Har ki Dun Trek

Hello to everyone.....I have just completed yet another amazing visit to a beautiful place known as Har ki Doon in Garhwal. It was an extra-ordinary trip with full of emotions and twists, but we (group of 3 friends) managed to complete it with success. Starting from Delhi - we have completed this trek in 5 days (28/04 to 02/05), it was hard and fast but doable if u r good in shape. We started our journey from Delhi - sat 12:00 AM and reached sankri by evening via Dehradun. It started raining as we reached sankri and the temp dipped down drastically. We stayed that night in GMVN sankri and started next day early morning to taluka from where the real trek starts, uphill to seema/osla 14 kms , the journey was mostly into the dense forest jungle, and it got a bit difficult to negotiate, as the trek becomes slippery due to rain all day long. We were exhausted as we reached seema ,there we were greeted with more rain and snow fall through out the night. Monday morning - the weather was playing the tricks again, it was dark and HKD was covered with clouds, we were not accompanying any guide/porter to lead us through. We were told by locals not to proceed and wait for the weather to clear. Past 15 mins we opted to move ahead with a local boy named sanjay, who takes care of the HKD guest house in the absence of GMVN officials. The trek from Seema to HKD started with a steep climb to the top and afterwards it goes past some fields of beans & rice and also some isolated villages, where the life style is same as old, As we were cherishing the beauty of the valley and reached half way till calcutta dhar, we heard a big explosion, i thought it was lighting in could but the boy showed us the source of it - it was a big chunk of snow falling down from a near by peak , just above where we were standing and which in turns results in a small avalanche. I have never seen an avalanche in real life and was terrified. The boy gave us some confidence and asked us to move quickly out of that area. We were struggling due to snow all over the trek but managed to pass the place which i named afterwards - the death zone. After which it was gentle walk till HKD with fresh snow everywhere, as we were short of 1 KM from the guest house, the weather turns bad to worst and the snow fall started. It was indeed thrilling to walk under heavy snow fall, with lesser visibility of the trek. Somehow we managed to reached HKD guest house, it was 3 PM and we quickly prepared the fire to warm us down, as we were shivering with the cold. A good 1 hr break sitting next to the burning fire gave us some refreshment, after couple of hours the weather cleared and we saw first glimpse of the HKD valley with magical swargarohini and near by peaks. I can't describe the beauty of the place as i am short of words here. As we return back from HKD to Dehradun , we heard a bad news of a delhi trekker found dead while moving down from gaumukh due to heavy snow fall and bad weather. It was the same day when we had experienced the similar weather condition in HKD but we have the option of taking shelter in guest house and they might have not got any option in gaumukh/bhojwasa. My heart goes out to the person and his family/friends.

In a nutshell a safe and successful attempt to HKD this year and planning for a new expedition next year.....Will post few amazing pics soon.....Cheers.

Jayant - congrats on completing the trek. Can you describe the greenery / flowers and how much snow (on the path) was there. Usually, fresh snow in April is not very deep (only a few inches) and melts quickly. It will help people who follow.

Congrats on completion of a successful trek...eagerly waiting for the pics ahead...

https://picasaweb.google.com/1110852...erTrek2012HKD#

Great snaps Jayant. Enjoyed them thoroughly. Hope I can make it this October.

Speechless....as we went there in dec 2009... Feels like as if I was there..enjoy every single pic..thanx for a good time...

Beautiful pics

The pictures answer my questions - beautiful by the way.

Thanks everyone for acknowledging the pics....the craze of exploring Himalayas is getting onto me.....i feel coming back home whenever vising any place in higher Himalayas .....i think the fresh climate, high mountains and peaceful environment gives a chance to talk to yourself and understand your inner piece.
The next exploration would be Kedartal.....soon

Planning for HKD trek from May 25 - Jun 3. Looking for company for my wife and myself.

Starting from DDN on May 25...

Regards,
Dibyajit

Dibyajit - all the best go for it

Hello All, I am a regular reader of IndiaMike for past few years, and I always gather loads of info from this stupendous site whenever I plan for a travel programme. All the senior members and other readers are so helpful in providing information! Finally I decided to register myself so that I can contribute little in this ocean of forum discussions out of my own travel experiences.

I have been to Har-Ki-doon very recently (came back just yesterday). My mind is fully occupied with the picturesque HKD peak, Swargarohini peak, Atta peak and morinda taal!!! I will post full detail very soon (know that lots of travel details are already available in IM), hoping that some wanna-go member/reader would find that information helpful.

It's just mesmerizing -- for now that's all I can say!!

Very nice photos...lots of snow this year. I just returned from Sunderdhunga and there was lots of snow too

Hey guys!

amazing to hear how passionate everyone is here with respect to the harkidun trek. Besides, the pictures posted earlier are amazing, reminds of the landscape of the dodital trek.
I was posting coz i needed some help with the logistics for the harki-dun trek.I'm attempting a solo trek for the Harkidun-ruinsartal route from 06.06.2012 and need some info as under:

1. Details of the current weather conditions including snow (if any) at harki-dun itself.
2. Contact details of any reliable porters/guides for the trek.
3. Any other info, u may feel is pertinent/important.

many thanks in advance.

Hi All, Just wanted to check with whoever would be returning this weekend what the weather is like right now? ( Snow / Rainshowers ) Is it crowded because of the holidays? Cheers