Roopkund-Junargali : Hello Himalayas :)

Hellozz,

Just out of curiosity to trek to the higher ranges of Himalayas we (me along with my husband) decided to register for Roopkund Trek.

Being first time high altitude trekker, I wanted to enjoy every single day of my trek so decided to be physically ready for the trek. I started incorporating the exercise regime suggested by Indiahikes to my daily exercises which helped a lot while trekking.

Along with the physical fitness, we were also busy in buying stuff for the trek as per the list provided by the organizers.  All packing done, finally the day to leave for the trek arrived and we left for Lohajung. Here is the link to find the actual stuff needed to carry along with you for the trek: Essentials for your rucksack

The days were moderately strenuous and nights were very cold and sometimes extremely chilling.

Traverse through the forest on Day 1 and reach camp site, make yourself comfortable with the cold the first night.

Next comes the dense forest filled with Cypress, walk up and down and feel adventurous.

Meadows of Ali-Bugyal will welcome you to the lush green carpet where you can have tea coffee with some crispy biscuits.

Walk across the meadows to the campsite at Bedni-Bugyal, admire the beauty and click photographs with your new pals,

Witness the mountains, meadows, trees and grass.

Watch the clear sky at night, full of stars.

Mountains covered with snow shining bright in the moonlight.

Now comes the sun at 6 AM next morning, the entire Himalayan Range is glittering because of the sun rays falling.

Day 1 trail

River flowing on the way

Breathtaking view of Mount Trishul from the campsite

Tea-time picture of the entire group at Ali-Bugyal

Bedni Bugyal campsite from the trail

Campsite at Bedni Bugyal

View of the mountains at Sunset

Mountain dogs — super friendly 🙂

Meadows on the way to Bedni Bugyal

After we absorbed the beauty of the mesmerizing views of The Great Himalayan Range, we had our breakfast and started to move after warming up. The first stop was at Bedni Kund. Kundan Chacha, our trek guide narrated us the stories about the kund. Kundan Chacha has been trekking Roopkund since 30 years and have trekked for about 300 times.

Bedni Kund

Bedni kund from the trail

Destination for day 3 was Patar Nachni, the second last campsite where hailstones started to fall suddenly in the middle of sun light followed by abrupt temperature drop.

Trail to Patar Nachni

Tents at Patar Nachni

The trails for next day were pretty much steep. The dhabas above the campsite served basic food and amazingly there was mobile network working. Just make some calls and keep moving otherwise if it starts to rain the trail would become even more difficult to walk. The amazing part is that no matter how far you walk you will still see last campsite.

The view from the last campsite at Bhagwabhasa was fabulous. It was a combination of clouds and mountains some with snow and some without. As we were enjoying hot soup amidst the tall mountains it got all windy, rainy, sunny and bingo!!, there was this huge double Rainbow. None of us from the entire team has seen such a big complete rainbow ever.

Rainbow @Bhagwabhasa

View from campsite

Mt. Trishul from Bhagwabhasa campsite

Campsite @ Bhagwabhasa

The day of the final summit was there. We started at 3:30 AM after light breakfast provided by Indiahikes. This part of trek was the difficult one. The ascent was pretty steep almot 75 to 80 degrees. We were able to make it up to Roopkund lake by 7:30 AM. So, just to summarize, it took around 4 hours for us to cover approx 3.5 km (that’s how steep it was).

Now comes the Roopkund Lake, the destination for which we have walked all the way from basecamp. The view of the Lake was not very pleasant not at least at the time of year when we went. But yeah the mysterious skeleton lake still has skeletons all around.

Roopkund Lake

Few bones placed together at one point for people. There is a huge footwear also found there.

Saurabh, Shafeeq and me

Since the weather was pretty clear to walk ahead, we decided to continue to walk all the way upto Junargali. Roopkund-Junargali pass was quiet narrow and since it was narrow, it was equally risky. Hardly half an hour climb but pretty hard.

Once climbed up, there you are @ 16,200 ft :):). Feels awsome to be there. It took sometime for me to soak in to the mesmerizing views of Nanda Ghumti and Trishul. the two peaks among The Great Himalayan Range.

Mt. Trishul from Junargali

Roopkund group @Junargali

After admiring the nature’s beauty and looking at the time we started to walk down. We had Aloo Parantha at Roopkund (arranged by Indiaikes) and then continued to walk down.

The final descent back to Wan continued till next day evening with a halt at Patar Nachni.

Entire group at Patar Nachni campsite

Sneha, Saurabh and me with Kundan chacha at the end of the trek

As my goal was to enjoy every single moment of the trip, I actually enjoyed more than I thought because the entire trail along with the summit was terrific and I enjoyed so much that I would go back to the same place once again in snow sometime.

Pictures Courtesy: Rahul Jain, Shafeeq Basheer, Abdul Raheem Bin Shukoor.