We, a group from Kolkata, already done the Goecha La (October 2008) and Singali La (March 2009) treks all together, this year decided to do the Roopkund Trek route in September 2009. But going up to Roopkund and not visiting Ronti Saddle, this matter was hurting some of us. Many of us had the leave issues too. So at last, after lots of arguments and consecutive meetings, we decided to make it group wise. The first group went around first of September, reached Roopkund and returned. The rest of us, around 12 members, started on 25th of September, this was the Saptami of Durgapuja. Another guy named Kshiteesh Kirtikar from Mumbai joined us at Haldwani. We used to call him KK, he is a nice singer too. We too have two groups among us, six members will return from Roopkund trek and the rest seven members will proceed for the Ronti Saddle trek.
Roopkund Trek Details
Route Information
- Trek Name: Roopkund – Homkund – Ronti Saddle
- Location: Uttarakhand – Garhwal Region
- Nearest Base Village: Lohajung / Wan
- River: Neel Ganga, Rup Ganga/Rupkini, Nandakini
- Peaks Visible: Trishul I, II, III, Nandaghunti, Ronti, Chowkhamba, Mandani Twins, Neelkanth, Bandarpunch
- Glaciers: Shilasamudra
Trek Itinerary
- Day 1: Board Bagh Express from Howrah
- Day 2: On Train
- Day 3: Reach Haldwani -> Reach Lohajung via Almora, Koushani, Gwaldam, Deval by Jeep (Stay in GMVN)
- Day 4: Lohajung -> Kulling -> Didna (Camp)
- Day 5: Didna -> Tolpani -> Ali Bugyal -> Bedni Bugyal (Camp)
- Day 6: Bedni Bugyal -> Ghora Lotani -> Pathar Nachuni -> Kailu Binayak -> Bhaguabasa -> Rani-Ka-Sulera -> Huniathar (Camp)
- Day 7: Rest and Acclimatization Day (Camp)
- Day 8: Huniathar -> Chirianag -> Roopkund -> Junargali Pass -> Shilasamudra (Camp)
- Day 9: Shilasamudra -> Gheuthappan -> Dodang (Camp)
- Day 10: Dodang -> Homkund -> Ronti Saddle -> Homkund -> Dodang -> Chandania Ghat (Camp)
- Day 11: Chandania Ghat -> Bhujani -> Latakhopri (Camp)
- Day 12: Latakhopri -> Tatra Village (Camp)
- Day 13: Tatra Village -> Bhuna -> Kukina Khal -> Wan (Trek) -> Lohajung (By Jeep, Stay in GMVN)
- Day 14: Lohajung -> Gwaldam via Deval by Jeep -> Nainital via Koushani, Almora, Bhawali by Jeep (Stay in Youth Hostel)
- Day 15: Nainital -> Kathgodam by Jeep -> Board Bagh Express
- Day 16: On Train
- Day 17: Reach Howrah
Team Members
From left to right, top row to bottom row:-
- Sujit Basak (Calm and quiet but running a lot)
- Joy Karmakar (The most enthusiast person)
- Binayak Mitra (Binu, only trek, no expedition)
- Abhik Das (Abhi, proven himself)
- Supratim Roy (Me, Accountant cum Cashier cum Manager cum …..)
- Raja Majumdar (Music dude)
- Arindam Dhar (Ari, the least clothed person)
- Sanjay Mitra (Sanju baba)
- Shadidul Haque (Palash)
- Kshiteesh Kirtikar (The only doctor in the team)
- Gautam Das (Going to end bachelor life)
- Tapas Chowdhury (Bapi da)
- M. R. Molla (Laughs a lot and helps other to laugh)
First row, left to right:-
- Anish Banerjee (The Diamox man)
- Saugata Acherjee (D cold man)
- Gautam Da (X-Army man)
Roopkund trek day-to-day details
27th September:
On 25th September at 9:45 PM we boarded Howrah – Kathgodam Bagh Express, the worst one, and reached Haldwani on 27th morning at around 8:00 AM. KK found us soon.
We will be going Lohajung today, the base of our trek. Two cabs were pre-booked from a car operator of Deval. They charged 6500 INR for two cabs.
After getting fresh, we get on the cabs and started from Haldwani at around 10:00 AM. We stopped for breakfast at around 11:00 AM, soon after crossing Kathgodam and at Kaushani for Lunch at around 2:00 PM. Guys were enjoying, gossiping and taking snaps, me too.
Haldwani to Lohajung is a long distance. When we reached Deval to meet the car operator and pay him, it was already dark then. Soon rain gets started, our socks get wet more or less as we didn’t cover the luggage over the head of the cabs. When we reached Lohajung, it was around 8:00 PM on the watch.
Our guide, Dev Singh of Kulling Village, was waiting for us. As soon as we reached, he and his men came and helped us to get the luggage down from the cabs. GMVN was pre-booked too and we get there soon as it was still raining.
[really not getting time to complete the rest, I will add the rest of the report as soon as possible, sorry for the disappointment 🙁 ]
To be continued…
Excellent write up you capture the all Beauty of Roopkund in this article. These are amazing. Excellent location photography. Adventurous travelling personality.