Introduction
After the phenomenal success of the previous trek to Annapurna, it was
felt that the time had arrvied for another Himalayan trek. Thus began
a long search for a trek which would be both interesting and at the
same time not technical. After a lot of diligent searching, (from
various sources like Trekking in the Indian Himalayas, the WWW and
sundry other sources, which included people in TIFR), many
discussions, and not a few arguments, we settled on the Milam
glacier & Nanda devi east base camp trek. This involved the ten
day hike to Milam Glacier and back, in addition there was a more
arduous side trip planned to the base camp of Nanda Devi East. The
whole trek was a sort of ring around the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, from
the outside of course. Yogish, as a matter of inevitability , was the
person who made the loudest noise, and the most detailed survey of the
terrain, and the various possibilities that opened up. We expected to
get magnificent views of the whole range from Nanda Devi South all the
way up to Trisuli. We couldn't however gather much information about
the availability of food and lodging on the trek. Our impression was
that the route was practically unihabited for most of the way. So it
was decided that we will carry our own food for 10 days and tents, of
course. We hired 18 gas cylinders, 200gm each (Each cylinder lasted
for two days of cooking which means three meals per day of rice ,
Maggi and porridge. This turned out to be way too much), two gas
stoves and a tent (we had one dome tent) from KMF, Mumbai. Tomas and
Patta were unable to join us and a new member, Ashok joined us from
Delhi. Finally, ESSAY made its move toward Himalaya. (
Underneath we gather many of the nitty-gritty details about the trek
in the hope that it may be useful to others ;-)
Pre Trek
Jun 8:
Board Golden Temple mail (2903) to Delhi at Mumbai Central Station
(21:30 hrs)
Jun 9:
Arrived at Delhi around 19:00 hrs. Next board Ranikhet exp. (5013) at
Old Delhi(22:45 hrs) to Haldwani
Jun 10:
We arrived at Haldwani station in the morning around 6AM. From the
station we took a cycle rickshaw to the bus stand (nearby) and from
there we boarded a bus to Almora. It took about 4hrs to reach Almora
and the bus fare was Rs. 60/- per head. In Almora we could not
negotiate a jeep to Munsyari at a reasonable rate (their rate was
about Rs. 2000/-). So we walked to a place known as Dharnola. Dharnola
is a small place (market type) in Almora. At Dharnola there is a jeep
stand and buses coming from Haldwani and going to Berinag
via. Sheraghat go through Dharnola whereas buses (jeeps) coming from
Haldwani and going towards Bageshwari take the upper route (this is
the other jeep stand where we tried to bargain) and got a bus to
Berinag. It is about 5 hrs drive by bus and fare is Rs 60/- per
head. We arrived Berinag in the evening and decided to halt for the
night. We stayed the night in a hotel called Panchuli View
(Rs. 200/- per room).
Jun 11:
In the morning we took a Jeep from Berinag to Thal. It is about an
hour's drive and the fare is Rs. 30/- per head. From Thal we booked 7
seats in a jeep for 5 of us for Rs. 500/- (Rs. 70/- per head) to
Munsyari and arrived at Munsyari around 1AM (about 3hrs from Thal). In
Munsyari we inquired about the permit for the Milam glacier trek in
the SDM office and we were told that there was no need of a permit for
Indian citizens. Foreigners will have to carry their passport with
them which is checked in Bodgudiyar and Milam check post. It is
worth mentioning the whole trip from Haldwani to Munsyari in terms of
altitude gain and loss.
It seems we go from Haldwani (200-300mtrs) to Nainital (1800-1900mtrs)
- (2100 mtrs) - (900mtrs) - Almora (1600-1700mtrs) - (2100mtrs) -
Sheraghat (700mtrs) - Bherinag (2100 mtrs) - Thal(800-900 mtrs) -
Bhabha Muni Ashram (2700 mtrs) - Munsyari( 2200-2300 mtrs)
Immediately after this our trek began in earnest, but that requires
another section. So...
Trek
Day 1 (Jun 11): Munsyari - Lilam (~4hrs)
We started the trek around 2PM after lunch in Munsiyari . A pleasant
descent from the SDM office was followed by a bit of not so nice
ascent. Load was heavy. We reached Lilam village in the evening.
There were two hotels (one at the entry to the village and other at
the exit -the hotel at the entrance has a small grocery shop where one
can buy warm clothes also). It was borne in on us, that perhaps we
shouldn't have carried so much food. We pitched our tents in an open
place near flowing water and prepared chow. Had a nice bath. Food was
great. It rained in the night. We had to get up in the night to put
the rain flap. Water dripped inside Eki's tent (A type). Major
condensation inside our tent (dome).
Day 2 (Jun 12): Lilam - Bodgudiyar (~6hrs)
Around 9 a.m , rather late, we started walking (the reason was the
rain last night -all our wet things had to dry). Following a rather
swinging route (up and down and up and ... ) we reached
Bodgudiyar.(here i think its worth mentioning about the new
route). Somewhere, we took a "wrong" trail and had to climb up a hill
(~45mins walk) which rejoins the other trail in Rirgari ( near the
hotel there ). The original route to Bodgudiar just followed the
Goriganga river, this was washed away in moonsoon of 1996. A new route
was built which climbed the Lilam ridge. This is a long and tiring
climb but would have given good views of the Panchchuli range. But,
for atleast two years a new route which goes somewhere in the middle
of the two routes has been made. So, we had more or less no choice but
to take this. It appears that this route is not much less of a climb
compared to the upper route as you go up and down a lot. On this route
you do get to see some nameless snow capped peaks mainly leading
towards the Ralam village and the river which joins the Goriganga on
the way. Just before reaching Rirgari there is a bifurcation with
one route going up and another going down. We took the wrong route
which went up. The down route goes very close to the river and infact
at some stage it almost becomes a bridge which is parallel and
clinging to the rock face. We pitched our tents outside the PWD
guest house in Bogudiyar. There is also a hotel in front of the guest
house. We cooked for ourselves. This place was full of leeches and
they seemed to specially like Surjeet. It was a tiring day,
carrying 23kgs was a bit exhausting. In Bodgudiyar we decided that we
were carrying too much weight and after a lot of pleading with many
porters (mainly coming back from a military trip which we will
describe later) we finally convinced the son of the hotel owner to be
porter for the next day. and he would take the load only till Rilkot.
Day 3 (Jun 13): Bodgudiyar - Rilkot (~5 & 1/2 hrs)
In the morning it begun to rain. We had to wait till the rain stopped.
We started around 10 AM. We dumped some of our load in Bodgudiyar with
the owner of the hotel. Just after Bodgudiyar we cross a stream coming
from the Namic glacier from where there is an interesting trek to
Song which is at the base of the Pindari glacier trek, which
supposedly goes only up to an altitute of 4700mtrs. But the difficult
parts of the glacier is on the other side where it drains into the
river Ramganga (This is the beautiful river is seen on the way
from Thal to Munsiyari). Our route steadly climbs along the river
which is very noisy at this stage. After about one hour we reach the
upper Bodgudiyar meadow crossing the Goriganga to reach the true left
(*) side of the river. This is
a beautiful place for camping, which is guarded by huge cliffs on both
side. One one side there is a 1000 mtr rock wall which looks very
impressive. At other end of this meadow there is a bridge which you
have to cross to get back to the true right side of the river. Some
people were cutting the rock face to make new route which would have
avoided the double crossing of the river. From now on the route
starts to go up and down and flat at times. After about an hour walk
we get to a place where one has to walk on the thick ice for about a
minute. For some time one gets to eat some wild strawberries near the
trail.There are about three of four such ice patches and we have to
cross only two of them. There is one snow bridge which covers all the
Goriganga river. At this stage there is another bifurcation, obviously
one going up and one going down. The route which goes up, ascends a
cold 250m before descending down. The route going down goes down to
the river and you have to walk on the river for about 50m with water
up to the waist height. So our choice was obviously the route going
up. Apparently there is a third route in the middle which involves a
bit of rock climbing (we did not dare this with our load). After that
ugly climb and descent you immediately cross another small snow
bridge. Somewhere around here there is supposed to be a bifurcation
for heading for the Lhapsa pass crossing which you would reach the
east Shalang glacier which will be described later.The route then
goes along the river (although the river is flat the route still keeps
going up and down) to reach Rilkot. This place is supposed to be the
first rain shadow area on the trail, though it rained maximum
here. The Rilkot is covered by nameless snow capped peaks on all the
sides. We camped near the river in Rilkot. There is a hotel where we
had tea. We cooked our dinner. It rained heavily in the night. Water
started to pour inside Eki's tent. Eki &; Ashok moved to our tent and
all five of us had to huddle (no place to sleep for 5 people). Water
soaked into our tent too, from the side walls of the tent; all the
sleeping bags became wet. Around 4a.m the rain stopped and Eki & Ashok
moved to their tent. We slept rest of the night in the wet sleeping
bags, not very comfortably, except for Yogi who chainsawed through it
all.
Day 4 (Jun 14): Rilkot - Martoli - Burfu (~2 & 1/2 hrs)
In the morning, we had pleasant weather. We had changed our trekking
plan and decided to go to Milam glacier first (Originally we were
planning to go to the base camp first). We dried the gear in the sun
and started walking towards Martoli village. There is an initial steep
climb followed by more or less flat walk of about 7KM. At some
distance from the beginning of the flat walk there is a bifurcation
-one route goes up and other route (the main trail) going down. The
route going up heads to Martoli village and the main trail is the
route to Burfu. At the end of the steep climb there is a empty village
of upper Rialkot which is essentially a bunch of broken down stone
houses. This village is on the edge of the upper plateau of
Martoli. At this stage one gets a view of the village called Sumdu
which is on the other side of Goriganga. From here we can clearly see
the path from Sumdu village going up towards the Bridganga pass (4700
mtrs). Apparently it takes one full day, if you are acclimatised,
to reach from Sumdu village to Ralam village via this pass. One
also observes that to reach the village Sumdu (although it was just
across the river) from where we were, it would take a full day as we
would have to walk all the way to Burfu and all the way back since
there is no bridge to cross the river before that. We supped in
Martoli in the Hotel Nandadevi run by Shri Mahender Singh
Martolia. This was the nicest village we had come across so far. This
village used to be the major center of the Indo-Tibetan trade route
before 1962. There used to be 500 families in this village, but now
you can hardly find five inhabited houses. We decided to continue to
Burfu (there is a direct route from Martoli to Burfu) which is an hour
from Martoli. We dumped all our food stuff and tents since we learnt
that one could get boarding and lodging in all the villages ahead. At
Martoli one is supposed to get the first views of Nanda Devi ranges
and the peaks behind the Milam glacier. Unfortunately it was cloudy
there and all we could see were the bottoms of various peaks. We got a
good view of the Martoli peak (4550 mtrs) which is a small and
beautiful hill towering above the village. Among the houses in the
Martoli villages, most of them do not have the top as many villagers
who left the village permanently have sold the wood to ITBP people who
have used it for burning. It is a sad affair because most of the
places where the full house exists the doors and windows carvings were
very beautiful. From one end of the village the trail descend
sharply towards the meeting of the Goriganga and the Lwan Gad river
which flows from the Nanda devi east and Nanda Khat. It is about 250m
on a easy scree slope which zig-zag till it reaches Lwagad
river. Looking up, we see that the terrain below the Martoli village
is heavily eroded by the wind and hence some strange shapes appear
instead of plain rock faces. One crosses this river (on a bridge
ofcourse) and walks for about half an hour to reach Burphu hotel near
the Burphu bridge, which is a basically a tent ). There is a
bifurcation now on both sides of the Burphu bridge. On our side
there is a trail going to the villages Mapha and Ghangar (for the
Nandadevi 's east Base camp trek or to Pacchu Glacier). After
crossing the bridge there is a trail to Milam village and one climbing
towards the Burphu village. We carried a letter from Mr Martolia to
the owner of Anand Lodge in Burfu. In the village we found that there
was a cricket match being played between the locals and the Military
people and the person called Anand whom we were looking for was the
wicket keeper for the locals. He was very willing to stop the game and
take care of us. His lodge was fully occupied by Army personnel, but
after receiving the letter he specially accomodated us in his
brother's place. We had food in his hotel. The army captain was very
happy to see us there, and after a few drinks we became very friendly
(much to Yogi's displeasure). We had a great night with lots of sleep.
There is a small river called Burphu river which flows very close to
the village and a glacier by the same name just below the snow clad
mountain by the same name. We got views of this peak (not the top
though) only on the next day.
Day 5 (Jun 15): Burfu - Milam (~2 & 1/2 hrs)
In the morning we started early as we were planing to see the Milam
glacier on the same day. After half an hour of walking we got the
first views of the peak Trishuli (7065 mtrs). Then we came to the
village called Befni which is again is an almost empty village. After
a few minutes one gets a fantastic view of Nandadevi and Nandadevi
east towards the west just above the villages Pacchu and Ghangar on
the other side of the Goriganga river. On the east there is a long
snow ridge which is parallel to our trail. Just before reaching the
Milam ITBP post one crosses a bridge across river Goenka Gad which
flows from peaks near the Unta dhura pass (5300 mtrs) (it is not quite
a pass). This high pass is one day from Dung (4200 mtrs) which is the
last ITBP post (and a days walk from Milam), so here is where they
check all the smuggling etc. From Unta dhura there are two trails,
one heading for Jainta dhura (5300 mtrs)and Kangri- Bingri (5600mtrs)
pass at the Indo-Tibetian border, and another one to Topidunga (4500
mtrs), Khinger pass (5200 mtrs), Lapthal and Malari near
Joshimath. Apparently this is supposed to be a fantastic trek and we
will surely do it some time. Also this part is completely rain
shadow area and it does not rain at all at Topidunga.
Unfortunately when we reached the Milam village the clouds had
already arrived and we thought it would be useless to head for the
glacier today and we decided that glacier visit will be on the next
day. Milam village turned out to be a little depressing because
the ITBP people have nothing much to do and they just drink all day
and may play some game in the evening (but the food was great). They
were very helpful and one of them made arrangement for our food and
accommodation in one of the houses in the village (the local bar). We
played volleyball with them . For the first time we had food cooked by
women in the trek.
Day 6 (Jun 16): Milam - Milam glacier - Milam (~3hrs) - Martoli
(~4hrs) - Patta (~4hrs)
In the morning at 5AM we started for Milam glacier. It was a
beautiful morning walk. It takes about 45 minutes to reach the start
of the glacier where there is a board saying we are at altitude of
3500 mtrs. After this the trail almost disappears with only stone
markers kept at small distances. Here the route goes through the
glacial moraines which basically means it is full of rocks and you
might have to cross a small streams occationally. Looking behind we
get some good views of peaks Nanda Pal and Nanda Gond. In front of
us, there are supposed to be the seven thousand meter peaks Hardeol
and Trishuli of which I barely saw the bottom. We reached the snout
of the glacier at around 6:30, we took some pictures with TIFR written
on the Ice. Apparently there is a trail going up on the side of the
glacier (which we never found) where you could up to an altitude of
around 4500 mtrs and get some great views. We had breakfast after
return and started moving toward Martoli village. We reached Martloli
at around 12:30 after a painful ascent. We lunched in the Nandadevi
hotel again. There we met Mr. Deb Singh, a shepherd, who stayed
with his sheep in a place (Patta, named after the guy who didn't come
on this trek) between Martoli and Nandadevi east base camp. He agreed
to guide us to the base camp and also to carry some of our load. We
packed food for three days and the tents and started towards Nandadevi
east.With Deb Singh as porter cum guide we started off our journey to
the Nanda Devi East base camp (Bhitalgwar) at 2:00 PM. The initial
parts of the route gradually asscends around 200-300 mtrs traversing
the Martoli peak. We got to see the artificial forest which is
maintained by the people from this village. The trail (on the true
right side of Gori ganga) was very different from the route we had
been on so far. Some places the trail disappeared in the thick grass
(this route is less frequented by trekkers) and many places the trail
is destroyed by landslides. After traversing two ugly land slides we
reach a high point which is directly in front of the village Lwan
except that one has to go down about 200 mtrs and cross the river
Shalang and climb the same height to reach it. the descent is gradual
on grassy slopes but there was a lot of scree on the ascent. From the
bridge we got some glimpses of the Shalang glacier. It didn't take
long to discover the hidden man behind Dev Singh; he knew the route by
heart. We soon realized that without him, this part of the trek would
have been impossible. He showed us how to cross the landslides where
there is no route ("Don't think too much while crossing and move
fast. You start sliding down slowly if you stop"). This was a hard
route, but Dev Singh's continuous talking made it easy. At several
places we had to walk over snow bridges. There is trail from above
which takes one day to hike to a place called Bittalgwar (a different
one from the one where we were going to). From this place one has lots
of options. One is to cross the Kafni pass and head towards Song at
the base of the Pindari glacier trek, another connect to the Namic
glacier and come out at Bodgudiyar or to come out at Son again, and
the third option would be to cross the Lapsa pass and get back to the
trail between Bogudiyar and Rilkot. We were ill prepared for any
of the three treks, though at one stage we were tempted to the third
option. The Lwan village is empty again though we were by now very
used to seeing the empty villages. Also this marks the half way point
for our journey to Patta. Now the route continues on the true right
side of the river, here we observe that there is another faint trail
on the other side of the river, and this one seems even more
exposed. This is a route from Mapha and it continues all the way.
Near Lwan village this trail supposed to join an another
interesting trail from the Pacchu glacier which crosses a not so high
pass. This trek apparently not so difficult and these shepherds do it
regularly. So I think this is one of the best options for some one
who wants to visit the best parts of this region. Near the village
we were shown this place called Patta where our shepherd had his tent
pitched up. It was only marked by some dark forest far away on the
other side of the river. The rest of the route is one landslide after
another and occasional crossing of small streams often on ice. Very
near Patta, there are two ice patches on which we have to walk to
reach Patta. These ice patches completely cover the river and this is
a scary experience as we do not know the thickness of the ice. But
here according to Deb Singh the ice is very strong. We reached the
Shepherds tent at 6:00 P.M and we were welcomed by his assistant and
three dogs. He has about 250 sheep there and the dogs guard them
against wild animals (basically Snow leopords which are very common
here) and strangers. The shepherd had around 15 newborn kids which
were also sharing the tent with us. It is not very unpleasent because
he had made a kind of cave inside the tent and would shove these
animals in. The idea is to protect them from cold. We enjoyed tea
made using goat's milk sitting around a fire. We pitched our dome tent
but Eki, Yogi & Ashok stayed in the shepherd's tent. We had a nice
dinner made with more goat milk. From Patta we were surrounded by
snow capped peaks in all directions and most of these were nameless
except for this Bangatia which was supposed to be on the left of
us. This peak is somehow not mentioned in the maps we have seen.
Day 7 (Jun 17): Patta - Nanda Devi East base camp (Bhitalgwar)
(~5hrs)
We got up early to see that the clouds were a little less and we saw a
huge peak with it ridge which we assumed to be Nandadevi East but
ofter some time we got some Glimpses of the actual Nandadevi East and
that would have looked even more impressive except that it was mostly
behind the clouds. We started for the base camp with Dev Singh. The
route continues on the true right side of Lwa gad (we were on the left
side of the river). Just after Patta the trail now passes through
a lot of rocks before getting to be the terrain like the one we had
yesterday with land slides and ice patches. We also see some beautiful
meadows on the way and these might be the ones called Satrol
Kharak. After about three hours we have to cross the river on the ice
to reach Naspanpati (at an altitude of 4200 mtrs). This a beautiful
meadow where lot of flowers bloom and actually it is big enough for
helicopters to land (as remarked by Deb Singh). There is a cave here
carved out of a big boulder, the cave is small and can accomodate not
more than 4 people. Opposite these green grassy slopes and on the
other side of the Lwan gad is Shaima Kharak behind ShaimaKharak is a
front view of the huge snow capped Bangatia. At Naspanpati very
interestingly the river dissappears! well there was supposed to be a
land slide a few years back and a huge mass of rock and ice is
supposed to have fallen from near Bangatia and covered up all of the
river. One of us had the opportunity of walking on these mass. This
mass is most likely going to stay for good many years unlike most of
the snow bridges that we saw before. Also in front one sees a lots of
glacial moraines coming from the Trails pass and Nanda Kot. From
Naspanpati the route ascends along the true left side of Lwan Gad
river which soon reappears to our left. There are some really bad land
slides to cross before one gets to the base camp. On the way we saw
some of these goats who seem very happy on these parts. Apparently the
shepherds in the begining of the season actually send these goats to
make the route. The base camp (Bittalgwar) is a huge 1km by 1km flat
meadow with the river flowing in the middle and surrounded by huge
mountains on all side. We got partial views of Nandadevi East,
Longstaff Col, Nanda Khat, and Trails pass. We did not take any
pictures hoping that the weather will improve on the next day which
turned out be a big mistake on our part. Another interesting
observation about the trek is that we never saw this peak called Nanda
Kot (although we were supposed to see this from many places on our
trek). The weather however conspired against us. It was raining and
we were all standing with our umbrellas open and smoking cigarette
after cigarette to get fight off the cold. Dev Singh disappeared and
after about 15 mins he reappeared with a fellow shepherd and a
shepherd-tent and started pitching the tent. We erected our dome and
started cooking our food. A few more shepherds joined us. They were
playing cards and smoking tobaccos. We also shared few puffs from
their pipe made out of goat legs. Now and then the rain stopped and
sun was up in the sky and we glimpsed Nandadevi and Longstaff col in
front of us. We slept early. Dev Singh went with the other
shepherds. It rained miserably the whole night.
Day 8 (Jun 18): Base camp - Patta (~5hrs)- Martoli (~4hrs)
It started raining in the morning at around 3:00 A.M. and was going
non-stop. We were woken up at 6:00 A.M. by Deb Singh and he was
telling us to pack up fast. We came out of the tent. It was cloudy
and all the high places were covered with fresh snow and there was
snow at a height less than 100 meters. Dev Singh told us that the
weather might become worse and the route might get blocked. Most
shepherds already started moving toward Naspan Patti with their
goats. We cooked our breakfast, took some pictures of whatever we saw
and started packing quickly. It was decided to take another route
(via. Shaima Kharak: so always on the true right side of Lwa gad)
. We crossed over to the other side of the river (walking through
the icy water was like hell). This route was somewhat better then the
previous one though one had to walk on a lot of rocks. Walking through
boulders is easier than walking across landslides. There was a
nameless glacial lake on the way. We halted there for some time to
take some pictutes of this lake and to see the route which which we
came on the previous day which looks very scary. One side of this lake
is very icy and it regularly some rocks keep falling into the
lake. further there is also a very small bluish lake just next to this
lake. At Naspanpatti we met the old route to Patta. We had lunch in
Patta (Dev Singh's tent) and reached Hotel Nanda devi at Martoli
village in the evening. We had a pleasant dinner there spiced with
many old stories narrated by Dev Singh. We slept in the hotel. In the
night we also made some plans that if the weather improved the next
day, we would climb the Martoli peak. This plan never materialised.
Day 9 (Jun 19): Martoli - Bodgudiyar (~6hrs)
Our load had decreased considerably, so the trek became quite
enjoyable. On the way we had tea in Rilkot. We reached Bodgudiar in
the afternoon. We had dinner in the local hotel and spent the night
in the PWD guest house.
Day 10 (Jun 20): Bodgudiyar - Selapani (~6hrs)
We started in the morning 7:45 from Bodgudiyar. We lunched in
Lilam. In the afternoon we reached Selapani. The trek was over.
Post Trek
Jun 20:
Jeep from Selapani to Munsyari. We decided to Stay at Martolia lodge,
1.5 km away from the town, a family lodge of three rooms, run by a
retd. police officer Mr. U. S. Martolia. We had a fantastic view of
the Panch Chuli range from his place in the evening. We decided
to go out for dinner (1st dinner after the trek), but soon we realized
our mistake as we reached the town. The mission to find a good
restaurant in Munsyari was turned out to be impossible. We had dinner
in a small restaurant near the bus stand. We decided to have all the
remaining meals in Mr. Martolia's place.
Jun 21:
We relaxed the whole day at Martolia lodge, enjoying the home made
food, and going through Mr. Martolia's small but valuable
library. After lunch three of us went to the town.
Jun 22:
3 hrs drive from Munsyari to Thal by jeep in the morning. From Thal,
it is about 4 & 1/2 hrs nice drive by jeep through pine trees to
Almora. From Almora to Kathgodam about 2 & 1/2 hrs drive by
jeep. Board Ranikhet exp. (5014) at Kathgodam (20:40 hrs) for Delhi.
Jun 23:
Arrived at Delhi in the morning. Board Lakshadweep exp. (2618) at
Nizamuddin (9:55 hrs) for Mumbai.
Jun 24:
Arrived at Mumbai.
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