Almost Roopkund

 This is the story of my trek, Almost Roopkund, yes the name sounds a little weird. What started off as a fun trek, turned into a life changing experience. Nope I did not suffer from any accidents nor did I go through any x number of hours of gruesome ordeal. This place made me redefine my sense of reality.  I guess there was nothing normal about this trek for me. It was a series of random events strung together. Every one of them new and breath taking, every one of them made me rethink a lot of my past assumptions. I will not get into the travel details like I usually do. For a change I will share with you my experience. I have warned you before, don’t expect anything coherent.

One random phone call led to a series of events which unfolded in a very dramatic manner which finally landed me in New Delhi one lazy hot Tuesday morning. I choose to use the word lazy here to remind you that I don’t run the rat race. I set the pace for my life. After the basic preps and running around the journey to Rishikesh began, then later to places like Rudraprayag and Karnaprayag. At the end of the first leg of the journey we landed at Wan, an isolated village nestled amongst the virgin valleys of the Himalayas.

The trip so far was adventurous by any normal measure, but I was not looking for just any adventure. I embarked on this journey for a variety of reasons. I guess the most important was the need for answers to a few of my questions. I needed time and space to find it, time and space, away from the mundane responsibilities of everyday life.

Wan was answer to some of my questions, here I found myself slowing down, absorbing the nature and all her energies. Here I had a strange yet familiar encounter with Latodevata , a local deity, who also happens to be a very ancient pine tree. Here I understood the reason why people visit Himalayas in search of their personal truth in hordes. Here there is no need for a cordoned space called temple, no need for a sanctum sanatorium. I realized the very space is sacred. 

We started our trek in the night, those of you who are faint hearted; don’t even think of trying this. We were duly admonished at by the forest guards and the local shepherds when they figure out we had made the first ascent in the night.

The reason, some of my fellow climbers had a paranormal experience, which involved floating lights in the middle of the forest. Before you judge and look for scientific reasons, understand very few of you have ever experienced any trek like this before. It is kind of difficult to visualize any such experience sitting in comforts of the city life.  Ya, back to the story, this experience freaked out two of my companions, so we stopped the trek and decided to camp for the night.

The climb so far was quite simple and easy, however I suffered from acclimatization problem. This in layman terms means I really couldn’t breathe and every step was a nightmare and every draw of breath set my lungs on fire. We ascended 3000 feet on the first leg.

The climb from the 2^nd base camp was relatively easy due to the easy gradient; however the air was getting thinner and thinner with every step I took. I took every opportunity to rest and catch some nonexistent breath.

We reached the third base camp. There the weather went from bad to worse, with constant hail and rain. With ten people already stuck in the higher reached with no possible rescue due to bad weather, we decided to wait and watch. The weather in the higher reaches Himalayas is like the thought process of women, very random and constantly changing.

Trust me the wait wasn’t bad either. The place is breathtaking. The high altitude meadows of Himalayas are beyond comparison. With snow capped mountains surrounding us on almost all sides, I was lost to the beauty.

With the weather showing no improvement we decided to start the descent. The trek down to Wan was normal and my breathing showed some improvement. Once in Wan we took the same route back to civilization.

On reaching Rishikesh we split up with Rahul continuing to Delhi. Hiten and I decided to spend the extra day roaming around Rishikesh. This basically involved me spending an awful amount of time at the Freedom cafe at the banks of Ganges. Go there it is an amazing place with good food. The next day we took the train back to Delhi. Then I continued my journey to Amravati. This was one of the most memorably journeys of my life. I found what I wanted.

  Praveen