How does it happen: Vijay “The Trekker”
came across the group called YHAI (youth hostels association of
Here came the day we were waiting for 8 May; we have to catch a train from Mumbai Central at 9:25 pm. I was excited about this trip for many reasons first a holiday with my friends second I want to feel snow again third I want to go away for some time and many more desire.
Not exactly the trip started on 8 May the preparation started way back. Vijay our coordinator mailed us all to bring stuffs that are absolutely necessary for the trip like trekking shoe, kind of cloths and etc (for some of which I relied on other people).
I packed them all and I was ready to board the train. I came across many things that I should have carried with me on trek. I had the luxury to share that with my friends; this is the benefit to go as a group.
Let me introduce you to over group. Varid,
he is my schoolmate form Khandwa.
Vijay, he is my schoolmate from Khandwa. Rudra,
he is Vijay’s College mate from 
he is Rudra’s schoolmate form 
he is Vijay and Rudra’s roommate in Pune. Shashank,(he.. he…)
his connection is complicated leave that part.
Ok he is my schoolmate’s cousin’s schoolmate. And you know me. Some more information Vijay and Rudra are known for traveling, they do not waste a single weekend.(and I am the reverse…till now)
As usual it does not happen what we plan for. We had 2nd AC tickets waiting 1, 2,3,4,5. We thought all will get confirmed but two of them got confirmed and 3 RAC(So we were 5 people and one more to join and 3.5 seats…what acomfortable arrangementto travel 26 hours J ). This was the first time I was traveling with a RAC ticket in 2nd AC. Varid was suppose to join us from Ratlam, so he did, and kept up his promise.
Thanks to Varid for that, since it’s rare that he keeps up his appointment due to icici bank workload.(he is also known as Mr.KAAMDHAR… inke kaam me who dhaar hai ki inke bina Mr.KAMATH ki bank ka kaam nahi chalta….Now don’t ask who is KAMATH)
8 May
I took a local at 6:00 pm from andheri to mumbai central,(local log hai local me chalte hai ) there I meet Sumit and Amit. Sumit and Amit are our schoolmates came to C us off. After some time Vijay and Rudra joined us. Soon after Rishabh joined us. We took heavy snacks to keep up going(Actually it was Dinner).I went through the chart and noted the seat numbers. Also I looked for F20 to F30 in the chart I could not found any.(This badluck followed mr from school time) .
To my know knowledge I thought girls travels in AC II but it tuned to be wrong this time. May be they travel in 3 AC I thought at that time. We boarded and train started still Shashank was on his way to catch the train. He was on board like “DDLJ” style.(just 3 minutes before the departure) I came to know after that this is his style he never misses his train like Kareena Kapoor in “Jab We Met”.
We slept after seat arrangement and some gossip.(popularly known as BAKAR)
9 May
We were in train and The B’day Boy Varid was supposed to board at 7:00 am from Ratlam. He boarded the train and went to check his ticket in S7 coach. He came back to our coach and went to sleep with his heart broken. He had an overnight journey to Ratlam from
After some time every body was awake and we had breakfast, then lunch. We also celebrated Varid’s birthday.
Rishabh brought cake from home. Since he is a localite of Mumbai his mother gave home made stuffs to eat. Every body went back to sleep in the afternoon. (Thus implementing the saying KHANA and SONA).I took Rudra’s ipod and enjoyed the music in the AC with curtain all over the coach. That is the worst part traveling in 2nd AC. By that time we were on the
Sand….and sand everywhere and nothing else what I could see, thought of Jaisalmer came to my mind “my dream destination”.
In the evening we played cards and had chitchat. We were about to reach
We had to get down at Ambala at 1:00 am. We had two hour of sleep left or you can say just rest.
10 May
Train was on time and we were out by 1:15 am. (15 minutes late is known as ONTIME in
As usual I set on left window middle seat. Why? Because I suffer from vomit on snake type road. Road was superb till
I woke up when we were near to our destination Kasol. After a long hiatus I was back to mountains.
We reached YHAI base
He was so happy to see a group from
Now let me introduce with schedule and campsite of YHAI. Campsite was on the BANK of river PARVATI and consisted of leader’s tent, girl’s tent (AKA the Monument), boy’s tent, staff tent, and shade for cooking, girl’s toilet and boy’s toilet. As ususal girls and boys tent are way apart like girls and boys hostel in college, separated by a passage(My bad luck again) where common activities take place.
Schedule was like military. Get ready by 6:00 AM in the morning for morning exercise before that bed tea at 5:00 that was the best part. 7:00-8:00 breakfast. After that, line up to see off the previous group heading for higher camp. Clean the surrounding. Get ready by 9:00 am for orientation walk to near by hill. Come back by 1:00 pm for lunch. Orientation class at 3:00 pm. 5:00 pm tea and snack, 7:00pm dinner, 8:00 pm campfire followed by milk, 10:00 lights off.
Being our reporting day we do not have to follow all off the schedule. We kept food timing in mind. We went to Manikaran(a famous Sikh pilgrimage having hot water springs)after lunch by local bus. The weather was rainy. In mountain weather change very quickly.(There is an old HIMALAYAN saying…”Mumbai ka fashion and Pahado ka mausam ka koi bharosa nahi ”)
The clouds play hide and seek. People bought rain sheet from Manikaran market for our trek to high altitude. (And I bought an Umbrella….!!!)
Then we took a walk back to base camp, the weather was clear by that time. It’s been a nice evening on the mountain road river flowing by the mountainside. We enjoyed the walk and momos in kasol as well.
We heard from the group coming back from surpass that the weather is not good there. They had to face lot of rain and snowfall. Some of them in that group did not have good experience. So I was petrified to hear from them since I know how snowstorm feels. I told my friends if it rains or weather remains like that I am not going to high altitude. Actually I read the news of two women trekker in there 50’s died due to cold while trekking in
My friends told do not worry we will face it. Luckily during our trek we faced the best weather. Also we came to know that the two women that died, died on the same trek uphill. God was with us all the time and bestowed upon us with good weather. That is why they do all paper work before, so they YHAI is not responsible for adversities. Trekking is not that easy what I felt, you have to be careful and watch each step ahead.
Till dinner we made some friends to name some Kripa 
,Smita
,Garima ,Mahandraji (he was known friend from Dalhousie trek to vijay and shashank ) and his daughter Sonal. Your group was SP-13 that comprise of 50 people altogether. Mostly we were bachelors expect few. We had only one couple with us and I do not know how many after that.
We had dinner and slept by 9:00 pm on reporting day.
11 May
The day started with the bed tea. Its purpose was to wake you up and encourage you to leave your blanket.(which it failed in my and Gagan’s case) I hate the part between 5:00-6:00 because there is a query for toilet too. I woke up at 4:15 got fresh and went into the blanket once again. We did morning exercise just like Amir Khan style is “Jo jeeta vahi Sikandar First half” (Excluding the Romance part of the movie). After 5-10 minutes my drowsiness was gone. There are many benefits, by the way first it wakes you up, second it prepares you for future adversities, third acclimatize you with the environment. Morning exercise ended with laughter exercise. That was fun since I did not do it before. At the same time it was very hard too, I did not laugh with out a cause before.
After that we had a breakfast, then cleaned the surrounding and then see off the SP-11 group to higher camp. We had half an hour left to go for our mountain acclimatization walk. So I preferred to go to toilet once again to make sure that I am not in trouble.
I tell you I was not alone most of us thought the same.
We had an hour walk uphill with two blankets in the rucksack and a water of bottle with us. Rucksack, two blankets and a sleeping bag sheet was giving to us on our reporting day. We had a brief introduction of the group and some activities at our resting point. It was a clear sky with the view of
We were supposed to join orientation class after lunch at 3:00 pm.
We missed that …do not be surprised.
Why?
He… he…he..We were sleeping that time in our tent. During entire trek Our group was always last to get ready but was always first for adventure. Field marshal conducted this orientation session to guide us about what to do and what not to do. He also explained varies tactics about trekking. (We didn’t bother much about those as there were many enthusiasts who were already trained in those.) We did not miss his advice that has been passed on to us by our friends. Then we went for some shopping in the evening to buy some searchlight, cap, woolen items, etc.
After dinner we had a campfire(believe me …they didn’t allowed any fire…so it was camp without fire.. jaise gulab jamun …bina chashni).YHAI campfire consists of bulb light instead of wood. Tonight was our group turn to perform. Mostly it consists of songs performance and jokes. There was one dance too. We were back to your respective tents after milk. I slept with the memories of a wonderful day and fear to wake up early in the morning.
12 May
Same routine till 9:00 am, morning exercises followed by cleaning of campsite followed by breakfast followed by see off of SP-12 group to higher camp. C off was like a ceremony to motivate the group(and to say….ki jaldi wapis mat aana….yaha per jagah nahi hai) .For that we make two line facing each other, when the group starts for higher camp we cheer and clap for them.(actually we wanted to take snaps and videos of the good looking girls..clapping to bahana tha….).
This day went by fast. We were anxious for the next day also we had to arrange and pack our rucksack for uphill.For morning session we had repelling and for afternoon we had rock climbing. I did repelling and slept at the time of rock climbing since I am not used to wake up at 4:00 in the morning. I need some rest between funs(rather….more rest and less FUN). Repelling and rock climbing exercise was just to make us aware. Every body did repelling but few could do rock climbing due to time constrains.(and some were asleep on the rocks…at the time of rock climbing….like gagan and vijay)
Now it was time for us to pack our rucksacks. It was daunting task, you cannot carry all the stuff uphill and cannot leave essential at the same time. Tell you every kg counts at the high altitude. We have to pack our bags according to the saying “Prepare for the worst and hope for the best”. It took lot of thought, suggestions and coordination to pack our rucksacks. By the dinnertime we were prepare mentally to go uphill. I still had a little bit fear of trekking in the bad weather. I again told my friends if its rain when we start I am not going, luckily it did not rain otherwise I would have missed the golden opportunity.
We went to our tents after the campfire and did a lot of bakar….
13 May – By bus to Unch Dhaar and trek to youth hostel Guna Paani via Shila village Ht. 8000 ft.
It was a relax morning as compare to the other two days. We do not have to wake up early for morning exercise. So I woke up a bit late and I was mentally prepared to go for uphill. It was a clear sky with good sunlight to give my mind a green signal. We had our breakfast and packed our lunch. Whenever we go ahead we had one time lunch packed with us. Last two days we clapped and motivated others now it was our turn to get motivated. We had a slogan with us while going ahead “Sarpass Sarpass pura karenge ham pachas”. Why that so because some of the previous groups were not able to complete full trek due to bad weather.
We had to wait for a while for the bus that will take us to Unch Dhaar. Buses were busy in the Rahul Gandhi election campaign rally. So we all rested on the grassland till the bus arrived. We were 50 so every body could not settle inside. Some of us who like a bit thrill climbed up to experience fresh air. Now you must be wondering how a guy like me how is fearful climbed up. Let you know I always like adventure but time-to-time priorities change. 10-15 people climbed up to experience mountain beauty face to face for next hour. We had to be a little bit cautious of the trees branches, wire and cables, rocks coming our way ahead. We sung songs, shared jokes that filled the atmosphere with laughter and joy. The situation was like Dil se song “Chiya Chiya” except the dance part. No body dared to dance on the moving bus on the hilly road. I was making more friends as the day passes. I came to know Makku sir
and 
We called
them sir because they were in there 40’s, proper trekkers, young at heart and Jolly by nature. They both are from custom and excise department. 
We were at Unch Dhaar around noon ready to walk up the hill to reach Guna Pani. It took 4 hours for us to reach Guna Pani including lunch break. Thanks to good weather otherwise it would not be that easy as it looks.
It was advise in the orientation that not to make noise will you trek. Reason behind this was that you should be able to hear the falling stone or any such thing. As usual our group did not follow rules we chatted, gossiped, sung song all the way. We passes water fall on the way to reach our lunch point. Most of the lunch point was near by falls. I followed the strategy to walk slow and steady till the destination without resting in between. It paid for me; I did not felt tired though out the trek. We had two guides to guide us the route always. One always lead and one take care of the tail. Also there were marks on trees and stones to guide us the way.
After two hours of walks we reached lunch point. We had our lunch and also maggi. Local villagers sell maggi, tea, chips etc to earn there living at lunch points. Worst part the price of each item increase as you walk uphill and the best part we had the luxury to have that even on snow peak too.
Around 4:00 pm we reached Guna Pani, camp leader was there to welcome us all. Followed by welcome drink consist of flavored water…lichi flavor(I didn’t knew how it was tasting for few gulps….then I came to know that it wasn’t that tasty..), after that tea with biscuits/peanuts/bhajiye and then dinner. Camp leader are members of YHAI who tender their services for noble cause.
Let me describe you the campsite uphill. It consists of six to seven tents altogether, open canteen, open space to get fresh and a running water pipe. Flow in the pipe depends on the source of waterfall.
First thing the Camp leader did is assigning the tents and let you know which part of open space is meant for men and for women to get fresh. We were 55 people altogether including camp leader and cooking staff.
Time passes by fast, thanks to YHAI cooking staff for that. What we do is eat and drink until dinner. We have to adhere to the time and support the cooking staff because sun set early in mountains and no electricity. So dinner was pretty early...i.e 6.30 pm. (I also didn’t believe it…J)
Nights were much cooler and calm. After dinner we had campfire. Participation in the campfire decreases as we climbed up. We had one melodious voice with us; she sung most of the ending song. Listening to music is one of my hobbies so I like that part a lot.
In the tent there were 11 people… me, Vijay, Varid , Rudra, Gagan, Rishabh, Makku sir and sandy Sir,
Vinay 
and Raghu
(guys from Bangalore) and Mahinder ji.
In the rest of the journey we all tried to get into the same tent as there was built up a bond between all of us….
By 10:00 pm we were into our sleeping bag to hear some ghost stories by Vijay. Tell you the truth I only remember the start of Vijay’s stories; it was sleeping pills not only for me but also for most of us.
14 May – Trek to youth hostel Fual Pani 9500 ft
I woke up to find myself the last in my tent; this was the same for rest of the mornings uphill. Sometimes I was second last too depends on Rishabh but for sure I was last or second last. Then search for fanta bottle outside the tent. It was two-liter water bottle used to carry water for going to STD calls. Best part was I do not have to think about queue just find the empty near available space and go ahead. (Varid was the guy who carried the bottle in his bag…and in turn we carried his drinking water.)
After that tea and breakfast, then pack lunch, clean campsite and get ready to walk up. Whenever we leave a campsite we chant our slogan “Sar pass Sar pass pura karenge ham pachas”.
This part of trek was quite steep and full of tall trees. We had experienced some showers in between too just for a short time 5-10 minutes. We reach Fual Pani by 4:00 pm. The campsite was surrounded by dense forest and tent on the sloping hill. The weather was rainy at that time. So we had to fasten all the schedules. We had to finish our dinner by 6:30 pm. It was dark by the dinnertime and rain started.
One interesting incident from this campsite. The camp leader, Jignesh, was a guy from
I must describe the glare in the eyes of Jignesh …it was certainly a glare of achievement and a glare of appreciation.
We had campfire in the rain too thanks to our group enthusiasm. It was not raining heavily and also we had tree as an umbrella to help us. I could feel the drop of water falling slowly from the tree leafs.
Our tent was near between the tent of the camp leader and the Girls tent.
After sometime it got intense we went to your tent. It was advice not to go out of tent in the night because of wild animals. Now mountain bear comes into picture. Same sleeping pills from Vijay (about which in morning I heard that it was really scary) and my lovely day come to end. The next day in the morning I heard the camp leader asking people “Are bhai us kate hue hath ka kya hua??”
15 May- Trek to youth hostel Zirmi 11000 ft.
This was our best day of trek. We left Fual Pani on time. The trek between Fual Pani and Zirmi has scenic beauty. All of us were busy getting pictures. Gagan showed his photography skills. He had SLR with him. He also had a tragedy. He carried tripod stand without SLR screw to the SAR pass, (the main pain was that the tripod was really a burden…and he can’t throw It.) so he could not capture night view properly (For your information tripod stand is used to set camera on it).
It was a pleasant sunny day on the best part of the trek. We could see and feel the beauty of mountain. We passed dense trees to welcome grasslands with the view of snow-clad mountains. We reached early to Zirmi camp at 3:00 pm to meet our camp leader Rajiv. We had lot of time to enjoy the beautiful campsite of Zirmi. Now let me introduce Rajiv. 
He is young handsome guy in his 30’s from Haryana. We met him on second day in Kasol. He was our leader on orientation walk. His delivery of joke in Haryanvi style was the best in him.Then he moved at higher camps. In the first visit only we well mixed with him. So we were glad to meet him again. He knew that we were coming so he had made plan for us.
We could hear a river flowing by the other side of the mountain. He had planed to go there with us. He knew that we would have energy and willingness to go down to the river fall. Around 20 brave guys among us went to have an adventure. For me it was a real trek, we have to find our own way down. We went through bushes, thorny trees, steep and slippery path.Varid returned from middle of the way. I slipped and bend my ankles. Went we reached down to the fall it started raining. Water was chill in the fall, straight from
The best part his third plan, we had campfire with the real fire for the first time. Actually YHAI is environment friendly organization so burning of wood in not allowed. But since we were his favorite, he has arranged that for us.There were locals who lighted some fire near camp in the name of burning garbage It was best night for us all. Clear-cut sky, too many stars…..and campfire with the heat of fire in chilled night and melodious song with Haryanvi jokes in between. I could not remember at that time when I had the last chance to see the clear sky with twinkling star before.
As usual we were in our sleeping begs ready for Vijay’s story.
16 May - Trek to Tila Lotni 12500 ft.
I woke up to see a gorgeous view in the morning. The reflection of the sunrays from the snow mountain was amazing. That’s why Zirmi was so special campsite. We thanked Rajiv was his splendid hospitality.
Now we were almost on the top of the mountain could see SAR pass on the way to Tila Lotni. It’s the highest base camp in the journey of SAR pass.
I mentioned earlier that Varid found someone in the trek. Yes he did found Krupa to accompany him at the last. Varid has extra pound on his body so he had started showing breathing problem now. Krupa had fever so she walked slowly. Tell you Krupa had guts if I was in her place the situation might have been different. We also had Makku and
At lunch point we were at 12000 altitudes. We lay on the grassland to view beautiful Himalayan ranges in front of us. It was like a picture kept in front of my eyes. The price of one plate of maggi was 40 Rs by that time. I told you price increases with the altitude. It was 20 Rs downhill.
After lunch we had to cross a snow mountain to reach our campsite. It was slippery, one wrong step and you land down hill sliding through the snow mountain. It was only 200-meter walk on snow for that day.
We reached Tila Lotni campsite by 4:00. Snow snow…everywhere what I could see now. Altitude started showing its effect by then; I had a little bit of head pain now. We had tea followed by dinner. Weather is unpredictable here it usually snows by the evening so we had to finish your dinner by that time. We were instructed to wear sunglass all the time because snow glare can damage eye retina. Also we were told to leave the campsite by 4:30 in the morning. Reason behind this was its better to pass SARPAAS before 12:00pm since snow start melting after that and it get much slippery by that time. Also no certainty of weather, snow blizzard can come any time. This was the part of the trek where two women died. Actually there group was stuck in the snow blizzard.
We were into our sleeping bag early, as most of us were not feeling feel.
17 May – Trek to youth hostel Biskeri Thatch 11000 ft via
Vijay was first brave one to wake up early in the morning. I woke up at 5:00 am to find that still I have much time to get ready. The morning was as beautiful as it was the previous day. Difference was that I was much closer to the
The camp leader Mahesh from
People were angry at him for different reasons.
Some thought that we were late…and we can face some melted snow and…. some thought if we would have known it….we would have slept more!!!(people like me, Gagan and Rishabh)
Finally we left Tila Lotni campsite by 6:00 am. Even though we left early we were late by the standard time.
After an hour walk we were totally into the snow. Our guide has asked us to contribute some money for puja. Local people worship
The journey had some hardships and these were different for everyone.
Rishabh was certainly not feeling well and was in very low spirits as he walked very slowly.
Varid …was also facing problems in walking as the snow was not able to take the burden of his leg (Ek Hanuman ji ka paanv tha Mahabharata me and ek inka hai).
Every time he sat his foot in the snow, his leg went 2-3 feet in the snow…now you can imagine his condition.
We were advised to put polythin between socks and the shoes so that the snow doesn’t go into the shoes. But varid’s shoes came out at a point of time. J
Smita’s shoes were proper hunter shoes …but they were not good enough to take the adventure… (In local words shoes ne muh khol ditta).
People had their set of difficulties but the best part was that they overcome them and came out like true winners….This was a true achievement..I think a bigger one than climbing SAR pass.
There was a lunch point...where they had put a plastic sheet on the snow and prepared place for us to sit.
People say eating food gives warmth to your body, and the warmth was neutralized by the cooling effect which was coming from my bottom. J
It took us 5-6 hours of walk to pass the
The Group was so happy after reaching that place that they forgot all their pains and started shouting.
We actually conquered SAR pass.Poore pachas.
Remember the old golden childhood days, the day when we take turns to slide down on the sliding plate in the garden. It was similar to that snow replaced the plate. It was the best thrill I ever had experienced in my entire life. My back was totally frozen by the time I finished sliding. Tell you it was good that we had 2 hours walk left to reach Biskeri Thatch otherwise some of the part might have got frozen bite.
One incident occurred with Krupa, who became our friend here only and Raghu (guy from
And at one place, at the end of the slide we had to walk through snow where a stream was flowing below it. The snow was loose there and Raghu and Krupa slipped and half of their body was in the stream….freezing stream with water just flowing below ice.
It was really scaring for them as the guide also went ahead and both of them were caught and can’t help each other.
Then they gathered all their strength and called loudly and then he heard and came back.
It was really close…as staying long in this position may cause Hypothermia.
When we reached the Biskeri Thatch, we were all exhausted. It was longest walk day.
The Biskeri thatch was really beautiful. The plains amidst the hills were covered with green carpet of Grass, giving us full invitation to roll over.
There was sunlight which filled all of us with warmth and the mountains were shining in it as if they were wrapped with silver.
We all rested really …as in the whole day’s journey there was no place even for sitting as snow was all around.
Our lovely journey was about to end. By the way our slogan proved to be true. All 50 of us passed the
I did not get the chance to hear the Vijay’s story tonight. I slept early.
18 May – Trek to youth hostel Bandhak Thatch 8000 ft.
Now remain part of the trek was just casual walk for us. Enjoy the nature and walk downhill. Bandhak Thatch campsite was on the huge grassland ground. It was like a rest day for us. We were busy with our gossip on the grassland, enjoying the view on the sunny evening.
There were pine trees in the way and in the spring season the pine fruits fall.
There were pine fruits in the whole way and people picked them up as they are good showpiece. The whole way was fun.
Some of them started taking all the contact details. We had developed a bond among us in past days. The sorrow feeling of leaving all was in the atmosphere.
For the camp fire lightning of fire was not allowed but we persuaded camp leader to burn cow dung cakes…as they were available in plenty.(These cows…I tell u…they have no manners).
We gathered the cow dung cakes in a big bag, and there was Raghu to test(not taste) that they were dry before putting them to collection.
We sang many songs and enjoyed a lot.
We had the longest campfire of our trek tonight.
19 May- Trek up to Barshani Road head, transfer by bus to Manikaran and trek up to base camp kasol, Valedictory function.
We had to catch a bus from
We enjoyed the way down as we enjoyed the way up. I had my hand of golf too, walking stick as club and pine as golf ball. We reached the base camp at 4:00 pm. After completing the reporting formalities I collected my certificate. Now it was time to get civilized again. I had 10-day beard on my face and I had not taken bath since then too. So we went to a hotel and rented bathroom to get fresh. It was good to be in the close and have the feeling of hot water. Vijay, Gagan and Rudra went on the banks of river parvati where some small
Non-veg so they had chicken dishes.(bhookhe bhediyo ki tarah toot pade the sab khane per)Some of us did little bit of shopping and was ready to go back. We had arranged a cab to take us to
Next day we were on our way back to home. End of one of the best journey I ever had with the memory that will remain with me forever.
Many thanks to Vijay who led this happen. Thanks to YHAI for organizing such at wonderful trek with the low minimum cost affordable to all. And at last thanks to each one of our group member that made the journey memorable.
My purpose of this write up is to encourage people to take time from their busy life and enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature. A guy like me can do trek so why cannot you?
I had not mention most of the hilarious moment in this version of write up. If I do get time I would like to enhance this to minute by minute.
Thank you for your patience to read all the pages.
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