From the window of your home, you might see a dozen of buildings in a row, a metro line, or traffic jam highways. The only nature you might have seen must have been the wallpaper of your laptop screen. And for such wanderlust people, we present some of the most authentic travel experiences. Story of travellers that might inspire you to wander into the wild. And what’s better than planning an adventurous trek to the pinnacles of the Kedarkantha Summit. 

“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.”

– Greg Child 

Day-1 of wandering

To take you through this journey, let’s frisk over the trekking experience of Mayur. Like many other travel fanatics, Mayur found his serendipity in the snowclad mountains of India. And he came across the influence to do this with his first trek to Kedarkantha. 

Going on a dicey trek without any guidance is a risk that Mayur didn’t wish to take on. So he booked a travel package for the trek with the Himalayan Hikers. The 5 day-long trip was entirely managed by them [INR 7000]. 

We began the journey from Dehradun to Sankri by bus up to the stay for the night at the Swargarohini Hotel. On the way, he caught the glimpse of the beauty that surrounds the hills of Uttarakhand. And spent the day relaxing and acclimating to the frosty winter. 

Before heading off the next morning from Sankri, he bought some equipment that was necessary to carry on the hike. Some sturdy shoes, a few more layers to fight the cold, and pipe ropes. Their first destination was the Juda ka Talab. At an altitude of 2500 meters was stationed their base camp. And after almost five hours of trekking, he was taken aback to see the frozen lake covered with snow patches. But this was just the beginning of a snow-filled journey ahead. The night crawled by as they enjoyed a bonfire amidst the camp and fell asleep watching the stars above until dawn. 

As it was a tour organized by an agency, there were many other trekkers who shared this journey with Mayur and his friends. The group of almost thirty people left the lake to climb the most anticipated trek- Kedarkantha. 

Into the wild

The trek to base camp was a short one. Walking across the pine trees, he enjoyed both the view and the company. After covering almost 6kms, he reached the campsite perfused with their afternoon lunch being prepared. The travel guides gave a brief to the trekkers about the current weather of Kedarkantha and a preview of the situations they would face in their trekking trial. 

Adrenaline rush amongst them, Mayur and companions stayed up all night waiting for the anticipated trek. And snow played a crucial part in keeping them awake too. With continuous snowfall, there were moments of joy and hassle. Every hour they had to shake off their tents from the sheets of snow. 

Kedarkantha

At around 3am, the ascend to summit began. Mayur let us in on the reasons to trek before sunrise. Firstly, the main reason is to avoid avalanches and snowfall. It was also a plus factor to experience the sunrise from the hilltop view.

In the middle of the night, they hiked the mountain in dark with torches in hand. At an elevation of 12,500 ft was the peak of Kedarkantha. Once they faced the clouds and looked beyond them, it was meditative. The seven hours of climb and fall were worth those moments at the top. But since the cold overpowered them, they could hardly stay for more than 15 minutes. To make the most of it, Mayur took a time-lapse clip at the summit. 

‘The best view comes after the hardest climb’ of which Mayur couldn’t let go of. But it was time to descend back to Hargaon Thach. Here he spends his last night at the meadows of Himalaya before returning to Sankri. 

Now that he accomplished his first trek, he was curious to know what it feels like to set your body, mind, and spirit into trekking. 

We hope you enjoyed the Kedarkantha trekking experience of Mayur. For more photos and videos check out his Instagram page: @_wandering.boy

For more such unique and authentic stories stay tuned and follow us on our Instagram handle: @indiachalk