Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Dzongri Trek

During my visit to Sikkim and Darjeeling in March, the skies were cloudy. The famed view of Kanchenjunga from Pelling remained an unfulfilled wish. Little did I know my date with Kanchenjunga would come so soon :)

Kanchenjunga was somewhere behind these clouds...




















Sometime in May, Aditya, Amogh and I, were talking about doing a Himalayan trek this year. Fresh from our northeast trip, Amogh and I suggested Goecha La in Sikkim. Another factor in deciding on Goecha La was that October/November is the best time to do this trek - these dates worked for all of us! Things were in cold storage for the next few months. Preparations began in right earnest only after we booked flight tickets to Bagdogra in August. What followed was a fairly regular schedule of daily cardio and Sunday hikes to Sinhagad for the next 2 months. During the course of these 2 months, Narendra and Dipesh also joined in and we were now a gang of five.

The team members

Aditya




















The only member of the team to have some prior experience of trekking in the Himalayas. He had earlier been to the Pindari Glacier and Stok Kangri. His soon-to-be-married status meant he was always on the lookout for mobile network connectivity in the hills and had the best knowledge of the battery status of each of our phones :)

Amogh




















The most regular trekker of the Group. Has extensively trekked in the western ghats with Sahyabramhan. Loves taking snaps of anything and everything - trees, leaves, flowers, butterflies, birds, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, people, animals. Exhausted 10 sets of batteries in 6 days!!!

Dipesh




















The youngest member of the group. Complains of not being able to trek enough due to lack of company. Always looking to have a profile pic clicked.


Narendra




















Mr 99%! Loves to trek and loves his D3100 even more! Had the best camera among us all... and the  pictures to show for it!

Me




















The wandering soul. Always ready to head to the hills. On my first Himalayan trek, in fact my first trek in a long long time, kept wondering whether I was biting more than I could chew!

We set off on November 5th. It was a long travel day - 2 flights followed by a 6 hour journey on the mountain roads to Yuksom. We were already at around 1900 meters above sea level!

Day 1: Yuksom to Sanchen

Day 2: Sanchen to Tsokha

Day 3: Tsokha to Dzongri

Day 4: Dzongri Top

Days 5&6: The way back






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