My footprints in snow — Photologue of my winter trek to Sandakphu-Phalut
My previous trek to Hampta Pass was supposed to be my last. My next trek was supposed to be only after 3–4 years. As resistance to trekking and mountains got weaker by the day, I found myself browsing through Indiahikes website every other day. For a while, I was just discounting this as a longing for the stunning Himalayan landscapes, which I assumed could be satiated with the gallery pages of the treks. And I could not have even been wronger than that.
On the last day of my trek, I asked SJ my trek lead to suggest a few more treks, what he thought I’d be able to manage, as I was among the slowest in the group. Kedarkantha and Deoriatal-Chandrashila were suggested. The other trek — Sandakphu — was also suggested but with a slight warning that it’d be lot longer.
Difficulty means different things for each and everyone. And just 2 treks were not enough for me understand my definition of difficulty or how much I can push myself. Age rating wise, Hampta Pass is rated 14+, while Sandakphu is 10+. Without understanding it fully, I took that as an indicator of difficulty, which means it’d be easier for me.
Sandakphu trek can be done in most months of the year except the monsoon. But a lot of articles made a point that Sandakphu was best done in winters.
While I was actually looking forward to another monsoon trek, I could not resist myself dreaming from a trek sooner than that. Soon I start to compiling a list of excuses to solidify this as a need. It was one of those few treks by IH, where the drive is just 3 hours, while most of their other treks easily have 8+ hours of drive. You get walk along the international borders (India-Nepal) without any passport or any checks. Even though I did a winter trek last year, I have not yet seen a snowfall or even real snow.
And the best of all, you get to see Mt. Everest along with the Kanchenjunga range and a few more 8000ers.
Nov & Dec 2016 — The preparation:
I was among the slowest in my previous trek. This time, even before I was thinking of doing a winter trek, I slowly started to work on my fitness. The failure of NW monsoon in Tamil Nadu made sure I had lesser reasons to skip my morning jogs. By November, I started to get regular and by December I was able to almost hit the targets set by myself.
Instead of 5kms in 30 mins, I was able to reach 4.5 consistently and 4.65 on a few occasions. 7kms in 40–45mins and I need 5 more minutes to achieve that.
Jan 2017 — the action begins
Jan 7th — reached Bagdogra, the closest airhead and stayed for the night. I would be joining the rest of group in the Siliguri railway station the next morning, from where we’ll be taking cabs arranged by IndiaHikes to Jaubari.
Day 0: The base camp and the briefing
The ride from Siliguri to Maneybhajang / Jaubhari was pretty much eventless, although the place we had lunch was beautiful (and also delicious).
Indiahikes calls Jaubhari the most beautiful base camp of theirs. A 3 minute walk from the road, and it was clear, there is absolutely no exaggeration in that statement.
Quickly settling down in our shared rooms, most of us took a stroll further down in the same path.
Since my last trek, Indiahikes has introduced several safety checks. Post dinner, we had the briefing and the medical check up. My BP was already close to the borderline and actually quite a few of us had the similar condition. We were given our health cards where conditions on each day will be recorded.
Day 1 — Jaubhari to Tumling
Jaubhari may not be known for sunrises. But I refuse to accept that. Such a beautiful place ought to be prettier in the golden hour and that was proven right on 1st morning of the trek.
A window with the view and a cup of tea to warm yourself, what more would you need to enjoy your 1st morning of a Himalayan winter trek.
Soon after the morning tea, the breakfast was ready. We were packing our rucksacks and getting ready for the first day of the hike. You can easily identify veterans in a trek group. Just an hour before the trek starts, when everyone is else is still busy packing, Arvind here is all geared up, doing his stretches, getting ready for his 8th trek.
While the trek is set to start from the road next to basecamp the ascent starts right from the basecamp. I am not sure if this is IndiaHikes’s strategy or not, but by the time you reach the road, you will start to understand your fitness levels.
The first day of the trek is generally the toughest of the days. Mostly because your body will be taking up too much of a strain that is not used to it in the normal urban life. The first couple of hours of this trek is an unforgiving ascent towards Chittrey.
Less than an hour into the trek, you start to forgot about the seemingly never-ending ascent, the thought that entered within first few minutes of trek. Instead you start enjoying the company of tall trees of the dense forest.
Sandakphu has a motorable road as well, and you start to see it from Chittrey.
The first break on the trek. Having tea at Chittrey. It was quite a relief to get the rucksacks down for a few minutes.
While my trek mates were waiting for the second/third cup of tea, the photo buffs( and me) quickly rush to this tiny shrine which is as photogenic as most of the Himalayan monasteries are.
The walk from Chittrey was mostly parallel to the road or sometimes on it.
Our next stop was Meghma — the lunch point. A couple of more hours to reach there and the ascent was not as steep as the initial part.
As we start from the lunch point in Meghma, the visibility levels dropped down a few notches.
Mist was almost a constant company for throughout the evening. If it was not mist, atleast sky was too cloudy.
The worry on the possibility of seeing the famed Sleeping Buddha would have entered the pessimist minds by this time. On the other hand, Dushyant kept reminding us that these weather conditions has higher chances of a snowfall.
4:45pm
We reached the homestay in Tumling and a wonderful surprise waited for us there. The clouds had decided to part ways for a few minutes giving us the glimpse of the Kanchenjunga range. Those few minutes until sunset were enough replenish our energy after a tiring first day.
The minute the sun set, the temperature started dropping rapidly. After a long tiring day, getting sleep was way too easy. I did miss the camping experience, but given the temperatures outside I did not complain a lot.
Day 2 — Tumling to Kalipokhri
Within a few minutes of starting the day from Tumling, we reached the Singalila National park. And this spot seems to be a selfie magnet. Every travelogue I’ve read regarding this trek has a selfie taken at the entrance. Thats probably because when one member of the group gets the entry ticket and camera tickets, rest of the group get into a selfie mode. Our guide Buddha-da was on that for us.
I remember, I definitely spotted a bird in this area. By the time I could zoom (in my wide-angle) for it, it disappeared quickly, with some additional help from the mist. I have read that the National park does boast of a great variety of birds. But did not expect them right at the entrance. Not being much into bird photography, I simply decided to enjoy their sights henceforth in this trek.
Few minutes into the National Park, to the left of our trail, we find an empty cattle shed. Somehow, I started to imagine vividly, how this area might be full of grass in summer perhaps and so would be a perfect place to lock up the cattle in the night time.
Having spent all my life in Tamil Nadu, I really have very little idea about a winter. Since our Decembers generally come after the rather short monsoon, my visual idea of a winter has always been full of lush greenery and a bit of moisture in the ground. And contrasting this, the winters I remember from TV/movies is completely snow filled white land.
This trek and my previous short winter trek, have started to open my eyes to the real winter.
We were always walking into the fog, which kept us guessing about the next turn and the imagery after that.
The Sandakphu-Phalut trek route is bang on the Indo-Nepal border, and most of the time you’d never know yourself which country you are in. This tiny village is also named as Jaubari but located in Nepal and this is the one that props up when you search “Jaubari” in Google Maps.
As Dushyant, our trek lead, informed us in the morning that we’ll be served momos by tea time, we were all looking forward to it. I think quite a few of us (well, atleast me) forgot about Sleeping Buddha or anything else. Walking with just one and only one thing in mind — the hot momos with the spicy chutney in this chilly weather.
Here is my favourite tea stop of the entire trek.
Our lunch stop today was at Kaiyakatta. You always had multiple routes to proceed onto on this day. Either take the the motorable road, which pretty easy to do. And you’ve got a shorter option, usually steep stairs as shortcut connecting or skipping the loops in the road.
Another small pretty village with just a few shops. The room had a great ambience lighting with nothing but the sunlight entering through a glass in the roof and as always wooden walls do spice up the place.
Everyday of this trek had a special delight in the offing for us. Yesterday it was the sunset view of Kanchenjunga for a few good minutes.
And it is snowfall!!! today.
Being a tea-house trek, we had meals in the local villages instead of packed lunches or campsites. And after every lunch and breakfast, we thanked the family that cooked for us. It is a nice gesture by Indiahikes — arranging this at every stop.
We started seeing the changes to the scenery. Just a small hail shower, so it was not a white blanket yet. But it was a lot better what we got until then.
You generally get a clearer sky/weather after a good rain, and that is what I’ve heard about snowfall too. But this being just a light hail shower, of which I still have not much idea about, the weather was still foggy.
We reached the stay for the night — Kalipokhri. And finally we got what we wished for. Most of us were witnessing a snowfall for the first time and of course the white blanket as well. I actually asked more than a couple of times, to the trek lead and the guides, whether this was really a snowfall or just a stronger hail shower.
IndiaHikes has ramped its safety measures up quite a few notches. I knew they had oxygen cylinders even for simpler treks, but the introduction of health cards to track the oxymeter/BP levels 3 times a day was reassuring thing. Where they really did go one step above was that they taught us to even use the oxygen cylinders, not just how to operate but also when to use and how much.
Kalipokhri is known for its small lake that is considered to be footprint of Lord Shiva. Fog had engulfed entire area that we were denied a sight of this today, before the snowfall.
I don’t remember the exact temperatures, but all I remember is that from this night it was always too cold for me for the rest of the trek.
Day 3 is when the real action starts. We were walking on snow throughout the day’s trail.
