TREK THE HIMALAYAS -SUMMIT DAY

 Everyone wants to live on top of the mountains but all the happiness and growth occurs while you are climbing it.

DAY 4- THE SUMMIT DAY / DAY OF CELEBRATION

Finally the summit day comes , the most awaited day of our trek .It was that time when literally all that we had seen and heard is all that we would be experiencing and our spirts where super high.

PROTOCOL FOR THE DAY WAS

1:30 A.M - WAKE UP CALL/TEA

2:30 A.M BREAKFAST

3:00 A.M WE START OUR TREK TO REACH THE SUMMIT POINT FOR SUNRISE

Its freezing out with temperatures as low as -10*c .Waking up from our tents and going out was terrifying as well as exciting .Its so weird at times when we feel two totally contrasting emotions one where we are comfortable and one where we want to get uncomfortable and its in this transitions that we experience the growth within ourselves.

It was also our D-DAY  yes its 16th February 2021 and its our 11th anniversary. One of the most beautiful days of our lives and we spent that day in the most splendid way.

We get ready for our trek and day ahead , our trek leaders tell us to go as light as possible as its gonna be a long road ahead .We were expected to reach our base camp by 3 in evening so the trek for the day was approx 12 hours.ufffff.......exhausting right?

We are served delicious breakfast loaded with energy and love by our tth group . We start the trek with our torch lights on our heads guiding us through the way. We can only see the stars, the moon and long line of trekkers with their head torches ahead.

picture credit: Prabhal

I as usual taking baby steps just keep moving ahead .Today the altitude of our trek was going to be approx 45-75 degrees so its gonna be super steep and our guides have paved a route for us in such a way  that we don't feel that rise on our bodies . They guide us so efficiently in darkness too. We as a group keep moving ahead motivating and looking out for each other. We are dressed in approximately 6 layers of clothing and I also had 4 layers of socks on my feet coz of the temperatures that were so low. Our faces are totally covered but our focus is untouchable. We had to reach the peak.

Roughly after about 2 hours of trekking we come to our first stop of maggie point , here we relax for some time and our trek guides give us a clear instruction that on the road ahead there is no turning back so if we had to back out this was the time and they also motivated us so much that itna kar liya tho aage bhi ho jayega.(if we have climbed this far we can go ahead too ) and that hope just kept us motivated to keep going ahead. The way now was more difficult ,we had to first reach the shoulder which was the steepest and the route was going to be just one way so basically there were no stopping points , but as we kept moving ahead my spikes become loose and I was unable to walk comfortably so waited for Deepak bhaiya who helps me out and sees to it that they don't cause anymore problems and just then one of the member of our group Nishi starts to get uncomfortable its basically AMS i.e altitude sickness and she starts throwing up . The journey for her begins to get tougher but Deepak bhaiya holds on to her guiding her through out. Slowly slowly as we ascend we are beginning to witness the twilight hour.

Such beauty my heart misses it still. Its rightly said the best views comes after the hardest climb.

Slowly the sun starts rising and we are almost near our peak and trust me the last 100-200 meters we all are literally on our fours to climb .It was that challenging and that breathtaking .

There she is standing like a bride ,wearing a white veil ,and we trek in  a line watching over her beauty ,filling our eyes with the beauty she can offer for ages.

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountain. The golden sunrise .We sit down to absorb all the beauty that we can and then slowly we move ahead and reach our peak THE KEDARKANTHA PEAK AT 12500 FEET. That feeling of accomplishment that joy that fills your heart all of that is just so magical .We have no control on the outburst of the emotions that we are feeling. It was so peaceful it was not the mountain that we conquered but it was ourselves.

The whole auro of our being is changed when we reach the top. That felling of accomplishments ,that joy of finding solace on top of the mountains.

As I am writing this I still get those goosebumps. We hug each other ,we shout our hearts out and we are so filled with joy. A trekker gets signal on his phone and we call back our families to tell them that we are calling them from the peak but as soon as we listen to our daughters voice a tear rolls down ,we missed them so much just by being away from them for 4 days we were feeling that pinch in our hearts but our kids and family wishes us for our anniversary and we forget our sorrow and enjoy the moment. We all take many pictures here solo , group what not and just then out of the blue I take out our wedding rings that we had exchanged years ago and go down on my knees and  propose My Hero, my love and it was such a beautiful surprise .We hugged each other wishing each other holding on to each other that no matter what we shall hold our hands like this forever. I may never find words beautiful enough to describe all that you mean to me, but i will spend the rest of my life searching for them. love you jaana and Happy 11th to US.

A MOMENT THATS CAPTURED FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS

                                                THE MOST AMAZING TEAM

We all spend some nice time on the peak .Thankful for the stars as it was not that winy on top that day and so we could spend nice time absorbing all the views of different ranges of mountains , after roughly an hour or so our guides call us all together and instruct us that downhill walk is more challenging, and show us the right way to walk so that we don't injure ourselves. We  walk seeing all those views that we had missed while climbing up coz of darkness .

 Memories made in the mountains stay in our hearts forever.

FEELING OF A TRANQUILITY

   

ETHCHED FOREVER IN OUR SOULS

We slide through few paths with our guides , Sachin goes and bangs with the plants luckily he doesn't get hurt. We eat on our snacks and bring up our energy levels high again.

We reach the maggie point where we had first stopped we take a nice long break have some tea bun maska and start descending again . By noon 12 we reach our first base camp where we are served delicious hot rajma rice ...ahhh that feeling of eating food after all the hard work was like you deserved this totally .We take a short nap here for an hour and it starts to get super windy we start to shiver so head to the common tent and sleep next to each other. After some time we are woken up by our guides and we start descending slowly and steadily to our base camp Hargaon base camp.

As scheduled we reach by around 3:30 chalthe girthe phislthe and just when we are about to enter our allocated tents it starts to snow. Oh yes....it was our first snow experience and to top it we got to experience the first snowfall.It was perfect for our day , like sone pe suhaaga .We danced ,played, did snow fights clicked pictures ,did boomerangs and reels. And then smell of hot samosas and tea call us . we relish our food totally . Can surely say it was one of the unplanned day of happiness for us. After a long long time we headed inside our tents and took some rest .It was the most tiring day .

                        FIRST FEEL OF SNOWFALL

It was dinner time when we were called out and guess what our TTH group planned a surprise for us . We got our anniversary cake. Can you imagine on the mountains our team baked us a fresh cake with toppings and decorations .We were so so so happy with their gesture we called the whole team of TTH and cut the cake and all of us relished it .We even had hot gulab jamoons that day.

ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL BY TTH GROUP

Soon it was a night to be called and I think after 3 full nights today was the night when I had slept .

mera dil kahi door pahadon mein kho gaya 

usse mile hue mujhko to arsa ho gaya

IT IS A UNIQUE FEELING OF CALM AND TRANQUILITY THAT YOU NEED TO EXPERIENCE . IT FILTERS THROUGH YOU , AND STAYS WITH YOU FOR A TIME AFTER YOU LEAVE

TO READ MORE 

PART 1

http://momentsrelivedagain.blogspot.com/2021/03/trek-himalayas-part-1.html

PART 2

http://momentsrelivedagain.blogspot.com/2021/03/trek-himalayas-part-2.html

PART 3

http://momentsrelivedagain.blogspot.com/2021/04/trek-himalayas-part-3.html