Goech La Trek: Day 7

Day 7

Saturday 6 May 2017

Rest day at Thansing

Surprised by reading the day title as rest day? I bet you will be !! Cause we also got surprised by weather as well. Follow the story to know about it in detail.

As mentioned in previous day blog, we had to move our campsite from Thansing to Lamuney which was very close, hardly 4 kms of walk for 2 hrs. Though the days call was 9-10-11, almost all got up and were ready by 6. The weather was nice and we enjoyed photography outside. 

Morning view of Thansingkhay

Beautiful view of Mt. Pandim at sunrise

Mt. Kanchenjunaga view (right tail) from Thansing

Post breakfast, when we were busy packing our bags, we noticed the change in weather. It became overcast and slowly snowfall was started. (इथेच आमच्या काळजाचा ठोका चुकला!!). Snowfall continued to grow as time progressed. 

Snowfall at Thansing

We all were sitting in a room thinking about what to do. There are no wooden huts availabke at Lamuney campsite and one has to use tents only for stay. Everyone was in the comfort zone with wooden huts, and were little dicy opting for tents. Hence we decided to continue our stay at Thansing. This meant skipping the stay at Lamuney and directly visiting Goechela view point. Earlier batch did the same previous day, so we preferred the same way.

What to do now ??

Discussion

Now the big question in front of us - what to do with the available time? We cant go out due to snowfall, most of us were not interested to play either dumb c or 'who is C?'. We then checked with our kitchen staff and got a pack of playing cards from them. We played the game 'judgement' in 5 teams with 2 members in a team. After the first round was over, girls also joined us for the game. 

Team enjoying the snowfall

Fun while playing cards !

One more fun activity !!

It was still 2 - 2:30 pm, snow still outside, and we called off the game to take some rest! It was hardly 10 mins we were in our sleeping bags, someone screamed 'hurray! snowfall stopped!'. Atul popped up immediately, looked through the window and confirmed the news. Viraj, Atul and I then decided to go out and play in the snow. Brahma also joined us. Viraj and Atul were busy making the snow man while I was busy capturing them.

 Making on snow-man

At 5 pm, everyone joined together for tea. We spoke to the earlier batch and got some tips from them. Prateek also briefed us about tomorrows plan, sorry I mean tonight's plan!. The plan was simple and sweet - soup at 6 and dinner at 7. Get up at midnight and start walking by 12:30 am. Carry the packed breakfast and be back at Thansing by lunch time !!

Evening view of the campsite - full of snow

Post dinner, everyone quickly rushed to their rooms to get as much sleep as possible.

My stats for the day:
Pulse: 87  O2: 86   Breathing rate: 19

#मम 

Goech La Trek: Day 6

Day 6

Friday 5 May 2017

Dzongri (12947 ft) to Thansing (12900 ft)

Distance: 7.2 kms  Time: 5 hrs 20 mins 

Some fun with the snow :)

Yaks who carried our bags

Call for the day was 6-7-8. This was relatively easy day of the trek as there was no relative height gain between the 2 campsites. However the heavy snowfall last evening left all of us in doubt. It helped too as we were extra cautious while walking. We climbed the small hill (~425 ft) behind our campsite and stopped for others to join. Here we heard the bad news, first setback for our team...Ishani was not comfortable while walking and hence not feeling well. Prateek spoke to Tashi, and understood the situation. Advait, Ishani and Tashi had discussion and then it was decided that Ishani would go back to Yuksom and rest.

 

The trail from here was easy, walking on the platue with small ups and downs. It was slippery at few places due to melting of the snow (and turning it into ice). After 2 hours of walking, we started heading down towards Kokachurang (12100 ft). It was a steep descent of ~1000 ft in the dense forest.

Pratik, Vinit, Mahesh,  Viraj & Atul

Kokachurang campsite location is simply superb. Prek Chu river was gushing downwards with a force with water making a sweet noise. Complete tranquility!! We spent good amount of time here capturing the nature (and us too) in the lenses. 

Kokachurang to Thansing was little more than 1 hour walk with height gain of 900 ft. With previous night experience (and comfort) at Dzongri, team decided to stay in wooden hut instead of tents here. After some rest, team enjoyed the hot lunch and tea. We also interacted with the earlier batch who were planning to march towards the view point that night. View of Pandim and Thansinkhay was awesome from here.

Team busy in stretching exercise

After our regular routine of soup followed by dinner, everybody went to their rooms. Tomorrow would be the easiest day as we have to walk only for 2 hrs and 4 kms. Hence tomorrows call was 9-10-11.

My stats for the day:
Pulse: 85.  O2:  87.  Breathing rate: 18

Garmin details:
Dzongri to Thansing Trail

#मम

Goech La Trek: Day 5

Day 5

Thursday 4 May 2017

Rest day at Dzongri

Theoretically it was a rest day as we were not moving our camp from Dzongri. Practically this meant enjoy the stay, roam around and get acclimatized!

Kanchenjunga as seen from Dzongri Top

As decided night before, we all got up at 3:30 am (early in the morning before sunrise) to see the sunrise. We had to go to Dzongri top for that which is ~1000 ft higher than our campsite. Typically this takes 45 mins to 1 hr to reach there. Sky was very clear and we could see our milky way prominently. Weather was pretty cool with slight breeze.

Atul, Advait, Mahesh & Vinit

We started at 3:45 am, were going slowly with the group. However gap started to widening after half way. Viraj was slow, and hence behind coming with other members. (Later we came to know that he went back due to omitting. Was that the sign of AMS?? Vinit and I got little tensed). We reached the top by 4:30 am and waited for the sun rays to first hit the mountain peaks and lit the surrounding. View of the golden peaks and surrounding scenario was absolutely fantastic. Everyone was speechless watching the mountains view. Entire valley was looking white due to snowfall last night. 

Black Kabur & Kabru peaks as backdrop !

Amit, Mahesh, Shital, Mohan, Atul, Advait & Vinit

Beautiful view of Kanchenjunga peak

(L2R): Rothang peak, Black Kabur, Kabru, Kabru Dome

Beautiful view from Dzongri Top. Click here.

With Samip, Viraj & Suhas

After breakfast, Atul and I went again on the Dzongri top (midway) to accompany Viraj, Suhas and Samip who skipped the morning adventure. I felt glad that I took the decision to go again because we spotted a pair of blood pheasant, Sikkim's state bird, on the way. At 9 am, we all went towards HMI campsite for excursion. Bright and sunny atmosphere helped us to enjoy the beautiful scenery to the fullest. Post lunch, we relaxed in our tents and spent time chitchatting.

Dzongri weather station

Mahesh, Vinit, Viraj & Atul

  

Video

The bright and hot weather suddenly changed in afternoon and we witnessed first snowfall of our trek. Initially we enjoyed the snowfall for some time. However with increase in its duration and intensity, our faces looked tensed. Everyone started worrying about tomorrows plan. Vinit and I were worried about sleeping in tents with such continued snowfall and then we decided to move and stay in the wooden hut for the night. It was literally a split second decision! Again, the decision turned right when we saw our tents collapsing with increase in snowfall.

Snowfall video

                           

   Momo Competition Time             

  

Tashi prepared special Momos for us along with soup

After the dinner and sutarfeni (sweets), we all went to our rooms for packing our bags and sleeping arrangements. Couples and ladies were in 1 room and rest of the boys in another room. MP, Babu and Prateek were assigned in the third room. (Next day morning, Prateek told us that he had a "sound" sleep !!😉😉)

Stats for the day:
Pulse:80. O2: 91. Breathing rate: 19 (This shows the body was well acclimatized with the height)

Garmin details:
Dzongri walk
#मम

Goech La Trek: Day 4

Day 4

Wednesday 3 May 2017

Tsoka (9685 ft) to Dzongri (12947 ft)

Distance: 7.65 kms Time: 5 hrs 26 mins

Today the call was 6-7-8. Trail till Dzongri is very steep with total height gain of more than 3000 ft. We gathered in the dining area at 7 for the breakfast. It was a special day for Atul...yes, his birthday. I brought special home made (thanks to Anagha) fresh mango barfi for his birthday celebration.

Winding up of the campsite

Breakfast menu

Team on the way

We left the Tsoka site at 8:05 am! Today we had to carry pack lunch.

The way till Phedang was very steep and tiresome. It goes through dense forest of rhododendrons. Half of the trail was ladded with wooden planks. Mules were crossing us on the way, and we had to give way to them. One thing I learned during my Amarnath yatra last year - stick to the mountain side when mules are crossing!

Trail towards Phedang

Pink Rhododendrons

Phedang

Few of us (Advait, Atul, Brahma, Vinit, Viraj and I) were sprinting really fast (as compared to others) and we hit Phedang (11715 ft) within 2 hours. There is only 1 hut available to sit and relax. We quickly grabbed the place before IH team. It was not the good time for lunch, hence we ate only partial of our tiffin. Weather suddenly turned from sunny to cloudy. Hence after the rest, we decided to move further instead of waiting for the rest of our group. We played oxygen oxygen game as oxymeter was with handy with Vinit and here Mohan gave us a shocker (momentarily) when his readings were 54 !! We asked him to not to measure immediately, take rest and then come.

Our next stop was Devarali top (12830 ft). Phedang to Devarali top was again steep ascent and breathing was getting tougher with small height gain. We had frequent stops on the way to regain our breathe. Weather here was very much pleasant and we took some rest here as well.

Devarali Top

We did stone pyramid at Devarali

@ Devarali Top

From here, the pathway till Dzongri was very easy with mix of small ascent and descent. After reaching our campsite, we (except Vinit, who was busy enquiring for something else!!!. ... no, no..not about the gorgeous girlfriend!!) quickly rushed into our tents and relaxed for a while. We also finished our remaining lunch. Within 15-20 minutes, all the members joined the campsite, and we came out of our tents for stretching exercise!

Team engaged in stretching exercise

Dzongri campsite hut

Everyone jumped on the hot (गरमागरम) maggie and tea made by Tashi before going out for some walk. Tsoka to Dzongri walk was tiresome with significant amount of height gain. Hence we did not dwelve ourself with further height gain for acclimatization! Vinit gave me one more shocker when he mentioned that Viraj had feelings like omitting. Though it may seemed like a symptom for AMS, he did not look that way. May be overeating had caused it.

After maggie at 5 and soup at 7, we did not have much space left in stomach for a full dinner. Hence we requested Tashi to prepare only rice (dal khichadi) for us. At the same time, we did not say no to Gulab jamun as well!

Shital, Suhas, Atul, Viraj, Vinit, Samip

Ishani, Mohan, Amit, Sheetal, Sushma, Bharati

 Evening soup time photos of the group. You can clearly make out 

from the faces how much everyone was tired :)

Babu, Prateek and MP

Dal Khichadi for dinner (Gulam jabun not in pic)

Most of us ate (though little) due to fear of AMS whereas few ate as if they were hungry from morning!!

We had 1 more day of stay here for acclimatization. We got to know from earlier batch about the beautiful view from Dzongri top. Prateek briefed us about it during lunch and we planned to leave for it at 3:30 in the morning!

My stats for the day:

Pulse: 85. O2: 95. Breathing rate: 19

Garmin trail details:

Tsoka to Dzongri Trail

#मम