Kashmir Great Lakes Trek - As it happened - Day 2

Day 2 - Nichnai to Vishansar Lake via Nichnai Pass

I am having trouble sleeping in a sleeping bag. Especially when I have to sleep in a slightly inclined surface. I am not really a claustrophobic but I'm feeling choked inside the sleeping bag inside the tent. I realize that every time I'm just about the fall asleep, I slip down into the bag and suddenly I wake up to climb back to the opening of the sleeping bag. This is a mini-trek which I'm doing inside my sleeping bag. Due to these repeated attempts of crawling inside the sleeping bag, I end up absolutely not sleeping. But again I wake up around 4.45 am. Today's schedule is again 5, 6, 7. I missed to sip the ginger water which was served the previous night and hence I have a bad throat and cold.

1 liter water done. Black tea at 5am done. 6 am breakfast done. 'Pack-lunch' done. I realize at this point of time that my DSLR, which I carried with great passion, is creating more trouble to me than expected. My 5kg day bag would have weighed a lot less without this DSLR. Also, I'm not in a condition to click pictures, given that my goal is to climb these raw and strenuous mountains. So I offload few more items from my day bag to my rucksack and decide to keep only the DSLR, rain coat and water bottles. Today I have taken more energy bars and chocolates with me than the previous day.

Our trek starts. The ascent look achievable today considering that I'm getting more comfortable with my new pair of trekking shoes. Also the sight of some green meadows and those cute sheeps is making me feel up. Dushyant has told us that we should try to take as minimal breaks as possible. This is because if we walk with minimal breaks, our body starts to build a certain rhythm. And this rhythm is important to keep us going. Plus the weather in Himalayas is pretty uncertain. We never know when there will be a heavy downpour or when it is going to snow. Talking of snow, from nowhere I start feeling snowflakes on my face. Yes it is snowing. Also there are strong crosswinds. But I see that majority of my group is not seen anywhere close to my vicinity.

Once again I struggle to breathe when I ascent this steep mountain. I'm trying my level best to not take any break. My trek pole has become my soul mate in the last 2 days. The only feeling in my mind - Why am I doing this torture to myself?! Even before this thought completely registers in my mind, I see Naseem sitting in the midway with the exact expression of what I just thought of! Why am I doing this torture to me! I take another break in the name of filling water from a nearby stream.

I'm walking through a 6-7 inch path, struggling to strike a balance. And from behind I hear the sound of horses marching towards me. Poor things are carrying all our rucksacks, kitchen utensils, tents and so on. I feel sorry for them. But at this point there is noway I can move and give them a way! Even before I finish thinking, they are already here. Just behind me and the khoda-waala says 'Side please'. OMG! Where is 'side' here??  If I move an inch I'm going to roll down! But I have to move. I almost stick to the mountain like how a lizard sticks to a wall and the horses move ahead. I need to realize now that this situation is going to happen almost always. And I need to learn to balance when they ask for 'side'.

With an iota of energy still remaining in my body, I reach Nichnai pass! This is the first pass we are reaching ever since our trek started. Pretty elevating moment for me. Yes, I reached. I did not go back so far! No pictures clicked here as I am not interested in taking my DSLR out!

After sometime it is all about descending. I love this part. I'm pretty bad at ascending but pretty good with descends. We find a point where we have our lunch.

At this point, I see some chunky rocks and we are supposed to learn how to walk on them. I am trying my skills to balance and walk but it is no good. Dushyant introduces these chunks of rocks to me as 'boulders'. This is a fairly new term to me. He taught me (and others) how to tackle them. Basically we are not supposed to spend time trying to find a balance on them. We are supposed to very quickly hop from one boulder to another almost in a zig-zag manner. This way you do not feel the fear of falling or slipping. At the same time you quickly cover some distance unknowingly. Though Dushyant gave this lecture, I have not gained confidence in his lessons yet.

Fortunately rest of the journey is a meadow walk. The landscape truely reminded me of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. I had seen the pictures in a travel magazine. In fact, I even wished to do the Yatra. Coming back to these meadows - We pass through the Manasarovar-looking-like meadows in the slowest pace possible. Farooq bhai who is coming with us with his horse has lost hopes that we will ever reach the campsite! Very soon (by around 4-4.30 pm) we get a glimpse of our campsite. That moment when we feel close to the campsite cannot be described in words! Time for a little break. Picture taken by Swaraj.

After the break, I try to increase my pace to reach the campsite and here you go. A whole stretch of boulders. It is as if the mountains have conspired to make this journey as tough as it can get!

With great difficulty and not applying any of Dushyant's lessons, we climb past the boulders and reach our campsite. The campsite is stunning! Surrounded by surreal mountains, very close to the magical Vishansar lake, I see our orange tents! This is my favorite campsite of the entire trek. I soak in the beauty and calmness of this place!

We offload our bags and take some rest in our tents. Already my trek mates have started with their DSLRs for sightseeing around Vishansar Lake. I and hubby decide to take it slow. We take some time out and enjoy the beauty and calmness of this magical place. I take out my DSLR camera which is dieing to see these mountains. I click some shots here. And slowly we walk towards Vishansar Lake with a mug of hot soup in our hands.

The Lake has a magical blue color. All lakes in Himalayas probably have this magical sapphire blue color. I fell in love with this lake at the very first sight. We click some pictures around and relax in the shore of this mystical lake.

I must say that it is very difficult to strike any pose or even smile to the camera when those
crosswinds are blowing!

It is 4.30pm and we have a briefing session about our next day's trail by Dushyant. What fascinated me was our campsite is almost 25km away from POK! That is pretty exciting.

Back from Vishansar to our tent. The whole area is 'infiltrated' by a bunch of cute sheeps now! I cannot say how happy I feel on seeing these sheeps. They are treat to my eyes! I soak in this view. I try to catch a few but they escape. This was the perfect evening for me in this trek.

Dinner at 7.30 pm followed by oxygen level checks by Ravi, followed by hot ginger water and it is time to sleep. Once again I try to master the skill of sleeping in a sleeping bag in a slope. My exhaustion levels drive me to sleep. The next day is supposed to be the most challenging day of the entire trek. With this very thought I fall asleep.

Kashmir Great Lakes Trek - As it happened - Day 1

Day 1 - Sonmarg to Nichnai campsite

5,6,7 is the schedule setup by Dushyant sir for our first day.

5 is the time for tea - which means we need to get up by around 4.45 am to "prepare" ourselves for tea. I'm pretty nervous considering that I need to finish my brushing and other basic needs by 5am. And also we all need to drink at least 1litre of water early morning. This is a tough task given that the water is fresh and cold from the streams and the weather is very chilling too! But we cannot argue with Dushyant. Also none of us are interested in getting hit by AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness).

So at sharp 5am we get our garma-garam (hot) tea. All of us had brought our tea/coffee mugs. At sharp 6am our breakfast is ready. Around 6.30am our lunch is ready which needs to be packed and taken in our own lunch boxes. Officially this activity has been christened as 'pack-lunch'. At sharp 7am, all of us are ready to kick start our trek. Dushyant comes and gives a briefing session on the do's and dont's, hands over an eco-bag (which we need to always carry to keep the environment clean) and also teaches us on how to pack our sleeping bags and how to unpitch our tents. All these activities charge up the sleepy heads. I have already offloaded by 8kg rucksack but still have my 5kg day bag. I'm feeling good having taken 1.5 ltrs of water. Our oxygen levels are checked using an Oxymeter. I and hubby seem to be in very good shape at this point of time. We take this opportunity to click some pictures in and around the base camp, check out the horses seen nearby and make a couple of calls.

Needless to say that I have already started to feel a bit uncomfortable in my fleece and gloves and cap and everything else. Dushyant has already repeated the importance of sunscreen. Yes it is important. Important than almost anything else. (I realize this only at the end of the trek).

Our trek starts! Lot of energy! I get to see the trail. I cannot call this as a trail!!! This is a steep ascent and the path is only 5 inches wide! My super wide feet (I was called as Miss Big Foot when I was in China), which has become even bigger with my trekking shoes are struggling to find any space to land! My eyes try to look down and I get a vertigo! Oh my god! I cannot fall down from a small hill 5 minutes into the trek. My confidence level drops and I panic. With a lot of pep talk from my hubby, I struggle and struggle and reach a flat land! OMG! I am panting. I need water! I need an energy bar. I just had my breakfast like an hour back and I feel as if I have not eaten for days! I cannot be exhausted this early. I take some rest and now I see a really beautiful meadow right in front of my eyes.

I scan my co-trekkers and all of them look strong (except for a few). Those few make me feel good. That always happens. I am in search of "The Mississippi". Obviously I'm "The Minnesota".

We reach a break point where we recharge ourselves, take some pictures and give away some chocolates to local kids. Our trek resumes and few hours of steep ascent again. Dushyant teaches me a few tricks which will help me get through this. Soon we reach the Table-top Dhaba where we get the privilige to eat some yummy hot omletes! Also we finish our packed-lunch. We befriend a mountain dog too. All good so far.

As if the mountain Gods wanted to test our group, it starts to rain and our rain ponchos/ coats are out. My assumption that I might be able to enjoy my walk if it rains is slashed as I struggle to walk through the slushes. I slip multiple times while walking through those 7 inch muddy trails. I am not supposed to look down the slope as it might once again bring back the vertigo. This is no good for me. With a lot of help from my hubby and my trek mates I some how try to reach a point which looks flat. Beautiful streams and majority of the group has been resting for almost 10 mins now. I have just reached the point and I take a break.

My legs hurt. I have never felt these many muscles in my body. Every inch aches! We have been trekking for hours now and nobody is talking about the campsite yet! I'm almost confident that I am not going to complete this trek. I keep giving hints to my hubby who kept giving me a blank expression. Trek resumes. We walk and walk and walk. We climb and climb and climb. It is raining endlessly. Shravan bhai from India Hikes tries to help me. I am exhausted. Super exhausted. All of a sudden I breakdown. I weep, very badly. My hubby is in shock. I realize that this is not happening. Me completing this trek is a myth. This campsite is a myth. I need to go back!

My hubby takes the small Nike day-bag from me and assures that I will be fine and we will reach the campsite in no time. From nowhere Dushyant appears and takes my bag away from my hubby. So me and hubby walk a lot more easily. Nobody has seen me crying. Thanks to the rains!

I'm struggling to walk through the stones - slippery ones. And all of a sudden as if to please me and cheer me up, there comes a huge flock of sheeps. Cute ones. Really chubby, rosy, cute sheeps. I cannot be unhappy seeing these cute creatures. I manage to touch a few of them though they run away in no time.

Struggling and panting we reach our first camp site! It is raining and I'm feeling very feverish. They give me a seat in one of the tents and a cup of hot water as well as tea. One of our trek leaders Ravi is doing his level best to ensure that I'm not freaking out. But I'M FREAKING OUT!

That night it is freaking cold and I manage to have the dinner followed by litres of water and some medicines. Surprisingly my oxygen levels are pretty good. And I actually don't have fever. I'm just freaking out. We had walked almost 12kms that day! This is Nichnai campsite. We had reached almost 11,500 ft. Sonmarg (our base camp) was almost 7000 ft above sea level. We had made very good progress!

I regain my confidence and sleep for the day. Hoping to have a much better day ahead!

Kashmir Great Lakes Trek - As it happened - Day 0

Let me tell you guys - all of you who have been tricked into KGL saying that it is going to be easy, moderate or easy-to-moderate. Trust me this one is not easy. It is crazy. I am not trying to scare any of you or make you change your plans, but be prepared for some really challenging high-altitude experience which has some breathtaking/amazing/spellbinding landscape. It is good if you can complete a couple of weekend treks, have a good lung capacity and manage to keep your knees as strong as you can before you get started with KGL trek.

Without further ado, I will break down the details of KGL trek day by day. As mentioned in my previous blog, I was part of a KGL-turned-Tarsar-Marsar group, which means we had a 7 day schedule and not 8.

Day 0 - Praying to all Gods possible and leaving for Bangalore Kempegowda Airport.

Once we settle down in the aircraft, our eyes (mine and hubby's) scan for co-passengers wearing Quechua shoes. There we spot 2 guys and we confirm that we have found 2 of our KGL trek mates. Introducing Swaraaj and Naseem. After landing in the Srinagar airport, we meet Shikha whose energy levels boost my peanut sized confidence. Together we get into the Sumo provided by India Hikes, pickup Anurag and PD (who look a lot more fit/confident than all of us) and head towards Sonmarg. Our driver is speeding as if all of us are dieing to see the base camp! This sort of scares us as we are not interested in this almost-killing-cab experience. On the way the driver stops at The Waterfall Punjabi Dhaba. We get to eat some really yummy Rajma Chaval and Paranthas. I sort of get carried away by the food (which later affected me). The highlight of this day is Sind River. I got pretty excited on seeing this river as I was named Sindhu (used only in my hometown) based on Sind River.

Almost 4hrs into the drive, our driver abruptly stops in an unknown place and says here is your destination. I'm expecting the base camp to have a roof. But here we see nothing around us. Paying the driver, we pickup our rucksacks and start our trek towards base camp! Soon we reach a spot which has this really bright orange colored tents which make us believe that we have found our base camp. Yes we are right. We get to chose our own tents and within minutes our documents are verified. We are soon introduced to our trek leader Dushyant. He sounded really confident and more STRICT! Looks like we are now a group of 31 people. A bunch who had dared to register for KGL in the first place and a bunch who had hoped for an easier Tarsar-Masar trek but now merging with the KGL group.

After the briefing by Dushyant, I quickly checkout the toilets - this is what has been worrying me the most! After having a really filling dinner and making a quick call to parents, we both decide to go to sleep. We need to get up at 5am the next day!!!!! 

Kashmir Great Lakes Trek - How it happened

There is something about Kashmir Valley which fascinates me. It cast a spell on me when I visited it in April 2015. Now it is September 2015 and I have already visited this place one more time. 

So my last visit to Kashmir was as a tourist - Wearing fancy clothes, relaxing in a Shikara (the beautiful and cute boat), clicking breathtaking pictures at the Tulip Garden, doing my little shopping (which later emptied my pocket), getting awestruck by the beauty of Gulmarg, my first experience with Skiing, sipping hot Kashmiri Kahwa tea, munching those yummy parathas/ paneer followed by a crazy trip to Leh. But once I came back to Bangalore and settled down and started thinking where my next trip should be, I (and my husband) went pretty clueless. We wanted the next trip to be more exciting than the one which we just did. So the best bet seemed to be going back to Kashmir itself! But this time we did not want a "touristy" experience and that is when the idea of trek struck us.

As I do not belong to the fit/super-fit club, I ensured that we register for an easy-pretty-enjoyable trek - The Tarsar Marsar Trek. I did my bit of training sessions which is like 1hr of yoga/ exercises for 2-3 weeks. This is assuming that the trek is going to be light and I can sort of manage with my current fitness level. 

We spent a fortune at Decathlon buying those Quechua trekking shoes, balaclavas, caps, thermals, water resistant trousers, gloves, socks and what not. And then a fortune again on our fleece (Thank God we got this one on a sale!). So our rucksacks are ready with the recent purchases and we are pretty satisfied with our fitness levels and seeing those pictures in FB (posted by other Tarsar Marsar trekkers), we both feel confident. 3 days to the trek, we receive an email from India Hikes (with whom we have registered) that there is a situation due to which they are cancelling our Tarsar Marsar Trek and those who are still interested can go for the KGL trek. That is nothing but the Kashmir Great Lakes Trek!

I'm in a deep shock as I know that KGL is not known to be a breezy, easy-peasy trek. Moreover it is for 8 days! Since all the Tarsar Marsar trekkers have already booked our to & fro flight tickets, India Hikes is saying that they will make the 8 day trek into 7 (the rest day is cut!!!). I immediately tell my husband to drop off from this plan but he is so excited that he is no more doing a simple trek instead got an opportunity to do a more challenging one! Negotiations fail and I agree to go with the new plan. My fitness level cannot be called as 'fitness level' anymore as I'm now going for KGL!!! My first ever high-altitude trek! And I have never ever trekked before!

My sister who has become a trek-expert overnight after completing the daring Roopkund trek assures/consoles me that KGL is supposed to be one of the most beautiful treks in India. And she also says that by the end of this trek I am going to fall in love with the mountains. I had to trust her and my husband as anyway I was left with no choice. With this, my journey to Kashmir Valley begins with me praying to all the Gods!