Kailash Manasarovar Yatra -2012 - 39

Trekking In Lam Chu Valley

After the descent from Dolma La  long trek to Zuthulphuk  

Amit Agrawal & Himansu

Though the mountain summits  and the surrounding were  covered with snow

 there was no snow on the trekking path 

As it was a long trek in extremely hostile weather we trekked slowly 

Beautiful darshan  of Nandhi

Himansu and Agarwal in front of Nandhi

Full view of Nandhi 

Short Rest in between

 Shabje Drakthok camp  

Frozen waterfall 

The trek continues.......................

Different  faces of mountain peaks

The pathetic condition of  Zutulphuk Tent

After the wonderful darshan of snow clad North face of the Lord and the darshan of Mother Parvati at Dolma La and the closeup darshan of Her bathing ghat Gauri Kund we descended  to Lam  Chu Valley . Though the descent was difficult due to snow by the grace of the Lord  all of us reached the valley safely. Then we commenced to long trek of about 16 Kms  to reach Zutulphuk camp our resting place for the day .

 In the beginning there was snow on the path  for about 1 Km  then there,  was snow on the path, but  the  surroundings and the mountain peaks were lined with fresh snow the snowfall of the previous day.  This path has also become a two lane one  and we also saw an ambulance traversing in the  road. Later we came to know that a German Lady had a nasty fall and fractured her bone so to transport her to medical center the ambulance was used.  In future  vehicles may ply up to the descent point form Dolma Pass.

After a steep descent and equally steep descent it was very difficult to walk in the rarefied atmosphere of high altitude, so we trekked slowly and steadily having little rest in between and drinking hot water so that we can   recoup some energy.   On the way we had the wonderful darshan  of side view of Nandhi Parvat, which we missed during the last visit. We clicked  some photos and proceeded further.               

In between we saw some group of tents for  a second we thought that we have reached Zutulphuk but on the other side we could not see any Monastery so our  joy was short lived. It was only Shabje Drakthok  and there was a restaurant there selling Chinese food. We rested there for sometime refilled our flasks with hot water. My porter boy wanted cold drink, he washed raw meat which he was carrying in his small shoulder bag with that cold drink, then we proceeded further. The trek extended endlessly, we were tired, the knees jerked and breathing was also difficult but despite  all these difficulties,  by the grace of the Lord   we  ambled along  and at last reached  Zutulphuk Camp. All of us  who started from Deraphuk  that day reached Zutulphuk safely.

Our Sherpas were waiting for us there and everyone was accommodated in tents. Some of us felt bad about the treatment given to us in terms of accommodation, though we were promised mud houses, we were accommodated in torn worthless tents. Like other tour  operators they didn't brought their own tent's also. In some form or other these tour operator's take us for a ride.  Why I am writing this here is to tell there will be lot of inconveniences and disappointments  we have to go prepared for all that to achieve our goal.  

As it was a long day trekking the whole body was aching, we just had a cup of hot soup and slept like logs. In the morning others told that there was an opening in the tent and that cold wind was blowing inside the tent. Also we learnt that we were accommodated in the tent meant for yaks.  Thus we completed the most difficult day of the yatra successfully.