“zindagi jio beta , kato nahi [Live your life son , don’t spend it]”

— Anonymous 60yr old man ,on my way climb up.

This is the first post on my new blog , so be lil gentle & pardon my mistakes if any.

The year is 2016 when it all started, one weekend evening i was dead free and browsing through my laptop internet browser for some difficult & challenging Treks in The Himalayas as usual when i came across the most difficult pilgrimage in India , “Shrikhand Mahadev Trek” which is conflicting with my childhood perception of the most difficult pilgrimage “Amarnath yatra”. But after going through the pics & detailed info. of the trek , i aroused an interest in it as it has mountains in the trek to climb and for an unknown person I always want to climb somewhere , just want to go up & up & up , don’t know why but i get satisfaction. My mom used to say during my infancy i used to stop crying after looking into the vast blue SKY. Seems like a bonding in between altitude & me.

It’s been a month now since i signed-up for this blog, but unable to get the perfect mood and time for writing further.

But what has been started shall be finished – Trushar 😛

Shrikhand Mahadev Folklore & Geographical location :

In Hindu Mythology out of 5 Kailash [Abode of lord SHIVA] 3 are present in Himachal pradesh (Dev-Bhumi) and shrikhand kailash is one of them. Out of the 5 kailash only 2 are allowed to climb , while rest can be visited from the base of mountain , as it is said to be sacred and no humans are allowed without lord’s permission.

I believe you have your doubts now why only 2 are allowed to climb , why not all. I had too , but as described by one of the local of Himachal ” the 2 kailash which can be climbed are Lord’s court where he meets his devotee’s while others are his residence and you won’t like if anyone comes to your house without any invitation.” Seems to be one decent explanation 😀 .

I heard this story from many local pilgrim who were trekking along with me and also from one of the “Sadhu” who was giving his interview to one of the group and i was lucky enough to film it too.

In-short Lord Shiva after granting blessings to Bhasmasura(Demon) , that on who ever head he keep his hand will be burned down to ground. After receiving his blessings Bhasmasura tried to use his power on shiva himself. On realizing this Lord Shiva fled to one of the caves near Nirmand called Dev-dhank and before completely going inside Bhasmasura caught lord’s feet and didn’t let it go. So when lord did not come to kailash his wife Mata Parvati started crying upon which Lord Vishnu took mohini avatar and distracted Bhasmasura and when he let go Lord Shiva feet , Lord’s head Manifested in the form of a Stone on top of the mountain. Hence the name Shrikhand Kailash.

Shrikhand Mahadev yatra starts from Jaon Village , which is 45 km from nearest town Rampur Bushahr in Kullu district, Himachal pradesh. Nearest ATM will be in Nirmand (Largest Village of HP).

OUR TREK MAP & ITINERARY :

Let me first give you all a glance to our trek team members

Trushar : The Motivator (Myself, from Hyderabad)

Piyush : The Collaborator(My colleague, from Hyderabad)

KK : The Entertainer (Piyush’s Friend , from Pune)

Soumya : The Jugadu ( KK’s Friend , from Kolkata)

Since this was our first High altitude Himalayan Trek , we decided to do it Solo , without the help of any guide or private tour operators ,” you know the Ultimate excitement often people show when they are new to something :D” . And basically we all were unknown to at least one person in the group and meeting for the first time. So we all decided to meet up at Delhi and then move forward together.

DAY 0 (19th July 2019)

Today is the day i need to start from Hyderabad , woke-up in the morning got ready and went to office along with my 80L-Rucksack & 0 degree sleeping bag. From office i had to leave early to catch my evening flight with Piyush to Delhi and broad bus at night with KK & Soumya for rampur . It was a bit of hectic schedule but nothing as compared to the excitement of our first himalayan trek.

But you know nothing go perfectly as planned & here i got my first bump , Piyush became seriously ill even unable to sit straight & walk . I was going alone to meet two new person which i have never been acquainted with , just have got introduced with them on Whatsapp.

And that was not enough i got hit second hurdle , after reaching office not sure why i googled about Shrikhand trek latest news and to my shock ,following was posted on web :

After reading all this i was devastated , like all the money spent for your first himalayan trek , and you can not make it to the summit , thinking all these i stressed out a lot . Tried searching all & everything so that i can get a confirmation about the trek. After a long one hour research i got some locals phone number who assured me that yes the trek has been resumed and one can go till the summit.

Afternoon i started to airport & there to delhi , because of the attire (rucksack,sleeping bags , etc) most of the person confused me with Army personal , but had to correct them.

After reaching Delhi around 6pm , i had to travel to Delhi ISBT to board bus that was departing at 10Pm, the convenient means of transport would been booking a cab. But what’s the fun if you can’t travel in Delhi metro when you are in Delhi (Same as Mumbai’s Local) even it was Cheaper & faster too.

At the Bus-stand i met the other two group members (KK & Soumya) for the first time , and it was just a moment we got jell together , they were very nice persons beyond my expectations. And we boarded the bus , saying goodbye to the night.

DAY 1 (20th July 2019)

It was early in the morning when we reached Shimla Bus Depo. , from where the bus driver & conductor got replaced for a 6 hours long forward journey towards Rampur. And shimla was at its beauty during the monsoon morning.

New day with not so much of energy but abundance of excitement & the journey to Rampur was exciting , on the way one can see Some Himalayan Peaks covered with snow from bus , and that was first one for me , i could not take my eyes off from it , trying to see it from every possible way as the bus was taking many turns for getting downhill . Meanwhile my newly acquainted Trek mates (Soumya & KK) were busy interrogating most of the local travellers about the Trek , but i stayed little bit away from those discussion as i wanted to explore the Trek by myself without having any pre made thoughts in my mind. Out of all those companion travellers we got little comfortable with two guys (Abhilaksh & His colleague from Noida) whom we met a lot of times through the trek & became good acquaintance by the end.

Finally Our bus helped us reach Rampur at 12PM noon , to be honest it quite was late as we had planned to start the trek and go at least till the first base camp -Sinhgad. On reaching first we tried to find any hotel or dormitory for a room for 1-2 hours to get fresh & take the final bath for the coming week , we got one dormitory at 250/- for 2 hour just opposite to the striking Padam Palace.

The dormitory was just for us , there was no other guest . so we took turn and got fresh as fast as possible , because if we miss the last bus to Jaon it would have been either wasting more time i.e. waiting till next day or spending money by booking a local cab or auto.

After waiting for few more hours at the bus stop we got our bus which we were doubtful if it had already left and the locals in the bus stand were not clear about it as well. The Bus fair from Rampur to Jaon is just 45/- rs. , but it takes time as it go through various villages including Nirmand and Bagipul.

While enjoying the Pahari songs in the bus which I didn’t understand , we reached our destination Jaon village around some 4PM from where we have to go further only by walk and one could see the glimpse of our destination and the route that’s going to be.

And boy as soon as I started the trek , I could sense the beauty of the route and how its going to be , and at that moment it was immense joy that overwhelmed my heart followed by a heavy rain shower :).

We were not at all prepared for it ,and one cannot complain too as it was monsoon in Himalayas. Though I managed to put rain cover around my back pack and wear my jacket they were struggling to cope up with rain it was pouring down. And we couldn’t stop because it was already 5PM and it was going to be dark soon , we had to cover 3KM in hilly terrain.

When we did reach Singhgad , I was partially wet and my friends were fully wet :d . We got a Tent at 150/- for night close to the bhandra , where we would be doing our dinner for free. The officials informed us that the registration timings for the trek is from 8AM-5PM and one cannot go without doing it. Because if you go and get into any trouble , I guess if anyone can ever find out.

After setting in the tent and lying down for the first time in 20hrs it was heaven , as we were all wet and tiered our jugadu friend has some feel good things those I should not talk about here but I can assure its herbal :d. After having dinner we went to bed early.

As singhgad is the first base camp where all trekker and pilgrim should do their registration also who reached after 5pm had no choice but to stay there, so it was bit crowded camp with more than 300 people.

DAY 2 (21st July 2019)

Once you get up in the morning with hundreds of people ready to get freshen up and with limited washrooms(Last place in trek where one can get a washroom) , it was kind of an adventure it self to find a nice cleaned washroom and get fresh.