Acknowledgments

This book was made possible by many people. The first persons I have to acknowledge are Chain Singh Rawat, Kuldeep Rawat, and the wonderful team at Himalayan Hikers, with whom I have done all but one of my treks. They have made sure that every trek has been memorable and if not for them, I wouldn’t be so comfortable taking so many of my friends on trekking expeditions.

If my photographs look impressive, it is because of the tips that I have received from Dr. Srinivasan with whom I went on a trip to Corbett, which was a great learning experience for me. Then I went on a photography tour with the duo Sachin Rai and Philip Ross at Toehold. Both are award-winning photographers and they taught me a lot during the tour.

My uncle, Srinivasan, affectionately called Dorai, has been of immense support reading through my manuscript and giving me feedback. The wonderful publishing team at Notion Press has made book publishing look so easy.

Finally, I have to thank a few of my friends who have been part of multiple treks with me - Sunita, Nalini, Papa Rao, Sharmila, Satish Munoth, Shantakumar, Aravindan, and Sussana. With you folks, I hope to be trekking many more locations.

Introduction

I remember very vividly, the first time I fell in love. It was in December of 1989. I was a research assistant at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. My professor was in the process of procuring a transmission electron microscope in the Metallurgy Department. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) already had one and they were organizing a training workshop. One of my friends, B.S. Murty (who later became the HOD of Metallurgy Department at IITM and is currently the Director of IIT Hyderabad) and yours truly were sent to this workshop.

If you thought I fell in love with the microscope, alas you are going to be disappointed. It was the first and last time I fiddled with a transmission electron microscope; I had no use for it in my career. But it was the week in which I met the girl who would be my wife. It was love at first sight and we were married six months later.

The second time I fell in love was 20 years later, again with another lady. This lady happens to be far more mysterious, moody, and majestic; I fell in love with the Himalayas. Incidentally, the second love affair was also as accidental as the first. I had joined a Scandinavian company, Valcon in the summer of 2008. When I went to the headquarters in Copenhagen, my CEO wanted to know when we had annual holidays in India as they were preparing for their annual holiday month in July/ August. I told him “that would only be if I went back to school”. He admonished me and said that my team and I had to take five weeks of vacation every year, and we couldn’t encash the leave.

And so, it was then that my colleagues in India and I started planning a week of trekking in the mountains, obviously inspired by the outdoor lifestyle of our Danish colleagues. A quick scan of the internet resulted in us identifying Uttarakhand and Har Ki Dun as our trekking destination.

I had no clue that this would start a love affair to rival my marriage. It started as a once-a-year fling and steadily increased to multiple weeks. Some places have attracted me multiple times so much so that I know every inch of the mountains. My wife has been a willing partner; she too is in love with the mountains and our summers are spent in the mountains, of late.

And now, I would love to share this wonderful love story with others.

This is not a travelogue; I write them as blogs. This is a story of the different moods of the mountains. It’s a story of the people that live and worship these mountains. It’s a story of the friendships that I have built with my fellow travelers. This is a book of pictures and there is a story behind each picture.

No part of this story is imaginary; the people, places, and incidents are real. I have been able to get permission from some people to use their names. In other cases, I haven’t used their original names as I don’t want to use names without permission. The photographs used in the book have all been captured by me. If you like them, write to me.

I continue to travel to the mountains, multiple times a year, and happily take along fellow travelers. Many of my friends, who have joined me on these journeys, have themselves fallen in love with the mountains. For me, the treks aren’t about physical prowess; they are about the passion to explore and understand the mountains, interact with the locals, learn about the legends associated with the place, breathe fresh air, and be disconnected from the rest of the world. It’s being there with Nature and enjoying the bliss. It’s about realizing that this world, business, and family can run without you. You, after all, are an insignificant part of this universe.

Krishnan Naganathan

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

- George Mallory

Picture 1: Har Ki Dun Valley

Chapter 1: Har Ki Dun Trek

I was lucky to run a business in 2009 that wasn’t hit badly by the recession. It meant that my team and I could take a week off in the mountains. It was also an opportunity for me to bond with my new team. Everything, from buying shoes, jackets, and backpacks, was a team event for us. My Danish friends, much to their horror, discovered that they had joined a trek with not just novices but with a physically unprepared bunch too.

I visited Har Ki Dun a second time in 2017 and this time with a larger group of 16 people. This time we went in May before the monsoon, unlike the previous visit done post the monsoon. In our previous trek in 2009, apart from us, we saw another group of three trekkers on the return. In 2017, there were over 50 people camped there, it was a crowd and rightfully, the authorities have clamped down. No more camping in the valley. Further, now there is a road till Taluka and hence the distance has come down, there are even people who cover the distance of 60 kilometers in two days up and two days down.

The nearest railhead and airport for this trek is Dehradun. But Dehradun airport is at Jolly Grant and that is closer to Rishikesh than Dehradun. If you are flying into Dehradun, then you necessarily will have to stay in Dehradun or better Mussoorie. The earliest flight lands around 7 a.m. If you do want to leave for Sankri, the base camp, you will reach pretty late at Sankri. It takes three hours to reach Mussoorie from the airport and another six to eight hours from there. The roads aren’t good enough for night travel but, most importantly, the sights are magnificent and need to be enjoyed during the day.

Picture 2: Benog tibba and Jwala Devi temple

Pro tip

I strongly recommend that trekkers from plains plan an additional day at Mussoorie to get used to the mountains. You have two options to do this, either fly into Dehradun and take a taxi to Mussoorie (you will reach in the afternoon) or better still take the night train from Delhi to Dehradun and drive early in the morning to Mussoorie. This way one can spend a relaxed day at Mussoorie, which is my favorite hill town, though it can get too crowded nowadays.