Saptkund trek - October 2017

Day 0 - Delhi to Rishikesh

I reached home from work around 7 pm. It took me an hour of packing and arranging things, which had me ready by 8.
Unlike previous times, I chose to take the metro.


The new shortcut via the Violet line ensured I reached the bus station exactly on time.
Also unlike previous times, I felt calm as opposed to jittery.
Maybe I'm finally at that point where I'm confident enough to know, deep down, "I've got this".
Nevertheless, taking each day on its own merit has served me well in the past. No reason to abandon that strategy.
I'm about to reach Rishikesh and meet the other two people of the group.

Day 1 Rishikesh to Pairi


This was quite a roller coaster of a day. We eventually decided to drive all the way to Pairi. I had a tough time dealing with the twists and turns. Spent all day throwing up every single thing I dared to eat. Around 1 pm, the car tire got slashed by something and got a 1 inch cut. Already tired from the
journey so far, we had to take the hassle of arranging a fix.

For all your cold patch needs, Kukreti puncture repair shop
We reached Pairi at around 5:30 but not before we had to deal with some nerve wreaking moments due to the road being in a very bad condition, often having to get down from the vehicle so the under body of the car would be spared a bruise.
Pairi in the blurred background
We met our guide Padam Singh there. I went to the only store in the village and arranged for ration and called it a day after a nice warm dinner.
The only ration shop in Pairi
Everyone was so tired that they fell asleep instantly.

Day 2 Pairi to Tilgudi

This was the first trek day. We started the day at 8:30 am.
Tilgudi is quite close to Patharkudi, is what the guide told us. Exact distances were hard to know at this point. There was no definitive information on the internet, the ones that were there, were too vague. I had turned on the gps logger on my phone. The thought that this might be the "first" instance of anyone recording GPS logs for this trek was indeed a good feeling.

The climb from Pairi is a constant climb. It is quite steep and we really had to push ourselves at certain patches. In between, we came across Banihar. It is a beautiful meadow with a nice green panaromic view. We also got cellphone reception here but I decided to keep my phone on flight mode.

Enjoying the forest trail


We had lunch not too far from Tilgudi at around 1 pm. A further half an hour climb from there brought us to the point where the mule we hired had dropped our gear. Luckily, I was able to log the route we had traversed, especially since there was no trail at certain places.

En route to Tilgudi
Sitting in my tent, churning out these statistics, it turns out, we climbed a total altitude of 1200m at a distance of 8.3 km.
Tilgudi is a nice, green campsite with a view of the onward trail. We even found little lambs there to play with.
I don't feel as tired as I'm used to be. My legs aren't sore. This has been a good day but it's getting quite cold. We've setup the kitchen and dinner's about to be ready, at 5:30 pm.

The plan for tomorrow is to reach a campsite known as Chhurighat.


Day 3 Tilgudi to Chhurighat

I woke up lazily at 6 am. Lazily because I had slept at 9 yesterday. The weather was much clearer and the cold wasn't as troubling as yesterday. Maybe I'm getting used to it now. We all had rice, dal and rajma for breakfast and then set off for Patharkudi and then to Chhurighat.

The trail starts from across the stream and climbs up quite steeply. After reaching the mountain top, you can see a nice broad trail ahead.
The trail to the mountain top, however, is very narrow and tricky at some stretches. Also, it is very steep. 70 degrees if I had to guess.
Beautiful view of the valley; before the boulder section

The trail climbs up again after crossing the broad trail section. Climbs up all the way to 3900m over a distance of around 6-7 kms from the mountain top.
The climb is again relentlessly steep over Boulder fields.

It too us 6 hours to reach Chhurighat. It's a small meadow amidst Boulder fields. We pitched our Tents near a small cave and called it a day. The campsite was colder than Tilgudi. Due to cloudy weather, we couldn't get to many views. Had a bonfire, ample food and slept early at 7.

Camped at Chhurighat



Day 4 Chhurighat to Saptkund and back


We started our day early at 7 am today. Just had a bit of maggi and tea. It's all I could stomach. It was quite cold in the morning so I decided to keep my down jacket on. We found sleet all over the tent in the morning. The ground had a white coating of sleet on it as well which is an indicator of sub-zero temperatures. Quite unexpected but not a deal breaker.

It took half an hour's climb to reach Simbe Bugyal from Chhurighat.

Simbe Bugyal

Temple before the final steep ascent
We crossed a field of boulders from there and after a gradual ascent and a steep climb, we were right below the topmost point of saptkund.The lakes are below, much like Roopkund but way better.


The climb knocked the wind out of our sails. It was steep, there was very little to put your foot on, the rocks were slippery and we literally went from 4200 to 4700m in the span of not even a kilometre.

That's not all. After reaching what seemed to be the top, we had to climb further to finally reach the place from where we could view all the lakes.

I slipped at a critical place, there was valley exposure but the guide grabbed my hand and pulled me up. I shrugged it off like the cool dude I am and kept climbing. We reached "Saptkund top" at 11 am. The views were mesmerizing. Everyone kept waiting for the grand views of Nandaghunti and Trishul. They were awesome indeed.

We spent a lot of time at the top and then explored all the lakes, there's a nice pavement built around all the lakes.

The group at Saptkund top; 4650m. Porter, Tanvi, Saumitra, Me and Prashant (L-R)

We started descending around 2 pm, keeping in mind that there is always a possibility of weather getting deteriorated. We decided to take a different route this time, which was obvious because it would've been simply too risky to descend down the same route from where we approached the top of Saptkund. When we reached, it had started hailing but it was quite brief. I was worried because I realized I left my poncho back at the camp.

Nandaghunti peeking from between the clouds

Nandaghunti @ 2x Zoom

Saptkund lake


We followed the route going to Jhijhi village and then took a detour to reach the temple at Simbe Bugyal. The trail was about 3 km of gradual descent followed by an extremely sharp descent.
We lost quite a lot of altitude rapidly.

I was running on fumes since there was no packed lunch. The glucose biscuits didn't cut it. We reached Chhurighat by 515 pm. Very tired, a little bit shaken.


Day 5 Chhurighat to Pairi


We started the day at 8 am. Crossed the boulder filled patch to reach Patharkudi. The views were good today since the weather was clear, we could spot Nandaghunti peak for a big chunk of the day. We could even spot Trishul.

From Chhurighat, chaukhamba was bright and clear.


Today's hike back to Pairi was about, firstly crossing the moraines and then taking the spider wall section back Tilgudi.We crossed the moraines fairly quickly. There was sleet on the rocks but it went away after a few hours of bright sun. But until then, it made life miserable for all of us as we were not sure which rock would grip and which wouldn't.

After we reached Patharkudi, we decided to take a different route back, the one via Patta peak (bypassing Tilgudi and the spider wall section) and then back to the tree line. Surprisingly, the route for patta peak was much more serene than the one we had taken initially, while on our way to Chhurighat.

"Patta Top"; take this route to bypass tilgudi and directly reach the tree line

The route from Patta top to the tree line was a steady steep descent which had me grasping my knees every once in a while.
We reached the tree line by 1 pm. After an hour's walk we reached Banihar. Took a good 20 minutes rest there and moved on towards Pairi. After continuous steep descent, we reached Pairi at 2:35 PM.
I was running on fumes for the good second half of the day but the trek was over.

This trek gave me a few hard realizations.
The primary takeaway was to make sensible food choices when going for a serious trek. We carried MTRs and Pasta which were colossal waste of space. Very little nutrition when compared to their weight.

On another note, renewed respect for the mountains of Uttarakhand. They make you sweat the most, reaching even the base village was a task comparable to the efforts of the trek itself BUT the grandeur is amazing. When Nandaghunti revealed itself from the clouds, I wasn't even sure how high to look, such was its grandeur. Ditto for Trishul. To have witnessed that view up, close and personal was a privilege that I would never forget.

Now, for all the statistic nerds out there, below is the elevation profile from Day 1 to Day 4. 

Pairi to Tilgudi

Tilgudi to Chhurighat

Chhurighat to Saptkund Top

Saptkund Lake to Chhurighat

Chhurighat to Pairi
 GPX Files : 

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

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chadar Trek

Markha Valley trek - long circuit

A solo escapade to Kedartal