The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile - Plato
May 2015 was unforgiving. Temperatures rose valiantly. I wished to go for a short break and this trek came in on time. I did try for Kalsubai during Feb/Mar with Bhramanti365, however it turned out to be impractical. This was one of my bucketlist items too.
Trekmates by large, is one of the best trekking groups that one can trek with. It was my fourth trek/tour with them and YES it was another experience to remember and pen for life.
We started for the overnight trek at 4:00PM from Thane by a local train upto Kasara. There were 55 trekkers (including the leads) for the event. Upon arrival at Kasara, cars were ready to ferry us till the basecamp. 20 minutes into the drive, sun descended upon us and darkness took over.
We reached the basecamp at around 8.00PM. It was a temple where all the trekkers assembled and introduced themselves. Quite a few of them were first timers, which was surprising. Trekking the highest peak of the region with no previous experience is damn ballsy.
Post introduction, dinner was served. We were satiated by the food served by the village-house-cum-restaurant people. Their hospitality was unmatched.
Close to 10.00 PM we started ascending the mighty Kalsubai Mountain. The first halt was after around 30mins. Lo and Behold, everyone was panting already. Not more than 400 meters ascended and Hey! this is damn tough.
It happened that 2 of the girls gave up the trek then. One of the trek leader took them back to the village (basecamp) and arranged safe accomodation for them. After a brief pause of 15mins the trek resumed. Also, I forgot my hooded jacket in the basecamp, which I brought to beat the cold (funny, I thought here that it would be cold).
The ascend was really interesting. For a very long trail we dealt with orderly paths and steps, when came a time where we dealt with steep stairs. Almost with an inclination of 75 degrees and missing rungs the stairs were a bit challenging at night.
I was trailing along our local guide throughout the trek. He was a 10 year old guy with an acute sense of humor. He tagged a well built man as a body builder, some folks as lovers and his songs kept us engaged through the night till we reached the point where we stopped to rest.
At 3AM, I was all prepared to sleep in a duct that was against a rock. Last time, when I was trekking at Matheran, I made sure to dug in a couple of hours of sleep by avoiding stupid horror story sessions as they make no sense afterall. However, this time it was difficult to grab it. It was a major mistake to forget the jacket at the basecamp. The winds at the top were freezing and unforgivingly freezing. Not a single minute was spent trying to dodge them. The entire 3 hours of freezing would not be forgotten. At 6AM, I ran towards the leftover firecamp, but that too helped a lot to recover.
At 7AM the final ascend to the top began. Few of the early birds like me quickly went up to gauge the view. Worth it. Totally worth it. It was great standing at 5300+ metres and believing in my own small little victory.
Kalsubai Temple, a small rock of hope. A rock of faith standing on top of the highest peak. Inspirational indeed.
The descend started 2 hours later. Same way back BUT in the scorching mid summer heat. The temperatures rose abruptly once the clock struck 9AM. Water depleted like crazy and it was really a challenging walk down. Along with a few reached back to the basecamp at 11.15AM whereas the rest reached safely at 1.00PM.
We had lunch again in the 'arrangement' and we were set to the return journey.
Lots of memories and a victorious feel. Kalsubai, you rock!
Comments
Post a Comment