The Magical Winter Kuari Pass Trek (2017)

Back to the beginning:

This goes back to my first ever Himalayan Trek – the winter Kuari Pass in December 2017! 

The journey began with me taking an early morning flight to Delhi, then a 6-7 hour road journey in a very comfortable Volvo bus from ISBT Kashmere Gate to finally reach Rishikesh. I was supposed to meet my best friend Kritika at Zostel Rishikesh, who is responsible for all of the stories you’re going to read. I must have reached Rishikesh bus station at around 8pm, took a rickshaw to Zostel and voila! There she was waiting at Zostel for me! 🙂 Kritika has travelled way more than I have, she’s a Shillong girl! She has always spoken to me about her beautiful travel adventures and finally convinced me to do this trek. I will never be able to thank her enough!!! It was also her birthday the very next day, so we were going to bring in her birthday that night.

Zostel in Rishikesh is so full of life all the time, we just didn’t want to leave. We ended up meeting a bunch of interesting people there and we all started playing Pictionary and Jenga! We had such an eventful evening after which we moved to the other hotel we had booked nearby because Zostel was already booked out. We went to our room, had a nice hot shower and of course, talked A LOT! We were waiting to cut Kritika’s birthday cake and celebrated a bit and called it a night. 

Day 1: Rishikesh to Joshimath

The next morning we packed our bags and headed back to Zostel, where our Trek The Himalayas team’s jeep picked us up. We were a total of 7,including the driver. Mauna and Shyam were from Bangalore, Saikat (Raja) and Asish (Ladda) were from Kolkata and Kritika and me. It was just the perfect group! Mauna and Shyam were very experienced trekkers and travellers and told us their adventurous stories. On the other hand, Raja and Ladda were slightly quite for most of the journey…. till they opened up and I can’t even begin to tell you how many times we fell out of our seats laughing! 

We stopped for breakfast at one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL places I had seen. It was just a random place on the side of the road. But the other side – the calm yet powerful river accompanied us and the sand on its sides was white! The place was extremely quiet which made the scenery even better because all you could hear, smell and see was the gorgeous turquoise blue river! After hogging on a couple of yummy aloo parathas, we were on our way. All of us bonded over the music we played – the old 90’s English, the 2000s and of course Euphoria’s Maaeri magic – everything was perfect! 

After a 10 hour long zig zagging, yet the most scenic ride we finally reached our basecamp – Joshimath (6,724 feet). It was freezing at around 7pm – definitely single digit temperatures! We were allotted rooms and we quickly went and hid under the heavy blankets to warm up a bit. We were called down for introductions where we met 11 more very interesting people – we were a total of 17 trekkers! We all got to know each other a bit over some nice hot dinner and instantly made some good friends! 

Day 2: Joshimath to Gulling Top – Up & Up! (6,724 feet to 9,600 feet)

The next day we woke up early to report for breakfast after which Kritika and I had to go and buy gloves, a pair of sunglasses and a torch! We were surprised to see that quite a few local shops had opened up at 7:30 – 8 in the morning! We were back in our jeeps which dropped us off to the starting point of our trek. We reached there at about 9am, off loaded our backpacks and started our walk. We had our day packs with us – 2L of water, some snacks, some warm clothes and other basic supplies. The weather surprisingly got quite hot! We had to peel a few layers down and most of us were trekking in just tees and basic track pants. The first part of this trek was slightly challenging because of the weather mainly, but also we had to cover quite a lot of distance that day. We were walking through some extremely beautiful trails and we could see some snow capped mountains around us too. We had to cover about 6km, which sounds like a piece of cake, but the elevation was from 6,724 feet to 9,600 feet – about 2,786 feet! We had a fantastic group of people, we all joked and laughed, raced and rested and of course there were so many photo enthusiasts! We filled our bottles with the natural streams that ran alongside. We also went to a very old and dingy wooden cabinet – it was a toilet of course! 😜

We crossed the beautiful villages – Tugasi and Gulling to reach our first campsite – Gulling Top (9,600 feet). It was a huge land with a stunning view on all sides! We started helping in pitching the tents – my first ever tent experience! This trek was also very special because it was called the ‘Green Trail Trek’ which meant that we were going to clear up the rubbish other idiots had left behind in these beautiful mountains. After resting for a bit, we started the clean up around Gulling Top! Unfortunately we did manage to collect wrappers, papers and other trash which made me so upset. After the clean up, we went further up to watch the beautiful sunset, we couldn’t see the sun set as such, but we saw the beautiful orange light fall on the white mountain ranges around and slowly disappear. No sooner did the sun go down, the temperature dropped so low that we had to rush back and layer up! 

Day 3: Gulling Top to Tali Forest Camp – where the magic began! (9,600 feet to 11,070 feet)

The next day we woke up at about 6 AM, it was still dark outside and then all of a sudden in about 30 minutes it was a bright day! And now – my first POOP experience was about to begin! It was not uncomfortable AT ALL! The one thing people usually get psyched about is the toilet conditions. Fortunately for me, I’m not fussy about this at all. In fact I enjoyed taking a dump in nature! 😛 There is a fantastic toilet tent, it’s not really in the open as such, very convenient! 

We had some amazing breakfast and hot tea, packed our tents and started. We had now begun to enter the snow zones! There were sprinkles of sugary snow everywhere around us and it kept growing thicker and thicker. We were headed to our next camp site – Tali Forest Camp (11,070 feet). One of my favorite things about this trail was of course the dog who started accompanying us! She was such a chilled out and super friendly dog, these mountain dogs are just as magical as the mountains themselves!. We went through a jaw droppingly beautiful forest covered in snow!

The trees, the creepers climbing the trees, the smaller plants growing on barks of trees. Everything looked like a scene out of a foresty movie! There were a couple of big trees that probably fell because of a snow storm a few nights ago, which only made the forest look more dramatic. We rested on these beautiful points and had so much fun clicking funny photos and playing around in the snow a little bit. It was just fantastic! This climb wasn’t as difficult as the previous day. It was quite chilled out in fact. 

Kritika had some fancy ass shoes! These shoes were leather, had no grip whatsoever and she thought she could use them for just another trek – clearly not! The entire climb from where the snow started to form, all Mohit and I were doing is trying to make Kritika walk without slipping and breaking her sweet little tushy into pieces! All thanks to the shoes, Mohit and her did hit it off quite a bit! I hope they’ve saved those shoes! 😜

We reached Tali Forest Camp and this was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen! It was in a ditch, surrounded by snow and trees. It wasn’t snowing at the time, but there was a LOT of snow! The entire forest was covered with snow – fresh and old.

Next stop – Tali Top! 

We rested for a bit in our tents, had some hot lunch and were off for an acclimatization walk to Tali Top. Somehow we managed to trek for another 45 minutes with Kritika’s fancy shoes, only to come to a gorgeous Tali Top. It had a frozen lake! For me that was it – I had never seen a frozen lake ever before! Kritika and I were too excited and went all the way to the edge of the lake.

The lake was frozen, but not complete hard ice. We looked at each other and instantly decided to walk over the harder edge of the lake, two happy puppies that we were! We were so happy to be standing on a frozen lake, till we looked down and saw a crack form! Within a few seconds we screamed and jumped out of the lake and the ice broke, literally! We couldn’t stop laughing and we were rolling on the ground laughing at each other and this stupid idea of walking on the lake! Kritika now had not just fancy gripless shoes, but also one of them was wet!

By now Kritika, Mohit, Vaibhav, Niraj and I had become a fantastic group. We enjoyed each other’s company quite a lot. We all got back to the campsite and straight into the dining tent where we started UNO! Even Raja, Ladda, Indrayan, Mauna and Shyam joined in and our UNO shenanigans began! We cheated, laughed, ‘caught’ and had the best time of our lives! We actually ended up playing for hours together! That evening we were briefed about the plan for the next day – the summit day! When they briefed us about this, I really thought to myself – “Why, oh why, did I listen to Kritika and come for this trek!” We were going to leave at 5 AM to start with, we had to trek for 11 hours, yep – ELEVEN! We were briefed and then we were given our snow spikes to attach to our shoes – these were grippers to walk through the ice and snow. 

We went back into our tents, a little nervous, a little tense about the summit day. We made our sleeping arrangements and as we were headed to the amazing toilet tents, which by the way, were located at least 250 metres from our campsite, Niraj came by and scared us about this big black wild dog that pounced on him near the toilet tents! Now, because I am a dog behaviorist, I know the consequences and the impact of a wild dog attack! We still had to go pee before we got into our sleeping bags! It was PITCH dark. I stood outside the tent while Kritika went in and I was so nervous thinking today MAY just be the day to get bitten by a dog in this beautiful forest! Fortunately we didn’t encounter the dog at all and made our way back – slipping and falling (fancy shoes, remember?) It was FREEZING cold that night, the temperatures were well below zero degrees! I’m assuming at least about -6 to -8°C. It was quite difficult to get much sleep because the ice cold ground wasn’t making it very easy, it was uneven as well. We struggled a bit that night to catch up on some sleep because we didn’t have too much time. We had to wake up around 3:45 – 4 AM to start our climb at 5.

Day 4 – The Big Day! (11,070 feet to 12,763 feet)

We woke up to the dogs barking at around 3:30 – 3:45 AM, but of course didn’t get any more sleep after that. Everyone got ready and started packing for the big day. We had to go to Kuari Pass and come back to Tali Forest Camp – approximately a 15KM trek! We got out of our tents for breakfast and tea and THERE he was – The “black wild dog!” My heart melted. He was just the MOST ADORABLE DOG ever! He was young and super playful, that’s about it! He jumped at Niraj to get to his toilet roll thinking it was food! I was in love! 

After a good healthy breakfast we started off. It was still dark, just about 5:30am, the sun hadn’t woken up yet! The spikes were extremely helpful, especially for fancy-shoes-Kritika. We started walking through some dense snow and hard ice, trying not to slip and fall throughout. It was going to be a really long day. The entire group was trying to move as fast as we could. This climb was the toughest of all the days, the ascent was quite steep too. We had to climb rocks and be extremely careful where we put our spikes. The spikes of course were very slippery through the rocky areas. We would climb a little bit and think of resting for sometime, but here’s the thing – the more breaks you take, the harder it is to restart because your body cools down very quickly! It was difficult not to rest, but it was even tougher to start climbing after we rested! There were huge rocks that we had to slide through because the spikes would keep slipping, we would just start sliding our bottoms through these areas. 

I didn’t bring a pair of windcheater pants, so I bought one from the local Rishikesh market. In a snow trek you have to wear windcheaters so that the snow doesn’t seep into your clothes and make them wet. These bloody pants were the highlight of my summit day! They tore within an hour of use! Yes, THEY TORE! It looked like I was trekking in a torn skirt! It kept tearing more and more with every step I took, it was hilarious! 

We saw the beautiful sun rise from behind the peaks, touching each peak as it rose up. In no time it was BRIGHT and we had to wear our snow goggles to protect our corneas from burning out! The snow is so damn white that the sunlight reflecting from it is unbearably bright, if not for the snow goggles you can suffer from snow blindness – it is a temporary condition where you actually go blind for a while because your cornea gets damaged by the bright reflection of the sun. 

We went through huge patches of land filled with soft, knee deep snow. We reached a few points where you could see more Himalayan peaks covered in snow. Everything just looked like big pieces of marshmallows! Some peaks that were much shorter looked like big pieces of black forest cake with soft sugar sprinkled on them. The views were to die for, mesmerizing at each stop.

The last 1 hour of the climb was by far the most difficult for me, it was way too steep and the snow didn’t help at all. On the sides of this patch were small water streams where we got to refill our bottles. Kritika and I walked together for most of the trek and then it got very difficult for us to stay together. At times she would take over and the other times I did. Mohit and Kritika stuck to each other though, I think this is where the story actually began! 😉

I managed to somehow reach the bottom of the final climb, but I felt like I had no energy left at all. After 7 hours of ups and downs, this felt almost imposible! This is when I started cursing Kritika for bringing me all the way here! I struggled and struggled my way through and somehow made it to the top. There it was, I had finally made it to the top, my FIRST ever summit – Kuari Pass (12,763 feet). The highest point I have ever been to in my life – LITERALLY! I reached the big rock everyone had occupied, I was just so quite the entire time, mostly because I was super exhausted. I somehow managed to climb the big rock and just sat back for a while not being able to figure out what had just happened. As my breathing slowed down, my heart stopped racing so fast, I looked around. I’m out of words right now as I write, but let me try. I felt like I was on TOP of the world! The mountains spoke to me, the winds whispered in my ears – but it was all so silent. Only big white peaks all around us, everything was covered in so much snow that it felt like I was in a different world altogether. I can’t express the feeling to be very honest, it was just something I have NEVER experienced in my life.

When the entire group was together, we all congratulated each other and celebrated in our little ways. All of a sudden, our trek leader Abhishek surprised us with some hot tea that he brought along! The feeling of HOT tea touching your lips, going through your system in that weather and settling is just – WOW! Then there were the photographs of the summit with the banners and this and that. We all sat and enjoyed our packed dry lunch and had to quickly start the descent. In the mountains you can never say when the weather changes. The weather can suddenly go from good to bad in minutes! We were told to start the descent very soon. 

The descent feels like it’s easy of course, but after a while, it starts taking a toll on your thigh muscles and knee joints! We reached all the same points much faster and waited also for more time than usual. We were around 7-8 women in the group. We realized we hadn’t relieved ourselves in the last 8-9 hours and decided, time to take a pee break! We sent  all the men ahead and huddled up like sheep around each other and squatted! It was the funniest pee experience ever, I have never peed in the open, and definitely not with so many people around! It was hilarious because I JUST couldn’t pee! Social anxiety happened! Pee stories are the funniest! 😂

The way back seemed like it was going on forever and ever, till we finally saw our basecamp at a distance and cheered and voood! Everyone instantly got into their tents, but surprisingly no one was exhausted! I thought maybe people will want to just rest and call it a day, but no! Everyone was up and running. It was UNBELIEVABLE that the TTH Team served us with hot samosas and tea! Samosas!?? We lost our minds!

The trek leaders and staff started playing volleyball and I just HAD to join them! We played for an hour easy and that definitely got me warmed up! We all gathered in the gaming zone again – our dining tent! The games went on for way too long this time – UNO is like the best game EVER!! We were served some hot dinner, after which of course we continued playing Uno and then came the briefing for the next day. By now we were all so exhausted to even thinking about another day’s trek, but there it was – we had to cover about 8 more kms! Somehow we digested the fact and headed towards our tents. The night was extremely cold and funnily – there were 2 extra sleeping bags in the dining tent which were not going to be used, Kritika and me took those and that night, we slept like babies!

Day 5 – The Snow Slides and Fights! 

We were woken up really early again, this time around I just didn’t want to get out because I was so comfortable and cosy! We had breakfast and started off. We went through Tali Top again and came across some more snowy patches. There was one area which was super freaky though where we had to walk on the edge of the mountain and the other side was just a very steep valley.

My heart was racing all through this patch! Somehow we got through and then reached the beautiful meadows of Gurson Bugyal. It was like wonderland! There was a beautiful place which had a slope going down into other meadows. Mohit decided to stunt it out there and he successfully managed to ‘create’ a slide like path and slid all the way down! Of course we all had to follow and it was SO MUCH FUN! Then began the snow battles and we started taking each other down! Our aim was to hit on the neck so that the snow seeped in! Yes, we were very cool like that! 😂 I had the MOST fun snow battling with Niraj, Vaibhav, Indrayan, Raja and Ladda! We just couldn’t stop even for a couple of minutes! Who knew hitting people with snow balls could be that much fun! This was also the time when we saw a beautiful love story begin – Kritika and Mohit were on a trip of their own! Niraj and me were only bitching about how they’ve left us behind and laughing about it. We ended up reaching Auli, which was FULL of snow! Auli is actually known for its snow adventure sports, so you can imagine how much snow we got! In fact when we got there, it started snowing too! We quickly got some Maggie to eat and had to rush to the ropeway that was going to take us back to Joshimath. The ropeway was gorgeous, but I could see leaving the peaks behind and it was kind of a sinking feeling, but also I was so happy to have made such good friends and memories! 

Back to Base: Joshimath Basecamp – open window at zero degrees!

The trek hadn’t ended yet, we had another night to ourselves! We got to our rooms, took the quickest and nicest shower and assembled for the debriefing session. We had a fantastic time at the debriefing, got our certificates and headed back to our rooms. That night the boys managed to arrange for some rum! 20 people, 1 room and rum – can you imagine what all went down that night! We laughed so hard that we had to open the windows to get some air and it was zero degrees Celsius outside!!! We laughed at things I can’t even think or talk about on this blog! We must have ended up sleeping at around 4-5 in the morning! What a memorable night that was! 

The next day we had to leave and it was so heartbreaking to say goodbye to the entire group which had almost become one big crazy family. Met so many interesting people, made some crazy friends and definitely took back some fantastic memories! This was the story of my first trek ever and I should have started writing back then, but hey, it’s never too late because all of this refreshed my memories so much and made me laugh and smile throughout! Totally worth it!

These Himalayan mountains are a magical place. But you’ll only know the feeling when you’re there, breathing in and out, feeling the vibe. Within 4 days a love story began, bloomed and Niraj and I take the credit for it because today my best friend Kritika and that boy from Mumbai – Mohit, got married! What could be a better story to tell right? ♥

Until the next time, mountains have already called and will keep calling me back!