Pangarchulla Trek

Day 1: Drive from Dehradun to Joshimath

Drive: 295 km,10 hrs

Altitude: 2,100 ft (640 m) – 6,200 ft (1,890 m)

Accommodation: Guest House / Hotel

Meals: Dinner

Joshimath, a mountain city on the route to destinations like the Valley of Flowers, Hemkund Sahib, and Badrinath, is where the journey starts. The closest city with an airport is Dehradun, which is 295 kilometers away. The day begins early if you have scheduled a drive from Dehradun to Joshimath. By seven in the morning, everyone has gathered at the meeting spot, so you can begin the arduous trip up to Joshimath, a mountain city in the Chamoli region of Uttarakhand. Although today’s only other commitment is the 10-hour trip, it is nevertheless preferable to go as soon as possible for two reasons:
Alaknanda has been on our side the entire way. You would have passed past three of the five Panch Prayags, also known as the five sacred river confluences in the Garhwal Himalayas, before arriving at Joshimath by early evening. Because of the rivers’ distinctly identifiable personalities and colours, each of these sights is nothing short of breathtaking.
Devprayag: This is where Bhagirathi and the revered Alaknanda River converge.
Rudraprayag: This is the location where the powerful Alaknanda joins forces with Mandakini.
Here in Karnprayag, the Alaknanda and Pindar rivers merge.

Tonight will be spent in the warmth of a bed at a guest home in Joshimath, a holy mountain city that is located at a height of around 1,890 meters. It would be beneficial for you to relax your body so that it can work properly for the remainder of what is ahead because you have ascended to a significant altitude in only one day. The city has cell phone reception.

One, so you may arrive as soon as you can and allow your body enough time to recover before the following day. Additionally, it is generally a good idea to budget for delays before you start because mountain roads are erratic. Additionally, it is preferable to arrive before dusk. The journey to Joshimath passes through the holy city of Rishikesh and never leaves Ganga’s side. Once you have crossed the city, the route from Dehradun to Rishikesh is flanked by dense, young woods with sunshine peeping through the cracks, turning the green into a vivid shade of dusty gold, and little flecks of life in the air dancing in the warm light. The air is brisk, the road is supple, and the trip is enjoyable. As you go through the jungle, the commotion of the monkeys leaping through the forest, grooming one another on the side tracks, and speeding past the smooth roadways serves as a humorous reminder of whose land you are actually in.
After breakfast, you begin to climb a mountain face that is representative of Uttarakhand’s terrain on one side, with layer upon layer of mountains spreading out in every direction, and a valley on the other. If you closed your eyes, you think you were flying since the roads are so smooth.

Day 2: Drive from Joshimath to Dhak and Trek to Guling

Drive: 10 km, 30 mins

Trek: 6 km, 5 hrs

Altitude: 6,200 ft (1,890 m) – 6,857 ft (2,090 m) – 9,373 ft (2,857 m)

Accommodation: Camping (Alpine tents)

Meals: Breakfast + Lunch + Evening Snacks + Dinner

The day is not long today. So there’s no need to wake up early. After a hearty breakfast, you go. Please be aware that today’s breakfast is not covered by the cost, therefore participants will need to make other arrangements for food. Joshimath serves as a hub for several locations in the area, including the Valley of Flowers, Hemkund Sahib, and even the Badrinath Temple. That is to say, it receives a lot of visitors and, as a result, has plenty of amenities.
After breakfast, you put our packed rucksacks into a vehicle and drove us to Dhaka, where our trip would begin.

You may leave your extra luggage in the guest house, so keep your packs light and only bring what you need for the walk. Joshimath is around 10 kilometres from Dhaka, and the trip there shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes. The drive is brief yet beautiful. From the beginning, titans surround you. After 20 minutes of driving, you can see Nanda Devi, the second-highest mountain in India after Kanchenjunga, unhindered to your left and Pangarchulla’s crown perched above a dense pine forest to your right.

Reaching Dhak takes roughly 30 minutes. You’ll begin your journey here. The first 30 minutes of the hike are spent ascending on a motorable road, following which you get off the road and go up the mountain on a stone-paved route. The ascent is moderate and steady. Despite being primarily stone-paved, there are still areas of the route that are narrow and unstable, so you must go with utmost caution. Today’s walk is rather straightforward, similar to a stroll in the garden, but in the shade of the shrubs and amid the bleating of the calves. You will acquire close to 800M overall today. Therefore, the stroll across the park now includes a modest elevation, of course!

What you see as strewn colours on the mountainsides are the brightly painted house walls of the numerous mountain towns that perilously perch on these treacherous slopes. You can get a glimpse of the many peculiarities of mountain living on the trail as it travels through the villages of Kharchi and Upper Tugashi. These peculiarities range from the structure of the houses built to support their lifestyle to the numerous sources of income and their close ties to and dependence on nature. A fantastic illustration of the mountain people’s strong relationship with the environment and their uncanny capacity to cohabit with other natural forms in a spirit of support rather than exploitation are the hydro-powered mills that may be seen in the settlements.

Now, other peaks are being added to the mix. While Pangarchulla plays hide and seek at each curve of the route, Dhonagiri maintains a prominent position the entire time. You also start to notice additional well-known peaks; remember to keep asking your local trek guides for their names. The trek’s entire route passes through Nanda Devi National Park. Since it is a protected region, remember to show respect for both the surroundings and the locals.

You reach the next settlement after a section of severe ascent that lasts for two and a half hours. On the route, there are plenty of water sources. The communities also offer wide-ranging vistas of step farming, so you can get a sense of the area’s resilient environment. To get to the next settlement, which is dangerously perched on the precarious ledges of the mountain face, you must traverse these terraced plains. You begin to put some distance between yourself and any indication after crossing Upper Tugashi. You enter the forest, which is home to pine and walnut trees as well as golden and black oaks.

Inquire about the tree whose bark is used to produce butter tea; butter tea is a local delicacy throughout the winter and is another example of utilizing nature to one’s advantage. The last section of the path for today is a gentle ascent. Guling, you are now quite close to the campground. You’ll be there just in time for a hot meal. The greatest views of the Garhwal range may be seen from the vast open field known as Guling Top. It’s an amazing experience to see the sun chase after these peaks twice a day.

The entire environment serves to calm you down. The trees’ hues of red, green, and yellow contrast with the five dozen different shades of brown, the white of the summits, and the sun, which teases the skies by changing their colour every second as evening approaches.
After a hearty meal, take a moment to relax before feasting your eyes on the wonders that are being revealed to you as the day draws to a close. You take a little acclimatization stroll in the evening and return to camp before it gets dark because you have climbed quite a bit of altitude today.

Day 3: Trek from Guling to Khulara

Trek: 5 km, 3 hrs

Altitude: 9,373 ft (2,857 m) – 11,122 ft (3,390 m)

Accommodation: Camping (Alpine tents)

Meals: Breakfast + Lunch + Evening Snacks + Dinner

A brief day of hiking is planned today among the oak and pine trees that surrounded our campground yesterday. After breakfast, you join the tranquillity of the woodland to end the day as soon as possible. This is crucial since the summit pushes off that evening, and we need to rest our bodies before descending into the darkness and bitter cold.
By nine in the morning, you depart the encampment. After spending the previous night in wide spaces, it takes five minutes to enter the dense forest, where you find yourself suddenly in enclosed spaces. However, the lofty forest canopy does present you with a few spots of sunlight.

The numerous flowing streams create motion in the otherwise silent forest, with the drooping pine branches bending in as if for a kiss and the stern oak being the total opposite. In this forest, you will also find Himalayan Birch or Bhojpatra trees, as well as trees used to manufacture butter tea. The enormous fallen trees on the track that you must climb over are the only obstacles in your path. Today’s terrain features a little rise that is not too taxing. From Khulara on, the path may be covered with snow in March and April, and you may even have to set up camp there.

Three hours should be plenty for you to get to Khulara’s campground. It is a vastly open area where the perspective of the peaks widens to include a great number of additional mountains. The sunsets here are incredibly breathtaking; they are like a dialogue between the sun and the sky, with the sun’s smallest movements altering the colour of the mountains and the heavens.
You spend some time in the evening distributing the equipment you’ll need for the summit push and giving everyone a quick lesson on how to utilise it to your advantage.

Day 4: Trek from Khulara to Pangarchulla and back to Khulara

Trek: 14 km, 12-14 hrs

Altitude: 11,122 ft (3,390 m) – 15,060 ft (4,590 m) – 11,122 ft (3,390 m)

Accommodation: Camping (Alpine tents)

Meals: Breakfast + Lunch + Evening Snacks + Dinner

Before dawn even breaks, the day begins. You get ready and depart our camping at three in the morning. Remember to pack enough water because the day will be quite lengthy and there are no water sources along the way. It will be the longest and hardest day of the journey because it is the summit day. You fill our bottles with water and eat something before you retire for the evening. The hike begins by passing through Khulara’s wide area before climbing gradually through rocky hills. The nights frequently become bitterly chilly. Therefore, be sure to layer up properly.

You will reach the meadows after an hour of inclining over the unsteady terrain. If the sky is clear, glance up to see the beauty of the night. If the ascent up to this point hadn’t already taken your breath away, the silence of the meadows flanked by trees and the stillness of the sky will do it. You reach the top of the ridge line after another hour of ascending gradually. On top, there is a modest stone shrine from which the Pangarchulla and Kuari Pass routes diverge. You turn left from the temple and begin the lengthy, arduous climb up the mountain’s crest to reach our peak. Before you reach the next portion of the route, you must traverse three ridgelines. The ridgeline hike is particularly difficult since it is entirely exposed, making it exceedingly windy and leaving no room for defence against the brisk gusts. This area has a few brief descents, which is a welcome relief from the previous severe ascents. The thin, greyish contours of the summits, obscured by the nighttime fog, give the impression that they are ghost mountains.

By around 6 AM, the sun begins to emerge after we are below the ridge. You won’t want to miss the sky’s shifting hues and the spectacular peaks’ responses to the sun’s motions. You reach the most challenging portion of the summit and push three and a half hours into the climb. Keep in mind that you have a total ascent of around 1,200 metres today and that you hope to reach the peak no later than 11 a.m. You arrive at the hardest part of the climb—the boulder section—by 7:30 AM. Once you figure out how to use these incredibly stable rocks to advance, it becomes much simpler. From the beginning of this segment to the base of the summit, it will take close to an hour and a half. Despite being somewhat level, this demands extra caution since the stones have wide spaces between them that might be severely damaged by even the smallest slip.

The topography varies greatly between the two seasons. This stretch of the climb acquires a heavy layer of snow between March and April, transforming it into a flat, enormous snowfield that is much simpler to negotiate and probably faster to cross. The rocks beneath the snow are revealed in October and December when it melts. The ascent to the top is steeply uphill, starting from the peak’s base. This is also covered with rocks, which makes the ascent difficult in the winter. However, it could move a little more quickly in the spring and summer when snow is more accessible for walking. This final stretch-up will probably take between two and three hours, depending on the climbers’ speed. It is demanding and needs a strong internal drive. By 11 a.m., you should be at the peak. You can see the whole Garhwal Range from where you are standing thanks to the little sections that were previously covered being entirely open. If at all, after this strenuous journey, you feel depleted of vitality, the power of the mountains around you can replenish you.

Prepare to begin your descent after offering a brief prayer at the temple at the peak. You may wish to traverse the most dangerous areas before the sun makes the snow because this will take a very long time as well. It takes a lot of work to descend these sometimes blindingly high mountains, so the trek down may feel interminable. At the three-hour point, you should have finished the boulder portion. Khulara will be reached in three more hours.

Day 5: Trek from Khulara to Dhak and Drive to to Joshimath

Trek: 12 km, 3-4 hrs

Drive: 10 km, 30 mins

Altitude: 11,122 ft (3,390 m) – 6,857 ft (2,090 m) – 6,200 ft (1,890 m)

Accommodation: Camping (Alpine tents)

Meals: Breakfast + Lunch + Evening Snacks + Dinner

This day is fairly simple. You only need to follow in our footsteps to return to Joshimath. You finish breakfast by 8 AM and try to depart by 9 AM after taking a nap to get over your morning fatigue. You reach our first campground after an hour and a half of our ascent through the woods. Once you get to Dhak, where you join our car and continue to Joshimath, it will take you a further hour and a half. There is a lot to discover both within and outside of this sacred town. You spend the evenings at the inn.

Day 6: Drive from Joshimath to Dehradun

Drive: 295 km,10 hrs

Altitude: 6,200 ft (1,890 m) – 2,100 ft (640 m)

Meals: Breakfast

The journey is over. Get ready to leave the inn and board your cars to return to Dehradun. Dehradun should be in your sights by late that evening. Please schedule transportation that departs between 11 p.m. and 12 a.m. if you intend to travel that same night so that you may accommodate for any unforeseen traffic delays.