Our First Expedition

Expedition to Deo Tibba has been on my mind from past three years but the plan kept getting cancelled for some reason or the other. This year my husband Gautam and I planned it again and made sure that our plan doesn’t get cancelled. We planned to start our expedition on June 8th. We wanted to do it alpine style and in five days. We sat and planned the whole expedition carefully – made a budget, ration and equipment list. 7th June we went shopping, packed and didn’t get one wink of sleep that night due to excitement and nervousness.

June 8th we drove to the Duhangan Weir site and started our trek from there. Initially we had planned to camp at Panduropa (campsite between Chikka and Seri) but due to the unexpected rain we had to camp at Chikka (9,800ft). We reached Chikka around 4pm, pitched our tents and Gautam made dinner for us. It rained most of the night. This was the only night I actually slept during the whole expedition.

We started our next morning at 6am. Had tea and breakfast, packed up and started to Seri. Hike to Seri from Chikka takes about 5hrs and is a gradual ascend throughout. The route is very scenic taking one through small patches of forests, streams to cross, gushing river until the gorgeous campsite of Seri shows up. Seri is a vast meadow with river flowing in the middle. It is straight out of a fairy tale. The climb is pretty exhausting and to worsen our hike it started raining and we had to take shelter under a rock for about 30minutes. We reached Seri exhausted with the weight at about 5pm. Pitched our tents, Gautam cooked for us and we called it a night.

Next morning was beautiful as the sun rose and the whole campsite looked greener than the previous day because of the light showers that night. We finished our morning business and packed up to leave to Tainta. Before we left we witnessed something very magical at Seri. We saw a Horse give birth to a Pony. It was the scariest as well as a magical sight we ever witnessed. It was definitely a sign- a very positive sign for our climb. There are three river crossings before we get to Tainta (base camp of Deo Tibba Peak). The climb to lower Tainta is exhausting. We took about 45minutes to reach lower Tainta. We took a good long break there, hiked till the mouth of the waterfall and chilled on the bank of the Duhangan River. We crossed the river twice again and decided to make noodles and eat before we started our final climb to the base camp. We reached the BC right just before it started snowing. We met an experienced team of climbers from Bengal and a five member Sherpa team attempting Mt. Indrasan. We had a nice time interacting with them, listening to their climbing experiences.

Our initial plan was to cross the Duhangan Col the next day but then we decided to rest and acclimatize the next day at Tainta. We participated in a pooja ceremony conducted by the Bengal Team and the Sherpas (we also prayed that we summit successfully and come back down safe). We slept, hydrated ourselves the whole day and got ready to climb the Col the next day. Next day began as early as 5:30am, after breakfast we started our hike towards the Col. We reached the base of the col in 20minutes from Tainta. We are so grateful for the Sherpa team for fixing ropes at the Col. We clipped our carabineers and started our ascend. The gully is a 70 - 80 degree incline and is quite tiring. We took about 2 hours to climb the Col, but the view from the top is worth all the effort. That climb was really tiring and got me a slightly emotional once on top. After resting for some time we pitched our tent right before it started snowing. We melted snow for water, made tea and waited for the snowfall to stop. Once it did we went for small acclimatization walk and familiarized ourselves with the route to the summit. We decided to attempt the summit the same night starting at 11:00Pm. The Bengal team also had camped up there and we spent some time talking to the Sherpas and hearing their stories. Post that we made lunch and slept off the evening. We woke up at 11:30PM, heated up the food ate and we got ready. Wore pour harness, climbing boots, and helmets and said a small prayer and started our summit push. The temperature was around 3degrees and the sky was clear. We hoped for a successful summit. 1 km into the hike the tongue of my climbing boot began to rub my shin bone and made it difficult for me to walk further. I used an extra sock as padding between my skin and the shoe tongue but in vain. I tried my best to walk even though I was in a lot of pain. But at one point I realized that I couldn’t walk any further with the pain and also realized that I would slow down Gautam. I decided to discontinue and head back to the campsite with a very heavy heart. Gautam went ahead with the guide and I walked back and tried to get some sleep. The team summitted successfully at 5:30Am and came back to the camp at 7:30Am. Gautam described the whole route saying that it wasn’t an easy hike. He also said that he had witnessed the most gorgeous sunrise and Mt. Indrasan was shining in all her glory right in front of him and that left him teary eyed.

Unsuccessful summit attempt because of a gear dysfunction left me very disappointed but I will definitely get back there sometime and finish the unfinished. Also, very proud of my husband and the Founder of Treks n Tales for successfully completing his first expedition.