Roopkund The Mysterious Lake

The Mysterious Lake Roopkund

Thinking about High Altitude trekking Roopkund the mysterious skeleton lake in Gerhwal Himalaya region is exciting. Year 1995 I had just joined Institute and was very excited with the thought of going for high altitude trekking but we were confused not able to decide where suddenly someone popped the name of Roopkund trekking the mysterious Lake in Gerhwal Himalaya region. Total number of participant 5 Arindam Sarkar aged about 60+ elected as leader Deepak Roy choudhury as team manager Diptesh Mondal as treasurer and Ramprasad Haldar & myself as normal member without any portfolio. Time decided at the middle of August

We boarded Amritsar Mail from Howrah station and reached Lucknow next day evening after having our dinner at station we boarded Lalkuan Express in the late night and reached Lalkuan Station next day morning. From there we boarded in a state run bus for our next destination Gwaldam. It was a cloudy weather and I was mesmerized with the beauty of surrounding as this was my first high altitude trekking I was thrilled with the experience. We reached Gwaldam in the evening. Gwaldam is a hill station perched at an altitude of 1700 mts above sea level in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state. It lies on the route which connects Garhwal region with Kumaon

Gwaldam is a sleepy little town, on the border of Garhwal & Kumaon hills located amidst green jungles and apple orchards. Gwaldam offers a fascinating view of Himalayan peaks Nanda Devi (7817 MT), Trishul (7120 MT) and Nanda Ghuti (6309 MT

Next day we woke up earlier as we planned to catch first available bus for Lohajung. Next day when we reached bus station we came to know due to last night land slide bus is not going suddenly we spotted a truck which was going lohajung we request driver to take us along he agreed and we boarded his truck. It was amazing the view of valley and mountain took my breath away. In late afternoon we reached Lohajung (8300Ft). Lohajunga tiny pass, in the heart of the greater Himalayan range, 85 kms from Karanprayag

Day 1 of Trek: We spent our night in a local hut. At this place we started feeling cold in the night next day we start our trek to Wan Village which is a 6 km easy walk to Kulling village followed by a steep descent to Raun Bagad. The road route is easier than the Curzon trail, but you miss the enchantment of the mixed forest. After 6 to 7 hour of trekking we reached the beautiful Village of Wan we stayed in a state run Tourist Bunglaw. After reaching there I started preparing for our dinner as responsibility falls on me to cook as no member of our team know how to cook!! Forget cooking even they don’t know how to lit stove!! All members suggested me to leave it to our guide and porter to prepare our food but I decided to make our food myself as they were not clean. Evening was so beautiful we were enjoying our view suddenly sky started pouring water our guide said jokingly “Bombay ka fashion aur pahar ke mousam ka koi thik nahi kab badal jaye” rightly said. Diptesh Mondal our team member who is expert in writing small Chada was busy writing his experience and brought some post card with me I also wrote a letter to my family & asked our care taker to post it. Surprisingly that letter reached its destination after one month of our arrival!!!

Day 2: We woke up a little late next day as last day was our first day and it was very tiresome after our breakfast of noodles with soybean we started our trekking at 7. Before start of our trekking our team manager Deepak Roy Choudhury asked me to take some “DOKTAPATA” along with me he asked us to put some pieces of leaf in our shoes and socks as this route is full of leeches!! I could understand the usefulness of”Dokhtapata” when other team from Srinagar kept on yelling oh! Ouch!! And we could see leeches on our shoes and trouser but they were not daring to suck our blood because of DOKTAPATA!! After 3 hours of trekking we had our meal of some Muribhaja with chanachur. At around 2.30 we reached Bedini Bugiyal.

Bedni Bugyal (High altitude grass, meadow) is one of the finest meadows in India. This has got to be one of the most romantic spots in the Himalayas - acres and acres of meadow scooped out of lush mountain scape, a steep ridge

Arching up into the dusk, and above it, the enormous western flank of Trishul. One of the larger Bugyal (meadow) in Uttarakhand, Bedni is also a major way-station on the Nanda Raj Jaat Yatra, a ritual procession held every 12 years.

Bedni Bugyal(11500Ft) is a charming green meadow adorned with flowers in a spell binding varieties, in full bloom. There is a small lake situated in the midst of the meadow, where Tarpans are offered by the devotees. Situated nearby is a small temple where the devotees pay there obeisance, during their halt at Bedni Bugyal.

Seeing the beauty of place we forget all our pain! Firstly I prepared tea for our self and got refreshed then I put my Sony Walkman in play mode and started running all around I felt like I am in heaven there is no place in the world which can come and compete the beauty of this place. We went to our bed early as tomorrow we have to go Baghuwabasa  via Pathar Nachuni.

Day 3 :  Today we decided to trek up to Baghuwabasa usually trekkers  stayed at Pathar Nachuni to acclimatize due to substantial height gain but we decided to go Baghuwa basa in one day. After a trek of around 1 and half hour we reached  “Pathar Nauchuni” which translates to “Dancing Stones”. Legend has it that the king who was taking the annual pilgrimage to please Goddess Nanda Devi had forgotten paying proper prayers mesmerized by the royal dancers. Goddess Nanda was infuriated but the King asked for forgiveness and in order to avoid further distractions, the dancers were cursed to transform into stones. There are a couple of big stones to be seen which can be connected to the folklore. We had light snacks and moved towards Kalu Vinayak.  A steep climb from Pathar Nachuni to Kalu Vinayak Pass would lead us to another place with an interesting folklore. This is where Lord Vinayak was standing guard while Parvati was taking bath in Roopkund Lake. It is from here that one can see the Roopkund crater for the first time. Further down the pass, we reach Bhaguabhasa which translates to “Abode of the Tiger”. This was where Goddess Parvati left the tiger and went ahead to take her bath in Roopkund. Our decision to go Baghuwabasa directly from Bedini cost me heavily as I started feeling dizziness and stomach pain due to high altitude. In Baghuwabasa we pitched our tent

Next morning when we woke up I was amused to see so many flower around our tent our guide told us these are Brahmakamal. Brahma kamal, named after hindu god of Creation, Brahma, is a very sacred flower found only in high altitudes and seasonal as well. It is also the state flower of Uttarakhand

Day 4” After having our breakfast we started moving up towards mysterious lake it was raining slowly after 2 and half hours of walking finally we’ve reached Roopkund. (16500 Ft) While Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva were on their way to Kailas (or maybe Trishul), Goddess Parvati was feeling very dirty after killing the demons and wanted to clean up. Lord Shiva created the Lake with his Trishul and Parvati dipped herself in the blue waters and she could see her clear and beautiful reflection in the waters which was why the lake was named Roopkund

In Roopkund human skeletons of 500 - 600 years old are found. There are several beliefs about the mystic presence of these skeletons. Some say refugees fleeing from prosecution of Tuglak's army under General Zorawar Singh died here on the way. Others believe traders from Tibet might have died in a natural calamity. Yet another belief is that King Jasdal of Kanauj was on his way with his wife undertaking a pilgrimage called, Nanda Jat" to propitiate Goddess Nanda Devi 560 years ago. The Queen delivered a child on the way. This made the Goddess Nanda Devi angry by spoiling Her Holy Land. A snow storm was sent down by the Goddess killing hundreds on the trail of pilgrimage. According to the artefacts recovered so far this explanation of "Nanda Jat" seems more viable. Yet curiosity is unsatiated to find reason for this mystery.

We spent few minutes there and started to our next destination Shila Samundra (12002Ft) we climbed another steep section up to Jurangalidhar (Death pass). Jurangalidhar is very good spot to see closer view of Trisul and Nandaghunti peaks. A steep descent will lead us to Sailsamudra. Camping in boulder strewn meadow. After reaching Shila Samundra we pitched our tent beneath a large Rock face due to continuous rain our all cloths and belonging got wet. Our next destination was Homkund but we decided to stay one day at Shila Samundra so that we can dry our clothes and belonging.

Decision seems right when next day was sunny and bright with clear sky. Around our campsite a herd of Deer made their stay it was amazing feeling. I took my camera & crawled towards herd as my camera had no zoom to take picture of herd.

Day 5: We got ready and started at 9.30AM. It was an easy 20-30 minutes descent to reach the actual glacier of Trishul which gives its name to this area - Shila Samurai. We had to cross this big boulder zone. This is the glacial moraine of Mt Trishul.

It took us more than an hour to cross over to this ocean of stones and then we had to climb a ridge to go towards Dodang. At this point, we had trek along the Nandakini river. We could see the way which went towards Chandaniya Ghat which was supposed to be our campsite for the next day

We were now walking along the Nandakini river bed on the boulders. The progress was slow as there was no trail and there was a lot of going up the ridge and then suddenly getting down to the river bed. Everyone slipped at least once on the boulders but luckily no one got hurt. On one such ridge, Diptesh slipped from the way and our guide arrested his fall. Fortunately there were no injuries but these were really some scary moments.

We reached the campsite at Dodang (13700 feet) at around 2.30 PM. The meaning of Dodang is “Two Stones”. The campsite was a small clearing between two very big boulders

This campsite is at the base of Nanda Ghunti. Nanda Ghunti towered above us as we sat near the creek at this campsite.

The trail till Homkund is also very famous for another reason. Every twelve years there is a procession to Homkund called the “Nanda Devi Raj Jat Yatra”. It starts from a village called “Nauty” with a 4 horned ram leading the procession. The image of Goddess Nanda Devi is brought to Bedni Bugiyal and following this very trail brought to Homkund where the marriage of Lord Shiva and Parvati is celebrated. After all the ceremonies are over, the four horned ram disappears in the mountains. Thousands of pilgrims from all the parts of India take part in this yatra. Lots of people walk without any footwear. Homkund is supposed to be very scared place

It was the coldest night of all the nights on this treks. The small water creek next to our tent was also frozen in the night. The place was again very windy and all our water had frozen. We had another long day tomorrow and had decided to start early at 5 AM. We decided to call it a day

Day 6 : We already knew that today was going to be tiring day for us and had braced for it mentally. The plan was to go till Homkund (15200 feet) which was about 4 km from Dodang, then climb Ronti Saddle (17500 feet), come back to Dodang and after lunch to go down till the next campsite at Chandaniya Ghat.We got up at 4.30AM and got ready. It was extremely cold and we knew sunrise would take some more time. Finally we started at 5.30M

From the campsite it was it steep climb for about 30 mins and then it was all scary ridge walks. The widths of the ridges were so small that one can put only one step at a time. We were walking very cautiously. Looking around was a daring task. It was scary and caution was required at each and every step. I was just shivering due to extreme cold I also dropped my hand glove while coming from shila Samundra & could not realize due to cold

We reached the sacred lake of Homkund at around 7 AM. It was an amazing feeling. This was one of those places where one can really feel the presence of the Almighty

We were very happy that we had made it till this point. There was a small temple where our porters offered pooja. We spent some time here. One of the porters explained the significance of the Yatra and kind of showed us around the Kund. The lake was partially frozen, but the water was very clear. My both hand turned blue due to cold at this time rain also started with snow we have to go further towards Ronty Saddle. Seeing my condition all asked me whether we should proceed or not as weather is also not good our guide suggested not to take any risk but I said I can continue if other members want to but finally with the consent of all member we gave up the idea of going Ronty Saddle.

We returned the camp site as I was feeling so cold and my hands were senseless I put my hand in warm water. It was so relieving!! It was raining entire day we had our food and rested in our tent. I could not sleep whole night as I was feeling very cold and the sound of rain drop did not allowed me to sleep peacefully

Day 7: It was amazing day!! Sky was clear and full of different colors. We reached our campsite Lata Khopari after a trek of around 5 hour. We pitched our tent near River. After having dinner we went to sleep earlier because tomorrow we have to start early for our next destination Sutol (800 feet).

Day8: We got ready by 6.30AM. We decided to start early because our guide told us there was a steep climb on the way to Sitel and it was better to climb that part during early morning.

Today’s walk on proper well marked trail which is used by the villagers. After a small climb we reached the village of Sutol. After the village we had to descend down for some time and then the climb started in hot sun. We took about 30 minutes to complete the climb. At the end of the climb there was a small temple and by the time we reached the temple, it was about 9:30 in the morning. From this point, we had to go for another 3 Km. Sitel is the road head, but the plans are to bring the road till Sutol and we were able to hit the road head 3 Km before Sitel itself. Fortunately we got a jeep at around 11 AM near Sitel and we all got into that jeep which would take us to Ghat. We reached Ghat at around noon and hired forest rest house. It was nice and big. After having evening snack and dinner in nearby local hotel we went to sleep

Karnprayag

Next day we took a jeep and went to karnprayag.

This was one of the treks which will always remain close to my heart. The whole trek is really a good mix of greenery, snow plodding, boulders and glacial moraines. One can feel the closeness of the mountains without going to very high altitude. Most of the times we were walking amidst huge mountains and got very close views of Nanda Ghunti and Trishul ranges. The trek is also spiritually motivating – Homkund is one of the most enchanting places that I have seen on my treks.Having said all this, I would say that I have had the luck and pleasure of trekking with some really fine people. Treks like these are never possible without the company of great friends and one always has a lot to learn from your trekking companions.

If you ask me, is this trek suitable for beginners – I would say yes, as this was also my first trek but with some level of physical and mental toughness.

By Rajesh Shaw