Pindari Glacier

It had been a while since I last had a chance to get out in the mountains, and my soul was yearning for a break from the daily rigors of the city life. I had been trying to work out something with my friends, getting frustrated at the lack of convergence on anything particular. It was then the opportunity presented itself, almost as if Mother Nature was beckoning me to her laps. I was over at a friends house when he told me about their plans to visit Pindari Glacier in June (8/06/07 to 16/06/07). Without a moments hesitation I expressed my desire and desperation to join in, and before I knew it I was in. In, in a completely planned one week trek. Could it get any better…

I did some research on the place. Pindari Glacier is situated in the Bageshwar District in Kumaon Himalayas. It lies between the Nanda Devi and Nandakot peaks and terminates at an altitude of 3627 m. The Glacier is 5 km long, the snout is about 6 m high and 2.5 m wide and above the snout, the glacier extends for about 3 km in length and 300 - 400 m in width, between an altitudinal range of about 3600 m to 5000 m. The road part of the trip goes through Bageshwar till `Song' or till Loharkhet. From there, the trek goes till a place poetically named `Zero Point', and back. So ordinary hikers go till zero point, and not all the way to Pindari Glacier itself. From Loharkhet to Zero Point and back works out to roughly 90 kilometres of a walk. To reach Bageshwar, best option is to take Ranikhet Express to Kathgodam and follow it up by a road drive via Almora.

Getting on the train

We got our reservations for Ranikhet Express from Old Delhi Railway Station to Kathgodam. The train was supposed to depart at 9:40 pm and all of us decided to meet at the Station. I ran into the first group right at the entrance to the station where our cars arrived almost simultaneously. There was Digvijay (henceforth referred to as Diggu) my friend who got me in, Kailash with his wife Kavita, and Vivek. Vikas and his wife Geetika joined us later at the platform. I was already aquainted with the rest of the group except Vikas and Geetika. Digvijay, Kailash, Vivek and Vikas work for the same company. Vivek’s dad is DFO (District Forest Officer) Bageshwar and he was the one who got all the arrangements done.

What we had hoped to be an uneventful boarding turned out to be an ordeal in itself. As soon as we reached the platform we were shocked to see an unending wave of crowd. We struggled to find our way through the sea of bodies hoping to find a decent landing space. We could only manage to find a spot to put down our luggage on the platform opposite to the one where our train was supposed to arrive. Diggu and I immediately went to see the charts to confirm the status of my waitlisted ticket. When we returned Vikas and Geetika had arrived and we introduced ourselves. Kailash hinted at how much my Nike Red Tshirt resembled a coolie’s uniform and the joke soon became a favorite with everyone. And when a passerby asked me which train was supposed to arrive at this platform, everyone burst into a spontaneous laughter.

Pretty soon it became obvious that our train was not departing on scheduled time. It was already 10 pm and some other train was standing at the platform. To make matters worse, another train arrived at the platform we were on and we were forced to move out to avoid the pandemonium. We took berth on the stairs to the overhead bridge while more and more people kept pouring in. We were being pushed and bumped into from all sides and the Delhi climate showed no mercy on our poor souls as we sweated it out in extreme heat and humidity. The heat was becoming intolerable. I tried to get a few water bottles but it seemed all the vendors were already out of supply. No wonder – if you look around at all the sweating bodies. I managed to procure a couple of cold drinks which cooled us down for a while.

I exchanged a tired smile with a young guy seated on the stairs with his headphones plugged in. We entered into a conversation and I found out that he had arrived the same day from Mumbai and was supposed to catch Ranikhet Express to Haldwani. The poor guy was not taking the Delhi heat very nicely and was cursing his bad luck. I tried to console him but to no avail as he pledged never to come back to Delhi. He really had a funny way of talking and I couldn’t help laughing and feeling sorry for him at the same time.

When we had almost resigned ourselves to the situation, to our great relief, Ranikhet Express finally marched in. By this time, we couldn’t wait to get out of there. Once inside we settled quickly, and too tired to do anything else we decided to go to bed early, but not before savoring some delicious cake and meethi rotis. I grabbed a water bottle, my pyjamas and a book, and made my way to my berth across five coaches. I had planned to read a little but all the lights had already been switched off. So I took the only other option, lied down and closed my eyes…

Day 1 - Kathgodam to Bageshwar

I woke up early next morning. I had a reasonable good sleep as I always do in a train. I wasn’t sure if everyone else in the gang would be awake so I decided to read a little in my coach. After a while, I moved back to join everyone else. The train had been delayed by a couple of hours. We had small chit-chat and enjoyed the outside view as the train continued to roll towards our first stop, Kathgodam. Meanwhile, Kailash and Kavita decided to get down at Haldwani to meet their family. They would be joining us later at Kathgodam Station. On the way, we had first glimpse of a hill range. Nainital is located hidden somewhere in this range. At Haldwani, Kailash and Kavita got down while we enjoyed a nice sugary tea in small earthen cups.

Shortly after, the train dropped us at Kathgodam which appeared to be a small station but much cleaner and more beautiful than the nightmare that Delhi Station turned out to be. We located the waiting rooms, which were again reasonably clean and sparsely populated, and had toilet and bathroom facilities. I couldn’t resist the temptation of a quick bath as we went about our morning routines. Our further transport was a Tata jeep with 3 + 4 + 4 seating pattern which basically means that 2 people can sit with the driver in the front, 4 people can make a tight fit in the middle, and another 4 can sit facing each other at the back. After Kailash and Kavita joined us, we packed ourselves in the jeep and started towards Bageshwar which is roughly 180 km from Kathgodam.

The jeep was surprising powerful as its driver raced it across the hilly terrain. We soon crossed Bhimtaal and headed towards Almora enjoying the scenic way. It was then I felt the first sign of an upset stomach typical for a hilly ride. I found out I wasn’t the only one as others were also feeling the effect of sharp bends and turns that endlessly followed one after the other. We stopped for a breather along the way. We ordered some tea and bread toasts. Vikas couldn’t resisit some chole-bhature but most of us were not feeling that adventurous at the moment. Meanwhile, Kailash had to get tetanus shot as he cut himself while Kavita was making him shift the air cooler the previous day. Now we know how he got his muscles built. Refreshed, we ventured on our journey yet again. We were making good progress with our driver going full throttle. Luckily, everyone was feeling much better now. Soon it was my turn to take the back seat among the luggage. I buried myself in and tried to get as comfortable as possible. Luckily, I soon dozed off and don’t remember much of the journey afterwards. Worked out well for Diggu who was supposed to take his turn at the back after me.

I woke up as our jeep was pulling into a beautiful front lawn of a single storeyed Bungalow. The lawn was adorned with rows of flowers and the whole area was surrounded with beautiful trees. I noticed plenty of ripe mangoes hanging from the mango trees planted in the premises. The place perfectly fixed the description of a hillside bungalow you come across in works of so many colonial English writers. This was the Forest Rest-house, Bageshwar and was the current residence of Vivek’s parents. We were greeted by Vivek’s mom, an extremely warm, energetic and simple woman. She immediately made us feel at home as our tired bodies crashed into sofas and bed. The interior of the house was pretty spacious with a huge master bedroom compared to any city dwelling. We were soon sipping on refreshing tea, with rasgullas that disappeared just as quickly, and some snacks. We met Vivek’s father who had a simple but authoritative look about him. We decided to go for a bath before having our lunch. The two females were allotted one bathroom while we five guys serialized the other one. No prizes for guessing which group was ready first.

After freshening up, we settled down to a simple and lovingly prepared meal of daal, beans, rice and chapattis. The food tasted so good that it immediately recharged our exhausted batteries. It was such a luxury to get home cooked food so far from home. After lunch, we discussed the general plan with Vivek’ s dad. He also showed us his GPS handset and pair of binoculars. We decided against carrying the GPS handset figuring it would not be required, and in any case we wouldn’t be able to make much sense of the latitude/longitude it displays even if our life depended on it. It was decided that we would spent the night at KapKoth which was mid-way between Bageshwar and Loharkhet, from where we would start early next morning.

Having taken care of planning, we decided we deserved some rest. Aunty suggested we take refuge in there newly built house. The house was located behind the premises of the Forest Office Building roughly 200m from the Rest-house. We walked around the Office Building to reach the house. The front of the house sported a magnificent birds-eye view of a valley bounded on the far side with fir tree covered hills. A small river was flowing across the top of the valley. We could barely make out a few people working in the farms. The view was so beautiful that everyone except Diggu deserted the idea of taking an afternoon nap and took perch along the concrete boundary overlooking the valley. Vikas got the binoculars and we took turns exploring the view.

After a couple of hours, we went back to the rest-house for a cup of tea. Before we took leave, Aunty showed us her small vegetable plantation at the back of the house. The rest-house at Kapkot was a small solitary building, located higher and a few kilometers further from the main area. The rest-house was adorned with beautiful flowers and trees. We enjoyed a cup of tea in the veranda. After talking to the forest officials we decided to leave behind our sleeping bags and extra woolens. After the dinner, all of us went out for a walk under a star lit sky. We followed it up with a few game of cards, before retiring to our beds.

Pindari Pics