We recently completed the roopkund trek (16-25th september 2011) in Uttarakhand (India). The route we followed was: Lohajung – bigan tal – lohajung – wan – bedni – ali – baguwabasa – roopkund – paatarnachaniya – wangbhandar – kanol – sutol – setail. Following is an account of it written for Times of India – Crest Edition by Padmaparna Ghosh (a member of our trek group), link to which is here (published on November 26, 2011). The same article has been repeated here for your convenience. The article is followed by an image gallery and details of our itinerary.
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view from bedni bugyal :: © 2011 Sriparna Ghosh
The very first 200 metres of the trek to Roopkund offer a trailer of what is in store along the 100-kilometre route that meanders through scenic Himalayan alpine meadows to the legendary lake at the base of Trisul massif. If you can brave the punishing climb and treacherous weather, the trek can be rewarding. Roopkund, set at 5, 029 metres in a windswept landscape, is a desolate high-altitude lake tailor-made for eerie stories told around a campfire. Add some human skeletons dating back to the 9th or 10th century strewn along the edges of the glacial lake and you have bones to back your horror story.
The skeletons belong to a 500-strong group of pilgrims though the exact reason for their annihilation is unknown. It is believed that they were killed in a hailstorm or blizzard of epic proportions but the icy winds lashing the area preserved the remains surprisingly well. Local lore, of course, adds a more dramatic twist to the story: a king took along his pregnant wife along on the pilgrimage. To the displeasure of Goddess Nanda Devi, whose writ runs in the area, he took a troupe of dancers and musicians for entertainment. The king, it is said, had pooh-poohed the advice of wise men and saints, and decided that a party was called for. Moreover, the wife had to go on and deliver her child in the badlands, which angered the goddess no end. And that was it – the party was over.
Ours, however, was just getting started. And on a bright, chirpy morning our team of seven and three mules set off for the green rolling meadows, Bedni Bugyal (bugyal means meadow), via the little village of Wan. Wan (at 2, 450 metres) is reached via a bonecracking short road journey from Lohajung, the base for the Roopkund climb.
We scrambled to the top of the Wan Ridge. Unlike some of my fellow trekkers, I hadn’t read up anything about the trek. But even my well-read colleagues were not prepared for what we saw – a giant, upright monolith that looked impossible to scale. And to reach it, we had to go across a river. So we climbed down all the way to the river and climbed back again;negating the hundreds of metres we had toiled to climb for an hour – zero sum game.
It took us a good three hours till Bedni top with nothing much to report scenery wise, as the walk is steeply up through a forest, with no peak views. Near the end, I was pretending to stop to take photos but actually catching my breath to avoid any cracks about my climbing skills.
The weather was also the harbinger for the rest of the journey. Clouds and dense fog took away our aha! moment as we left the tree line and meandered to the gorgeous pasturelands. We only got a sense of the wide, empty, green spaces when the fog lifted briefly. We had to wait till the following dawn for a 360 degree view of Bedni, which has the monstrous Trisul peak behind it and the Chaukhamba, Nanda Ghunti and Haathi-Ghoda peaks on the side. Bedni and Ali Bugyal make up the stretch of the prized alpine pastures of the Garhwal region to which shepherds and goatherds flock every summer. But our picnic on the meadows had to move on.
The subsequent hurdles didn’t inspire confidence. Sinister stops with names like Ghoda Lathaniya, Paathar Nachaniya and Kalu Vinayak dotted the path to our next campsite, Bhugwa Basa. Cloudy weather kept its date and we climbed the much-feared ascent to the Kalu Vinayak pass, which holds a tiny temple of Ganesha. Vikram Singh, a part of our support staff, was convinced that the bad weather was punishment for not praying to the elements at the start of the trek. But we did pray as we negotiated the semi-treacherous, slippery, wobbly rocks to Bhugwa Basa, where all hell and hail broke loose. We managed to pitch our tents on a slippery slope as the clouds moved in for the night and pulled in the curtains on the peaks. The mules, smart beings, tried to make a run for Wan in the night but were stymied by a roadblock set up by Laxman, their owner.
A sleepless night in sub-zero temperature later, we started on the last ascent, or so we thought, to the lake. We had not anticipated the overnight frost on every rock, which would have made a great silent comedy if it weren’t so painful. But notwithstanding the mild altitude sickness, freezing winds, and a slippery path, we forged ahead, very slowly.
We had targeted two hours for the five-km ascent and proudly made it in two hours and five minutes. Truth be told, the lake itself is a bit of a letdown but the tale of the skeletons is true – we had to be careful hat we didn’t step on anything. We weren’t particularly religious, but we didn’t want to offend any spirits by stepping on an ancient femur.
From Roopkund, one can also hike up to the Jura Gali, a short ascent, for a full view of the massive Trisul Peak from its base. The trek can also be extended to the other side over the pass, via Shila Samudra to Homkund and down. Mules, however, cannot make this journey and porters will need to be employed.
We were lucky. We got our half an hour of sun at the lake while a small group right behind us missed out on the view. The weather from Kalu Vinayak to Bhugwa Basa is unkind and unpredictable, giving the landscape its otherworldly, inhospitable look but also making it exceedingly difficult for hikers to decide when to go.
On the way down to Paathar Nachaniya, we had to race back in the face of a hailstorm. And suddenly, the jokes we made about divine interventions and punishments were not so funny anymore. Paathar Nachaniya is a tricky spot to camp as water sources dry and spring up randomly here. Nonetheless, the position of the campsite is spectacular, with views of both the valley below and the peaks above.
Trekkers usually head back down the same way, via Wan. We chose a different route via villages Kanol and Suthol, extending the trek by a day. The hike from Paathar Nachaniya to Kanol though is fairly long, at approximately 18 km, with steep ascents and descents and a seemingly interminable last leg through a forest. But the village has one of the prettiest forest resthouses I have ever seen. Ringed with a small garden with blooming flowers, it is the perfect place to pass out at the end of the day. The next village, Sutol, is a disappointment though the forest between Kanol and Sutol is one of Garhwal’s finest with towering, decades-old pine and oak trees and wildflowers in full bloom. This is especially so in September, post-monsoon. The undergrowth contrasts beautifully with the stunning magenta and scarlet harvest colours of the cholai crop in the villages.
Sutol is disappointing but we did get a flat bed and a concrete loo. Though comforting, these are also signs of approaching urban life – cellphone signal, tap water, paved sidewalks and, even Facebook. If you can imagine life without these for 10 days, then the Roopkund trek has all the trappings of an adventure – storms, cliffs, stellar peaks and a creepy lake.
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18 September: Lohajung (8.00 am) – Bigan tal (11.30 am) – Break (70 mins.) – Lohajung (2.40 pm)
19 September: Drive to Wan (45 mins.). Wan (8.30 am) – Gheroli Patal FRH (1.00 pm) – Lunch (45 mins.) – Bedni Kund (3.00 pm)
20 September: Bedni Kund to Ali Bugyal and back (4 hours)
21 September: Bedni Kund (8.00 am) – Ghodalauthaniya (10.00 am) – Paatarnachaniya (10.45 am) – Break (15 mins.) – Keluvinayak (1.00 pm) – Lunch (15 mins.) – Baguwabasa (2.00 pm)
22 September: Baguwabasa (7.30 am) – Roopkund (9.30 am) – Break (45 mins.) – Roopkund (11.30 am) – Campsite pack-up (45 mins.) – Paatarnachaniya meadows campsite (2.00 pm)
23 September: Paatarnachaniya (8.30 am) – Kunol (4.00 pm) – through Wangbhandar and Memphada: hell of a long day!
24 September: Kunol (10.30 am) – Sutol (2.00 pm)
25 September: Sutol – Setail (everyone was depressed to be going back and so no one took note of time, but must have taken 2 hours)
