DAY16: DERAPUK TO ZUTULPUK (Via Dolma La Pass)
Derapuk : 5056 mtrs
Dolma La: 5622 mtrs
Zutulpuk: 4792 mtrs
Distance : 18 kms
Time Taken: 8 hours
Route from Derapuk to Zomzerbu / Zutulpuk
As usual starts at 0530 and the plan was to cross the mighty Dolma La Pass before sunrise. Usually after sunrise these high passes tend to get windy, the streams start to over flow due to melting of snow and hence they become difficult to pass on.
Elevation profile of the route
WE got up pretty fresh in the morning and was all set to go. Yastries after having a hot cup of tea, bournvita and some corn flakes they started there march towards Dolma La in pitch darkness. Our torches were our only source of light and WE just followed the Tibetan guide blindly, who was leading US. In fact for quite a distance the walk was not that bad as land is being leveled here too for making it motor able. Surprisingly even the attitude was not creating much of difficulties, maybe the walk to Charan Sparsh and the sleep in the night had helped US immensely in acclimatizing.
As WE got closer to Dolama La Pass morning light started to set in and WE could see the barren vistas around. The last 2 km ascend to Dolma La was very steep, but slowly and steadily WE managed to get on the top. At the top there were some monks who had already reached and were offering their prayers. At 19500 ft, WE had reached the highest point of Our trip and from now on it would be more or less a descent.
A few meters into our descend WE saw the magnificent emerald green lake “The Gauri Kund” Apparently Mata Parvati tooks bath here and few said Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head here. To reach Gauri kund one has to go down 1000ft on loose rocks and boulders and again the climb back is very steep, so usually yatris do not venture to Gauri Kund but ask their porters ( for a small tip) to collect water from the lake. But Me and My Mother went down the Holy Lake, offered Prayers, collected water and came back up in no time.
After Gauri Kund was a steep descent of around 3 km, this descent was actually more tiring than the ascent of Dolma La. Infact here was our test of mountaineering skills and test of our shoes, any wrong step would have us rolling down till the base.
As WE went down WE saw a few monks coming up. These were Buddhist from the BON sect who do their parikrama anticlockwise. Luckily we do not do our parikrama anti-clockwise as climbing up this stretch for most of us would have been next to impossible.
Soon WE were on plain grounds and now WE just had to walk along the river in the valley to reach Zutulpuk. But this was a never ending walk again. Every time WE thought that Zomzerbu / Zutulpuk would be around the next hill, it wasn’t to be. So WE walked and walked and walked endlessly till WE finally reached our camp.
Again Me and My Moter were the first ones to reach the camp and the last yatri came after 7 hrs of Our arrival. Today had been a tiring but the most satisfying day for all of US. After all, the Kailash Parikrama, one that everyone dreams off when WE start the journey, was almost complete.
Everyone slept peacefully that night!!
DAY17: DERAPUK TO ZUTULPUK (Via Dolma La)
Derapuk : 5056 mtrs
Dolma La: 5622 mtrs
Zutulpuk: 4792 mtrs
Distance : 18 kms
Time Taken: 8 hours
Route from Derapuk to Zutulpuk
Today had to be a 0530 hrs start as the plan was to cross the mighty Dolma before sunrise. Usually after sunrise these high passes tend to get windy, the streams start to over flow due to melting of snow and hence they become difficult to conquer.
Elevation profile of the route
I got up pretty fresh in the morning and any discomfort last evening due to the high altitude had disappeared. I was all set to go. After a hot cup of tea, bournvita and some corn flakes we started our march towards Dolma in pitch darkness. Our torches were our only source of light and we just followed the Tibetan guide blindly, who was leading us. In fact for quite a distance the walk was not that bad as land is being leveled here too for making it motor able. Surprisingly even the attitude was not creating much of difficulties, maybe the walk to Charan Sparsh and the sleep in the night had helped us immensely in acclimatizing.
As we got closer to Dolama morning light started to set in and we could see the barren vistas around. The last 2 kms ascend to Dolma was very steep, but slowly and steadily we managed to get on the top. At the top there were some monks who had already reached and were offering their prayers. At 18,500 ft (some say Dolma is at 19500 ft, but the point I took the co-ordinates said it was 18,500ft) we had reached the highest point on our trip and from now on it would be more or less a descent. Though we did feel a little tired but the feeling of having achieved was pretty satisfying. Not waiting to spend a lot of time at this altitude we started our descend.
A few meters into our descend we saw the magnificent emerald green lake “The Gauri Kund” Apparently Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head here. To reach Gauri kund one has to go down 1000ft on loose rocks and boulders and again the climb back is very steep, so usually yatris do not venture to Gauri Kund but ask their porters ( for a small tip) to collect water from the lake. But Mr. Honey Arora was at it again, he went down the lake, collected water and came back up in no time.
After Gauri Kund was a steep descent of around 3 kms, this descent was actually more tiring than the ascent of Dolma. Infact here was our test of mountaineering skills and test of our shoes, any wrong step would have us rolling down till the base.
As we went down we saw a few monks coming up. These were Buddhist from the BON sect who do their parikrama anticlockwise. Luckily we do not do our parikrama anti-clockwise as climbing up this stretch for most of us would have been next to impossible.
Soon we were on plain grounds and now we just had to walk along the river in the valley to reach Zutulpuk. But this was a never ending walk again. Every time we thought that Zutulpuk would be around the next hill, it wasn’t to be. So we walked and walked and walked endlessly till we finally reached our camp.
Honey and I were the first ones to reach once again and the last yatri came after 5 hrs of our arrival. Today had been a tiring but the most satisfying day for all of us. After all, the Kailash Parikrama, one that everyone dreams off when we start the journey, was almost complete.
Everyone slept peacefully that night!!
DAY17: DERAPUK TO ZUTULPUK (Via Dolma La)
Derapuk : 5056 mtrs
Dolma La: 5622 mtrs
Zutulpuk: 4792 mtrs
Distance : 18 kms
Time Taken: 8 hours
Route from Derapuk to Zutulpuk
Today had to be a 0530 hrs start as the plan was to cross the mighty Dolma before sunrise. Usually after sunrise these high passes tend to get windy, the streams start to over flow due to melting of snow and hence they become difficult to conquer.
Elevation profile of the route
I got up pretty fresh in the morning and any discomfort last evening due to the high altitude had disappeared. I was all set to go. After a hot cup of tea, bournvita and some corn flakes we started our march towards Dolma La in pitch darkness. Our torches were our only source of light and we just followed the Tibetan guide blindly, who was leading us. In fact for quite a distance the walk was not that bad as land is being leveled here too for making it motor able. Surprisingly even the attitude was not creating much of difficulties, maybe the walk to Charan Sparsh and the sleep in the night had helped us immensely in acclimatizing.
As we got closer to Dolama morning light started to set in and we could see the barren vistas around. The last 2 kms ascend to Dolma was very steep, but slowly and steadily we managed to get on the top. At the top there were some monks who had already reached and were offering their prayers. At 18,500 ft (some say Dolma is at 19500 ft, but the point I took the co-ordinates said it was 18,500ft) we had reached the highest point on our trip and from now on it would be more or less a descent. Though we did feel a little tired but the feeling of having achieved was pretty satisfying. Not waiting to spend a lot of time at this altitude we started our descend.
A few meters into our descend we saw the magnificent emerald green lake “The Gauri Kund” Apparently Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head here. To reach Gauri kund one has to go down 1000ft on loose rocks and boulders and again the climb back is very steep, so usually yatris do not venture to Gauri Kund but ask their porters ( for a small tip) to collect water from the lake. But Mr. Honey Arora was at it again, he went down the lake, collected water and came back up in no time.
After Gauri Kund was a steep descent of around 3 kms, this descent was actually more tiring than the ascent of Dolma. Infact here was our test of mountaineering skills and test of our shoes, any wrong step would have us rolling down till the base.
As we went down we saw a few monks coming up. These were Buddhist from the BON sect who do their parikrama anticlockwise. Luckily we do not do our parikrama anti-clockwise as climbing up this stretch for most of us would have been next to impossible.
Soon we were on plain grounds and now we just had to walk along the river in the valley to reach Zutulpuk. But this was a never ending walk again. Every time we thought that Zutulpuk would be around the next hill, it wasn’t to be. So we walked and walked and walked endlessly till we finally reached our camp.
Honey and I were the first ones to reach once again and the last yatri came after 5 hrs of our arrival. Today had been a tiring but the most satisfying day for all of us. After all, the Kailash Parikrama, one that everyone dreams off when we start the journey, was almost complete.
Everyone slept peacefully that night!!
DAY17: DERAPUK TO ZUTULPUK (Via Dolma La)
Derapuk : 5056 mtrs
Dolma La: 5622 mtrs
Zutulpuk: 4792 mtrs
Distance : 18 kms
Time Taken: 8 hours
Route from Derapuk to Zutulpuk
Today had to be a 0530 hrs start as the plan was to cross the mighty Dolma before sunrise. Usually after sunrise these high passes tend to get windy, the streams start to over flow due to melting of snow and hence they become difficult to conquer.
Elevation profile of the route
I got up pretty fresh in the morning and any discomfort last evening due to the high altitude had disappeared. I was all set to go. After a hot cup of tea, bournvita and some corn flakes we started our march towards Dolma in pitch darkness. Our torches were our only source of light and we just followed the Tibetan guide blindly, who was leading us. In fact for quite a distance the walk was not that bad as land is being leveled here too for making it motor able. Surprisingly even the attitude was not creating much of difficulties, maybe the walk to Charan Sparsh and the sleep in the night had helped us immensely in acclimatizing.
As we got closer to Dolama morning light started to set in and we could see the barren vistas around. The last 2 kms ascend to Dolma was very steep, but slowly and steadily we managed to get on the top. At the top there were some monks who had already reached and were offering their prayers. At 18,500 ft (some say Dolma is at 19500 ft, but the point I took the co-ordinates said it was 18,500ft) we had reached the highest point on our trip and from now on it would be more or less a descent. Though we did feel a little tired but the feeling of having achieved was pretty satisfying. Not waiting to spend a lot of time at this altitude we started our descend.
A few meters into our descend we saw the magnificent emerald green lake “The Gauri Kund” Apparently Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head here. To reach Gauri kund one has to go down 1000ft on loose rocks and boulders and again the climb back is very steep, so usually yatris do not venture to Gauri Kund but ask their porters ( for a small tip) to collect water from the lake. But Mr. Honey Arora was at it again, he went down the lake, collected water and came back up in no time.
After Gauri Kund was a steep descent of around 3 kms, this descent was actually more tiring than the ascent of Dolma. Infact here was our test of mountaineering skills and test of our shoes, any wrong step would have us rolling down till the base.
As we went down we saw a few monks coming up. These were Buddhist from the BON sect who do their parikrama anticlockwise. Luckily we do not do our parikrama anti-clockwise as climbing up this stretch for most of us would have been next to impossible.
Soon we were on plain grounds and now we just had to walk along the river in the valley to reach Zutulpuk. But this was a never ending walk again. Every time we thought that Zutulpuk would be around the next hill, it wasn’t to be. So we walked and walked and walked endlessly till we finally reached our camp.
Honey and I were the first ones to reach once again and the last yatri came after 5 hrs of our arrival. Today had been a tiring but the most satisfying day for all of us. After all, the Kailash Parikrama, one that everyone dreams off when we start the journey, was almost complete.
Everyone slept peacefully that night!!
Day16 pictures
As the morning light started to break in we could see the barren and the rocky nature of the surroundings
The final climb to Dolma La Pass
It was all barren and rocky
With so many prayer flags in sight, Dolma La Pass could not be very far
Prayer flags and Monks at Dolma La Pass
The Holy Gauri Kund
The only stretch of snow we had to cross in our entire journey
The steep descent after Gauri Kund till the camp below
Tibetans artists at work
The walk ahead was simple but long and with lots of river crossings
Himalayan Marmot
locals passing time at Zutulpuk camp
End Of Day 16
Derapuk : 5056 mtrs
Dolma La: 5622 mtrs
Zutulpuk: 4792 mtrs
Distance : 18 kms
Time Taken: 8 hours
Route from Derapuk to Zomzerbu / Zutulpuk
As usual starts at 0530 and the plan was to cross the mighty Dolma La Pass before sunrise. Usually after sunrise these high passes tend to get windy, the streams start to over flow due to melting of snow and hence they become difficult to pass on.
Elevation profile of the route
WE got up pretty fresh in the morning and was all set to go. Yastries after having a hot cup of tea, bournvita and some corn flakes they started there march towards Dolma La in pitch darkness. Our torches were our only source of light and WE just followed the Tibetan guide blindly, who was leading US. In fact for quite a distance the walk was not that bad as land is being leveled here too for making it motor able. Surprisingly even the attitude was not creating much of difficulties, maybe the walk to Charan Sparsh and the sleep in the night had helped US immensely in acclimatizing.
As WE got closer to Dolama La Pass morning light started to set in and WE could see the barren vistas around. The last 2 km ascend to Dolma La was very steep, but slowly and steadily WE managed to get on the top. At the top there were some monks who had already reached and were offering their prayers. At 19500 ft, WE had reached the highest point of Our trip and from now on it would be more or less a descent.
A few meters into our descend WE saw the magnificent emerald green lake “The Gauri Kund” Apparently Mata Parvati tooks bath here and few said Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head here. To reach Gauri kund one has to go down 1000ft on loose rocks and boulders and again the climb back is very steep, so usually yatris do not venture to Gauri Kund but ask their porters ( for a small tip) to collect water from the lake. But Me and My Mother went down the Holy Lake, offered Prayers, collected water and came back up in no time.
After Gauri Kund was a steep descent of around 3 km, this descent was actually more tiring than the ascent of Dolma La. Infact here was our test of mountaineering skills and test of our shoes, any wrong step would have us rolling down till the base.
As WE went down WE saw a few monks coming up. These were Buddhist from the BON sect who do their parikrama anticlockwise. Luckily we do not do our parikrama anti-clockwise as climbing up this stretch for most of us would have been next to impossible.
Soon WE were on plain grounds and now WE just had to walk along the river in the valley to reach Zutulpuk. But this was a never ending walk again. Every time WE thought that Zomzerbu / Zutulpuk would be around the next hill, it wasn’t to be. So WE walked and walked and walked endlessly till WE finally reached our camp.
Again Me and My Moter were the first ones to reach the camp and the last yatri came after 7 hrs of Our arrival. Today had been a tiring but the most satisfying day for all of US. After all, the Kailash Parikrama, one that everyone dreams off when WE start the journey, was almost complete.
Everyone slept peacefully that night!!
DAY17: DERAPUK TO ZUTULPUK (Via Dolma La)
Derapuk : 5056 mtrs
Dolma La: 5622 mtrs
Zutulpuk: 4792 mtrs
Distance : 18 kms
Time Taken: 8 hours
Route from Derapuk to Zutulpuk
Today had to be a 0530 hrs start as the plan was to cross the mighty Dolma before sunrise. Usually after sunrise these high passes tend to get windy, the streams start to over flow due to melting of snow and hence they become difficult to conquer.
Elevation profile of the route
I got up pretty fresh in the morning and any discomfort last evening due to the high altitude had disappeared. I was all set to go. After a hot cup of tea, bournvita and some corn flakes we started our march towards Dolma in pitch darkness. Our torches were our only source of light and we just followed the Tibetan guide blindly, who was leading us. In fact for quite a distance the walk was not that bad as land is being leveled here too for making it motor able. Surprisingly even the attitude was not creating much of difficulties, maybe the walk to Charan Sparsh and the sleep in the night had helped us immensely in acclimatizing.
As we got closer to Dolama morning light started to set in and we could see the barren vistas around. The last 2 kms ascend to Dolma was very steep, but slowly and steadily we managed to get on the top. At the top there were some monks who had already reached and were offering their prayers. At 18,500 ft (some say Dolma is at 19500 ft, but the point I took the co-ordinates said it was 18,500ft) we had reached the highest point on our trip and from now on it would be more or less a descent. Though we did feel a little tired but the feeling of having achieved was pretty satisfying. Not waiting to spend a lot of time at this altitude we started our descend.
A few meters into our descend we saw the magnificent emerald green lake “The Gauri Kund” Apparently Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head here. To reach Gauri kund one has to go down 1000ft on loose rocks and boulders and again the climb back is very steep, so usually yatris do not venture to Gauri Kund but ask their porters ( for a small tip) to collect water from the lake. But Mr. Honey Arora was at it again, he went down the lake, collected water and came back up in no time.
After Gauri Kund was a steep descent of around 3 kms, this descent was actually more tiring than the ascent of Dolma. Infact here was our test of mountaineering skills and test of our shoes, any wrong step would have us rolling down till the base.
As we went down we saw a few monks coming up. These were Buddhist from the BON sect who do their parikrama anticlockwise. Luckily we do not do our parikrama anti-clockwise as climbing up this stretch for most of us would have been next to impossible.
Soon we were on plain grounds and now we just had to walk along the river in the valley to reach Zutulpuk. But this was a never ending walk again. Every time we thought that Zutulpuk would be around the next hill, it wasn’t to be. So we walked and walked and walked endlessly till we finally reached our camp.
Honey and I were the first ones to reach once again and the last yatri came after 5 hrs of our arrival. Today had been a tiring but the most satisfying day for all of us. After all, the Kailash Parikrama, one that everyone dreams off when we start the journey, was almost complete.
Everyone slept peacefully that night!!
DAY17: DERAPUK TO ZUTULPUK (Via Dolma La)
Derapuk : 5056 mtrs
Dolma La: 5622 mtrs
Zutulpuk: 4792 mtrs
Distance : 18 kms
Time Taken: 8 hours
Route from Derapuk to Zutulpuk
Today had to be a 0530 hrs start as the plan was to cross the mighty Dolma before sunrise. Usually after sunrise these high passes tend to get windy, the streams start to over flow due to melting of snow and hence they become difficult to conquer.
Elevation profile of the route
I got up pretty fresh in the morning and any discomfort last evening due to the high altitude had disappeared. I was all set to go. After a hot cup of tea, bournvita and some corn flakes we started our march towards Dolma La in pitch darkness. Our torches were our only source of light and we just followed the Tibetan guide blindly, who was leading us. In fact for quite a distance the walk was not that bad as land is being leveled here too for making it motor able. Surprisingly even the attitude was not creating much of difficulties, maybe the walk to Charan Sparsh and the sleep in the night had helped us immensely in acclimatizing.
As we got closer to Dolama morning light started to set in and we could see the barren vistas around. The last 2 kms ascend to Dolma was very steep, but slowly and steadily we managed to get on the top. At the top there were some monks who had already reached and were offering their prayers. At 18,500 ft (some say Dolma is at 19500 ft, but the point I took the co-ordinates said it was 18,500ft) we had reached the highest point on our trip and from now on it would be more or less a descent. Though we did feel a little tired but the feeling of having achieved was pretty satisfying. Not waiting to spend a lot of time at this altitude we started our descend.
A few meters into our descend we saw the magnificent emerald green lake “The Gauri Kund” Apparently Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head here. To reach Gauri kund one has to go down 1000ft on loose rocks and boulders and again the climb back is very steep, so usually yatris do not venture to Gauri Kund but ask their porters ( for a small tip) to collect water from the lake. But Mr. Honey Arora was at it again, he went down the lake, collected water and came back up in no time.
After Gauri Kund was a steep descent of around 3 kms, this descent was actually more tiring than the ascent of Dolma. Infact here was our test of mountaineering skills and test of our shoes, any wrong step would have us rolling down till the base.
As we went down we saw a few monks coming up. These were Buddhist from the BON sect who do their parikrama anticlockwise. Luckily we do not do our parikrama anti-clockwise as climbing up this stretch for most of us would have been next to impossible.
Soon we were on plain grounds and now we just had to walk along the river in the valley to reach Zutulpuk. But this was a never ending walk again. Every time we thought that Zutulpuk would be around the next hill, it wasn’t to be. So we walked and walked and walked endlessly till we finally reached our camp.
Honey and I were the first ones to reach once again and the last yatri came after 5 hrs of our arrival. Today had been a tiring but the most satisfying day for all of us. After all, the Kailash Parikrama, one that everyone dreams off when we start the journey, was almost complete.
Everyone slept peacefully that night!!
DAY17: DERAPUK TO ZUTULPUK (Via Dolma La)
Derapuk : 5056 mtrs
Dolma La: 5622 mtrs
Zutulpuk: 4792 mtrs
Distance : 18 kms
Time Taken: 8 hours
Route from Derapuk to Zutulpuk
Today had to be a 0530 hrs start as the plan was to cross the mighty Dolma before sunrise. Usually after sunrise these high passes tend to get windy, the streams start to over flow due to melting of snow and hence they become difficult to conquer.
Elevation profile of the route
I got up pretty fresh in the morning and any discomfort last evening due to the high altitude had disappeared. I was all set to go. After a hot cup of tea, bournvita and some corn flakes we started our march towards Dolma in pitch darkness. Our torches were our only source of light and we just followed the Tibetan guide blindly, who was leading us. In fact for quite a distance the walk was not that bad as land is being leveled here too for making it motor able. Surprisingly even the attitude was not creating much of difficulties, maybe the walk to Charan Sparsh and the sleep in the night had helped us immensely in acclimatizing.
As we got closer to Dolama morning light started to set in and we could see the barren vistas around. The last 2 kms ascend to Dolma was very steep, but slowly and steadily we managed to get on the top. At the top there were some monks who had already reached and were offering their prayers. At 18,500 ft (some say Dolma is at 19500 ft, but the point I took the co-ordinates said it was 18,500ft) we had reached the highest point on our trip and from now on it would be more or less a descent. Though we did feel a little tired but the feeling of having achieved was pretty satisfying. Not waiting to spend a lot of time at this altitude we started our descend.
A few meters into our descend we saw the magnificent emerald green lake “The Gauri Kund” Apparently Lord Ganesha acquired his elephant head here. To reach Gauri kund one has to go down 1000ft on loose rocks and boulders and again the climb back is very steep, so usually yatris do not venture to Gauri Kund but ask their porters ( for a small tip) to collect water from the lake. But Mr. Honey Arora was at it again, he went down the lake, collected water and came back up in no time.
After Gauri Kund was a steep descent of around 3 kms, this descent was actually more tiring than the ascent of Dolma. Infact here was our test of mountaineering skills and test of our shoes, any wrong step would have us rolling down till the base.
As we went down we saw a few monks coming up. These were Buddhist from the BON sect who do their parikrama anticlockwise. Luckily we do not do our parikrama anti-clockwise as climbing up this stretch for most of us would have been next to impossible.
Soon we were on plain grounds and now we just had to walk along the river in the valley to reach Zutulpuk. But this was a never ending walk again. Every time we thought that Zutulpuk would be around the next hill, it wasn’t to be. So we walked and walked and walked endlessly till we finally reached our camp.
Honey and I were the first ones to reach once again and the last yatri came after 5 hrs of our arrival. Today had been a tiring but the most satisfying day for all of us. After all, the Kailash Parikrama, one that everyone dreams off when we start the journey, was almost complete.
Everyone slept peacefully that night!!
Day16 pictures
As the morning light started to break in we could see the barren and the rocky nature of the surroundings
The final climb to Dolma La Pass
It was all barren and rocky
With so many prayer flags in sight, Dolma La Pass could not be very far
Prayer flags and Monks at Dolma La Pass
The Holy Gauri Kund
The only stretch of snow we had to cross in our entire journey
The steep descent after Gauri Kund till the camp below
Tibetans artists at work
The walk ahead was simple but long and with lots of river crossings
Himalayan Marmot
locals passing time at Zutulpuk camp
End Of Day 16
No comments:
Post a Comment