The Pindari & Kafni glaciers teahouse trek - the details

Jeroen

This is a very nice, relatively easy and green trek in the beautiful Nanda Devi area in north-eastern Uttaranchal, far from the pilgrim crowds on the traditional treks further west. As there are villages and resthouses at good distances along the path, you can do this carrying just a light rucksack and a light sleeping bag, and without any training. It's a great first trek if you just want to get a taste of it. The highest point (the foot of the glacier) is at about 3700-3800m, so you won't have acclimatisation problems.

The route is great for nature - you go through thick, well preserved forests, with good birdlife and the occasional hamster. The lower villages are very cute, and the locals are very friendly. What's more, there are simple but great thalis served at the dhabas.

The paths are very well-kept, and constantly used by the locals - there's no road so this is the Pindari valley superhighway. Up to Kathis it's a wide paved path with plenty of horse/sheep shit, after that it's a wide forest path, occasionally paved but always in a good state. Only a few bits are scarily close to avalanches or steep drops.

The information below are just the dry details. For a better impression of what to see along the way, read the June 6 entry of my travelogue, online at www.travelpod.com/members/jeroen.

The steps along the trek:
Song - Loharket (1829m) 1,5km
Loharket - Dhakuri (~2600m) 11km
Dhakuri - Khati (2194m) 8km
Khati - Dwali (2580m) 8km
Dwali - Phurkiya (3260m) 6km
Phurkiya - Pindari glacier (3800m) ~8km

You really do not need to take a guide at all - though you may help the crap economy a bit by employing a local lad for 150-200rs/day (which includes all his food/lodging costs) to carry your bags - he can show you the way as he goes, or can run off ahead (these guys are fast) if you want to walk alone. Note: trekking agencies in Almora and Nainital will shamelessly quote 5,000 to even 10,000Rs for an all in guided trek (ex-Bageshwar). In Loharket, the start of the trail, there's an agency arranging guides, porters and mules, should you need them (allow time for them to arrange it all). But in Bageshwar there will also be people coming up to you and asking if you need a guide or porter; it's probably cheaper that way.

If you're fast and really want to, the trek can be done in a matter of 3-4 days, though you'll be walking long and far every day. To take it easy and enjoy all the views and the good dhaba food, and also see the Kafni glacier, I'd suggest taking a week (more if you want a day or two doing nothing in particular). Uttaranchal is in the rain zone, so especially around monsoon time it's good to carry an umbrella/sheet, and to start early (around 06:30 was our average walk-off time) so you arrive at the resthouse in the afternoon - we had sun in the morning and rain in the afternoon, after 16:00, nearly every day. Note that the lower parts of the trek are very warm in summer.

From Delhi, travel to the pleasant and ancient temple-town of Bagheshwar, which can be reached easily by bus from Almora or Nainital, or direct by bus from Delhi too. A good enough hotel to stay at is the Annapurna (see the Uttaranchal hotel listings on this site), right next to the bus station (rooms overlook the river, so no bus noise). You should leave any excess baggage here. Bagheshwar is the last place you can stock up on food and woollies, although shops along the trail have enough to keep you alive and happy (toilet paper, chocolate, Maggi instant noodles, Pepsi... all available along the trail at just a few rupees 'mule-charge' more than down here). I'd suggest you bring water purification stuff. Warm clothes for the upper parts of the trek are useful; nights in Phurkiya are pretty cold in June.

From Bagheshwar, there is a daily morning (slow) bus, and many (faster) jeeps running up to the starting point. Note that most jeeps run in the early morning, catering to the market-goers, but we got one to Bherari and then to Loharket without too much waiting, at about 13:00. It's not too far to the first resthouse so don't worry too much. You could start walking from Song, but it's better to get a jeep a few kilometres further all the way to Loharket village (you may have to change jeeps at Bherari to reach here).

The main goal of most walkers, the Pindari glacier, is about 65km from Song. The resthouses along the route are placed so, that you conveniently pass one at lunch and arrive at the next in the afternoon.

Staying a night in a KMVN (the Kumaon hiking association) or PWD (public works department) resthouse is cheap, I think it was about 40-50Rs/person. Rooms sleep 2-6 people and often have a private bathroom with toilet and cold running water. There are relatively clean sheets and good blankets, though an own light sleeping bag is advisable. You can ask for a bucket of hot water (sometimes charged 10Rs or so) for bucket-showering. You can camp all along the route, though near all resthouses you can do so too, benefiting from water/toilets/dhabas. If you have a tent you can also camp at the foot of the Pindari and Kafni glaciers, and do the beautiful side valley trek up to the Sunderdunga glacier.

You can plan your hike so that you stay at the same places on the way up AND down, but I did it so that I stayed at a different place every night, which I describe below. This is convenient, as it involves leaving Bagheshwar at around noon or even later, meaning you can get to the starting point coming from Almora or Nainital (leaving there early) in one day. See also the comments at the bottom.

THE TREK

DAY 1: get to Loharket (1829m)
Leave Bagheshwar around noon or later, walking upstream from the bridge on the west side of the valley. After 200m you'll see some parked jeeps that will take you up to Bherari (an hour) or a little further to Song or Loharket. Expect to pay a rupee per kilometre, and expect to be crammed in! The furthest you can get is below the Loharket resthouse (which involves a last steep ascent from the asphalt road in lower Loharket). If you just get to Song, walk 2km up the gorge road to Loharket and turn left up the steep gravel road next to the Pindari glacier hike signpost. The resthouse can be spotted left above the village - follow the winding gravel road to reach it.The simple KMVN resthouse has decent rooms, a spot for camping (there's also a good spot more to the north, next to a gorge) and they can cook up a thali for you. The views are good - try to count how many terrace fields Loharket has... I counted more than 250 levels!

DAY 2: Loharket to Dhakuri to Khati (2194m). 19km.
A strenuous day if you're not fit; you have to get across a low pass to enter the Pindari river valley. It involves going steep up along a gravel road that turns into a shaded path up to a 2835m pass, then descending 300m to the Dhakuri resthouse (lunch here). The pass has a side path to a temple, and the actual saddle of the pass would be a cool place to camp in calm weather. If you're lucky you'll have excellent views from here (and from Dhakuri) over several snow-clad peaks, including Panwali Dhar (6683m) and Maiktoli (6803m). Dhakuri has several good dhabas-cum-shops. From here it's mainly downhill or level walking, via busy village paths to beautiful Kathi village. Have a peek into the water-powered flour mill just to the right of the path in the riverbed as you cross the bridge to Kathi... an amazing and simple technique.
Kathi has a PWD resthouse at the top of the village, and next to it a very basic private guesthouse with dhaba and a good village shop. At the very top of the village is another dhaba. About 15mins walk further along the main path above Kathi is the more isolated KMVN resthouse with its dhaba; this is very peacefully set in the forest and has views up the valley to the peaks. The guys running the private guesthouse also have a sort of logcabin with a platform for views, 200m along the path beyond the village, which looks like a very nice place to stay; 100Rs/night they told me. This would also be the best place to camp if they allow it. I'd stay in or near the village, as it's beautiful and great to wander around.
EXTENSION: The deep valley opening up across from Kathi leads to the Sunderdurga glacier. It does not have teahouses, but with a tent it's an attractive extension to the Pindari route (3-4 days I believe).

DAY 3: Kathi to Phurkiya (3260m). 14km.
You leave civilisation now. Kathi is the last village in the valley, and from now on it's just teahouses, shepherds' huts and the occasional trekker. Walk up through forest with great birdlife and past some scary landslides (you'll see plenty of hillsides that have decided to move) as the landscape gets increasingly dramatic (steep mountainsides rearing up all over the place) and the river gets ever wilder. There are a few teahouses along the path before you cross the river for the first time over a wobbly wooden bridge and climb steeply up the real left to continue high above the river (note the washed-away steel bridge just downstream - the river can get really wild during melting season). Lunch is at Dwali, which is on the confluence of the Pindari and Kafni streams, opposite another huge landslide. The path continues on the real right side of the Pindari valley (mind you don't go up the Kafni valley, to the right, here). The path keeps going up through ever-lower trees and shrubs, and ends up at the rather grim KMVN and PWD resthouses at Phurkiya, which is just below the treeline (the least attractive place to stay in the valley, with a particularly miserable caretaker).

DAY 4: Phurkiya - Pindari glacier (3800m) - Dwali (2580m) ~22km
A long day; get up really early, leave your heavy stuff behind, and set off not much later than 05:00 if you want to see the top of the valley without clouds. You go up relatively steeply, and soon leave the trees and shrubs behind you and it becomes starkly alpine, with good views of snow-capped peaks all around. We arrived at the fields below the glacier around 08:00 with clear views and the sunrays slowly creeping over the valley floor, lighting everything up beautifully. Good views here of Panwali Dwar and the weirdly square-shaped Nanda Kot (6876m). The clouds soon started forming, and by 10:00 it was already very cloudy. In the fields in the final stretch, there's the strong stone house of the Pindari valley guru, a young guy from Orissa who's been living up here for decades (except for the two worst months in winter), taking care of the Hindu shrines in the valley and on top of the nearby mountain. He's very friendly and will happily hand out a great cup of tea and chat about digital cameras - remember to make a donation at the small temple. A little further up, following the narrowing path, you cross a river and make for a narrow glacial ridge in the middle of the valley, that you can mount to look over the deep ravine to the foot of Pindari glacier 200m beyond. This is as far as we mortals can go - it's pretty dangerous to cross the deep valley of rubble to get any closer to the glacier. The ridge has a couple of nice spots for a breakfast in the sun. Pick up your backpacks at Phurkiya, and return to Dwali where the best place to stay is in the uppermost building, the KMVN resthouse.
PUSHKAR-WALLAH; Dwali has the jolliest teahouse-wallah of the valley! His name is Pushkar-wallah, he's old, he cracks great jokes and he wears Just Do It socks donated to him by an English hiker (bring more socks if you're heading up there, and maybe something he can use as a guestbook too). He cooks everything sitting crouched in the smoke of the uppermost teahouse shack in Dwali, next to the KMVN resthouse. He makes a mean thali too, calling out to 'chotu' (his nephew, who does all the washing up) for missing ingredients all the time. Long live Pushkar-wallah!
EXTENSION: fit people with tents and food could safely camp in the flat fields at the end of the valley, next to the glacial ridge. There's fresh water nearby. The next morning, you could attempt a daytrip to the peak of the 4000+m mountain to the real right; it's a not too technical steep climb, and you may well be affected by the altitude up there.

DAY 5: Dwali - Kafni glacier (~3900m) - Dwali (22km)
Again, take only your daypack and set off very early, turning left past Pushkar-wallahs teahouse (get him to cook up some potato parathas to take along for lunch, they're good). Halfway the trek up you'll pass the Kafni teahouse (with a new resthouse that was under construction in June 2004). From here it gets starkly alpine again, and the landscape surrounding the approach the Kafni glacier is even more impressive. When you're still some distance away, you get the best view of the white/blue part of the glacier that cascades down the mountain, as you get closer, the huge rubble-covered part blocks your views of that. Unlike Pindari, you can walk right up to the glacier here, though it's unadvisable to get too close as the sun causes stones and huge rocks to crash down periodically, sending sharp shards of rock flying. It looks tempting to climb up the left of the valley to peek over the end of the glacier - but believe me, it's very steep going and all you see is more rubble-covered glacier.

DAY 6: Dwali - Dhakuri
Backtrekking. Lunch is in Kathi. Beware - it's downhill only until just beyond Kathi, then it's quite a hike uphill again towards Dhakuri.

DAY 7: Dhakuri - Loharket - Bagheshwar
If you're lucky, you'll wake up to see great views of the snow-clad mountains opposite. It's a short hike up to the pass and then down all the way to Loharket. From the resthouse (lunch) you may already be able to spot if there's a jeep waiting in the village below; if so, hurry up to get a quick ride back to Bherari and Bagheshwar!

COMMENTS:
1) Next time, I won't take a guide (really unnecessary - the paths are excellent and the route is very obvious, plenty of friendly people to ask, too... but it was my first trek outside of Europe so forgive me). Also, I would have taken a tent, for a detour to the Sunderdurga glacier, and sleeping in the Kafni valley.
2) Kathi would be the nicest place to hang out for a day or two; it's relaxed, quiet, has the cabin, a shop and a decent place to eat. If you have a tent and stove, you'd probably prefer the fields below the glaciers.
3) Cool cats with good gear can climb across the pass above Pindari to reach the Milam valley - but it's a technical climb and should be done with a guide.
4) Now that the new resthouse halfway up the Kafni route is (probably) finished, you can shorten this long day of hiking somewhat. You could head up here (instead of Phurkiya) first, visiting the glacier the next day and heading back down to Dwali, and then up to Phurkiya.
5) I described a route plan that has you sleeping at all the resthouses once. Some hikers set off early from Bagheshwar, sleeping at Dhakuri - Dwali - Phurkiya (losing half a day waiting in this nasty place!) - Dwali - Dhakuri - Bagheshwar. Apart from having only a half-day trek to Phurkiya (not the nicest place on the route), they also miss out on a night in pretty Kathi. The way I described above gets you around most efficiently, and lets you score Kathi as well... so do your shopping in Bageshwar in the morning, and just plan to get to Song or Loharket on the first day (beware of thinning jeep traffic in early afternoon, though) for a more varied trek!

Thanks very much to Avid for providing the idea and the basic details for me to do the trek. Happy hiking, people.

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AvidTrekker

Very good writing, Jeroen.... very easy to read!

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ashish0608

Jeroen, good information "to be on your own"..will take a printout and keep just incase I may need it.

Jung Mi

Jeroen, thank you!

I go to India just for the temples and cities first, but I reads this and you have me interested to the make a trekking in Pindari.

May be I change my trip for this October - a trekking and a temples/cities trip!

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Jeroen

Thanks guys - I'm just giving back to IndiaMike what it gave to me over the past few months I'll do a similar post on the Milam glacier trek too - so if you're planning to spend some time hiking, spare another week after Pindari for this even more fabulous trek!

leem

Jeroen, this is excellent info for independent trekkers, well done. Hopefully others will follow your example as I am sure there are far more opportunities for this sort of trekking in India than we know about.

I am also hoping that you and the Avid one can keep expanding the list of trekking shops and equipment available for independent trekkers.

I am looking forward to the Milam report.

Hope to add to this in some small way after my trek but it looks like you have covered it really well.

Did you notice if the closed cell foam sleeping mats were widely available. Avid has given a couple of leads for Delhi but I am only going to be there for the day, did you see any in Almora?

much appreciated

Jeroen

Leem - forget it, the only hiking gear places I saw in Uttaranchal are in Dehra Dun. Nothing much in Almora or Nainital.

dumb_bacchus

hey thanks a ton - A must read

I was planning a trek to Pindari this Oct - mid .. well i am confused between Pindari and Milan. Help me ++

Jeroen

>I was planning a trek to Pindari this Oct - mid .. well i am confused between Pindari and Milan.

If you have to choose, and you have at least a week, I'd suggest Milam which takes longer to reach but is more immediately spectacular and has cool deserted villages. With less time on your hands, Pindari is a good alternative. If you want to do both, I'd suggest doing Pindari first.
I'm enjoying my holiday (Vietnam currently) so much that I can't find the time to sit down and type the Milam details - I'll see if I can get it done soon

dumb_bacchus

wooow - have in Vietnam. I bet its a beautiful place. I guess BBC made the world think that all u have in Vietnam are landmines.

I hate saying this {makes me bloodly selfish} when ever u get time, pls do a posting on Milan trek - no matter how short it is.. cuz at the moment i am having trouble finding information.

adios

Jeroen

bacchus
I see you're ther in mid-oct - well you don't have to decide really until you arrive in Almora so I hope you can wait a few more days; internet was down in Hanoi yesterday and I'm off for a few days now.
Again, if you have to choose, go Milam. Reckon on a day to get to Munsiari, the starting point, from Almora. Then it's say 4 days walking to the glacier, and 3 days on the way back to Munsiari, plus another day to get out of Munsiari to Almora/Delhi/Rishikesh or the start of the Pindari trek. Add another day up in one of the villages (I strongly suggest Martoli) just to take in the views and realise how damn lucky you are to be there. On this trek taking a sleeping bag and some kind of mat is advised, as the resthouses are pretty basic - I had the coldest night of all holiday in MArtoli where all you get is a reed mat on the floor.
If you're a crack trekker and properly equipped, you can trek across the pass between the Milam and Pindari valleys, but this is absolutly not for beginners. Taking the road between the starting points of either trek (by bus, or much faster: shared jeeps) will take half a day, starting early.
More in a few days!

Groovy Guru

Hey Jeroen,

Great article...well done!! I am planning to go to Pindari with some of my friends in the first week of Oct......your article was well timed...thanks for all the detailed info.
Enjoy your holiday in Veitnam.
Cheers,
GG

dumb_bacchus

thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks

mountaingirl

While on the way to Pindari, I would suggest a side trip to the Kafni glacier which is much more beautiful. Pindari can be a bit disappointing for those who want to be close to the glacier or see it at a close angle. You stop at a point called ZERO point and look across (kind of) at the glacier....

Once I was asked by a student group - 'glacier is described as a moving mass of snow and ice in our books - how come we can't see this glacier move'? i think that was cute!

If you also have time, then take a local to Sunderdhunga.

Milam glacier -J, did u hear what the locals say about Milam? Some years back we had trouble convincing porters to come with us - as they thought that they would be attacked by ghosts or rather by witches! :-)

Jeroen

Hey Mountaingirl,
Agreed - Kafni is worthwhile as you can sit right next to the glacier and watch it melt. It's described above on the Day 5 information (I know, it's a long read )
No, I haven't heard of Milam ghost stories. Most porters will be easily convinced to come along using this instant anti-ghost remedy called rupees, available from all ATMs in India.