Prologue
All of a sudden I woke up in a jolt. After a bit of fumbling I managed to untangle myself from the sleeping bag and found the torch. Clock showed 2:10 AM. Its another 20 minutes to my alarm. Inspite of the fact I was wearing my thermals it was still freezing cold. I started putting on the layers of clothing slowly - adventure pants, fleece jacket, over-jacket, the 2 layers of gloves; put on the mask and secured it around neck with scarf. Slowly I undid the zip of the inner flap of the tent, didn't want to wake the other two up. Let them have the 10 more minutes of sleep. They are going to need it.
I put on the shoes, fitted the pair of crampons to my shoes and cross checked if they were holding tight. My life depended on these spikes today. I crawled out of the inner chamber, put the inner flap back, opened the outer flap and came out.
Damn, it was cold. Fresh snow slid off the tent flap onto my back. I was standing upon the rocky campsite. Snow patches were there everywhere. No one seemed awake in the entire camp save for the tiny flicker of light coming from the kitchen tent. It was an eerie quiet. No moon in sight. Yesterday the moon was quite full, must be hidden behind one of the mountains. The sky filled instead with millions of stars; far more than what i get to see from back home. The entire canvas of the sky was painted with patterns of dots. I kept gazing for quite some time, lost, bewildered, only to be brought to senses by someone's alarm going off in one of the nearby tents. The majestic Nanda Ghunti peak stood glinting in star light, clearest I have seen in recent days. On 3 sides were snow covered slopes.
Even in such low light I could make out the blur of the ridge far up. The sight of it brought a few goosebumps. The muscles tensed up, jaws clenched. I was ready. Yesterday's fatigue was no more. The feelings of fear and surrender is replaced with a strange and purposeful calm. There is the destination. That is where I have to reach before the sun comes above the horizon. That is what we had been fighting for the last few days.
Roopkund
The Roopkund Trek blog coming soon. Stay tuned.
