This time winter has arrived a little earlier in the plains as well as in the Himalayas. While the first snow fell in the Himalayas, the cold and fog spread in all directions in the plains. This means that now we have to sit by a fire in the evening to keep ourselves warm. The cold reminded me of the #winterchallenge being organised by @worldmappin which will continue till 31 December. Every day travellers can see their names in #traveldigest and can visit www.worldmappin.com to check their ranking in the leaderboard.
While some bloggers wrote posts about amazing places on the grand arrival of winter and made us aware of new places, I was not able to participate in this competition for 2-3 days due to being busy in a running event, but from tomorrow onwards I will write regular posts so that I can finish in the top 10 in the leaderboard. If you do not know about this challenge till now, then definitely check it by going to this link and participate. @worldmappin/update-halftime-at-winterchallenge-look-up-your-ranking-or-engesp
So let's go on today's journey where I will show you an iconic temple built in 1500 BCE. According to Indian mythology, the Pandavas came to this place during their exile and they established a Shivling and temple here while worshiping Lord Shiva. This temple is also a part of Panch Kedar and has religious significance for all Hindus. I am also a spiritual and religious person, so I also chose this location, however, I also came here to visit because from here one can see the huge view of Nanda Devi mountain. The height of this mountain is 7816 meters. In total, more than 100 mountain peaks can be seen from here.
From Delhi I take a bus to Gopeshwar, this distance is 500 km and the bus takes 12 hours to reach here. After visiting the Gopeshwar Mahadev temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in Gopeshwar, I reach Sagar village from where the walking path to Rudranath temple starts. Sagar village is 45 km from Gopeshwar, which takes about one and a half hours to cover by local bus, the height here is 1770 meters. I reach Sagar by evening, here I stay at an Om Home Stay where a room is available for 600 Indian rupees. After having dinner early in the evening, I get into the quilt and take a warm deep sleep.
In the morning, the locals tell me that the first snow of the season has fallen and after Pung Bugyal, there will be knee-deep snow, if you are going alone, take care of wild animals and if you have a sleeping bag then it will be good because there is no shop or hotel around the temple. I ask about the hut, the answer to which is yes. So I already have the sleeping bag and materiel, so I pack them in my rucksack. Saying bye to the hotel owner, I leave at 7 in the morning. I reach Litwak in one and a half hour which is 6 km from Sagar village and the height here is 2000 meters. The sun is yet to come in this part of the mountain, so it is feeling colder.
The road from Litwak enters the forest and as soon as I enter the forest, I hear the sound of a bear screaming at a distance, which scares me and without thinking much, I start walking fast on the mountain. I cover the next station which is Pung Bugyal in one and a quarter hour. This distance was 4 km and there was an elevation gain of 675 meters in it. Pung Bugyal is a grassland which is situated at an altitude of 2600 meters. Due to bad weather, less mountains are visible from here, otherwise I would have been able to have the first darshan of Nanda Devi from here. I eat something in Pung and move ahead.
Pitradhak is 3.5 km away which takes one hour to cover, from here onwards only snow is visible. I am getting very tensed thinking about the bad weather and knee-deep snow. Rudranath temple is 3.5 km from Pitradhak, there is nothing but snow on this route. While walking here, snow starts falling and I and my bag start getting wet. While walking at a height of 3250 meters, on one hand the cold wind is blowing like a storm, on the other hand the snow feels like a slap on my face. When I look around, everything looks white. I am afraid that the sleeping bag may get wet, because then an accident can also happen at such a height and cold.
By risking my life, I finally complete the last 3.5 km in 3 hours. The height of Rudranath temple is 3600 meters and there is an elevation gain of 1250 meters while hiking till here. Walking from 7 in the morning, I reach Rudranath temple at 0530 in the evening. It is very cold here, the temperature is probably -5 degrees. I try to find people around the temple who are not visible in heavy snowfall. In a hut near the temple, I clean the wet matters with a dry cloth and take out the sleeping bag which was dry. I eat 2 chocolates in the sleeping bag and go to sleep thinking that we will see what happens tomorrow.
So this was my journey to reach Rudranath temple in which I heard the sound of a bear while walking alone and also had to face fresh snowfall. I hope you liked this exciting journey. See you in the next blog where I will talk about other aspects of Rudranath. Take care and enjoy the winter challenge.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from canon 77d and edited in lightroom.