My first ever Himalayan trek: Day 0 of the Bali Pass, arriving in Dehradun
Prologue : 7th June 2024 – Friday
A mundane Friday morning, I groan as I look at what lies on the plate before me. Freshly cooked Upma , with a side of channa masala, I look at it once again and gulp it in the hopes of getting over with it soon.
Except it wasn’t just any mundane Friday morning. The 3 months of training and impatient waiting was finally coming to an end.
What began initially as a curiosity spark and progressively grew into a compulsive fancy, the day had come when I would finally be able to embark on my first ever Himalayan trek- Bali Pass Trek.
It was exciting and the prospect of seeing what the day had coming was invigorating.
As I lifted up my packed backpack and bid farewell to my mother and grandparents, I wondered what it would be like to be completely cut off from all contact with them for the entire duration of the trek.
An hour of driving through Bangalore, my father, Harish and I reached the airport to meet the rest of the crew. We saw Shiva Uncle and his son Siddharth at the airport entrance, and a couple of minutes into the check-in area, we met with Dinesh Uncle and Vibhas.
After a quick minute of some greetings and familiarising we headed to complete the rest of the check-in formalities and waited for our flight to Delhi.
It was when the 3 hour flight with the piercing rays of the sun through the plane windows ended, that the feeling of this journey finally starting, began to hit hard.
We were greeted to quite an unpleasant sensation that can be best described as a hot blow dryer placed a few cms away from your skin. Such was the weather of Delhi at the blazing time of Summers in June.
We had our dinner, some packed their own, others bought theirs from an airport shop.
A taxi ride to the Nizammudin Railway station was the next in line. Followed by a night train to Dehradun.
A rather rash taxi driver, we managed to make it to the station intact yet startled by the whirls and turns this man took in the span of 30 mins around the roads of Delhi.
We waited at the station and got into the train at around 11: 45 pm. Everyone was a bit tired by this time and each took a berth and headed to sleep.
I didn’t get so lucky with sleep that night. Time passed but my sleep refused to give in. I lay awake staring at the train ceiling, listening to the surrounding sounds of the train and people entering and leaving, shivering in the cold, wondering why the AC above the upper berth seemed to desperately overcompensate for the heat outside.
All in all, I woke up at 5 am after 3 hours of sleep with slight irritations about the comfort (or lack thereof) of the train berths, as well as the extreme cold.
Little did I know that in the upcoming 8 days, that involved sleeping on the hard ground in a small tent at sub zero temperatures, that all these small, perceived annoyances would fizzle away into insignificance.
This trek was a lot of new things for me but one thing was for sure.
It was going to make for one hell of a story.
Bali Pass : Day 1, arriving in Sankri from Dehradun
Bali Pass : Day 2, journey to Seema from Sankri
Bali Pass : Day 3, journey to Waterfall Camp
Bali Pass : Day 4, journey to Ruinsara Lake
Bali Pass : Day 5, journey to the Basecamp
Bali Pass : Day 6, a chilling ascent, summit triumph, and a snowy descent
Last Day of Bali Pass Trek: An Epic Himalayan Adventure in 2024
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