Sandakphu...A walk to renember.

Sandakphu. A walk to remember.

“I find myself in the mountains. I know who I am in the city, but I think I know what I am in the Mountains. It’s not about achievement. It’s not about a purpose. It’s certainly not just about escaping the mundane. It’s simply about surrendering to the surreal; it’s about letting go.” 

Having spent 5 years in civilised wilderness before this trek I was really looking forward to going back to the Himalayas. I trek much less than I’d like to, so the excitement was all the more..mmm exciting! From experience I knew fitness was going to be crucial, so that was something I paid a lot of attention to. My view on physical fitness is that it’s not the only thing you need - you certainly need a lot of mental fitness esp. on more difficult treks - but physical fitness helps you enjoy the hike much more - and that’s important. Doing a winter trek in Goechala with substandard and completely unsuitable stuff had taught me a good lesson for life, so this time I packed well. In fact, I over packed. I was offloading the back-pack so I wasn’t gonna stress about erring on the conservative side. In spite of all that my fingers and toes were practically freezing nearly all the time, so that’s something that needs attention next winter trek - even more/better gloves and socks!

So the Sandakphu trek goes right to Sandakphu (duh!) and is the highest point in West Bengal. It is ideally situated on the Singalila ridge which ensures it gets an insanely rare 270 degree view of the Himalayas all the way from Nepal to Sikkim to Bhutan. To the West lies the Everest range, directly in front of you is Kanchenjunga group, and further East lies the Bhutanese peak Chomolhari. You see about 155 prominent Himalayan peaks and an overwhelming majority of the 8k+ mountains (Everest, Kanchenjunga, Makalu, Lhotse etc.). Based solely on the effort you put in this is easily the best trek (globally) around. 

The trek starts from Jaubhari (loosely translated to ‘Millet-House’ cause of the Millet crops they grow here). Starting off at New Jalpaiguri I met with Suji, Reva, Ravana Pravin and Suvadeep. Suvadeep turned out to the be quietest (but maybe even the sweetest) of the lot. Pravin - well, no words can describe his resonant and hearty laughter - it’s something else. It’s this unbridled, unassuming, unintimidating, charming roar that shakes your core and leaves you feeling good about life for no apparent reason. It’s what you want the world to be like - honest. Reva is widely read and great conversationalist, and Sujitha is a writer whose grace is hard to miss. Later on at Jaubhari we met with some of the others and it was surprising to see the camaraderie and the bonds that were already starting to form I also noticed that the Bangalore regiment (and even some outside of it) appeared to be a solar system revolving around a certain radiant heavenly body also bearing the sanskrit name for the Sun! Ohh how I wanted to be 24 again..haha!

Going on these treks, often times the first thing you think about isn’t how cold or how hard it’s gonna be, but who gonna be sharing your tent with and whether you’ll enjoy the broader company. Thankfully I felt no such anxiety once I’d met this bunch. What amazing variety we had - some are writers, some techos, some ‘hands-on-hire cum standup-comics cum film-critics cum poets’, some full-time trekkers/backpackers and some even ‘professional’ flirts (a profession I didn’t even know existed!). Yet some had adorable smiles, some had amazing (later found to be bullshit) stories, some that wanted time with themselves and some that were looking to spend time with the family on a trek! I felt I was with exactly the type of  group I wanted to be with - whacky, funny and still so real. 

Though Jaubhari wasn’t the coldest place of all the places we’d camp overnight, I struggled to sleep. My toes went numb for some reason (I wasn’t wearing my woolen socks - wanted to save them for colder places!) and try as I may I couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep deep. When I did feel sleepy though I felt Pravin and Kinshuk had conspired to out-snore me, but my ‘naval-guns-blazing’ sinuses managed to win the day (or rather..night). 

Jaubhari to Tumling 

Up nice and early next morning, we had a sumptuous breakfast and we were on our way to Tumling. The trek goes through a beautiful pine forest with trees that are decades if not centuries old. The gradient was nice and gentle though towards the end there were segments that were challenging. For the most part I kept up with Bharat Daju and soaked up the info he had to share about the region, his home, his family etc. The hike ended with a stretch and co-massage which I now think was a grand conspiracy by the trek leader for reasons too controversial to mention. My fingers were already frozen so I promptly got myself close to a ‘bukhari’  and didn’t leave for a long time. It was also at Tumling that we played ‘Mafia’ - a game I’d never played before. In spite of Suji’s brilliance as a lone-wolf Mafia, the Villagers won and I was hooked to the game. That aside Tumling was also really cold but thankfully we were inside a trekkers hut with warm blankets so the night was restful.

Tumling to Kalipokhri (`Black Lake)

Woke up to an absolutely freezing but incredible morning, with mountain views right from our balcony. After breakfast we set-off towards Kalipokhri. The hike wasn’t too bad; there are sections of ascent and descent all along the way so you don’t get too tired. We also found a lot of snow on the way and it was fun walking on snow though thankfully it wasn’t too deep. It’s probably also on this day that I became infamous for some comments no one actually heard themselves but wanted a piece of me for. That being said I wasn’t about to let facts come in the way of a good story, and to be honest I was loving the attention so I played along. It was all in good fun though - no offence was meant and (hopefully) none taken. 

Through a long day or ups and downs, by sundown we finally reached Kalipokhri. Kalipokhri is a lake on top of the Singalila ridge with Nepal down to the West and India to the East. The sun was above us getting ready to set, the clouds below us, and a beautiful hue all around. Never have I seen clouds as thick as that below eye level..it felt like I could walk on them - more like what you see from an airplane. This was easily one of the most remarkable things I saw on the entire trek. It was as stunning as it was simple. The temperature was already a few notches below zero by the time we all settled in for supper when Tanmay, started telling never ending disaster stories. Subhash daju too had already told enough ghost stories to Saikat to the extent that he didn’t wanna sleep next to the window anymore! Anyway so after a long dinner (cause we were as spooked as we were cold) we settled into our bedrooms which once again were nice and warm (as compared to the sub-zero temperature outside). That’s one huge advantage of this tea-house trek concept - once you’re in bed you’re okay. I remember Goechala on the other hand being really uncomfortable as you always slept outside in tents! The night ended with some good old boys-only fun - Tanmay came over to our room and we had a fine time exchanging non-veg jokes and stories! 

Kalipokhri to Sandakphu

I can say I slept pretty well at Kalipokhri cause my dear Mr. Poddar approved. On the first night he called my snoring ‘Naval Guns’, but by the third he was like ‘Sunil’s the reformed criminal; silent like the great Australian outback!’. He was now after poor Darshan instead who apparently snored like ‘Karnam Malleswari leading the Indian contingent in the Olympics - rhythmic and definitive’! Where he gets these analogies from I simply have no idea. I think he can easily replicate the Kapil Sharma comedy show - Kinshuk does the standup and Pravin delivers the Sidhu like (though better) laughs! 

Anyways, so once again after a fantastic brekkie and some team punishment (for being late) we started towards Sandakphu. This was easily the hardest day of all - sharp ascent for 7 kms with no respite. Funniest thing was, after a long continuous climb you see a milestone that says ‘Sandakphu - 0 kms’. The guys got really excited on seeing this and Kinshuk and Saikat even clicked some selfies next to it, only to realise later than the actual camp was still a fair distance away and uphill! Ergo, upon reaching Sandakphu we breaked for tea-biscuits. The real camp was still 30 mins away though and we left as soon as we’d finished up with the 20 millionth pack of biscuits. Was a little disappointed as the weather was pathetic and the view pretty ordinary. I was hoping for better weather over the next few days as otherwise the whole trek would’ve been a big let down for me. Not that the views are be-all-end-all, but they’re really really important for someone like me who only gets to trek once in a couple of years at best. I got my thermals out for the first time for the night at Sandakphu and was reasonably comfortable in my bed and again had a pretty long and restful sleep.

Sandakphu to Sabargram

Woke up quite early to catch the sunrise over Kanchenjunga (which was good), but in all honesty was once again disappointed. For me the hazy views were simply not worth getting out of bed for, leave alone trekking and travelling so many thousands of miles for. The trek to Sabargram was long, up & down and largely uneventful. It was much of the same - walking over snow in parts and in meadows in some parts. It was also on this day that I am positive I saw some bear paw prints. I was super keen to see some wildlife, but not really a Bear! After a long and tiring day on which we covered about 15 kms, we finally reached Sabargram. It’s a beautiful campsite - one of the best I’ve seen. It’s on a small hillock adjoining the dining huts, and it gives you unobstructed 270 degree views of the Himalayas all the way from Nepal to Sikkim to Bhutan. Later that evening we endured a long round of what I’m convinced was BS horror stories about Goechala from the Lord of Darkness himself - Tanmay. Am not sure how many of us believed his stories, but we all had fun listening anyways. It’s another topic as to how many people are still motivated to go to Goechala after hearing all those stories about it. It’s a shame if they don’t, because make no mistakes Goechala is stunning. Period. The other thing that we discussed was the plan for the following day. Tanmay put forward two options - walking 14 kms (mainly downhill) to Gorkhey through a dense bamboo forest or sharp ascent (7k) to Phalut followed by sharp descent of 14ks to Gorkhey. Quite obviously option-2 was way harder and everyone selected the former. Everyone except me. I’d travelled thousands of kms, waited 5 years for this, and trekked 6 days in crazy cold weather to get here and I still hadn’t seen the mountains properly, so I wanted to decide based on the weather the following morning. I didn’t want to take the hard option naturally, but I’d happily have taken it if required. I decided to sleep on it.

Sabargram to Gorkhey

The night at Sabargram was very, very uncomfortable. Sleeping in a sleeping bag isn’t my thing any more. It wasn’t cold inside the bag, but it was really uncomfortable. So much so that once I was settled in, I didn’t even get up for a pee break and held on till 6am when I thought things had started to warm up a little. Thanks to amazingly clear weather, I woke up to the most beautiful sight you can imagine. The sun just about rising in the East from below us, the magnificent Kanchenjunga gleaming in the first light of the day right in-front and the Everest to the West - all beautifully visible in crystal clear weather. It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe. Finally all my efforts had paid off and secretly I was also elated that I could go the easy route back to Gorkhey with the rest of the gang. 

It’s one thing to look at a mighty mountain from 100s of miles away and it’s totally another to see it up close. The sheer scale of the mountain just binds you in a spell that it’s hard to get your eyes off it. You just want to keep staring at it observing its various features, its glaciers, the wind near its peak as it creates a snowy halo, the sunlight bouncing off the snow making the mountain appear to be on fire…it’s actually poetry of the highest quality that’s not read or heard, but felt. I must’ve spent nearly 2 hours just taking in the views - it’s easily the best thing I’ve seen ever, maybe on par with the views of the Kanchenjunga towering over me on the final day of the Goechala trek. 

Seems I wasn’t the only one spell-bound though - Saikat was so much so that he even noticed a few unnoticeable things about the Everest like the South Col, some trekkers huts, even a Malayali Chai shop near the summit! Okay I made up the last few things but you get the drift. I think we collectively took a million pictures here and I’ve to say the hype is truly worth it. Sabargram is beautiful beyond words - you’ve to see it to believe it. 

Following breakfast we began the hike to Gorkhey. The hike was about 14 kms but it didn’t feel long at all thanks to some good conversations along the way with Akshata, Bhavana, DJ, Reva, Saikat and Priyanka. As we approached Gorkhey we also saw a lone tree wit a number of blazing red Rhododendrons - it looks surreal.  I can only imagine how pretty the whole walk can be in say Spring. Something I think I now wanna do - hike in these Sikkimese Rhododendron forests around March-April. Agreed the weather may not be as clear as in winter but I just have to see what spring does to the forest - am sure its an experience in itself. Close to Gorkhey we had lunch and even managed to sneak in a game of cricket. Not having played for years I wasn’t sure how I’d do but it was fun and I really enjoyed it, even top scoring in the second gig. I can still remember Tanmay’s (our Captain) face when we needed 1 run in 5 balls with him NOT on strike - he was nervous like crazy. Reminds me he’s only 25. His deeds and leadership sometime fool you into thinking he’s 35 or something...kudos to him for the person he has become at such a young age; I hope he remains as spirited, passionate and most importantly as level headed and he’ll have a fine life. Dinner at Gorkhey was Pahadi Chicken and I can tell you after 7 days of eating bland vegetarian food, eating that chicken felt like heaven.

Gorkhey to Sepi

The final day’s walk to Sepi was largely unremarkable though I once again had a chance to have a few quality conversations with some usual suspects. Reva was running from something (or someone) so she was keeping me company in the front, so it was mainly her today. We couldn’t wait to get back to our beds and showers and loved ones (in that order at least for me). After lunch at Sepi we all parted ways and I can assure you it felt like long time friends were separating, which was so nice to see. The 7-days we spent together created bonds out of nothing - bonds that I hope last a lifetime. Random, unrelated people brought together towards a common goal. Not that of climbing a mountain, but that of having a good time. And have a good time, we did.