Category: Trek Reviews

Kedarkantha Trek | Experience shared by Mohit Negi

Trekking is an experience which you receive with lots of adventure in it. It tests your actual strength and stamina.

I went to the Kedarkantha trek last Christmas and the experience was amazing. I booked the trek from bagpackclan. It was a 5-day trip that started from Dehradun at about 6:00 am in the morning.

Day1- We were waiting for the bus at the point and there I met with the co-travellers. The first meeting was okay as all were the new faces as I travelled solo on this trip. We sarted our journey to Sankri at 8:00 Am.

The road was scenic as we were going from Mussoorie. Just when we crossed Mussoorie there was a small food joint where we all had our breakfast ( Not included in the package). After breakfast, we again hit the road. One of the groupies has a Bluetooth speaker so the journey was musical with all the travel songs. People were singing along and enjoying the route and those who woke up early were trying to get some sleep as well. The entire path was full of scenic views;

Mountains around and the river flowing right next to it. We reached Purola city by 3:30 PM and had our lunch over there. The city of Purola looked beautiful and the Houses painted in different colours make it more eye-popping.

In the late evening, we were at our 1st destination Sankri Base.

We were provided with the High Tea and we were aligned in the group of 3 or 2 to stay in the rooms. The rooms were comfortable and had warm blankets (Much required as per the weather out there). We were at a temperature close to 3 or 4 degrees at night there. We had our dinner for the first day and right next to the bonfire we received a few of our gear and a small instruction was provided by the team leader. We spent a few more hours at the bonfire knowing about the other people talking about their experiences and where they came from.

Day2- On the next day morning we started the day with breakfast and get ourselves ready for the trek to Juda ka Talab (Campsite) at 11:00 AM. This Campsite is about 6-7 KM of the trek and included many steep paths in it.

The first day of the trek can be said it is a little difficult, especially for the ones that have less experience. (A suggestion keep your bag as light as possible if you are taking the bag by yourself). This part of the trek included lots of green mountains around, you can see the Himalayan Range and Peak Bandar Poonch from there.

There were many Dhabas on the way so if you are feeling tired and want to rest you can rest for some time and move ahead. We reached to Camp Juda ka Talab around 3:00 PM. The camps were kept at a very nice place the temperature was dropping as the site was surrounded by trees. We did rest for some time and had our lunch at the base. Soon it was dark and on these sites no bonfire was allowed. However, that did not stop us from enjoying ourselves. Once everybody had some rest we played music and danced off till we get a little tired.

Then we had our dinner and later on, we went to bed as the temperature was dropping very fast; I believe it was 0-2 degrees at 10 PM although it was very difficult to adjust in the sleeping bag.

Day3- The morning was cold we got up early. There was ice next to our tents as the temperature was less. We had our breakfast clicked some pictures and moved to start our trek for day 2. At the beginning of Day 2, we went to Juda ka Talab. It is a frozen lake surrounded by trees.

The Ice was dense on the lake we were walking on it. Once we had our fun there we started back the trek. The second-day trek was comparatively easier. We completed this trek in 2 hours and we reached Kedarkantha Base camp by 12 noon. We climatized ourselves and enjoyed the view of Kedarkantha peak from distance that day.

We enjoyed the pahadi Maggie from the dhaba at the campsite. Later in the evening after the High tea, we received our rest of the gear for the 4th-day trek to Kedarkantha Summit: a headlamp snow spikes and hiking stick (recommended not necessary).

The weather was a little funny that day it felt like there will be snowfall and that could have jeopardized our trek but thanks to sweet god the sky became clear again. We ended up having some dance and music in the evening till we received the dinner. We went to sleep early as we had to wake up early that night.

Day4- We got up at 2:30 in the morning to have a small breakfast and at 3:00 AM we started our trek to Kedarkantha summit. There were many groups going so it was an experience like never before. The whole path was surrounded by people; the headlights were shining all the way. Our goal was to get to the peak before sunrise. We took a stop in between at a dhaba from where the trek was steeper. This day of the trek was difficult and tiring. The temperature was extremely low close to -10 degrees and everyone was wearing at least 2-3 layers to contain the heat inside the body. We reached the peak around 6:30 just before sunrise.

The view was mesmerizing with a 360-degree view of the Himalayan range. The temperature was around -15 degrees and we were waiting for the sunrise. As the weather was not so great the day before it was cloudy and the sun appear late than expected which made us wait and freeze. However, everything was worth waiting for once the sun came up at 7:15 am.

The sunlight was pretty amazing and the view was breathtaking. We clicked a few pictures over there. As the temperature was very low the batteries drained very quickly. We started to go back after staying for some time.

Going down back to basecamp was fun compared to going up. There were many paths where you can go sliding and can play with snow if you still have the energy to do that. We reached the base camp enjoying once we reached the base we had our lunch there and had some rest packed our things and we were ready to go to our next campsite Hargaon.

When we started going down to Hargaon the weather suddenly changed and there was snowfall on our entire path.

The view became more beautiful and jaw-dropping. We reached Hargaon after 2 hours of downhill trek and the campsite was beautifully surrounded by big pine trees and snowfall. We had our dinner that day and took a rest for the later night.

Day5- We had our breakfast and started our way back to Sankri. This route was with lots of downfalls as it snowed the day before and was a little slippery. We reached Sankri by 12 noon and received our certificate for completing the trek. I shared goodbye with the fellow trekkers who became good friends during this trek. We took our bus by 12:30 and we hit the road back to Dehradun. We reached by 9 pm in Dehradun and with that this beautiful adventure came to an end with lots of memories and activities and fun.

Please take all gear and clothes for this trek recommended by the trip advisor.
Suggestion – Have a Jacket suitable for at least -15 degrees, Headlamp, Spikes, and Snow Trekking shoes.