Goechala; wilderness of the Himalayas - My 1st Himalayan Trek ever - Day 6/10

Day 6 of our trek could be called; "Take it Easy"

The night in Thangsing was very very cold. It was snowing and we were feeling the chill inside our high altitude compatible sleeping bags too. We could hear the wind and feel it against our tent. It was scary.. After a while, the exhaustion of the 14 kms of walk and magic of chaang took over and we slept peacefully.

We woke up at 7 in the morning as Lamuney (13743 feet), our last destination uphill, was relatively nearer, at 4 Kms. The colorful landscape of yesterday's Thangsing had turned gray-white with fresh snow all around us.

Our tent in the morning. It was clicked after we had to shed the settled snow off, to get out of the tent

It was doubtlessly a beautiful sight.. the picture is not as great as the view itself. Blame it; part to my amateur photography skills and part to the fact that it was still cloudy

Thankfully, in half an hour, sunlight graced us with much needed warmth and snow started melting away. Since it was still some time before we started the day's trek, we took this opportunity to click a few clearer pictures with our team.

I have introduced all of our team members in my first post on Goechala, except one.

Meet Cherry. This camera shy mare deserves as much gratitude from us, as the humans in our team.. She carries all the load and doesn't even get a tent to sleep in this tough terrain.

We were advised to wear our sunglasses at all the time during the day going forward, as sunlight in snow is so strong, that it could turn one blind.. we obeyed without a question!

A close up of Mount Pandim from Thangsing base.

Finally we are on our way again. This time to Lamuney (13743 feet), about 4 kms away and a an altitude gain of about 800 feet. It is a gradually ascending walk, which gets steeper towards the end just while we are about to reach Lamuney.

Every day on our Goechala journey, we have been walking on a different terrain; and we were looking forward to see that in just 4 Kms of distance, what could the journey to Lamuney bring to us. And this is what we came across

We drank some water directly from the stream. I never knew water could be so delicious!

Could you spot the bluesheep in the midst of grass? They are quick!

It was as if Goechala was treating us before taking our final test to the base camp. What a walk! This terrain was extremely windy. Half an hour more and we were about to approach Lamuney; the weather was completely different from what it was in Thangsing. It was chilling, we were walking in the clouds and it had started snowing again...

Lamuney; our last stop uphill

Our Kitchen tent. This is where we had recorded all those Nepali folk songs, we used in our Goechala YouTube video

Our tent is pitched, right on the spot, from where the final climb to Goechala is to begin at 2 AM. Since it is going to be a night trek and that too in one of the toughest Himalayan Terrain in India (I would say 2nd toughest; 1st being Stok Kangri); we go to bed , early in the evening, to be in all our strength for the final climb.

The final climb was going to be a tough one; toughest thing we had done in our lives so far.. But the beauty of that way was breathtaking. It seemed like a walk through another world and reaching the top was a very emotional experience. The final climb deserves a full post to itself... So hold on a bit, till my next post :)

Cheers!