Freshening up was out of question, but the cold was not as horrible as I thought, plus it was the first trek post my debut trek in Dalhousie where I was wearing a thermal and trekking. Nitin gave a good idea to wear thermal on top of dry fit t-shirt. For people like me who profusely sweat, it’s a good option. I took Selva’s bag as I couldn’t keep camera inside mine. And it’s not a good idea to have sling bang I thought, rightly so. We wore the helmet and crampons and got ready for the trek.
After struggling to have channa for breakfast and stuffing our bag with chocolates, fruits and energy drinks, we started off for the summit at 2 AM. Selva and I were at the last. The first thing to do on a long day is to not hurry, the second is to take less breaks. We were able to do the first step automatically but for some reason, Selva started panting in a short while. I could sense that he was not comfortable. We tried to carry on for the next one hour in the same fashion but after a point he told that he’d give up. Thankfully he was with Nitin, who told he’d take him back. Priyanka and Vaibhav who were behind us also had taken the decision to return.
Now I had to catch up with the next person, who was Archana. She was walking along quietly just like the previous couple of days. She too was feeling short of breath but I was not sure whether it was just for the day or it was her nature. I tried to talk and walk with her but guess she was getting tired. She wanted to quit, I suggested having ORS and walking. Lama, who was there too tried to motivate her. He asked me to proceed in front. So I now had to touch my next target, Manjul mam. Seriously she was the most impressive trekker for me in the group, she walked at a brisk pace with such finesse. Dinesh too was there I guess. I believe Archana returned back at the stroke of sunrise, from Mini Pangarchulla.
With sunrise comes confidence and Pangarchulla peak too was visible, that added to the confidence. I was less energetic than I thought and started taking chocolates, energy drink etc. which I don’t take usually. It was zombie walk post then but at one specific point with snow around, it felt as if I was in different world, it felt like a scene from the movie Stalker. For me, easily that was the best scenery of the trek.
I met the rest of the group at the base of Pangarchulla, where we were asked to wear micro spikes. It was a grueling ascent for a couple of hours to the peak. Micro spikes worked like a charm. Felt very confident with it. After huffing and puffing I finally reached the peak. I was immensely satisfied. There was no elation but a mental first pump. Got a couple of good photos too, thanks to Lama and Pooja. The views were fantastic and it was three sixty degree. But the satisfaction is completion, not anything else.
It was a nice group, ours. Not over enthusiastic folks who would stay at the top for one hour. At most, everyone were there for few minutes and together we’d have stayed around half an hour at top and we came back. Thanks to the Haldiram’sSoanPapdi at the top by Debu, it felt heavenly.
It was a grueling decent post that. Generally I always buy shoes a size plus but this time I bought correct sized shoe. Not sure whether it was due to that or not but my toe fingers were bearing the brunt. Whenever I’m in any sort of pain during the trek, I remember an advice given to me by my fellow sami during Sabarimalai pilgrimage. I had run through a stone during then and I was trying how to remove it. He told not to look at that and scrutinize till going home. I took that advice to heart. Because trying to solve an unsolvable problem mid trek would only lead to more problems.
We took lot of breaks, I emptied every available food in the bag, along with horrible lunch and another round of SoanPapdi. There was a certain stretch I walked along with Aashita, easily my favorite trekker of the group, who was just like the adjective she added her name to, adorable. Best thing about her was she told she had pain in knees, her shoes were not comfortable, and headache etc. but her expressions was just plain. She had a poker face, but a nice one.
Finally around 2 PM we reached down. Saw Selva and Nitin first. It was good to see Selva in one piece and not depressed about not being able to do the summit. It takes a certain bit of courage to even accept that we couldn’t do something and be normal about it. I thought I’d right away go to the tent and crash but may be because of completion I felt good and was able to mingle with others.