Rupin Pass Trek Diary

Rupin Pass Trek Diary

Rupin Pass

Rupin Pass, my first Himalayan trek. It is once in a lifetime experience. Its full of surprises and excitements. This blog tries to highlight day to day details of our trek. We did this trek from Sep 15th to Sep 21st, 2012 with IndiaHikes. http://www.rupinpass.com/

PS: The pictures used in this blog are taken by my fellow trekkers.

Day 0: Bangalore to Delhi by flight and took overnight train to Dehradun.

Day 1: Dehradun to Dhaula by cab. Had tea, breakfast and lunch on the way. It was hilly terrain and drive was not that smooth with risks involved here and there. We saw a cab on the way which had fallen from the hill, almost 100 ft down. As per the locals, 3 out of 5 passengers died on the spot and one was seriously injured.

View from cab to Dhaula

We reached our base camp at Dhaula by 6 PM. After brief introduction and instructions from our guide, Rajmohan we started re-packing our backpack to make necessary items easily accessible.
The camp reminded us what we should expect for next 7 days. It was on a river bank. The river was flowing in full force with lot of noise. Within half an hour, it became fully dark and we were dependent on our torch lights. Dinner was ready by 7.30 PM. The food quality was way higher than our expectations.

Our first base camp: at Dhaula

By 9 PM, we were inside our tents. It rained heavily overnight and I was kind of scared for tent safety. But then sleep took over.

Day 2: My mobile was switched off and I had no other time source. After being worried for what time it is, I finally came out of my tent and found it was 5 AM. By 7.30 AM, breakfast was done and we started doing some stretches. Toughest one was push-ups using fingers!!!

And we are ready!!!

1st day trek was going to be of 14 KM and guide told that we would finish it in 4 hours. We started trekking at 8 AM. Being the first day, we started at our own sweet speed. It was gradual ascend with few steep ones here and there. After taking lunch on the way, we picked up the speed a bit. There were few drizzles in between. By the time we reached our next camp in Sewa, it was almost 5 PM!!!

Temple at Sewa

At Sewa, we did few stretches again, mostly of shoulders which were carrying 12 KG backpack. It was cloudy, we finished our dinner and went into our tents. It rained again overnight.

Day 3: I had switched on my mobile with keeping network off so as to use it as clock. Got up around 6 AM and found that it was still raining. I waited for sometime and then came out of tent with rain cover on. At around 8 AM, while having our breakfast, guide told us that if it doesn't stop raining by 12 PM, we will stay in same camp today.
One of our fellow trekker had some physical problem and guide had asked him to leave the trek. Our camp was on side of a motorable road and a cab came to pick that guy.
At around 11 AM, rain got a little lighter. One more cab came to pick us. It dropped us to next village, Kanwar. So we saved few hours of trekking. By 12 PM, rain had stopped and we started trekking towards Jhanka, the last village in our route.

Uttranchal-Himachal border

We were pretty fast on this day. Despite several steep ascends, which gave me stomach cramps, we were on time as per guide. By 5 PM, we reached Jhanka.
It was a beautiful village of Himachal (Btw, we crossed Uttranchal border and entered Himachal somewhere during our trek). The village was constructed almost vertically upwards and is popularly known as hanging village. It had power infrastructure in place. We stayed in a beautiful home there. It again rained in evening and our tents, which were kept out to dry, got completely wet. This was first time all of us were in same room and we talked a lot and then slept.

Day 4: Finally we witnessed a sunny morning. We started bit late after breakfast to give time for our tents to get dried. Till Jhanka, mulls were carrying the tents and other stuffs like sleeping bags. Now the trail was not that easy so guide hired porters from Jhanka.
We started our trek at around 9 AM. The sunny day means we were slow in beginning. It was steep ascend from start itself. After sometime, we entered pine forest. I had heard that people see bears in this forest. I asked my guide, what if I see a bear, what I Have to do? He replied: you don’t have to do anything, just become its food!!!

Pine forest

Slowly the day became cloudy and trek started feeling a bit easier. First time we saw the Rupin river. We crossed it using wooden bridge and started trekking along the river.
Around 2 PM, we reached our pre-decided base camp. We had enough time to reach to next base camp same day. But after enough thoughts on weather, we decided to stay there itself. It was a good decision because it started raining as soon as we went inside tents.
In evening there was campfire. Porters were cooking their food on it and we were using it to warm our body a bit. We had good chats with guide and staff. And then it was time to sleep.

Day 5: It was relatively easier day. We had to reach the next base camp which was not that far, though altitude difference was relatively more. During final leg of trekking, which was quite a steep hike, I was feeling breathlessness.
We reached our base camp at Dhanderas Tatch (lower waterfall) around 2 PM. It was quite cold and oxygen level was noticeably lower (it was difficult to even yawn properly!!!).
From the base camp, we were able to see the upper waterfall and the beautiful snowy hill. We had to trek till there next day. Once the weather got little clearer, SLR cams came out to click the beautiful sceneries. At around 5 PM, it started raining and we went inside our tents. There was enough time to kill before dinner and we played tent to tent antakshari. By 7 PM, dinner was ready and we had to come out in rain to take the dinner and go back in tents to enjoy the it. We slept bracing for a tough next day.

View of upper waterfall and Rupin pass from Dhanderas Tatch base camp

Day 6: Once again it was steep hike from starting itself and I was feeling out of breath. Being in the last, made me more demoralized and I was not able to concentrate on trail, instead I was seeing other people who were seemingly at much higher hills. Rajmohan Bhaiya came to me, fixed my back pack properly and asked me not to see upwards and just see the trail. The trick worked and slowly I found it relatively easier.
Then came one of the most exciting part of our trek. We had to cross Rupin river and there was no trail. It was upper waterfall, one mistake and we could have fallen to lower waterfall in no time. And our guide, he was jumping from one stone to another to find the ‘safer’ path, we had our heart in our mouth for that duration.

Crossing Rupin river at upper waterfall using rope

Finally he found a relatively safer path through the river. He tied the rope at one end, asked me to hold it, and he jumped to the other end. He tightened the rope. We had to walk towards other end barefooted, holding the rope. I went first, the water was icy cold and the flow was too much to keep our feet grounded. It was just a matter of few seconds and I crossed it properly. As other people followed, I found enough time to dry my feet before putting up the shoes. After few minutes of rest, we started again. This time I made sure to be in front to avoid any demoralizing effect. It was almost vertical climb from there on. Every time you think that climb is over, you’ll see another hill to climb. I told my guide, “maine apne pairon se koi sawal nahi poocha, fir bhi wo jawab de rahe”.
We reached the place from where Rupin Pass was clearly visible, vertically upward. Now came the time for one more decision. We had option to camp there and start afresh next day to cross the pass, with the risk of snowfall overnight OR cross the pass on same day because weather was quite clear. Surprisingly everyone told: we’ll cross today.

Steep climb on snow to the Rupin Pass

Now we were walking on snow. The destination was “so near yet so far”. My shoes started ditching me. It was skidding, snow was going inside the shoes. After 2 hours of difficult climb on snow, we were on top, literally.
It was sight of lifetime. An achievement!!!

On the top, literally!!!

 We cherished the moment, took few snaps and then it was time to start descending. Guide put socks over my shoes to avoid too much of skidding. It was difficult for me to feel my toes until he hit the shoes with stick to remove the snow (frost bite???).
Descending was hell, 90% because of my shoes and rest for actual descending part. I fell down more than 30 times, one of that hurt real hard. I still feel its effect on my left shoulder. It started snowing as well.
After few hours, we were out of snow area. The camp was set as soon as we crossed the snow. We tried catching hold of Sun to dry our socks and cloth but it didn't stay for long. I went inside tent, inside sleeping bag, inside sleeping inner to start feeling my toes. Came out just once for dinner and slept again.

Final day camp

Day 7: It was beautiful sunny morning. We received our certificate for completing the trek successfully, had our breakfast and started trekking down. It was 12 KM of descend, steep and gradual, hell to our toes, ankle and knees.
After 5-6 hours, we reached Baspa river bridge (entrance to Sangla, town in Himachal). We saw a beautiful school ground with team of boys and girls practicing volleyball and they were playing real good.
We were back in ‘civilization’ after 4 days. We checked-in in Baspa (any relation with Mayawati?) guest house.
As we finished our trek a day earlier, we had extra time before going to Bangalore.
We spent these days in Sangla, Shimla and Delhi and took return flight to Bangalore.

“There are so many religions, every religion has their own God. People say that all Gods are one. I realized that: yes, there is only one God and its called ‘Nature’”.