Contents

Treks Amarnath Itinerary Char Dham, Bhawishya Badri, Kalimath, Kali Sila Itinerary & memoirs Trip photographs Kedarnath → Vasuki Taal Memoirs Indrahara pass : Oct'08 Itinerary : original plan Trip diary Trip photographs Jamunotri, Gangotri, Goumukh, Tapovan Itinerary Panch Kedar Itinerary & trip notes Trip photographs Tapovan Attempt 1 : memoirs Attempt 2 : itinerary & memoirs	Treks (continued...) Valley of flowers Itineray & trip notes Trip photographs Treks with YHAI Sandakphu Trip photographs Saurkundi Trip photographs Sarpass Itinerary Trip notes & memoirs Trip photographs Treks planned for future Adi Kailash Itinerary
Bike trips Manali → Leh → Srinagar Itinerary Trip notes Trip photographs	Miscellaneous Rafting down Trishuli Memoirs Snorkeling in Phi Phi Islands Memoirs

Indrahara Pass diary

Prologue :
"what are you doing with that rope?" mummy is sounding alarmed & looking at me straight from across the hall.

"nothing... just trying out a knot..." i say. she stares at me. "This plastic rope will certainly not take his weight in case he is getting some funny ideas..." I can practically hear her think... she soon turns & walks away...

I been planning for this trek which involves pitching & staying in tents, & some expertise in trying knots would be helpful. In particular i had heard that some patches are extremely narrow. So i had this rope looped around my mid-section as i fumbled with various knot types, promptly forgetting one as i try the other...

Photographs

The seeding :
I had been thinking of doing Adi Kailash for a while. But all discussions showed that i would be needing a tent & kitchen for the last sector in both Adi kailash & Om Parvat section. And it required about 20 days to do it leisurely & properly. Not willing to join KMVN tours, i wanted to do it alone, and time had run out in the process of concretising the idea. With limited time in hand, I fell upon the idea of doing Mcleodganj & Indrahara pass. I was hoping to pass a relaxing week in Mcleoadganj, away from the hustle/bustle of Kolkata puja season.

The beginning :
"aapke niyat thik nahi lag rahi bhai..." Amit is calling on phone, he just saw the Indrahara pass itenirary on my blog & is getting distracted. I had not called him, knowing last trip been a long one and he really must concentrate on his career. But the wanderlust bug has bit him pretty hard, so help him God! He says he can squeeze in possibly. I am thinking, two is better & cheaper than one... especially Himachal Pradesh is quite commercial, not at all as friendly & economical as Uttaranchal.

Trip notes:
I give here the height as per the readings of my altimeter watch. I think it needs to be re-calibrated & is showing around 200m below actual. Yet the reading are good for relative heights study.

Day	Time	Place	To / Description	Height (Casio)	Distance	Mode
0	20:00	ISBT, Delhi	Dharamsala	1365m	511km	Bus
1	7:00	Dharamsala	Mcleodganj	1655m	10km	Taxi
	7:30	Mcleodganj	Dharamkot. Met the other group from Orkut who were going with Jango guide. They were supposed to be a big group of 28, but the final count was just 4!! Rajesh says, everyone backed out in the last moment... hummmm.... i wish them all the best... After a futile visit to all the trekking agencies i return back to Mcleodganj. Amit joins me at 1700hrs, his train being 2 hrs late.	1810m	2km	Auto
2	8:00	Mcleodganj	laundry, Bhagsunag temple, Dharamkot, a visit to Regional Mounteering institute & fixing the guide, and a stroll towards Dal lake... to be greeted by a kitten, & dark clouds...
3	7:30	Mcleodganj	Dharamkot			Auto
	8:10	Dharamkot	Triund. our new guide is Dinesh, he is the cousin of Dilip who was originally to guide us, but sprang Dinesh on us at the last moment.			Trek
	8:55	Golu Devi	temple & shop.	2010m	2km	Trek
	10:30	Magic point	mid point... tea...		3.5km	Trek
	13:30	Triund	it is warm & sunny... plenty of people around... many foreigners... Tea 10/-, food 50/- per plate for what u would get at 10/- on the streets of Kolkata! quite sub-standard & expensive... I have eaten much more wholesome food at much much remoter places served with much more care... these people are out to fleece the tourists... We see this tent right next to Lalu's dhaba. "Is this the person from Bombay? slim, boyish?" I ask Lalu dhabawala. "Cinematographer?" he asks. i nod my head in affirmation. "yeah... are you the one he met in the bus? He said you would arrive yesterday!" Lalu queries... Well we lost one day due the guide problems. I ask about his where about. It appears that he went to Lakagot with his camera. He is into Cinematography and came for shooting for all apparent reasons, though, to be frank, we have our doubts :)) See Dhruv... we got your secrets... lol... I had met this guy at ISBT bus-station & we landed up next to each other on the bus seat. We then parted at Dharamsala as he wanted to take some snaps. We met again at Mcleodganj in a couple of hours as i was searching around for a hotel and he was in a hurry to reach Triund. It appears that he walked up alone, somehow took a wrong diversion and ended up in a dense jungled dead-end. He considered pitching his tent there, but then decided to try some more and retraced his steps back. Once on the right path he decided to push ahead, and reached Triund after a 12hr trek with a back-breaking load! He then pitched his tent in the dark, crawled inside... half a bottle of rum was emptied before sleep mercifully took over!! The next day never saw him, he spent it inside that tent, sleeping & recovering... hummm... little did i know that we will ourselves deviate & get lost on the way down!!	2690m	3.5km	Trek
4	5:30	Triund	wakeup... it is a bright morning...
	10:20		Start for Snowline cafe
	12:10		Snowline cafe. It is a dhaba really. tea 10/- for small glass, food 70/- per person. The owner is Jay Chand jee. He has a 2-person tent which he hires out for 400/- to 500/-. Somber, he appears to be nice and enterprising person, and gave 5/- discount on biscuits to some Israeli boys and telling them they should consider staying here... "no police... no people... no problems... you can do whatever u want..." i think i saw a glint in his eyes :))) Besides the tent, you can stay at the dhaba also for 100/-, though he said he would let us sleep for free if we stayed with him on the way back. But that has some dire risks if the rumors are right!! It appears that this person is into drinking and is liable to throw u out of his shop/shelter in the middle of the night if his mood so swings after a serious bout of drinking... just what i heard, nothing confirmed... On the way back we did see him drinking... he didn't invite us to stay...	3015m	3km
	16:30		back from a hike to a ridge above the cafe, and now walking to Lakagot with packed dinner
	17:20		Lakagot. We had heard at snowline cafe that there are plenty of people, at least 9, camping at Lahesh cave. So we decide to camp out at Lakagot. Our guide had revisited Triund to bring back the tent he had left behind...	3040m
	19:00		great camp fire... one Zen buddhist monk with his 3rd wife & one French couple... the chapatis warmed over the red hot coals are crispy & delicious... where are those days when we had these wood stoves in our homes... i still remember the 1st day when cooking gas entered our home, decades ago... We also prepare some Upma for next morning...
5	6:50		start for Indrahara pass...
	7:12		water point	3135m
	8:00		Lahesh cave : it can easily accommodate 10-12 people in the dry section. otherwise it is big enough for 20...	3320m
	11:45		crossed 4000m as per my watch... last hour has seen an interesting discourse & disclosure on Amit's part... hummm... don't worry... it goes to the grave with me... :)))
	12:24	Indrahara pass	mist is rising fast from the wind-ward side and the valley below is engulfed... but the Chamba side is still clear... and a week old snow is scattered around... not much of breeze...	4120m
	13:30		start for Lakagot
	18:00	Lakagot
	18:50	Snowline cafe	We pass by the snowline cafe in dark under our flash lights... the guide exchanges greeting with Jaychandjee... no invitation for us to stay the night... he is deep inside by the fire, in his own private world...
	20:00	Triund	well it was more like a survival night! nothing dramatic though... just darkness & shadows... forest and hints of possible eyes watching us... after reading Jim Corbett's Man-eaters of Kumaon i have got less scared of wild animals... To think of him walking around with a broken gun as a boy! we walked.. and sung... and tried to shoot in night modes... and it was long before the solar panel lights of Triund came into view... Amit bhai head for the dhaba as me & guide do the tent. As we will walk back after meal, Amit would have a fit of shivering as fever hits him... it has been one tiring day... he hits his sleeping bag straight as i settle down and am in two minds about finishing the Agatha Christie book under my headlamp light... Thus, laying in our crampy 4'x6' tent, I heard the following dialogs : 21:00hrs : voices outside our tent. They appear to be a group of 5 boys from Punjab who have driven up for a night out in their car and are now enjoying Triund. Teasing each other : "what! you never ever had a night out?" Two hours passes by. the same group is passing by our tent again... now the voices are sounding a little desperate... 23:30hrs : one voice: "this dhaba wala charged us 500/- for the food! it is robbery!!" another voice: "now think of where to spend the night. i am freezing... no rooms are available, no tents either... " another voice : "let's sit by the fire & the night will pass" another voice : "let's burn a mashal and walk down to Mcleodganj" Well, it is a forested walk and i wonder about the safety of that suggestion. third voice : "hey look, there is a light in that tent. shall we go & check if it is available?" Amit talking to me: "bhai, switch off the light..." i switch off the light and hear the uncertain footsteps... then slowly they fade away in the distance... Next day morning: having tea & snacks at Lalu's dhaba before setting out on the trek. me : " what happened to those 5 boys? they didn't have any place to sleep Lalu (the dhaba wala) : "Well, 7 people were sleeping in this place". He is pointing to the 8'x6' floor space of his shop. Lalu : "somehow i got them a few blankets from the shepherds." he says as if he had done such great social work. I forgot to ask him how much he charged them that, for nothing comes free in this small patch of land!!
6	9:00	Triund	We paid off the guide, and started walking down to Dharamkot. Somewhere in between we took the wrong diversion and landed up in an abandoned village! hummm... it was kinda dicey... we would rather reach some road head in another town perhaps, rather then walk all the way up again... well, luckily this was a shortcut path actually, and the abandoned village was not abandoned at all. Here the monks lived in solitude, no amount of hollering would being them out! As i explored ahead i met a lone guy coming up and he confirmed the way...
	13:00	Dharamkot