Goechala Trek — Oct 2019

Time for blowing my trumpet/showing off again!

This one is for you Mummy.

After last year’s Rupin Pass trek with Zingaro, I could not do this year’s trek with them as we had alternate plans. Rajiv Sharma and Kamal Piyush were going for Kashmir Great Lakes trek with Trek the Himalayas (TTH) in August and I decided to do the trek with them — and it was cancelled! Kamal Piyush was then keen to do the Goechala Trek in Sikkim and he and Rajiv Sharma convinced me to join them for the same. Rajiv’s friend, Anil Chaudhary, also decided to join us, My dost from Roopkund, Mukul Kandwal could not join as he was too busy selling batteries!!

Rajiv, Anil and I flew from Mumbai on 3rd Oct and met Kamal who flew in from Delhi at Bagdogra. We had out driver, Pema (a very interesting character) to drive us to Darak (near Pelling, Sikkim) for a homestay — we had 2 nice functional rooms for us and had a nice dinner and an equally nice breakfast in the morning the next day, and Pema again picked us up and took us to Yuksom, via some sightseeing places like a skywalk and a monastary in Pelling, an orange garden (with no oranges!), Kanchendzonga falls etc. We had two nights to spend at Yuksom at a guest house booked by TTH. The rest of the team was arriving on 5th, and we loitered around in Yuksom till that evening. During our stay at the guest house, we met a couple — they had to come back from Dzongri top as the wife had developed fever, and one more guy had to return as he had an onset of AMS (Altitude Mountain Sickness) — because he had a heavy dose of paracetamol, which led to dehydration and eventually AMS!

The entire team was there by 5th evening — there were 19 of us — again varied profiles from across the country…

There were

- the Kamble bandhus from Nagpur (Subhash — who works with a PSU Bank, and Sachin Kamble, our own Shahrukh, nicknamed Chikna

, — who works with the Railways),

- the Bong sisters in spirit — Mahua (works with an audit firm) and Koena Ghosh (chemistry prof)

- Sanjay Sharma (businessman cum techie) and Jagvir Singh (Amazonian) from Kolkata

- Simar Kohli from Belgam, a shippie

- Kedar Patel, a finanical analyst, from Mumbai

- Nisarg Desai, a techie from Surat

- Rajendra Muthe, a state bureaucrat from Pune (who was later christened as Annadata, as he had a never ending supply of tasty food, ranging from Bhakarwadi to Laddoos to mouth freshner to you name what)

- Narasimha Meladi, a cyber security expert from Bangalore (aka Mountain Goat)

- the Bangalore gang — Shivakanth Rao and Snehal Panicker (both architects), Sunil Khemchandani (who sells movie merchandise — entertainmentstore.in — the ultimate fan store for merchandise in India) and Nomita Saldanha, a textile designer (UK educated, struggling with Hindi:-). They seemed a varied group, and the connection was that they went to the same Crossfit Box in Bangalore)

and the four seniors (Kamal, Rajiv, Anil and me).

We had the team from TTH to lead us, along with the kitchen staff and porters -

- Harinder Chauhan “Bunty” (from Jiskun, which was on the way to Rupin Pass) — the trek leader

- Phipraj “Mama” Limboo — our guide (always angry while walking, like the Hulk!)

- Pravin “Mantri” Chhetri (he is all of 20 years age, studying tourism in college, and when we asked him what does he plan to do after college, his response was to be the tourism minister — of — no, not Sikkim, neither India, but of the World!) — an always smiling character, and

- Sawan “Boxer” Subba — 18 year old, a state level boxing champion who was with us for a part of the trek — the interesting thing was that he learnt boxing watching youtube videos, apart from the basic coaching he would have got from a coach.

We had a brief introductions round on 5th evening, along with the do’s and don’ts on the trek, and we had to start the next day at 8 am. Typical routine would be early morning black tea at tentside, followed by breakfast in 30–60 minutes time and generally leave the camp between 8 and 9 pm. Some of us had offloaded our luggage which was carried by mules and jos (hybrid between yak and cow) while the more adventurous ones carried their own stuff. There would be packed lunch which we had to carry on some days, and some days would be hot lunch after reaching the next campsite. We were also prescribed to drink at least 3 liters of water every day to prevent AMS, and every evening , Bunty would take our pulse oxymeter reading to see if we were fit enough to progress to the next altitude. Fortunately, all of us met the minimum standards of the reading throughout the trek.

Goechala Trek — 9 days/ 5,700 ft to 15,100 ft and back / 90km

6 October — Yuskom (5,700 ft) to Sachen (7,200 ft) — 8 km/6 hrs

The day started well, but it started drizzling by the time we were about to reach the campsite. The campsite was in a very confined space and just when we reached, it stated raining. It was muddy all around, and navigating the area was a challenge. People were still within their own comfort zones and there were limited interactions across the group.

There were three more pople who joined our group — Ajay from Coimbatore (an IIMA aspirant), Jay Menon (a software sales guy) and Karuna from Bangalore. The economics was not viable for their organiser so they joined our group, making the strength 22.

7 October — Sachen (7,200 ft) to Tshokha (9,700 ft) via Bakhim (8600 ft) — 7 km/5 hrs

This was again a misty/cloudy day, and there was limited visibility except the climb in front of us. On reaching Bakhim, we got some cellphone signals, and people got busy calling their near and dear ones — apart from having anda maggi and tea and coffee at a shack at Bakhim. Tsokha was a nice site with concrete toilets near the campsite (which is a big relief), but the visibility was still poor. The group started getting a bit more friendly as there was time and space to interact. The next day morning was a bit chaotic as there were a bunch of guys creating ruckus while queuing up for the daily ablutions and having interesting interactions among themselves. We had an impromptu singing session which had to be cut short as we were disturbing other campers!

Kamal realised after reaching Tsokha that his water bottle had leaked and all the clothes were wet in his backpack. The next morning, I also realised that my hydration pack had started leaking and I had to rely on other people for my water source for the rest of the trek.

8 October — Tsokha (9,700 ft) to Dzongri (12,980 ft) via Phedang (10,500 ft) — 9 km/7 hrs

This was by far the most challenging day of the trek. the climb was almost 40+ degree incline for most of the route (or at least it felt so), and the weather was damp/misty. It took a great toll on everyone’s legs as some of the steps were almost 18 to 24 inches in height. Fortunately, it was not so bad for me and the credit goes to my intermittent fasting regime, and the workouts at CrossFit 7 Seas including the step ups, box jumps, thrusters, wall ball shots etc. Thanks Vedharth Thappa, Vikram Sahai, Rishi Solanki and Vishal Mota!

We were half dead on reaching Dzongri, but the good part was that the next day was a rest day, with conditions!

9 October — Dzongri Top (13,675 ft) and rest

We were told on 8th evening that if the TTH team flet that the weather was good, we would be given a wake up call at 3 and would trek to Dzongri Top at 4 am. Most of us, I believe, were not sure what they wanted — to go the the top or sleep through the night after the tiring day — plus the weather had not been too conducive for the first 3 days of the trek.

We were woken up at 3 and most of us were reluctant participants as the sky was not giving us confidence that it would clear up. We reached Dzongri top at about 5 am , and suddenly the sky opened up. We could see multitude of colours and it was a surreal experience, cant be described in words. You have to experience it! The first rays of sun hitting Kanchendzonga was an unbelievable sight. Everyone was super thrilled and all got busy trying to capture whatever they could in their mobiles and cameras. We thanked Bunty and mama profusely for their call to drag us to the peak.

Everybody was on a high and we had a godd time during the day. Most of us were together at a shack for afternoon tea/coffee and we shared interesting anecdotes. I also gathered everyone’s birthdays and surprisingly, Koena’s birthday was on the 11th. Kamal asked Bunty if he could orgniase something for Koena on her birthday.

10 October — Dzongri (12,980 ft) via Kokcharang (12,000 ft) to Thansing (12900 ft) 10 km/6 hrs

This was a beautiful day. We had to walk downhill and then uphill. There was a flat land along the route and we could see snowclad peaks in the horizon. We had some nice pictures, inlcuding one clicked by Simar Kohli, which had most of us walking and the huge mountains in the backdrop. We also had a group pic with all of us jumping!

We reached Thansing and decided to stay in a hut as it was a cold day. All of us, except Narasimha Meladi and Kedar Patel, cramped in 3 rooms in the hut whereas N and K stayed in the tent like purists.

11 October — Thansing (12,900 ft) to Lamuney (13,650 ft) — 4 km/2 hrs/

12 October — Lamuney (13,650 ft) to Goechala (15,100 ft) via Samiti Lake back to Lamuney (13,650 ft) — and then to Kokchurang (12,000 ft) 18 km/13 hrs

This was again a very relaxed day. We walked leisurely and had an almost one hour break at a site where people had put up stone towers. We again had a long photo session here. Some of us had started having mild headaches from the previous day itself, thanks to the high altitude. But Bunty said that it was not an issue so long as we kept on drinking water.

Thansing was again a beautiful sight, but again the weather got truant and it was all cloudy and windy suddenly. The coming night was the D Day (or is it D Night?) as we were supposed to do the summit, starting at 1 am. Once again. looking a the sky, one was not sure how things would be panning out. Bunty told us that they would take a call at midnight and if they saw the weather improving, we would leave for the summit strictly at 1 am. And if they felt the weather was not good, then …

The cook had whipped up a cake for Koena’s birthday and she, I believe, was very happy as it was completely unexpected for her. We took to the tents for about 3 hours of sleep/rest. We were woken up at midnight and everyone was lined up by 1 for going to see one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

All of us were moving together, with doubts in many of us if the sky would clear up. We reached what is know as Goechala Viewing Point 1 (the trekkers are not allowed to go beyond that point now, as it is reportedly the territory of snow leopards) at 4.45 am and were waiting for the magical moment. And then it happened. Kanchendzonga, which appeared a stone’s throw distance from us (Bunty told us that the Kanchendzonga base camp was about 8 hours further trek from where we were) suddenly started turning golden and all of us were awestruck. Once again, not my cup of tea to describe the sight/feelings. All the pain was forgotten, the whole trek seemed more than “paisa vasool”! Bunty and team did a small ceremony/prayer and after about an hour of photography, we started out reverse journey.

On the way down, we had a stop at Lake Samiti, a gain a very beautiful sight, clicked some photos and proceeded to go down to Lamuney, which we reached at about 8.30 am. It was bright and sunny at Lamuney and I took a dip in the stream flowing next to the campsite — about 8 days since the last time I had a bath! We had hot lunch and then started our journey to Kokchurang, which we reached at about 2 pm. Here there was not enough space to pitch tents for all of us, so 16 of us stayed in the hut and 6 stayed in tents. The countdown had started to go back home!

13 October — Kokcharang (12,000 ft) to Tsokha (9,700 ft) via Phedang — 16 km/7 hrs

Mama told us that the route to Phedang (it was different from what we had undertaken on the leg up) was “seedha seedha” — and it was all but flat. It had quite a few ascents and descents and posed a mental challenge as we were expecting a reasonably flat route. We reached Phedang, had out packed lunch, and then started our descent to Tsokha. And then we realised what sort of ascent we had done 5 days back. Most uf us could not believe that it was that steep an ascent (now a descent) that we had climbed up. We reached Tsokha at about 3 pm and then it was only one day of walking left. We had a “lavish” dinner with no rationing of food as it was the tip day:-)

14 October — Tsokha (9,700 ft) to Yuksom (5,670 ft) via Bakhim (8600 ft) and Sachen (7,150 ft) — 15 km/6 hrs

We started at 7.30 am and after about 1.5 hours of walk, the group splintered and all of us started walking at our own pace. there were about 5 of us who targeted reaching Yuksom by 12.30 pm and we managed to reach by 12.40 pm, whereas the last group reached by about 3 pm. It was finally over and everyone got busy making voice/video calls to their respective families, followed by having a proper bath after almost 9 days! We had a certificate distribution ceremony in the evening, and had some funny and some emotional words by the group members. Post that, some of us went out for drinks and dinner and had a good time reminiscing about the trek and singing session. We reached the guest house at about 11 and bid everyone good byes as the four of us were to start early next day at 5.30 am for Bagdogra.

15 October — Yukson to Namchi to Bagdogra

We had hired Pema’s services again for the drop to Bagdodra. We decided to visit Namchi on the way as it has a beautiful Buddha Park and has recreated the Char Dham and 12 Jyotirlings in a nice complex. It was a very relaxing experience and we finally reached our hotel at Bagdogra at about 5.30 pm. Simer, Annadata and Nisarg were in the same hotel and we went out for dinner in a nearby restaurant. We finally called it a day and had a relaxing sleep on comfy beds in an air conditioned room!

16 October — Fly back home

We had breakfast of aloo parathas and then headed for the airport, and finally reached Mumbai at 3 pm. It was all in all a great experience.

Some interesting snippets/anecdotes from the trek…

- One of the members had a problem squatting and the only “seat” that TTH was broken on the first day. It was hilarious listening to this person’s travails to find a “western” alternative in the nature!

- Mama, when asked when did he marry — he said he got married a bit late in life — at the age of 20 years! When we told him that there were bachelors in the group, with more than 30 years of age, his comment was — “tum sab budha ho gaya hai — itna late nahi karna chahiye

- Some of us had to relieve ourselves while walking, and to save oneself form embarrassment, one would feign to tie shoelaces, till the rest of the group walked ahead. So a phrase called “Lace dhili ho gayi hai” was termed, which became quite popular during the trek.

- Sachin Kamble and Annadata were the only ones who were regularly shaving. Sachin finally gave up midway through the trek.

- Nisarg had a hidden talent of playing flute and mouth organ and it took a lot of convincing to make him play the instruments for us.

- One of the members got an ultimatum when he called up his wife after the trek — no more treks for you! He is trying to figure out how to bribe her to reverse the ultimatum!

- Most of the members had a grouse with not enough hot/warm drinking water being provided during the trek. TTH should try to work on this aspect.

So to conclude, it was an ultimate experience, and personally a very fulfilling one as it was the best trek in the last four years I did, from a point of view of fitness. I did not feel exhausted on any of the days, and I feel that is a great achievement for me.

Let us see what the next year holds for me!

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