Day 7 - "The Final Climb"
The final day of upward journey was the most challenging and the most relieving at the same time. The challenging part was; "We were to start the trek while it was dark, manage a steep climb to Goechala (a steep altitude gain of more than 2000 feet in just about 3 hours). The relieving part was; once the mission is accomplished, it was going to a downhill walk for the remaining journey. All put together, we had to do more than 18 Kms today...
We woke up at 2 AM, visibly nervous about the final climb. We were to ascend to Goechala at 16000 feet. 2000 feet of altitude gain in a steep climb of three hours. We decided to lighten up our backpacks on this one; just water bottles. It had snowed all night, covering any marks of the upward trail. We wore our head torches, decided to breathe in rhythm; speak as less as possible to conserve our energy.
The sky wasn't clear tonight, it was windy and chilling. We were wearing all the layers it was practically possible to wear; but it was still freezing. We trekked through the moraines; and the climb was steep; like very steep. I think, for about an hour, I didn't even look around. I was only focused on my current step and the next. When I did finally gather the courage to look around; I was mesmerized and scared at the same time... Sorry, couldn't click pictures till another hour. I had to save my strength!
About an hour more, it wasn't as dark as it was, when we started. The climb stopped for a while and we started to descend to the stunning view of Samiti Lake!
Bheem told me to not to waste time. The way weather was today, situation at the top would worsen if we delay our climb. We obeyed!
From here, it was going to be a short walk through a plateau followed by another hour of steep climb through moraines.
We were already beginning to feel the rise in altitude. Breaths were heavy and it was taking tremendous effort for us to lift the legs... It was not bright yet, we were freezing and the way was not getting any simpler. We came to a point, where we had to cross a narrow ridge which was on the edge of the mountain. In the mid of dense clouds, visibility was poor and it seemed like an abyss on the other side... The 2 minutes I took to cross that path were the scariest moments of my life.
The good part of crossing this hurdle was, we were quite close to our destination!
Just there :)
I could see the prayer flags ahead. We made it!!!
With sunrise, came the realization that we have forgotten our most important accessory, sunglasses in the camp :/ Bheem, my hero of this trek, lent us the only 2 pairs he had. I, in fact, owe this whole journey to this young friend of ours!
A big portion of my successfully making it to Goechala goes to Bheem and Avinash. They made me believe in myself, when I was about to give up at the very 2nd day of this journey..
At Goechala; it was an emotional moment... These 7 days of mad climb had come to an end.
A view of Mount Kanchenjunga; standing tall in all it's might
We had managed to reach, just in time.. Within 10 minutes of our reaching Goechala, the weather changed from
to this:
So we decided to respect the nature and started our journey downhill
A brighter view of Samiti lake on our way back
On our way downhill, we were to skip Thangsing and Dzongri and do a little detour via 'Khokchurung' this time; our first out of the two stops downhill. We are on our way and look who welcomed us!
The blue sheep trio (Mom and 2 babies)
On the way to Khokchurung
Our prayer flags on one of the bridges
An eventful day comes to an end. We decide to treat ourselves a little, and sleep in the dorm of the trekker's hut at Khokchurung, instead of our tent this time.
While reaching up was a mission, the journey downwards was all about celebrating our little achievement and soaking in the views!
My last post on Goechala is going to be on our remaining journey downhill and the amazing views and people of Goechala. It will also have the YouTube link to our video on Goechala, with all those folk songs that we recorded in Dhava's kitchen tent, right in wilderness of the Himalayas
Hope you all enjoyed reading my series on Goechala, as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Cheers!