A trip to paradise of Natural beauty

It has been 4 years but still look like only months, the day on which I felt like being top of the world. It was the day when I witnessed top of Mayali pass. I was fortunate to get a chance to go on such trek. At some time during the trek, we were at 18000 Ft. above the sea level with full proud on yourself. Our Adeline flow was at a peak and our ‘can do’ attitude made this trek successful.

Starting phase
My plan for going on the trek started with a phone call. My phone rang, it was one of my senior on other side and he was asking me about my intention to go for Masartal and Mayali pass trek. I have always been an avid traveler all my life and never missed any outing opportunity. At the drop of a hat, I agreed. I was told that we will have physical conditioning from tomorrow. Trek was scheduled after 20 days. During these days trip members had planned to increase everyone’s endurance and strength.

Mayali Pass trek

Now, let me give you some brief about the trek. Mayali Pass Trek is a high altitude trek famous for enjoying the glimpse of Himalayan life in villages (Gangi & Reeh) with dense Himalayan forest, Beautiful meadows, Himalayan peaks like Jogin Group, Meru, Thalay-Sagar, a high altitude pass (Mayali 5500m), three high altitude lakes Masartal, Painya Tal & Vasukital and a famous pilgrim center Kedarnath. All these features are rare in one single and trek.

We started physical conditioning which included 3KM running, 20 +20 min stretching and jumbled with some different set of exercises. We did rigorous training for 19 days and also took adequate rest in between. My other fellow members were quite experienced trekker and had already organized and planned some treks very properly. I was full of energy and excited to go on such a long trek.

Starting of Journey

Just a day before our journey everyone made sure we had kept things according to plan. It was around 11 pm at midnight and we were dividing the luggage among all 5 people equally. Everybody was expected to carry 15-18kg on their back. It seems to be too much of weight but our training gave a very good extra push. Our luggage included tents, sleeping bags and food items.

We started our journey at 4 am in morning and we were supposed to reach Rishikesh by 10 am. We were going to cover around 100 km of the trek in about 6 days. We started out trek from Tehri. Our morning was blessed with ample sunlight added with the cold breeze flowing like water on the face. We were headed towards Ghuttu, which is a small village near Ghansali. The geographical terrain was average as most of the roads were under construction. People were very friendly and helping us whenever we asked for any directions.

 At Ghuttu, we had a new addition to our group, our guide. He was an old man in his late 50s. He was having vast experience and has covered the same trek about 15 times from his early childhood. His vivid experience has already left me speechless.

We reached Reeh in evening and stayed in GMVN dormitory. After walking through the rough terrain of 10 km, we were very hungry but were lucky enough that food and blankets were available in the dorm. The temperature in the night very sharply at night.

Next day we travelled from Gangi to Kalyani. There is a lot of dense forests included with a steep climb at the end. It has a lot of camping sites along with shepherd huts. We covered around 15km on the way to Kalyani.  In evening we cleaned a place and laid our tents for overnight staying. Temperature seems to be dropping sharply and we were around 2683m above sea level.

Our most of the journey was included climbing and we were carrying glucose to give us enough energy throughout the journey. There were a lot of river tributaries along the way. We never faced any difficulty for water as most of these small tributary emerges from hill top which carries pure water. Our 4^th stop was Karsoli. There we found an abandoned hut but we choose to stay in tent only. Wood was not available for burning but our guide was carrying kerosene stove which became helped in cooking some supper. We were having enough options like Upma, Maggie, biscuits, powdered milk etc. We were also carrying 4 bottles of rum to prevent us from freezing during chilled nights.

Masartal

In Chowki we witnessed one land slide zone on the way which we crossed carefully. Two km before chowki cross there was a temporary log bridge which is prone to get washed away each year. We laid down our tents after crossing the bridge. Next day I among 2 other mates visited Khatling glacier. After facing lots of ups and down, at last on the 7^th day of our trek we reached Masartal.

Our trek started with following a small stream fed from Masartal on our left. Our first stop at Masartal was a beautiful lake on a high mountain with a lot of camping spots. As I looked back from the way Khatling glacier can be seen. The camping ground is just 1 ridge prior to the lake. We had started gaining altitude. We were feeling as the our breath became heavy and heavy. There were patches of snows on the camping ground. We reached Masatal around afternoon and were at 3980m altitude.

The Myali Pass

Next day when I moved out of tent it witnessed snow fall, the first time in my life. Our entire tent was covered with snow. I tried to construct small snow ball. We were about to reach our second destination Myali pass. Now onward we have to descend the elevation. And I thought it was going to be an easy passage down.

End of Journey

We start getting down to Kedarnath and its knee breaking descent over boulders. We came to Kedarnath and halted for an hour. We had lunch and moved towards Vasukital. I soon realized that this will be our last halt as we were about to complete our journey. It was indeed time worth spending in valleys of Himalayas.

 I captured a lot of photos and videos which still keep all those experiences alive within me. I hope nature give me lot more occasion to visit its beauty.