Sandakphu Trek - Once there, Forever There

We reached NJP in the morning today. From here we had booked a ride till Maneybhanjyang (base camp for Sandakphu trek). The ride was a Tata Sumo which took almost 5 hours to reach Maneybhanjyang. In between we took a tea and lunch break. There are shared options available too which range from 600-800 per person.

After reaching Maneybhanjyang we rested in a homestay and had dinner. It is important to get proper rest since we have a trek for the next 4 days.

Today is 25th December 21. It's Christmas. We are all decked up with trek gears to start our journey up the mountain. The elevation here is 1928 mts. The final point Sandakphu is at 3636 mts.

Some pictures from the trek route.

In the evening we got snowfall. Best Christmas till date. We reached the next stop by late evening.

Today is day 2 of trek. We got up early today to see sunrise nearby. It is an amazing view.

Then we started for our trek to the next point.

All through the journey we found snow covered roads. Mesmerising feeling.

Today is day 3 of trek. We are all excited today as we are reaching the summit today, Sandakphu. The weather is bad due to snowfall and cars are not allowed to go any further from this point. However since we opted to trail the whole journey, we can trek up the mountain.

This was the most difficult part of the trek. The snow was more dense and the weather not very supportive.

We managed to reach the summit by afternoon.

After our summit we checked into Hotel Sunrise, the best hotel with the best food available. One should try this place for sure.

Today is the day to down trek all the way to base camp. Its a 17 kms route.

Before starting we got up early today to catch sunrise, worth the difficult trek, the view was really breathtaking.

Then we started dowhill and it was very difficult as we were going with the gravity.

After reaching base camp we had a car booked to take us back to Darjeeling (one can go to NJP too but can be hectic)

Today we went to NJP from darjeeling and boarded the train back home.

Interestingly we got snowfall in Darjeeling too :)