[somspaple]

knee bursting, toe crushing, back breaking trek in to the heaven - Kashmir!!

This trek photo-logue is from the year 2013!

In 2009 I had been on a trek to Sar-Pass in Himachal Pradesh. It was one of the best travel/trek experiences of my life till date! Of course the very experience of trekking through YHA [Youth Hostel Association] in itself is an adventure!

And after the Ladakh visit in 2010, I had been planning for another trek/trip for very long. this time around I did a small adjustment. As I was quitting my current job, somehow squeezed in around 10 days break before joining my next. Once my relieving/joining dates were finalized, I started hunting for a good place for trek. One of my friends too wanted to join for the trek/trip.

Finalizing the trek:
-initially we were interested in N-E part of India through kipepo.in but the weather around this time is not suitable for sight seeing it seems [heavy rains - well it may be ideal for some but i was told it is just too much to bear].
-checked for some treks around Ladakh region but the dates and cost did not work out.
-finally stumbled on a website called trekthehimalayas.com. they had so many options. it was almost unreal .. i could find the exact dates that was convenient for me!! : 13th thru 19th July 2013!! and the trek we finalized was

Kashmir Great Lakes

Cost:
-We booked return tickets to Srinagar from Bangalore. It cost us 18K INR per person on bookmytrip.com
-Cost of the trek organised by TTH was 10.8 K INR, payment made by NEFT

Preparation:

Mindset-
I've had been part many short treks in and around Karnataka and they don't really require much of a preparation when compared to week long trek/trip to treacherous places in Himalayas or N-E States. It is best to read up on preparation/stuff to carry online before one embarks on such long treks. I would even suggest to go on shorter 1 or 2 day treks which require you to stay overnight and eat packed food or food cooked at the camp site. There are so many finer things that you might not have thought about - ranging from potty situation to not sleeping in your bed/bed-room.

Essential stuff to carry on self-
Since I've had been on other treks/trips - I already had following:
1. Nice and sturdy rucksack
2. Thermals
3. Warm jacket
4. Poncho [rain cover]
5. Warm hand gloves
6. Woolen socks
and I had to buy new
7. Trekking shoes

and few miscellaneous stuff. Again this is not he exhaustive list, please read the checklist provided by your organizer or read-up enough online if you are planning to take up this kinda trek on your own.

Physical Fitness-
And with regards to physical fitness, if one is not used to any physical endurance activity the trek can turn out to be nightmare. Trek organizers usually have a list of activities that one needs to follow for few weeks before the trek starts. Most of these activities were regular affair for me as I was a regular at the gym:
1. Climbing stairs [always used to take stairs to 5th floor office at least twice a day]
2. Push-ups
3. Pull-ups
4. Bit of weight training especially back/lower-back exercises
5. Other full body exercises

Finally, some organizers require you to present fitness certificate from practicing physician certifying that you are fit for this kinda activity.

Acclimatization is very much required on these treks where we are expected to climb-up far too high from sea level in relatively short duration. Many of the well planned treks like the ones from YHA take care of these steps but it also means it takes so much more time as trek duration. It usually involves smaller hiking for first 1 or 2 days and returning to base camp before embarking on ascent.



It was a 7 days trek and adventure started for us from Day 1!

Day 1: We arrived in Srinagar. Cab and driver details were messaged to us by TTH team. Driver Junaid was waiting for us in a Scorpio near the Airport. At the airport we were joined by another member from Mumbai for the trek. So it was 3 of us who had signed up for the trek on this day. On landing in Srinagar we came to know that there was a curfew in city. We quickly started towards a place called Gagangir around 70 kms from Srinagar near Sonamarg.

We never thought adventure would begin so early on our journey. On the highway there was a traffic jam and our driver squeezed through it until the last point of jam. There we were told that there was some tension between police and the local people there. Apparently people had caught few police stealing jewellery from house. To hear it all sounded funny and simple- but as we waited tension was raising. People were shouting slogans against police. For a while it looked as though police/army could disperse the crowd and there was slight movement of vehicles. We could see army personnel wielding rifles and walking around. Our driver Junaid being young and dashing started the Scorpio made his way till the place of conflict but as luck would have it we were stuck right at the place of tension... no place to move as the traffic from opposite direction had blocked our way. Right then we here 'rat tat rat tat...' rhythmic sound of bullets being fired just few feet away from our vehicle![I guess they were firing in the air] and I saw a tear gas shell being readied to be fired. By then another had gone off .. we all started feeling the effect -eyes /nose burning and watering. Somehow our driver found a little place to move the Scorpio and he started driving through whatever road space was available.

This adventure ended when we finally reached our place of rest for the night - Gagangir.

Below pic is from the start of Day 2:

[somspaple]

On day 1 , because of traffic chaos and curfew we could not reach our actual base camp for the night. Instead we slept in a tent pitched on the premises of an incomplete building. Previous day's issues had spill over effect on day 2. As we were waiting for our support crew to arrive in the morning: a cook and a guide. And our camping and cooking equipment would be carried on 2 mules. Finally when we were all set start our ascent it was almost 12 in the noon. Definitely not a good time to start the trek or any trek for that matter. We were already bored and tired waiting for all these arrangements.

All 3 of us trekkers along with the crew and mules started to climb after a customary pic. We trekkers were each carrying a rucksack full of our clothes/warm jackets/camera etc.




The view was just great. Lush Green natural lawns[meadows], pine trees in the far view, water streams/rivers it was just heaven. Weather was pleasant and sunny.




[/FONT]




A panoramic view of the place we left behind as we climbed:





Found a shepherd on the way:




It is hard to convey the vastness of the nature and this place.. especially in the condition I was in.. this was the best i could capture. Pics do not do any justice to this place. I feel i should have spent some time with the new camera/lens combo before taking it for the trek .





We encountered our first ice on the way.. fellow trekkers:




But personally for me all the beauty and greenery was fast disappearing from my mind. As we climbed higher, I was feeling more tired, breathless and finding it hard to walk. The climb seemed never ending and soon it started to feel as if its a torture. I had to just switch off my pain sensors and keep walking like a zombie - AMS had got to me. We finally reached our camp site by evening around 6 pm. I was completely exhausted by then and the moment tent was pitched - I got in and slept for some time. After waking up I still wasn't feeling normal and decided to call it off and return to base camp. I would have returned on the same day but there was no alternate route for return. We would have to retrace the same path we climbed up. My friend thought I was kidding! That night I took paracetamol, diamox and slept tight in the sleeping bag.





Day 2's camp was at 11,500 ft. and place is called as Nichnai

[somspaple]

AMS dents ones confidence big time. All through the night only thought in my head was how to get back to base camp. Somehow caught up with little bit of sleep. Next day morning I was very cautious. First took a small walk around the place to judge my condition. Was still feeling dizzy and breathless after a brisk walk but condition was better than Day 2. And as there was no easy exit from the trek trail - decided to continue with the day's trek.

Next washed my face with ice cold water from the stream. Water here is really cold - I mean you feel as if the stream is slicing your skin and bone when dip your hand in it. After the ritual of 'getting ready' - soon we packed our rucksacks, folded our tent and ready to start the day's trek. During the course invariably we encountered many climbs. And the beauty of the scenary was its best whenever the conditions were treacherous for us trekkers.

Could not capture many pics during this climb as I had shoved my camera back in rucksack. As opposed to previous day- Day 3 was cloudy:




Due to my slow pace, our cook carrying tent and cooking stuff on mule had moved ahead and he had already pitched the kitchen tent for the day. The place was really beautiful.. but as if a deliberate attempt, our tent was the farthest from our trekking trail #$#% and there were couple other tents [from a different group I guess] there which had easy to access from trail.




But the reason for this difficult to access location was soon revealed: the ridge behind the tent in the pic.. hides the first of our object of interest.. our first lake on the trek!!




View of the lake made me forget my tiredness - for the first time in this trek!! but lake was too vast to capture in 18mm lens. I started trekking up the ridge on to the other side to capture the beauty in single frame- but still failed.

Had to settle for a poor panorama - this is the Michael Jackson lake!!




Now you know why i christened it so!!





Parting shot for the day. We went back to tent relaxed after spending hours on the lake bank and listing to 'bya bya..' of hundreds of sheep. Now only one thing was on our mind - tomorrow's climb - the steepest in the entire trek!!





Tonight's halt was at a place called Vishansar and our tent was at 12000 ft.

[somspaple]

The day of dreaded ascent!!

As usual after our cold encounter with the freezing water we were ready for the days expedition. As we climbed up and away from the lake in the day the view only got better with each meter of climb.

The MJ lake in single frame finally yay!!





Just another view.. believe me it was much more beautiful than this picture can ever convey!! only to be experienced!!






Later we spotted another adjacent lake.. [mj can be spotted at other end]




Sheep herd in queue to graze on the banks of lake.This is just a close up shot of previous pic!! -gives an idea about the size and expanse of the lake.




MJ lake from a farther angle and magical sky!





While scenery was great but the climb was unforgiving. It was steep and slippery. I was climbing at a very slow pace. My trek mates were also struggling but because of earlier AMS attack and tiredness, I had developed unique style of climbing/walking. As others climb panting and rest for some time [either standing or seated] I on the other hand would climb really slow and walk past them when they were resting. It was really difficult to rest or sit on these narrow trails with steep incline for me. I would rather walk/keep climbing slowly without any break for a longer time. I called it Zombie style of trekking!


Couple of views as we climb away






We spotted another beauty on the way..





Why so serious!?





We met a family of local shepherd. A pic of their house:




We rested for the night at Gadsar at 12,000 ft [max alt for day's trek was at 13,750 ft]

[somspaple]

After grueling 4 days trek and after meeting / seeing few other trekkers we could observe that most if not all of them were not carrying their rucksacks with them. They were all trekking light with only a light bag with water bottle and a camera at the most. All their baggage were on mules. That's when even we decided to handover our bags to our support staff[mules]. Even though we had covered the difficult part of the trek with the heavy rucksacks on, we decided to trek light for the next 3 days.

Without exception, every direction we could see it was just a view of heaven:










The walk through the green meadows covered in flowers is a feeling to be experienced and can not be expressed in words or pics either. Anyway a small attempt:













If only I had clear blue sky like Day1.. this would've looked even more serene.. greedy mind I say!!



Today's camping for the night was at Gadsar @ 12,000 ft.

[somspaple]

This is the most beautiful day of the trek! on this day we can spot 2 huge lakes Gangbal and Nundkol.

From the distance it is hard to make out the size of these majestic lakes. As usual to reach the this spot we had to trek through mountains involving slippery tracks [due to loose soil and gravel]. It was also one of the dangerous trails as it involved getting down these steep descents and they were real slippery. And I also hate descents in treks as they are so much more brutal on knees/feet.

Aerial companion:





When we reached the ridge for the first view of the lakes- it was all covered in cloud. Eventually we never got a clear view of the lakes from this superb view point:









Here you can see the mules and our cook climbing down the mountain and Close-up view of the lake called Nundkol - our intended place for camping for the day:



And that tiny looking stream flowing from that lake is as wide as a river!

[somspaple]

This is the view we get after crossing the ridge, closer to the lake. On the mountain you can see that the glacier is covered in clouds.




Soon clouds gave a glimpse of the glacier and Harmukh peak:





You can see small water streams flowing into lake from glacier:




On the way to the second, bigger lake:






This is the larger lake- Gangbal:






The Nundkol lake and Harmukh peak the next day:








This almost concludes the trek. Day 7 is full of descent and I don't have many pics of the day as descent was through woods. And we were very eager to taste the Kashmiri Biriyani!

Since the situation was still tense in and around in Srinagar we were put up in a small homestay near trek-base for the day and next day early morning we were to be taken to airport to board our flights. But the return from homestay to Srinagar airport was as interesting as was our arrival Day 1. We woke up early and were waiting for our ride to arrive but instead we saw few vehicles arriving - 3 different vehicles were lined up on the road to ferry grand total of 3 - each one of us in different vehicle!! Only consolation for me was that my driver turned out to be Junaid - the same guy who had 'heroically' ferried us to base camp from Srinagar airport. All of this was unfolding when it was still pitch dark at around 3AM! It was amusing and concerning at the same time. Even more so once we got into each of our vehicles [mine was Scorpio and others were in Sumo I guess] - we contacted each other on mobile couple of times. The drive from homestay to Airport felt fairly long in the dark and the loud music/chant in local dialect being played in the car didn't help either. We eventually did reach Srinagar airport all in one piece and healthy.

Only reason given to us for this arrangement was on the lines that due to tense situation in Srinagar, police is not allowing vehicles with multiple passengers. Well in the hindsight and especially in current lockdown situation I can guess that they wanted to get their vehicles across to Srinagar and the only way out for them was the excuse that they were ferrying tourists to airport. The airport itself resembled a refugee camp - many of the tourists stranded and sitting on the outside lawn. I guess they arrived in Srinagar that morning and due to curfew couldn't venture into city. We were blissfully unaware of all the chaos that was happening in the civilized world.

I can recollect these incidents as if it happened just last week probably due to exciting turn of events. The daily account of trek though is reclaimed from archived web pages of now defunct forum gearheads .in and luckily I still have the folder of curated pics in the same order lying in my HDD. Otherwise it would've been herculean task to comb through hundreds of pics to select few in the same order. And heck this thread started in assembly line over a year ago!!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Dr.Abhi]

These are the views for sore eyes. After staying in urban jungle for approximately 2 years, such pics give us reason to live and a hope that one day everything will be normal and we will be camping under the umbrella of nature, thanking God that he has really made the mother Earth very beautiful and pray that it will stay like that forever and ever and ever.

[Hells Bells]

Absolutely beautiful places, especially that meadow! Reading this bit while sitting in the middle of a concrete jungle does add to the allure of it.

[WheelNut]

I had done this trek sometime back in 2014. Nice clicks, absolutely stunning views on the way. I remember having a very nice time at the army camp in between, those guys invited us to their camp and made a sumptuous meal for us in no time. We were bowled over by their hospitality. By the way, the Michael Jackson Lake I belive is called Vishansar and the adjacent lake is called Krishan sar.

[somspaple]

Originally Posted by WheelNut

I had done this trek sometime back in 2014. Nice clicks, absolutely stunning views on the way. I remember having a very nice time at the army camp in between, those guys invited us to their camp and made a sumptuous meal for us in no time. We were bowled over by their hospitality. By the way, the Michael Jackson Lake I belive is called Vishansar and the adjacent lake is called Krishan sar.

Thanks. Nice incident with army camp! When we arrived at one of the camps - wind was just too heavy for us to even stand on the ridge where they had put up their tent/check post. One of the army personnel was from South India and asked us why do you guys come all the way here for trekking in these conditions! lol!

[quickfox11]

These are some amazing wallpapers!!

[ARAY]

Brilliant Pictures, absoloultly stunnng.
Trekking gives a completely different perspective of Kashmir Valley.
Look forward to many more of such trekking trips. Keep travelling and sharing such wonderful experiences.

[somspaple]

Originally Posted by quickfox11

These are some amazing wallpapers!!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by ARAY

...Keep travelling and sharing such wonderful experiences.

I would love to trek/travel more, but last few years I've hardly been able to go on these kinda trips. I did complete couple of more such trips like Sar-Pass trek, trip to Ladakh [before it became popular tourist destination that it is now] and a simple visit to Manali in snow season - will probably post some of these pics on this thread itself.

For now, I did miss posting couple of pics. These were captured on my mobile - a humble Moto M back then:




Though I hated these clouds covering the clear view of the lake from this beautiful vantage point but this turned out to be my favorite pic. It's a vertical panorama captured on phone. It captured 3 layers of this vast scene - bright Sun in Blue sky, dark clouds and it's shadow on lake, and the lake itself simmering in sunlight. It's just impossible to convey the beauty and immensity of this scene in pics let alone by a poor panorama from an antique[now] mobile phone. But still here it goes :