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Showing posts from 2020

Nandikund lake trek

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Prologue: It's September-end, 2020 and the world has been brought to its knees by covid-19 and that too for some time now. The world is shrouded in gloom, plans have flopped and careers have been jeopardized. To be honest, it shook everyone out of their bubble, their "5 year plans". Covid is a relatively low risk disease and yet, it created a panic that has not been seen in the last 100 years (The world wars must have sucked more though I guess). A grim reminder that everything you have, can just simply vanish if it's the will of "nature". Covid took a lot from a lot of people. By comparison, I was relatively unscathed but not "completely" unscathed. It did make me drop my shoulders and embrace the new normal, Whatever the hell that means. I would dream every day about spending some time away from the god-awful media created news, the career fiasco, the chaos. So, I bided my time. As soon as the government indicated that the restrictions will be l

Kedarkantha Winter trek

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The last 3-4 months of my life had stretched me completely, mentally, physically and emotionally. Consequently, what happened to me was what happens to a lot of "travelers". My passion for trekking took a major back seat as I had to deal with various other life issues. I decided to break the monotonous streak and do what I love the most. Why Kedarkantha? 1. I am familiar on how to reach the base camp, Sankri, since I've trekked Har ki dun before. 2. A simpler trek to get back in the groove. 3. Only trek I haven't done which is doable in winters. There was Dayara Bugyal too but in my head, it was too mainstream. This is an opinion that changed after I actually did Kedarkantha. So, I ended up searching for a local to guide me. The local knew a guy, who knew a guy and like that, I ended up with Rajesh Rana who runs an agency (Himalayas Griffon) and charges Rs 7500 from Dehradun to Dehradun. Now there is no way I would encourage an agency when I know they&