The Milam glacier teahouse trek - the details

feelfree82

Thank you mountain boy. ll make corrections accordingly now.

I hope i get to spend couple of days in Martoli. I ll update the plan.

Thank you once again,

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PLUR

ks_bluechip

Hi feelfree82 and others on the Milam forum posts...

I just reached Bageshwar (on 12th May - 9am) via Gwaldham after visiting Badrinath last 1 week. There was a thunderstorm y'day evening in Gwaldham. And I could see snowfall in lower hills y'day (not at gwaldham or upto Wan) but higher levels.

I Will go on to Munsiary on 14th May as planned and hope to start trek to Milam on 15th. I note some people have reportd route blocks due to snow/rain in Milam. I hope it clears by 15th .... else will go at least part of the way. I have no first hand info about Milam as yet. Will check locally at Munsiary on 14th May and update. Rgds - KS

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

ks_bluechip

further to my post a few hours ago ..I will stay at KMVN-TRC in Munsiyari .. (mostly) the night of 14th May and start trek on 15th hopefully ... anybody going to Milam be at Munsiary / KMVN on 14th??? would love to meet up. I am hoping there will be several others there ... KS

ks_bluechip

feelfree82 .... I suppose you are already on trek since this 5th may post of yours .... hope it was successful.... and not too much affected by snow-blocks? ... If you are back from trek ... and connected to forum, let me know you latest update on Milam trek since 5th may... i am plalling to start 15th may from munsiary.

rajkumar

hi ks,
nice to you are well on the way to milam. lot of rainfall and hailstorms in munsiary too. hope the weather will be alright when start the trek. good luck!thanks for the update.

ks_bluechip

Hi Rajkumar, thanks for your reply. Since the trekkers for Milam Gl. this May have not posted any Msgs here since 5th May, I am assuming they are on the trail now ... and hence not able to post .. which means the trail is open, i think! ... KS

rajkumar

All the best and Have a great trekking time!

rajkumar

The route to Milam from Munsiary is opened for this season(May 2007).

Ashutosh

Hi everybody,

I am guessing you all are enjoying your Milam glacier trek!

You didn't see me there if you were looking for me - because my broken back actually gave way on the flight to Mumbai, and I had to cancel my trek due to the aggravated injury. Although very disappointing, I believe there is always another time to return to the magical Himalayas, and I am happy I will be in hopefully better condition before I undertake a long wild trek like this one!

I want to thank everybody here for the great insights - rajkumar, Almoraboy, Kothanda, Jeroen, amongst others - you guys are single-handedly becoming the "lonely planet" of the Kumaon region.

Next time I plan to return to the Himalayas, I will certainly be banking on the mountains of information you all have shared here.

Thank you very much, and hats off!

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-Ashutosh
http://rajekar.ca

ks_bluechip

Hi everyone....

I just got back to Munsiary today after my trek to Milam Glacier. The route is open fully... since May 11. In fact feelfree82 (amit) of this forum was the first to start on this trek this season. I met him at Budgiar, while he was returing and i was going up.

I started on 15th May from Munsiary as planned and reached Milam Gl and completed the full trek in 10 days with stops as follows... Lilam, Budgiar, Riltoli, Martoli, Milam, Milam-Gl, Burfu, Rilktoli, Budgiar, Lilam, Munsiary. Did not do the Nanda Devi east base camp.

The trail route is pretty ok now .... except for some minor snow crossings in 6-7 stretches of 100-200m length, between Budgiar and Rilkot, near Nahar-devi. They are easy to cross. The trek itself was tough, but very enjoyable! It was cold in the upper reacxhes. Got clear view of the Milam Glacier but most of the high snow peaks were covered with clouds. Expected that in May.

I met many trekkers (some foreignors and hordes of Bengalis from kolkata) while returning at Riltoli and Budgiar around 20-21st May .... Also there were two big groups ... 36 of Youth Hostel, Pune ... and another big group of 30 people and kids from Bangalore, with Pardeep Roy leading .... so I guess there are nearly 150 people on the trek right now! When I was in the upper reaches of trek there were only 7-8 on the trail. So happy to have escaped the crowds with an early start!

I am back at Munsiary now (25th May) .... hope to visit Corbett Park next 4 days and return to Mumbai on 31st May.

KS

rajkumar

hi ks,
Nice to hear from you. Hope you had a great trekking time.
Was theer any snow in Milam village, when you were there? Please post the pictures and share your experiences.

Almoraboy

hello ks,

nice to have u back. pls post the pics of the trek. waiting for them eagerly.

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Trek blog over here

Sadanand Kamath

After going through all posts under this thread, I regret for not attempting Milam glaceir trek in my heyday . I did trek Pindari glacier in Sept.1985 but in himalaya, no one trek can be substitute for other. I hope, in days to come, I will at least visit Munsiary and its surroundings to get a feel of the Milam .

Sadanand

Almoraboy

yes. in munsyari itself, u can visit the thameri kund, maser kund (very small trek), khalia top (this is a 2 day trek) or even relax around kalamuni..which is one of my favourite temples in the world.

Almoraboy

the legend of johar valley goes as such:
the johar valley ppl were initially the descendants of 2 ppl - haldua and pingalua. they were so hairy that u could find hair all over their bodies and even some hair on their tongue.
this place is supposed to be full of folk tales which are rich in imagination, dealing with ghosts, wizards and fairies. harry potter is nothing compared to it. in fact, legendary explorer nain singh had written that if the johar ppl started recording their legends and stories, it will be the most romantic (rich in imagination) collection of stories anywhere in the world.

now, at the place where the milam river originates...a bird of prey war born. as the bird grew, it's appetite grew. soon, it started attacking the ppl of johar. johar was divided in two parts - talla (lower) johar and malla (upper) johar. talla johar was till lapsa village. the rest was malla. now, a little ahead of the milam village lies an area known as lapthal. there is a cave over there..where a lama used to come from the hun desh (country of huns..now known as tibet) to meditate and prey. when the lama knew about this bird, he summoned one of his disciples. he gave him weapons (bow/arrow) and a sword and told him to slay the bird that has killed all the ppl in johar. the disciple asked..how will i find the way till johar? the lama replied, 'i will send someone to show u the way. no matter what form the guide takes, u should not be afraid or surprised by him. u should stick to ur task of locating and slaying that bird'. a small boy took the disciple from lapthal toward johar. on the way, he took the form of a bear (in pahadi, u call it topidhu) - this place is now know as topidunga, at one place he took the form of a camel (oont in hindi) - this place is now known as untadhunga .. i forgot which all other forms he took. finally the disciple reached milam only to find human skeletons. he proceeded down till he reached lapsa village. there was a solitary old woman left (even she had hair on her tongue), who was cowering in her hut. the disciple enquired as to what had hapened and she told him to leave before the bird came and killed him alos. at thta momnet the bird swooped down and as he took the woman in its beak, the disciple fired an arrow that was given to him from the lama. this killed the bird. its head fell where the gori river originates from now.


another legend:
the disciple had asked the lama to provide salt in this valley as earlier it did not grow. the lama had to meditate really hard to do so and it took a lot of his powers and he grew a bit weak. so he went out to rest and meditate more in his cave. traces of this salt can be found in the soil in hte upper reaches of the valley...where animals are seen licking the ground at many places.


another legend --

the ppl of johar believe that their kingdom is huge. in fact, they have a saying ... "aadha sansar, aadha munsyar" (aadha = half, sansar = world, munsyar = snow). so on translating, it means : half world, half snow. this represents their belief that half the world is located in snow, which is mainly tot he left og gori ganga river. and the other half of the world is located to the right, in which the people stay.


all these things were taken from an old book - kumaon kaa itihaas, which was written by my great grandpa. it is a really old book, written in 1930s. i don't think it is published now. however, i will try to make it online in the next few months. it is a treasure trove of information on kumaon. for the references to johar valley..he travelled to these places and also looked up a lot from nain singh's pandulipi (nain singh was a legendary explorer and headmaster of the school in milam. he was the first foreigner to sneak into tibet and draw up its map). in fact, if anyone is in munsyari, they can go down to madkot..30 kms below. one of nain singh's descendants resides in madkot. he might have the original maps that nain singh smuggled inside tibet int he 19th century, and the medals he received from the RGS. while in london, i will try to find if i can locate any stuff from the RGS office over here, regarding the same and will surely post it on the net.

edition/addition: RGS = royal geographic society

we wee lucky enough, during our last trip, to stay with a person who is also related to nain singh and now resides in bona village. next time i go down to madkot, i will try to look up his relative who has all the stuff nain singh took on his secret journey to tibet in the 19th century.