I am posting the last post of 2024 on Chandrashila Summit and tomorrow when 2025 will have arrived, I will check the payout of this post, see the upvotes and then I will look at my position in the leaderboard of #winterchallenge organized by @worldmappin to see what position I am at the end of the challenge. By the way, after publishing this post, I will also wait for #traveldigest in which I hope to be included in the last post of the year.
So let's start this post with a lot of hopes in which I reached Chandrashila Summit on 26th December 2024, which is 4000 meters high. This place falls under Chamoli district of Uttarakhand state located in the north of India and the route to this summit starts from Chopta village, whose height is 2608 meters. My friend @sara.negi accompanied me on this trek who is not able to activate on hive despite my repeated requests.
This trek starts from Chopta village from where we park our scooter 5 km below. The reason for parking 5 km below is the snow on the road on which the scooter's tyres are slipping and if we try to do more #adventure then both of us along with the scooter will go straight into the ditch from where we will take a shortcut and go straight to heaven. After parking the scooter we take a sharing taxi which took us to Chopta, we had to pay INR 300 per person.
In Chopta, from the same shop where we deposit our 3 bags, we rent hiking shoes for my friend, along with which we also take micro spikes so that Sara walks properly and does not fall or slip. After making all the preparations, we set out towards our destination which will take us to a height of 4000 meters. The trail is covered with snow and my friend is not having any problem in walking whereas I am wearing trail running shoes which are performing best on this terrain.
We are in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary so we have to pay Rs. 100 per person, after paying the tax to the forest department we move ahead. There are many people ahead and behind us who are going to Tungnath temple like us while some brave people will go to Chandrashila. We are walking at a good speed, I like to walk fast enough so that our heart rate does not increase. People around us are slipping and falling because their shoes are not suitable for the snowy trail.
After about three and a quarter hours we enter the premises of Tungnath temple, many devotees have reached here to have darshan of Lord Shiva. Here we can feel the collective energy connecting with the Lord, all the devotees are immersed in faith and are chanting the name of Lord Shiva. The whole mountain is echoing with the slogans of “Har Har Mahadev”. It is an honour to be here and I feel blessed to be in the courtyard of God. This temple of Lord Shiva holds the title of the highest temple in the world.
Where dark clouds were hovering in the sky a while ago, the sun has come out now which I am liking very much. The only problem with the sun is that the snow on the trail will melt and the shoes will start slipping. Tungnath temple is 6 km away from Chopta by foot while Chandrashila summit is 1.5 km away from Tungnath temple. There is a steep mountain of 45% angle from the temple to the summit, climbing which to reach the summit is a challenge for everyone.
We start walking on the trail going to the right of the temple, most of the people have stopped here and some have moved ahead to visit the temple situated on the top. As the height is increasing, Sara's walking speed is decreasing, I don't want to say anything to her because she is doing very well at this height. This is only the second time in her life that she has come to such a height. I believe that even if it takes us one and a half hours to reach the top, it is not a problem because we will come down quickly.
From below, Chandrashila top looks like a vertical wall on which some people are seen going up like ants while some people are seen coming down. With deep breaths, we are also moving forward one step at a time and getting closer to the summit. As soon as the cloud clears, the sun comes and taking advantage of the opportunity, I ask Sara to click a photo of me, which she clicks very well.
We reach the top of this mountain named Trikut Parvat at 3 pm, where there are many people. If I count, there are at least 45 people here. Some are visiting the temple situated on the summit, some are waiting for the view to be visible after the clouds clear, some are doing photoshoots and some are resting and eating the food they have brought with them...preparing themselves for the return journey.
The temple has orange flags, Lord Shiva's weapon Trishul is also installed here. There are some brass bells on which orange colored dupattas are tied. It is 4000 meters and the temple situated on the top is dedicated to Chandrashila Devi. In Hindu religion, one cannot enter the temple premises wearing shoes, so I also take off my shoes at a certain distance and have darshan of the goddess, fold my hands, bow my head and ask for forgiveness for my sins.
This is a small temple which is built in an area of 6x6 feet. The 360 degree view from the top gives a clear view of 182 mountain peaks. Today we came late so the 360 degree view is covered by clouds. The main peaks visible from here are Nanda Devi (7816 m), Hardeol (7151 m), Chaukhamba (7136 m), Trishool (7120 m), Satapath (7075 m), Dunagiri (7066 m), Kedarnath Dome (6940 m), Kalana Peak (6931 m) and Bhagirathi (6856 m).
I bow my head in front of all the mountains behind the clouds and with folded hands I seek the blessings of all the mountains. If we understand the literal meaning of Chandrashila, then it is made up of two words, Chandra means moon and Shila means rock. According to many mythological stories related to this place, Lord Rama had meditated at this place after killing Ravana. According to another story, the moon also meditated at this place. All these stories are 5000 years old.
Of course, nothing much was visible from the top, but below we saw many villages and mountains, looking down from the window of snow here is a relaxing feeling. Sara sits here at the top and meditates for a while while I try unsuccessfully to find Nanda Devi behind the clouds. A dog has also come to the top with some devotee, who sits near Sara who is meditating, perhaps the dog also did not like the crowd around Sara.
We spend about an hour at the top and start walking back at 04:15 pm. The return journey will be in some other blog, that's it for today. I hope you all will like the last post of the year 2024. I wish the friends of hive a very happy 2025 and pray to the Himalayas that the coming year brings more happiness and success to everyone. Bye bye 2024 and welcome 2025. See you in 2025.
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 Sony a7iii camera and edited in lightroom, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.
I would like to dedicate the last few lines to @worldmappin who gave us all a wonderful challenge like #winterchallenge, because of this I was able to publish more quality posts and be more active on hive. Thanks to #worldmappin who read so many posts every day, viewed them and then gave place to deserving posts in #traveldigest. I congratulate the #worldmappin community for 2025 and hope that we will see more such challenges in the future. I enjoyed this challenge a lot and learned a lot. Thank you @worldmappin