Snow trek : Har - Ki - Dun in December

Dilliwala · Jan 7th, 2008, 22:45

Hey amit, congrats!

Did everything work out re logistics - guide, porters, supplies, etc.? Is the road from Sankri to Taluka fixed now or still broken?

Did u go to Chakrata also?

amitsankrani · Jan 7th, 2008, 23:06

Hey Dilliwala. Thanks for the praises.
Yes we had been to Chakrata. its an Awesome place in heaven. I could feel so close to the sky. We visited Deovan and Tiger Falls. Deowan had almost 1.5 ft of snow, it had snowed earlier but the glory was retained as there was merely any sunlight.

Regards the trek, everything went well, except guys dropping out, as usual. We were to go with a group of 8, as we reached delhi the 3 didnt turn up, and so also 2 others dropped at sankri while return. Only 3 of us made it to chakrata.

Everything was arranged from Chandan Rana (our guide). There were 3 other porters - Suresh, Anil and Memer Singh. Nice guys. They had a blast along with us. Only we carried our sacks, day packs and food supplies packed in cartons from mumbai. Chandan managed the guesthouse negotations as well. Only problems came during stay at sankri and taluka, as there were army people already into the village providing relief work at Osla. Osla village was under intense fire and almost 32 houses got burnt just with a spark of fire.

Temperature in the daytime was bright with 5 deg while at night it used to dip at -8 deg. Visibility at HKD summit was less initially due to clouds surrounding the peaks Swaragarohini and Bandarpunch but got better later.

Dilliwala · Jan 7th, 2008, 23:37

Thanks for the details, amit. Bad news about Osla, hope everyone is alright.

So is the Sankri-Taluka road fixed, or still damaged?

What's the condition of the Tiuni-Chakrata road? Any bad spots? Narrow stretches?

chits007 · Jan 8th, 2008, 10:51

Congratulation for completing..

when u have time post few best shots and also write ur experince with roads/porters/guide and anything else which u faced

amitsankrani · Jan 8th, 2008, 15:29

Sankri to Taluka road is still bad and through landslide terrains. We were extremely careful to see the valley down, but the mules were bravely crossing the landslide areas, so could we also make it. I guess this will remain for yet another year or two.

While going to chakrata, we took the Mori - Tiuni road. It is still is under narrow path and landslide prone. Very kaccha road. The terrain was muddy and tough to handle with steep curves to drive all the way as you gain height. Work was being done by the labourers but hardly any progress. I guess thats why the taxi operators charge exhorbitant to get to chakrata. Best is to board the bus and reach chakrata and then hire a vehicle from the hotels at Rs. 800 per day.

We missed seeing Lakha mandal and the shiv temple with the only transparent ling in india, where you can see your own face in the ling. The road was 40 kms from Hotel Snow view and dehradun was on the other end, will make it for sure during next visit. But if you go to chakrata, make sure you go during mid jan - feb when there is actually snow around the hotel. At the moment only deoban has some good snow.

Dilliwala · Jan 8th, 2008, 22:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitsankrani

While going to chakrata, we took the Mori - Tiuni road. It is still is under narrow path and landslide prone. Very kaccha road. The terrain was muddy and tough to handle with steep curves to drive all the way as you gain height. Work was being done by the labourers but hardly any progress. I guess thats why the taxi operators charge exhorbitant to get to chakrata. Best is to board the bus and reach chakrata and then hire a vehicle from the hotels at Rs. 800 per day.

In other words, it's still in almost the same state it was described to me in '05. Thanks for the update on both roads.

amitsankrani · Jan 10th, 2008, 22:53

Hey fellow folks.

Wish you all a happy new year 2008.

I have just returned from my winter trek to Har Ki Doon on 5th Jan 2008. Almost two weeks in uttarkashi himalayas was an awesome experience. Out of which 3 days we spent at Chakrata, an army cantt. location at 10,400 ft.

Away from the busy life for two weeks living untidy with minimum water, electricity, telephone, mobile signals and courage to avoid bathing for almost 8 days made us survive till the end.

The team size was five trekkers (including one girl) and four porters and a NIM certified guide. We normally carried our daypacks; and the haversacks, food supplies, stove and other materials were carried by the porters.

Day temperature was +5 deg and night was at -8 deg. I just woke up during two nights at 1am to venture the cold night and it was awesome chilling. Snow almost shining bright as daytime, one night which was full moon. Sunrise was at 7.30am and sunset was at 4.45pm.

The roads were absolutely bad. Muddy terrains and landslide prone for first two days and then the black ice route began. The group avoided use of crampons and were in bare trekking shoes trying hard to gather grip. Lucky the route was a valley, no crevasses or ice ravines.

Trek route almost had half feet of snow whereas the summit day to Har Ki Doon valley (11,756 ft) passed through route covered with normal level of snow ranging from half feet, but as we entered the valley it began getting deeper ending to waist level three feet of snow near the guest house. The whole route had villages consisting of tea houses and Garhwal guest houses providing dormitories at cheap rates, so did not carry tents.

During the intitial days till summit we passed through villages beginning from Sankri to Taluka, Osla and Seema to Har Ki Doon. On return had taken the Seema, Dharkot, Datmir, Taluka and back to Sankri.

A village mentioned above Osla caught immense fire and around 32 houses got burnt including all valueables of the villagers. Army and disaster officers had reached on spot to provide relief care and necessary supplies like, tents, food, clothes and medical support. But still I saw the villagers and children of Osla in high spirits moving from one village to Osla carrying supplies on their back. All they were asking for medicines to cure illness and pains, whereas we were asking them how far is the next point.

Peaks like Swargarohini, Bandarpoonch, Kedarkantha, Chilkoti were visible. The guide told us that Kedarkantha had almost 4 to 5 ft of snow.

At Chakrata we were only 3 members, just to relax after the trek and thought the snow cover ended as our eyes were awaiting to see green meadows and brown mountain ranges. Deoban a forest area was a good excursion place but again it was almost covered with snow. I was just thinking when and where does this snow end....But neverthless Deoban is an absolutely quiet place with barely any sunlight in the forest. We saw a mysterical 14 ft shoe size foot prints over the snow at Deoban which was surprising. On hearing from forest officials they said, these are foot prints of some man who guards the forest. No one has seen him. His height is somewat 7.5 ft and shoe size of 14. Looks like the Yeti snow man. Anyways stories can be believed as well as not..... Also visit to the Tiger Falls is the last excursion of Chakrata we took. A waterfall from natural sources falling from 400 ft is the second highest in Asia.

We missed going to Lakha Mandal a historic place of stone caves and statues of village gods, and a shivling whose ling black in color but transparent. One can see his face on the shivling like a mirror. I owe visit to these two places during my next trek to himalayas.

Alas, I Managed to complete the task of compressing the pics size and uploading them into my web album.

The pics are in two folders :

1) Har Ki Doon

http://picasaweb.google.com/amitkool2000/HarKiDoon

2) Chakrata

http://picasaweb.google.com/amitkool2000/Chakrata

I uploaded almost everything from the card. There are approx 700 pics, so take your time. Awaiting to hear comments.

doIhavetoReally · Jan 10th, 2008, 23:10

Amit,
Nice pics -- you sure are pretty generous with your pics. I am sure you filled your memory card.

AvidTrekker · Jan 11th, 2008, 20:07

Nice report amit.

I can't wait to see my face in the transparent lingam .... I didn't have any knowledge about this...

P.S. can we see the lingam in someone else's picture on the web? Your picasa link is taking forever to load. I tried six times ... no success

Dilliwala · Jan 12th, 2008, 02:36

Avidbhai,
As amit says he didn't make it to Lakhamandal, but fellow-member genesis had started a thread just last month:
http://www.indiamike.com/india/uttar...akrata-t48295/

I just checked his pics again on his website, and think the shivling in question is there. Click on the last link in his starting post, and then click on the thumbnail under the title. It will open up a photo-gallery, I think the transparent one is the last pic - no. 15.

AvidTrekker · Jan 12th, 2008, 20:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dilliwala

Avidbhai,

I think the transparent one is the last pic - no. 15.

I was able to locate the picture and have darshan.

Thank you Sir ....
.
.
.

Rajeev Bora · Jan 13th, 2008, 21:03

Could someone please let me know if it is really essential to hire guide and porters etc as I plan on trekking alone and do not want to spend too much. thanks in advance.

Almoraboy · Jan 14th, 2008, 12:05

yes, you need a guide cum porter. otherwise there will be too much stuff for you to carry and then you will not enjoy the trek. but you can get it within 1500 - 2000 bucks.

amitsankrani · Jan 14th, 2008, 13:59

Almoraboy, thanks for you inputs too for my successful completion of the trip. It was an amazing route and not much has changes since chitrang, you and me have visited the place in winter. The valley almost is the same with snow all around. But absolutely a heavenly place.

I will sometime make it again to HKD while return from Bali pass or Barasu pass.

Jan 10th, 2008, 22:53	#67
amitsankrani Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 117	Pics of Har Ki Doon and Chakrata and brief travelog Hey fellow folks. Wish you all a happy new year 2008. I have just returned from my winter trek to Har Ki Doon on 5th Jan 2008. Almost two weeks in uttarkashi himalayas was an awesome experience. Out of which 3 days we spent at Chakrata, an army cantt. location at 10,400 ft. Away from the busy life for two weeks living untidy with minimum water, electricity, telephone, mobile signals and courage to avoid bathing for almost 8 days made us survive till the end. The team size was five trekkers (including one girl) and four porters and a NIM certified guide. We normally carried our daypacks; and the haversacks, food supplies, stove and other materials were carried by the porters. Day temperature was +5 deg and night was at -8 deg. I just woke up during two nights at 1am to venture the cold night and it was awesome chilling. Snow almost shining bright as daytime, one night which was full moon. Sunrise was at 7.30am and sunset was at 4.45pm. The roads were absolutely bad. Muddy terrains and landslide prone for first two days and then the black ice route began. The group avoided use of crampons and were in bare trekking shoes trying hard to gather grip. Lucky the route was a valley, no crevasses or ice ravines. Trek route almost had half feet of snow whereas the summit day to Har Ki Doon valley (11,756 ft) passed through route covered with normal level of snow ranging from half feet, but as we entered the valley it began getting deeper ending to waist level three feet of snow near the guest house. The whole route had villages consisting of tea houses and Garhwal guest houses providing dormitories at cheap rates, so did not carry tents. During the intitial days till summit we passed through villages beginning from Sankri to Taluka, Osla and Seema to Har Ki Doon. On return had taken the Seema, Dharkot, Datmir, Taluka and back to Sankri. A village mentioned above Osla caught immense fire and around 32 houses got burnt including all valueables of the villagers. Army and disaster officers had reached on spot to provide relief care and necessary supplies like, tents, food, clothes and medical support. But still I saw the villagers and children of Osla in high spirits moving from one village to Osla carrying supplies on their back. All they were asking for medicines to cure illness and pains, whereas we were asking them how far is the next point. Peaks like Swargarohini, Bandarpoonch, Kedarkantha, Chilkoti were visible. The guide told us that Kedarkantha had almost 4 to 5 ft of snow. At Chakrata we were only 3 members, just to relax after the trek and thought the snow cover ended as our eyes were awaiting to see green meadows and brown mountain ranges. Deoban a forest area was a good excursion place but again it was almost covered with snow. I was just thinking when and where does this snow end....But neverthless Deoban is an absolutely quiet place with barely any sunlight in the forest. We saw a mysterical 14 ft shoe size foot prints over the snow at Deoban which was surprising. On hearing from forest officials they said, these are foot prints of some man who guards the forest. No one has seen him. His height is somewat 7.5 ft and shoe size of 14. Looks like the Yeti snow man. Anyways stories can be believed as well as not..... Also visit to the Tiger Falls is the last excursion of Chakrata we took. A waterfall from natural sources falling from 400 ft is the second highest in Asia. We missed going to Lakha Mandal a historic place of stone caves and statues of village gods, and a shivling whose ling black in color but transparent. One can see his face on the shivling like a mirror. I owe visit to these two places during my next trek to himalayas. Alas, I Managed to complete the task of compressing the pics size and uploading them into my web album. The pics are in two folders : 1) Har Ki Doon http://picasaweb.google.com/amitkool2000/HarKiDoon 2) Chakrata http://picasaweb.google.com/amitkool2000/Chakrata I uploaded almost everything from the card. There are approx 700 pics, so take your time. Awaiting to hear comments.

Jan 11th, 2008, 20:07	#69
AvidTrekker Veda Chanting & Mantra Yoga teacher Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: body in Mumbai, head in Himalaya Posts: 2,784	Good report Nice report amit. I can't wait to see my face in the transparent lingam .... I didn't have any knowledge about this... P.S. can we see the lingam in someone else's picture on the web? Your picasa link is taking forever to load. I tried six times ... no success __________________ The Universe is an ellipsoid?... or a Spheroid?? If the sphere smiles... it becomes an ellipse. This IS Creation. Last edited by AvidTrekker : Jan 11th, 2008 at 20:37. Reason: lingam photo link requested

Jan 14th, 2008, 12:05	#73
Almoraboy Trekker Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: London.....Himalayas in between Posts: 918	yes, you need a guide cum porter. otherwise there will be too much stuff for you to carry and then you will not enjoy the trek. but you can get it within 1500 - 2000 bucks. __________________ Trek blog over here

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Jan 7th, 2008, 22:45	#61
Dilliwala Funky flunky Join Date: May 2007 Location: Dilli Posts: 3,601	Hey amit, congrats! Did everything work out re logistics - guide, porters, supplies, etc.? Is the road from Sankri to Taluka fixed now or still broken? Did u go to Chakrata also?

Jan 7th, 2008, 23:06	#62
amitsankrani Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 117	Hey Dilliwala. Thanks for the praises. Yes we had been to Chakrata. its an Awesome place in heaven. I could feel so close to the sky. We visited Deovan and Tiger Falls. Deowan had almost 1.5 ft of snow, it had snowed earlier but the glory was retained as there was merely any sunlight. Regards the trek, everything went well, except guys dropping out, as usual. We were to go with a group of 8, as we reached delhi the 3 didnt turn up, and so also 2 others dropped at sankri while return. Only 3 of us made it to chakrata. Everything was arranged from Chandan Rana (our guide). There were 3 other porters - Suresh, Anil and Memer Singh. Nice guys. They had a blast along with us. Only we carried our sacks, day packs and food supplies packed in cartons from mumbai. Chandan managed the guesthouse negotations as well. Only problems came during stay at sankri and taluka, as there were army people already into the village providing relief work at Osla. Osla village was under intense fire and almost 32 houses got burnt just with a spark of fire. Temperature in the daytime was bright with 5 deg while at night it used to dip at -8 deg. Visibility at HKD summit was less initially due to clouds surrounding the peaks Swaragarohini and Bandarpunch but got better later.

Jan 7th, 2008, 23:37	#63
Dilliwala Funky flunky Join Date: May 2007 Location: Dilli Posts: 3,601	Thanks for the details, amit. Bad news about Osla, hope everyone is alright. So is the Sankri-Taluka road fixed, or still damaged? What's the condition of the Tiuni-Chakrata road? Any bad spots? Narrow stretches?

Jan 8th, 2008, 10:51	#64
chits007 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Noida Posts: 268	Congratulation for completing.. when u have time post few best shots and also write ur experince with roads/porters/guide and anything else which u faced

Jan 8th, 2008, 15:29	#65
amitsankrani Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 117	Sankri to Taluka road is still bad and through landslide terrains. We were extremely careful to see the valley down, but the mules were bravely crossing the landslide areas, so could we also make it. I guess this will remain for yet another year or two. While going to chakrata, we took the Mori - Tiuni road. It is still is under narrow path and landslide prone. Very kaccha road. The terrain was muddy and tough to handle with steep curves to drive all the way as you gain height. Work was being done by the labourers but hardly any progress. I guess thats why the taxi operators charge exhorbitant to get to chakrata. Best is to board the bus and reach chakrata and then hire a vehicle from the hotels at Rs. 800 per day. We missed seeing Lakha mandal and the shiv temple with the only transparent ling in india, where you can see your own face in the ling. The road was 40 kms from Hotel Snow view and dehradun was on the other end, will make it for sure during next visit. But if you go to chakrata, make sure you go during mid jan - feb when there is actually snow around the hotel. At the moment only deoban has some good snow.

Jan 10th, 2008, 23:10	#68
doIhavetoReally Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Dreams Posts: 36	Amit, Nice pics -- you sure are pretty generous with your pics. I am sure you filled your memory card.

Jan 12th, 2008, 02:36	#70
Dilliwala Funky flunky Join Date: May 2007 Location: Dilli Posts: 3,601	Avidbhai, As amit says he didn't make it to Lakhamandal, but fellow-member genesis had started a thread just last month: http://www.indiamike.com/india/uttar...akrata-t48295/ I just checked his pics again on his website, and think the shivling in question is there. Click on the last link in his starting post, and then click on the thumbnail under the title. It will open up a photo-gallery, I think the transparent one is the last pic - no. 15.

Jan 13th, 2008, 21:03	#72
Rajeev Bora Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 34	Could someone please let me know if it is really essential to hire guide and porters etc as I plan on trekking alone and do not want to spend too much. thanks in advance.

Jan 14th, 2008, 13:59	#74
amitsankrani Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 117	Almoraboy, thanks for you inputs too for my successful completion of the trip. It was an amazing route and not much has changes since chitrang, you and me have visited the place in winter. The valley almost is the same with snow all around. But absolutely a heavenly place. I will sometime make it again to HKD while return from Bali pass or Barasu pass.

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