Kuari Pass -- The grand stand of Garhwal Himalaya

Kuari Pass trek

The night was chilling and it was raining heavily outside. Myself, Gautam and Maroona inside the dome tent was trying to keep it standing. Though temperature outside fell abruptly, it was comfortable inside the tent. We already had our early dinner by that time. I was thinking about the early days of this trekking.

Alok-da called me up and said that they are arranging for Kuari pass trek this year. I was in dilemma, whether I would get any leave or not. Like this the plan started and somehow I convinced my project manager to get 2 week leave.

It was midnight at Bangalore when the spice jet flight took off for Delhi. After that day’s office and last moment packing I was tired also but could not manage to sleep. At the dawn the flight reached Delhi. Compared to Bangalore Delhi was very hot and humid that time. I took an auto and within 30 min reached my friend’s place near Delhi IIT. It was almost 2 years after college when I met him. Alok da and co reached Delhi at 10Am by Poorva express. We met at ISBT bus stand and set off for our next destination – Hrishikesh.

“Chai …. Chai….” The bus reached Devaprayag at 8AM after 2 hours journey from Hrishikesh. After a short break, the journey towards interior of Himalaya continued again. Around 1PM we reached Chamoli and took shelter in the temple committee guest house. It was pleasant weather in the night. According to the plan in the next day we would proceed towards Nijmula, the road head. But Krishna-di was suffering form hill diarrhea and we decided to stay for an extra day at Chamoli.

Myself, Gautam, Saibal, Maroona, Avik and Satyaki hired a jeep and had a nice trip to Chopta, the hidden beauty of Garhwal.

Next morning our destination was to reach Nijmula and then to reach Pagana – our 1^st camp site 8km away from Nijmula. The much awaited trek starts. Rajindar is our guide. Nijmula though is very dirty, a beautiful place also. Birehi river is flowing heavily beside the village. High mountains all around. We followed left bank of the river. The track is easy. First we crossed a landslide zone and came to a bridge, 1km ahead and crossed the river. Now the entire route was through dense forest. Soon we reached Pagana.

Pagana is a good camping place with plenty source of water. We pitched our three tents soon. It was 2.30PM when we reached Pagana. There was a shepherd hut beside our camping ground. We used that as our kitchen. Our lunch got prepared soon. Rice, curry and omelet was in the menu. As the place as not that much chilling, some of us took bath before the actual hurdle starts. Slowly evening arrived. Sun was yet to set. As our camping ground was surrounded by high mountains, we could hardly see the sunset but suddenly in the sky indigo appeared. All our team members came out of tent to enjoy the magnificent evening. Night arrived slowly. The only sign of lives was the lights of our tents. The Birehi river was flowing endlessly. We were a bit tired after first days trek. So we had our early dinner and went for sleep.

The next morning welcomed us by bright sunlight. Soon we got fresh and ready for that day’s trek. Our destination was Pana, 13 KM ahead of Pagana. We had our breakfast with Roti - Sabzi and started for Pana. The weather was pleasant and we had no difficulty in walking. For first one km we followed left bank of the river then started gaining the ridge of our left side. The path till the foothill was though bush and thorn. So the situation gets difficult slowly. We started gaining the ridge and within 2 hours we gained sufficient height than Pagana.

Birehi was flowing through the deep gorge as a strip of silver. In the far we could see some ice caped peaks. Rajindar told that its Nandaghunti peak. Sky was not absolutely clear. So soon after that the peak got embraced by cloud. At around 12.30Pm, after reached the top of the ridge, we decided to take lunch break. Everyone was tired. There was no shade of tree, neither a good place to sit. So we proceed further and took rest. We took our packed lunch. In this entire route we did not get any source of water. Due to sun we were sweating and got tired. We could see our yesterday’s camping ground in the far ahead. Suddenly we heard the sound of flowing water. At a distance we saw a small spring. Aaaahhh!!!! we quenched our thrust and filled our water bottles. The energy regained. Pana was not very far. We reached Pana at 4PM.

Pana is a small village in the lap of Himalaya. The village is important for Kuari pass trekkers. It was greenery all around. We got accommodation in the house of Rajindar, who basically is form the village itself. The house is called ‘Pana tourist lodge’. After we reached Pana, Rajindar went off in the jungle with his Desi-gun to hunt jungle fowl…. and we had gala dinner that night with chicken curry and rice.

We got up early in the morning. The sky was clear and we could see Nandaghunti and Trishul peak. Rajindar pointed out the trail just above the village and indicated our route. The route ascent steeply through the jungle. But this time Rajindar told plenty of water is available in the way. We had our breakfast and set for trekking. The destination was Duni kharak, 10Km away from Pana.

The trail goes through the Pana village first and then it entered into deep forest. We met the children of Pana and distributed toffees. As we left Pana, we saw the trail steeply raised for 200m. We started gaining the height. As we reached the top the surrounding got open around us. We could see the entire Birehi river valley and the trail we left in the last two days. Some more ice capped peaks in the Rupkund area. It was 10 Am when we reached the top.

Now the train goes though deep forest, and the experience of trekking through dense forest was unique. There was silent all around us and only some bird was whistling in the forest. The stem of the alpine trees was covered by moss and fern. Our trail was full of colorful leaves. The entire surrounding resembled as the Jurassic age. In the midway another trail met our trail. It was the famous Curzon train which comes from Jhinjhi village. We has our packed lunch with boiled egg, boiled potato and Khejur. Soon after lunch we reach Sartoli – a beautiful camping ground. From here we glimpsed Kuari pass for the first time. The high point is standing through the cloud. Sartoli is a vast ground with excellent view all around. But according to our plan, we had to proceed further 2 Km in order to reach Duni kharak.

After Sartoli the path descended through a small landslide zone. A small spring was flowing over the trail. We crossed that trail carefully. It was mud all around and trekking became difficult. After an hour and half we reached Duni kharak, a small camping ground. The ground was slightly inclined. We pitched our tents there. Guide and Gautam went to the forest to get some wood. Guide advised to have early dinner as tomorrow’s trek would be most difficult.

It started drizzling in the night. After 30min it stopped. Though we protected our tents with plastics, some water came inside of one of the tent.

In the morning Alok-da and some other members started early and we were waiting for the sunlight to come. We had another round of tea while the tents got dry. After packing we set off for that day’s destination, Dakwani kharak, the base of Kuari pass. First we crossed a bridge to cross a small stream and then started negotiating height. Sun was in the other side of the ridge. As we were in the time of leaf falling season, the entire path was full of colorful dry leaves. The trek route became harder as in every step we had to gain height. The breathing got heavier and soon after everyone got tired. At around 12.30PM we reached a flat ground whit a small stream flowing aside. We decided to take rest and have our packed lunch. The ground was much better than Duni-kharak for camping. Alok-da took out the pineapple tin from the sack. Ummmmm…. It was so delicious. We spent nearly an hour there and regained our energy. Now we were about to cross tree line. We crossed pine forest and entered in grassland. The other side of the mountain was glittering by sunlight and Sartoli was visible too. Here the Kuari pass was not visible though cloud. The track was clearly marked by stone. Other than the height gain we did not have any difficulty in trekking.

At around 4PM we reached Dakwani kharak at the foot of Kuari pass. The weather got cleared soon and we could see our next day’s destination. It was nearly 1000ft we had to gain through loose boulders. In the opposite side Nandaghunti was clearly visible too. We pitched our tents. Dakwani was above the tree line and due to the height, it was much colder than the other camping grounds. While taking the tea in the evening we could feel the cold. Soon we were surrounded by cloud. Nothing was visible within 5/6 foot too. To reach from one tent to other we had to use torch signaling. The situation got worse when it started raining. It was 7PM when we had our dinner by egg curry, rice and dal. Soon the raining turned into storm. It became a nightmare as we had to hold our tents to protect it from being fallen. At around 11PM the weather got settled. We came out of the tent to see the condition. The place was surrounded by cloud and we could not see anything.

We wake up early in the next morning guessing snowfall on the pass in the previous night. But there was no such trace. So we started at 8AM and started gaining height. Due to yesterday’s heavy rain the boulder was loose and we were very careful. The track was not prominent and we were approaching in our convenient way towards the top. Last hundred feet or so was really tremendous tiring. At around 9.30 we discovered that there were no more trail to go up and the entire Himalayan range is shinning infront of us. Almost in 180° the peaks were around. Nilkanth, Hati Ghori, Kamet Abigamin and of course Nandadevi!!! We are standing on Kuari pass right now. Wind was blowing gently. We performed puja to great Himalaya. Again the weather was getting worse and none of the peaks was visible anymore. We started descending towards Khulera. The trail was much easier and beautiful too. It was dry grass land and meadow all around. Sometime we crossed small ice patch. Soon we came down to tree line. The path goes through the dense pine forest. Soon we reached Khulera, that day’s camping ground at around 1PM.

Khulera is most beautiful camping ground in this trek. With plenty of source of water and woods for cooking it has panoramic view of Himalaya. There is a high point nearby, where we went in the evening to take photographs of Nilkantha and Nandadevi.

The night was chilling and wind was flowing gently. We already had our dinner at 8.30PM with fried rice, egg curry etc. It was our last camping ground before we reach Josimath. We had another round of tea before we went for sleep.

The next day we arose at 6AM. We again went to the high point to shoot some photographs during sunrise. This time Himalaya did not turn us down. We could see spectacular view of Himalaya which we expected to see form the top of Kuari pass but due to bad weather we could not. We came to the camp and after heavy breakfast started descending for Tapavan, the road head. The trail first went through deep forest. To take short cut route some time we fell down. After that the path went though landslide zone. We had to be very cautious as the loose boulders were trying to fall us down. At around 2PM we were in the opposite side of the Gorson meadow. There is another trail which ends at Auli from Gorson. The trekkers who do Kuari pass trek from Auli side follow that route. Dehli river was flowing in between us. We had finished up drinking water with us by that time. We decided to take rest and have lunch.

After the lunch we started descending again. Now we could see Dhauli-ganga river and the road towards Malari. Our track was through the village. We met few villagers and given them some useful medicine. Now we could see Tapvan, our destination. Within 15-20 min we reached Tapvan. Due to whole day’s exhaustion, we were very tired. We had tea and snacks in a nearby hotel. Soon we hired a jeep and went for Josimath.

I can tell you know the whole story about Josimath, Auli and how we came to Delhi etc, but I really don’t want to. I want to end up here. We are very small creature to mountains. Mountains can not be conquered; we can only keep our footsteps somewhere. Himalaya is vast and all of its various parts are equally rich in terms of bio-diversity. Somewhere it has white glacier and peaks, and somewhere it welcomes by green forest, deep blue sky and rivers.

Trek is not all about mountains. There are parallel stories of the simple villagers of Pana, the shepherd we met in Dakwani and lala-ji of Nijmula. It’s not only a story of 6 days struggle and gaining heights, it’s rather a philosophy which is beyond of all measures. It adds a new height to the mountains which never be scaled.