surrounding villages, initial trail

The initial stretch is a cakewalk

But really soon, the sun became really harsh and the trail became really steep. I was losing a lot of water through sweat. The shocker was when the guide told me he's sharing my water. Also, the guides daughter also joined us. 

3 people, 1 water bladder. 

It got really hot and there was no wind. In moments like these, your demons come out.
They tell you to roll over, lay down and stay down.

My brisk pace turned into slow walking and eventually, into crawling at snails pace.
I kept asking the guide "How far?" And he would look in disbelief and say "Abhi toh hai".

The bridge where the cakewalk ends

Last water refill point, 3 kms from Gutthu

The unconventional jungle route

No clouds, all sun

We reached the halfway point at 1215. It was a small campsite with a few Shepherd huts, mostly abandoned. This is also from where you get a last view of Gutthu. 

I ate the packed food I had brought along from Gutthu. I could barely eat. The heat was making me nauseous.
Luckily, I had carried ORS with me. I felt so proud of myself. 

Losing pottassium? No problem!
I have sachets of Sodium and Potassium with me!
Oh! The little joys of life!

I mixed ORS in a bottle of water and drank half of it. 

After taking a short nap, we left for Panwali.

The thing is.. There are two ways to get there. One is what these people call a "Road" because mules ply on them, other is what the locals call a "Shortcut ", which is more like scrambling through dense jungle.

I looked at both options and chose the shortcut, just because of the tree shade.
However, the big problem with shortcut is the steepness intensifies.

The heat and the never ending climb gave me a tough time. I climbed gnashing my teeth. I had a lot of negativity creeping in my head by now, especially due to the water condition 

"You're not gonna make it, there's no water, too much sun and too much left to climb"
"Shut up, Shut the fuck up" is what I kept telling the voices in my head.

I grabbed a tree branch for walking support since my legs were auto collapsing at the knees.
Finally, something good happened. I think it's the ORS that started to kick in.
I felt a little stronger and my headache was gone.

I think I found Gandalf's staff

This is "Brahns" flower, It is edible, I ate a few of these.

Every now and then, the guide would show me how far Panwali still is and it looked like a small distant peak. Very distant.
Isn't a guide supposed to do the opposite?

Anyways, soon I entered zombie mode.

When this happens, I usually just stare at the rocks like they're magnificent diamonds. There are just random things playing in my head. Walking is spontaneous.
Its my self defense mechanism of totally zoning myself out from the situation I'm in.

After 3 hours of walking with a dry mouth. The guide finally found a water source. It wasn't much but I got two glasses out of a small water deposit. Pure gold.
Ah! Not sure if I have ever enjoyed something as routine as drinking water so much.

I put my hat back on and started to walk towards a destination which didn't seem so far away now. There was a spring in my step and in my head, the theme song of the good, the bad and the ugly was playing.

Things started to look bright. Not literally.
The gradient changed from " I'm gonna kill your knees" to "You deserve a second chance in life".
Beautiful bugyals for as far as I could look! All the negativity went Poof!

Endless meadows

Around 4, I reached a place called Dofanda. Which literally means " two strangles " or "two chokes". Doesn't make sense to me either way but there was shade here. There was also tea!
I rested and had a few snacks.

I just had kurkure, a few dates (the ones you eat) and I was off.

There was a level walk for a while. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It has been so rare during this trek. I picked up speed and had some kind of a second wind.

I could see Panwali Kantha right in front of me!
All that was in between was maybe a kilometre of, yet again, steep climb.

I rested, paused , took breathers and kept moving on.

Finally at 6 PM, after nearly 10 hours of labourious climbing, I reached the top of Panwali Kantha.

There are a few temples at the pass. You can use them to identify which one is Panwali Kantha as there are other bugyals in the vicinity too.

The campsite was a further 2 km away but hey, who gives a shit about descending now?
As per gps reading, Panwali stands at 3400m.

View from Panwali Kantha

I did it. I under estimated this trek so much just by looking at its not-so-high altitude and ended up almost waving the white flag.
There was a lot of negativity in my head, thoughts of going back etc. Especially, when my mouth was parched.

Or maybe that's what keeps me going.

I pitched my tent as soon as we reached Panwali.

Sajjan cooked dal and rice for dinner. The dinner was cooked on fire wood in a shepherd encampment. There were a few utensils also lying around which we used to prepare food.

Note to self : Never take toor dal for high altitude cooking. Takes forever to cook and consumes a lot of water.

I wish I could see the starry skies but the clouds foiled my plan.

I'm in my tent now. Feeling a little breathless, very tired but extremely proud for not giving up.
Worth it ;)

Expenses -
Packed lunch - 150 INR
Onions and tomatoes - 30 INR 

Day 3 : Panwali Kantha to Gutthu

I woke up at around 6 but chose to stay in my sleeping bag. It was slightly cold and I was still tired.

My sleeping bag was small for me, felt like I spent a night in a straight jacket.

Early morning at campsite below Panwali

Home sweet home

That bliss when you wake up just in time to catch the sunrise

The morning was beautiful and the sun rays revealed the entirety of the bugyal. Something I couldn't pay much attention to, yesterday. Also, got a glimpse of Kedarnath peak.

Kedarnath peak

Majestic views

I met no trekkers even today.

This has befuddled me a lot. How can people spare this place?
They sure as hell go to crappier ones.

The guide was in no hurry to leave. I had a cup of tea and a few biscuits.
I picked up my camera and said to myself "Show time" but I ended up spending 15 minutes trying to figure out where to begin.

I now know what fat people feel when they see an extremely awesome looking pizza.

I climbed a little above the camp and clicked as many random pictures as I could. Especially, the self timer ones.
Click, run, wait for 10 seconds to get over. I need a tripod.

This took 5 attempts with the timer

I came back to my tent and slept for another 40 minutes when eventually the guide woke me up for breakfast.
The same dal as yesterday, it took an eternity to get cooked. Maybe, in Delhi, if somebody gave me half cooked food to eat, I would throw it and order something nice.
This is what I was thinking about while eating the uncooked dal. I managed to eat half of what was given to me.

Lazing in the tent

We left Panwali at 10 am. I was walking towards the temple at the top when I saw a weird looking animal, with an even weirder looking walk about 200m ahead of me.
I clarified with the guide, the poor thing eats potatoes not human beings.

With the final climb of the day over, I looked back at Panwali Kantha, bid adieu and started to descend.

Well, about the descend.

Today was all descend, obviously.
We ditched the "road" as they like to call it and took "short cuts" all the way down.
Within no time, I found myself traversing in a steeply sloped thick jungle with huge amount of dead leaves everywhere to complicate matters.

RIP Knees.

The bright side, however, was that we reached all the checkpoints real fast.
The guide however made sure to spend a good amount of time at every checkpoint. He didn't seem to be in a hurry at all!
"Chalo chai peete hain"
"Thodi der mein chalte hain, aaram kar lo"

Inside a shepherds home

Little did he know that all that I was thinking about was reaching the guest house and taking a nice shower.

That's how the return journey for me usually is, especially in case of non-circuit treks.
Get in, Get the hell out, ASAP.

I had also dropped my sunscreen and the sun was really beating down when we reached lower altitude.

After criss-crossing the jungle and the "road", we finally reached the bridge. As far as I could remember, this was the spot till where I was cakewalking yesterday.

Gutthu was nearby.

The problem is, that in all of your anticipation of reaching the base, your mind dupes you into believing that distances are smaller.

With the thought "Almost there.." , I walked for a good hour and a half, expecting the base village at the end of every turn.

When I finally saw it, I had no joy.
Yeah.. Whatever.. Trek over.

I reached Gutthu and saw people getting married all over. No, seriously, one baraat from one lane, another from the next one.
The entire village was getting married. Nope, still not exaggerating.
Wedding congregations left, right and just about everywhere.

A minute of silence for a fallen comrade

I felt like going back to Panwali but I had to consider a few things :

1. THAT blister on my right foot
2. I actually have a job and my father is not a billionaire
3. Probably a bad idea to live on a mountain pass because people are idiots who get married out of social obligations. Idiots.

Expenses of the day -

A bottle of Maazaa - 40 INR
Shampoo - 1 INR
Rin bar - 10 INR
GMVN Guest house - 500 INR
Sleeping bags rent - 500 INR
Dinner - 105 INR

Day 4 - Ghuttu to Delhi via Rishikesh

Nothing unusual. Took a cab at 9:30 AM to Ghansali. It took the standard hour and a half.

The views were spectacular. Roads winding down the valley. I must have missed it while coming.

I did nothing today besides sitting in a bus or a shared jeep.

Very uneventful but unavoidable.

Ghuttu to Ghanshali - 1.5 hrs
Ghanshali to Rishikesh - 4 hours
Rishikesh to Delhi - 7 hours

Delhi to Gurgaon - 1 hour 

Expenses for the day :

Guide 2000 INR
Lunch 80 INR
Ghuttu to Ghanshali shared cab - 60 INR
Ghanshali to Rishikesh shared cab - 230 INR
Rishikesh to Delhi upsrtc Jan rath - 386 INR

Trek facts : 

1. Distance - 18 Km one way as per guide, 15 Kms as per GPS trail while descending

2. Max Altitude - 3373 m

3. Time for ascent - 9-10 hrs

4. Time for descent - 7-8 hrs

5. Elevation profile :

6. Expenses (ex-Delhi, with guide) - 6 to 7K INR

7. GPS trails :

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4rU-QTLQoYTTHhiNGVaeEViQW8

GPS trail is indicative since it was logged at 1 log/minute.