Auli to Tapovan via Kuari pass

ashok74

Thanks Raghu. Just the information that I was looking out for. Appreciate your response and feedback. Will peruse the links that you have provided. May require additional inputs to finetune my planning.

Warm Regards

Ashok

ashok74

hi Raghu

Perused the link on GMVN. GMVN talks of Auli to Gorson to Tali and then to Baggarguda and then to Kuari.

Are chitrakanta and tali the same place? What about Baggarguda and Gailgarh?

I understand that you did the Curzon's trail trek last time around.

Whats your take on the views along this route. I understand that Gorson has fab views and so does Kuari Pass. However, what about the camping grounds enroute?

Are there water sources nearby?

I will be reaching Joshimath on 20th sep. And I need to be back in Delhi by 27th Sep (flight to catch back to Bangalore). I guess this trek is doable over a 5 to 6 day period.

BTW, I got some feedback from another trekker about the difficulty of this trek and that this could be strenuous for my wife who is a first time trekker? Whats your take on the difficulty of the trek since GMVN indicates that this is a mild trek.

Ashok

nyraghu

No, Tali is about 6 km from Gorson Bugiyal, and Chitrakantha is about 2 km beyond Tali, so the distance between Gorson Bugiyal and Chitrakantha is about 8 km. Tali is a small lake/pond with a beautiful view of the mountains. Chitrakantha is a common camp site in a clearing among the woods.

Gailgarh is just 5 km from Kuari Pass, on the way from Chitrakantha. Bagar Budda is the name of a ridge below Gailgarh, about 1 km from there on the way to Khullara. Because Gailgarh is close to the pass, it can get quite cold there in the autumn, so people perhaps tend to camp lower down, between Bagar Budda and Khullara. When we went in October last, there was unseasonal snowfall, and Gailgarh was too cold, so we had to camp just above Khullara. Even there, it was too cold for the mules, which had to be taken further down for the night.

It is supposed to be one of the good treks in terms of views, and I personally found it spectacular, especially in the clear weather of the autumn. You could see some photographs of our trek at http://www.retrotexts.net/photos/kuari-pass/ for an idea of the possibilities.

Yes, all the camping grounds mentioned have water. IIRC, the water source at Chitrakantha was a bit away from the camp site, but the guide and others brought enough for basic needs.

I went with my spouse and 12-year-old daughter, but it wasn't a first trek for any of us. However, I don't think it's a difficult trek for anyone reasonably fit and prepared for discomfort. The descent to Tapovan may be a bit hard on the knees, so you may want to take knee caps and trekking poles.

Raghu.

__________________
colorless green ideas sleep furiously

ashok74

Dear Raghu

Thanks a ton for your feedback. BTW, I checked out your photogpraphs as well. I guess you were really lucky to have clear weather except for the snowfall later at Kuari Pass.

I had been to Auli in 2005 August and was not able to see any of the peaks due to cloudy weather. Want to make amends on this trek.

You seem to be a regular trekker as well (saw the photos of Harsil and dodital as well). And am impressed that your 12 year daughter accompanies you frequently on treks. Starting young - is she.

My wife Anu is extremely kicked about this trek (her first time in the Himalayas, though she has been to Sikkim earlier). However, not a trekker. Hoping to convert her during this trek.

Thanks again for your inputs. Appreciate the same. Will post some photos on my return.

BTW, I am a Banker (aged about 33 years) and have been trekking since 1993 (first visit to Akela Qila in Chandra Bagha region off Rohtang). Have trekked to Gaumukh, Valley of Flowers and Hemkund, Dongkyala in North Sikkim, and the Western Ghats.

Do let me know if I could be of assistance to you.

Warm Regards

Ashok

nyraghu

Hi Ashok,

You are welcome, glad to be of help. Yes, we were lucky to have had clear weather. OTOH, the skies are usually clear in autumn. In all places other than Gorson Bugiyal, the snowfall had occurred a couple of days before our arrival. So, in spite of the snow around us, the views were absolutely unmarred.

Not as regular, as I'd like to be :-) My daughter was 12 when we went to Kuari, and is now 13. Her first trek was to the Valley of Flowers when she was 10. Perhaps the right age to start. Yes, she likes the mountains.

Wish you both a happy trip and a good trek.

Nice to meet you. You have been trekking a long time. Thank you, I am sure I'll approach you for advice sometime.

Raghu.

nyraghu

Hi, Ashok, good to see you back. I hope the trek was fine.

Raghu.

ashok74

Hi Raghu

have been wanting to write to you post my return on Saturday.

Well - for starters, my wife Anu (first time trekker) managed the trek without any difficulty (even the slightly scary section between Gorson and Tali where the narrow trail hugs the mountainside and has a steep drop on one side). However, at Khullara she did experience headache, nausea and vomiting. However, this was not very serious and we managed the trek without any further worries.

Am glad that you suggested that we do the trek from Auli rather than Tapoban as the climb up frm Tapoban would have been a nightmare. It is indeed a rather steep stretch and we covered the the 16 km downhill trek in about 6 hours. However, some sections of this trek are very steep.

Secondly, discovered that there is a village called Karchum between Tapoban and Khullara and if at all any one plans to climb to Kuari from Tapoban, he should camp at Kharchum. Between Karchum and Khullara, there are a couple of camping sites close to flowing water).

20th Sep (delhi to Joshimath) was pleasant, thanks largely due to the unseasonal rains. However, this also caused 3 major landslides that we had to cross to reach Joshimath. Rest of the days we had clear trekking weather till about 2 p.m after which the heavens opened up till about 8 p.m. On a couple of occasions, we had ice as well.

Will be writing a detailed note on this trek in the coming week. In the interim, thanks for all your insights, without which this trek wouldn't have been a success.

The link to the photos on this trek is given below. However, I have not been able to organise the photos as per the trekking route. Will be doing so in future.

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/ashok7...y=lhOZY_K1OSE#

nyraghu

Ashok, I am glad that the trek worked out well. The photographs are nice. It's interesting to see how the same place looks at different times of the year. Yes, I remember the difficult stretch between Gorson Bugiyal and Tali; it is rather uncomfortable with scree.

Thanks for that information. It's a useful thing to know. What'd be the distance between Karchum and Tapovan?

Raghu.

desertboy

hello mridula,
i've read
your trek details and liked it very much. can you send me the contact details of your guide, Sohan Singh Bisht ?


thank you very much,
itay



of course,
i'll be happy to hear good recommendations for guides from everyone here,
thanks.

itay

mridula

Desertboy his contact number is 09410365281

And thanks a lot for the kind words about my writeup.

ks_bluechip

nyraghu: Wonderful pictures! Thanks for sharing. Have to do Kuari Pass, someday.
.

nyraghu

Thanks, KSB, for the comments. I've conveyed them to my spouse, who took those photographs.

Raghu.

ks_bluechip

OK Great!

Can you please explain >>> colorless green ideas sleep furiously?

Thanks,
KSB
.

__________________
ks_bluechip [My Travel Blog] [My Flickr Photo Sets]

Gibberish

Noam Chomsky used this sentence in his very early work to highlight the importance of syntax (grammar). More details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorless_green_ideas_sleep_fu riously

nyraghu

It's a famous sentence which was used by Noam Chomsky in his 1956 paper, `Three models for the description of language,' to illustrate that the grammatical correctness of an expression is unrelated to its frequency of use. He wrote, "We can see this most clearly by considering such strings as `colorless green ideas sleep furiously,' which is a grammatical sentence, even though it is fair to assume that no pair of its words may ever have occurred together in the past."

Raghu.