SarPass Trek

Hi all

I decided to start writing blog with the craziest thing i have ever done in my life. Went for trek to SarPass with the adventure club at IIT Kanpur. We were a group of nine mostly from my batch and a few juniors. There is so much to write that everywhere I had to cut short on so many things. We started at Manikaran, I guess.

Day 0 :

We just walked for just 1 km or so and pitched our camp for the first time as we had talked to Porters and decided to start the journey next day. The place where we pitched our tent was awesome to say the least. Beautiful and might lush green mountains all around and we were there in the middle. A stream of water was falling from the mountain and I knew cud spend hours sitting aside it. We ate Poha(prepared by Ankit) which was almost like Halwa and nthing neither salt or ny other masala was in rt proportion but we like it. Fortunately there was a tea specialist in me ;) who prepared wonderful tea in the cool weather

Day 1 :

It was the first time we had to shit in open :) I dont think I can share that experience here but it was....i dnt know how to describe it;). We started our trek at around 10 in the morning and within the first 15 minutes I realised this wasnt going to be easy. I was afraid within that I may ruin up everyone's trek and I might not have it in me to complete the trek. After 30 mins or so, I got behind everyone and there was Ashwani(our group leader) who was pushing me through. We took few breaks and around 12:30, the porters said thats enough for today. We all were prepared to walk atleast twice more than this but in trek an important constraint is water source which was nt there in our Journeey ahead. It was YHAI camping site. After pitching tents etc, we lit a bonfire and started playing cards while some of us were helping the porters to prepare lunch. It seemed like the ideal holiday. Sitting in the mountain jungle with no one around you, playing cards, having a nice time with frens, awesome food prepared, trust me life couldnt get better than that

Day 2 :

We started early as we were hardly tired after yesterday and had to cover a lot of ground today. The most important thing was that there wasnt going to be any water source in the way. Soon after we started, I was once again left behind others and Ashwani was pushing me through. At around 1 we had our break where we had glucose, etc. After that everyone was distributed around 150 ml of water for the rest of the day. I was finished with mine by 3 and pretty much exhausted and couldnt move ny further but couldnt stop as you can only camp near water source. Finally Ashwani gave me some water from his bottle which wasnt much. He literally saved my life and almost dragged me through out the trek. That day nothing in life seem significant. I would have easily paid Rs1000 for 1 litre of water that day. Around the end half of our group was lost as some of us were ahead(oh yeah!!! this time was in the group moving ahead) and some left behind but finally we all figured out. Around 4.30, the porters finally congratulated us for doing exceptionally well as they are not used to see people covering so much in a single day and the final destination was just 30-45mins away. The water source was so feeble that it took almost 1 min to fill a water bottle. Imagine how could a flow so small be there in the mountais. It was like God especially created that for us. My roomie(Raghvendra) was not feeling well that day and was willing to go back but there was no way back and especially when you are stuck somewhere like that where you dont even find a single living creature. I will not describe the natural beauty which was there as I dont think i would ever be able to do justice with that. I will probably share the album with this.

Day3:

Our confidence level was at an all time high after accomplishing what we had done on the previous day. But on the third day also, I was trailing behind again. I find the first hour of the day the mst difficult. It was a good slope on which we had to climb and I was feeling breathless after 30 mins or so and this time to my rescue were Ankit and Praveen(Beti) in addition to Ashwani who I could see was in a situation like me. They all pulled me, setting small targets for 5 mins, and then 30 seconds rest and like that. Somehow after the first hour life was relatively easy. At one place again there was good slope where I was not able to make proper grip and I couldnot afford to slip through. These guys took me through. Luckily there was no water shortage today and there were streams in between. At one place where there was grass, rather than walking down, we just allowed ourself to slip through and get to the ground That was fun but immediately after which followed wasnt. It was sort of rock climbing which got even more difficult with the 15 kg bag on shoulder. All the exercise of shoulders, push ups came into play. And then to add to the drama, weather was getting unfavourable and the Porters asked us to hurry through beacuse if it rains, it would become very difficult to walk through. We could not spend much time at the summit and my findness of snow was lost on the second day itself so I didnt wanted to stay much either. And it did rain. We took out the flyer and everyone got underneath it. All our foof items,clothes, etc are always kept in big poly bags and you find the reason 4 it on tht day. That day it was bit senti nite since it was the last camping which we had to do and tomorrow we will be back to the old world again. There was Karthik's masala which he especially got from home and carried all the way through the mountains made the food even more delicious. Whenever we used to stop, you will find Roopesh drying his underpant, Senthil in his own world of photgraphy and Devendra was the quickiest of us all reaching ahead of everone. He has amazing stamina and I dont think he found the trek difficult at any moment of time.

Day 4:

It was raining outside while we got up. It was pretty chilly so I was inside my tent in my sleeping bag ony for another 30 mins or so. When I came out, I saw snow at the side of tent and all I could think was to get away from that place asap because if the the weather is harsh, the journey downhill could become as difficult as uphill or even more. Finally around 9, the Sun God smile and we were bit in a procastination mode. The last breakfast to be prepared, the last time we had to fold our tent, the last...of many things :( The view from the 3rd day camping site was heartening to say the least.

We started journey down and after every half an hour or so, I(we) looked back at admiration of ourself of how much we had actually covered in the past few days. And today was also not the day where I could walk down easily. I was afraid of slipping initially and soon my hunter shoes were biting into my toes and I had lot of problem. Finally after few hours of tiring effort, I took out my sports shoes and kept hunter shoes back. And boy!!!!!!once I was on my sports shoes<>

For the first time when you see people after 3-4 days, you really feel good and this life seems so much more easy compared to Trekking. I was so happy to get back alive. I had two dairymilk and other chocolates I had in my pocket gave them to Children. Generally I am not that benevolent ;) FInally as some of us were putting our bags on the jeep, I was lying on the ground trying to comprehend the crazy things and the amazing places I had been to in the past few days

As I finish writin my first blog, all the memories of the trek have become fresh and its like living your life twice :) Thanks for patiently reading through. I had so much more to share but i have to stop somewhere. give your comments, suggestion, etc to improve on my blog.

Cheers

Hemant Rathi