Kedarkantha: When you love the Mountains,You can always go back!

Travel, it is no different than Love. Once you taste it, you're forever trapped and there's no going back. Kedarkantha was my first encounter with many things : summiting a peak, living in-depth in mother-nature, and snow!

1500ft | 14°C

6000ft | 9°C

I happened to have travelled 2500kms from Bangalore, all the way to Dehradun. And, these last 220kms to Sankri was the most thrilling and at the same time appealing.

6500ft | -2°C

We arrived at Sankri around 6 in the evening. TTH trek leads Mahaveer Sir and Abhishek Bhaiya allotted us our rooms at the guest house. As we shivered at sub-zero temperatures, and while we couldn't sleep over the fact that, the next day came with lower temperatures and no beds and blankets, the view from our guest-house kept us distracted.

The following day, we set off to our first camp at Juda ka Talab.

In the frame :

Me, Aishita, Radhika from Bangalore. Adwait,Sameer,Shalaka,Himanshu,Ajay from Maharashtra.Astha, Chirag and Nikhil from Delhi.Arvind, Arun and his wife from Delhi.Neha,Roshan, Aditi and 2 friends of theirs from Bangalore.Meghna, Nayanesh and Jaimin from Gujarat.Jennil from Gujarat.Penny from Delhi.Prathap from Bangalore.

9100ft | -12°C

Arrival at the first camp was mesmerizing, a patch of flat land surrounded by snow-capped pine trees. The frozen lake besides the campsite and the best part : Tents pre-set for us to retire in after hot delicious meal and Tea. That kind of food isn't expected with those resources and climate, but no denying, it was as good at being served on your dining table at home.

11,250ft | -18°C

The following day, we were expected to move on to the next campsite, but due to heavy snowfall all night it wasn't possible for us to move. Although, we did hike on the day to Kedarkantha Base Camp and explore the area around. We came back to the same campsite and stayed the night. My fellow campers woke me up late in the night just like the previous night, only this time it was for Stargazing and not a storm that had hit us. I guess, it was a full moon night, and the clear cloud-free sky brought magic to the moment.

12,500ft | -22°C

We wrapped our tents up, and decided to hike uphill towards Kedarkantha Peak. It was going to be a bit tough as we were to retreat back to the same camp, but our team aced it anyway. The view and sceneries on this day were the best. We snow-slided and played a lot of random games with the fresh snow there. Then, as planned, headed back to the Camp. Lunch was a little late and all of us were starving. TTH served us with hot Rajma-Chawal. I had never been so excited at the sight of Rajma-Chawal ever before.

8900ft | -15°C

Last Day, it was time to say goodbye to the snowy hills and we were to descend back to Sankri. We took a route different from our ascent. We walked through Hargaon, and Mahaveer sir narrated stories that rumored around the village. The stories kept us going and we had covered most of our path already. A look of sorrow eclipsed everyone's faces as we could sight our homestay in Sankri, and as we kept walking, the view kept zooming in.