It was about to start a new year and I was still in process of thinking to go for my next trekking expedition. So I don’t want to end my year with no trip for no where and what happen next, I ended up by booking my seat for an trekking expedition with YAHI (Youth Hostel Association of India). The expedition of “KedarKantha Peak” during winter season in Uttarkashi region, having highest altitude of 12,500ft was my next goal to conquer. I felt from inside that It was calling me to be there at the top of it.

What I believe that – “If we make our self free from our mind & leave worry about what people think then the world will see the best out of us.”

Our journey started on 7 days before we reach to the top of KedarKantha. Luggage was ready and all home food items were prepared & packed to move on. We had planned to move by train to the Rishikesh (day 2 Our Arrival) then after spending one day over there we had planned to leave for Youth Hostel Mussoorie (On Day 3) where our registration was happened. It was a 5-6 hour journey from Rishikesh to reach there & we reached by 05:30 in the evening. It was cold and the temperature was 4-6 °c making us uncomfortable and exciting at the same time. The scenery around the hostel was awesome as it was located in between the mountains with clouds passing by over. It was the time of the sunset that made us the viewer of the dramatic scenes that were changes colors. One photo from my bucket list:

We completed our dinner on that evening then after the orientation was done and as soon as it gets completed we were called to go for a sleep. The reason is we’ve to move to our Base Camp early in the next morning and the journey was all about 12-13 hour of travelling by bus in mountains. The base camp was located at Sankri, 153 KM from Mussoorie through the Purola village. The last market is located at the Purola as they have said us at the time of the orientation and suggested us to bought our remaining stuffs from there.

(Day 4) We woke up early in the morning – get our luggage ready – set up ourselves in the bus and we moved on roads (“the mountain roads”)  towards our Base Camp (Sankri).

We got last seats on the bus and till we reached at our Base camp we were totally shook like the mixture does it to the food. We were at base camp around 06:00 in the evening, we unload our bag packs, took our group tents and just got inside to wear some more jackets (as it was too cold out there :P). We can easily admire snow peak mountains from our base camp. Look here:

Next day, on ” THE LAST DAY OF YEAR 2017 ” we’re having our acclimatization walk near to our base camp followed by an intensive exercise schedule. It was of around 2.5 to 3 KM walk having altitude +2000 ft then our base camp location. Acclimatization walk was great as it was like our training for the main battle (The Main Summit). During our that training trek, I had captured a view of the mountain and it was like “Standing still in the middle of every one” 😀

On that night as it was 31st Dec, all the participants and volunteers on our base camp was enjoying the celebration of the new year. In addition to that, we’re having our camp fire night for the performances of our group members. We all performed our decided performances and then at the end of the ceremony we had a special motivational talk from Jaahnavi Sriperambuduru – A girl who is on Mission7Summit to conquer 7 highest peaks of our 7 continents.

At 12’o clock in the middle of the night we welcomed new year and then we’re told to go for a sleep. So now we’re trained (a lot in a single day) to start our main walk towards next camp & we’re given a schedule to start our trekking early in the morning after our breakfast around 8 A.M. (the day is 1st January, 2018).  As they told we all were ready with our bag-packs to start it.

We started walking at around 9.30 A.M towards our next camp site Juda Lake (also known as “Juda ka Talab”) which is located near a lake named “Juda Lake”. The lake was a frozen lake having a thing layer of frozen water at top of it. But for surprise we’re not about to pass through that lake on that day. Trek started with some heavy ascents and heights, off road on mountains, in mountains & it was about to take 5-6 hour walk to reach at our next camp site. “It started tough but the journey is just begun so who cares” – and we reach at our second camp site Juda Lake at around 15:00 PM after a long trek of 5 hours. A frame from our walk to the Juda Lake camp site.