Kedarkantha Trek Blog 2019 – Snow Trek in Himalayas

Overview:

If ever, you’ve pondered in life on the futileness of trekking, Kedarkantha trek is here not only to confront your beliefs, but maybe even to mend them. Located in Sankri, Uttarakhand, Kedarkantha peak would probably be the best choice for winter trek in India for all trekkers, from beginners to advanced. In winter, just after 2 km into the trek, it is completely under snow. From the top, one gets to see a 360 degree view of Himalayan wonders, including Swargrohini (yes, the one Pandavas climbed and fell, save Yudhisthir) and Bandarpoonch. At my time (Feb 2019), there was an average of 4-5 feet snow upto the top. Local village people said, it was the highest snowfall in last 25 years. Catch the video glimpse of Kedarkantha Trek here:

Below is the brief trek description:
Location:  Trek starts from Sankri village, which is around 200 KMs from Dehradun, Uttrakhand.
Trek Duration: 3-4 Days. You can also do it in 2 days (see my itinerary below).
Best Season: Winter time, December to Mid April. It is also done throughout the year.
Difficulty Level: Easy 
Max Altitude: 10,500 feet / 3200 Metres
Kedarkantha Trek Distance: Around 23 Km
Trek Dates: Feb 17-18, 2019

One will be in need of local guide for Kedarkantha trek, as there’re no food stalls along the way. Through Pushkar bhai, whom I already knew from Brahmtal Trek, I came in contact with Kuldeep bhai, from Moxtain Trekking Group. As I said already, at my time, snowfall in Kedarkantha was too much and almost all groups were coming back without climbing summit. On our summit day, only 3 people did the summit including me. Thanks to Moxtain. Here is the trek journey through pics and videos:

Kedarkantha Trek Itinerary:

Day 1 [Bus From Delhi to Dehradun to Sankri]:

Delhi to Dehradun is a 6 hour journey by bus. You need to go to Kashmiri Gate ISBT, where you’ll find frequent buses for Dehradun. Sankri is a small peaceful village, around 200 Km from Dehradun. Dehradun has two main bus stand, one ISBT and second Mussoorie bus stand. There is one direct bus from Dehradun to Sankri at 8 AM from Mussoorie bus stand, which is around 5 km from Dehradun ISBT. You can take Auto (No. 5) to reach this bus stand from ISBT at a fare of Rs 20. Mostly, I take single direct bus, but this time I was travelling with Kuldeep bhai, who advised me to take multiple cabs/buses, not only for better comfort, but also to reach early to Sankri. And so we beat on.

First a cab from Dehradun to Nainbag, then a bus from Nainbag to Naugaon to Purola. And from Purola to finally Sankri, which is at a height of 1950 metres. We started around 7: 30 AM from Dehradun, and reached Sankri at 4:30 PM, a journey of around 9 Hrs. I explored here and there for few hours, before finally settling my tent and settling myself into it.

Day 2 [Trek from Sankri To Juda ka Talab]:

We started around 9:30 AM for Juda ka Talab, which is around 5 Km from Sankri. Trail is easy and gradual throughout. We spotted the snow after around 1-2 Km into the trek.

From now onwards, it was all snow around right upto the Kedarkantha summit. There were 2 Maggie points along the way, which you won’t be finding any further. Most people choose Juda ka talab as first campsite, but we could also see group camps around 2 Km before Juda as well. As we continued, we reached Juda by 2 PM.

When we reached our campsite, which was a bit further beyond the above camp location, snow became so much that our tents were already covered under it and the team had to do quite a work to revive the buried tents. I hope you get the idea by this, how it was going to be further ahead and why so many groups were coming back without climbing the summit.

Day 3 [Trek from Juda ka Talab To Kedarkantha Peak to Sankri]:

Since I had to get back to Sankri, today’s day was going to be a bit hectic. We wanted to start as early as 4 AM, but it was quite a bad weather and there was a heavy rainfall outside. We waited and waited, until it was 6 AM, and we could wait no more. It was still raining, but relatively at a lower pace. We did our breakfast and left for summit at 6:30 AM.

To be honest, I didn’t have much hope to climb the summit, not only because of bad weather throughout, but also because of lack of visible trail. Since not many people were going further ahead of basecamp (which is around 3 Km from Juda ka Talab), trail was not much clear, and one had to create one’s own trail for the summit, which takes almost double time. Even Juda Ka Talab wasn’t very clear which was covered under snow, see below pic.

We continued further ahead, kept our pace, and reached Kedarkantha basecamp by 7:30 AM. It was a bit steeper today than yesterday. Basecamp is quite a lovely site, and some people chose to stay here as well before attempting the summit. Since I was short of time, we bid farewell to basecamp and continued.

Due to heavy snowfall, people had not climbed summit in last 4-5 days. There was no clear trail further ahead of base camp. Which means, we had to do it for us. Making a trail could be a tricky business, but thanks to our guides, who did this for us. There were 2 Indiahikes guides, leading a group of 16 (out of which 2 came this far for summit) and my guide from Moxtain. Together, they made our lives easier, so that we could easily take credit for climbing the summit. As we continued to summit, this trek worthiness only kept getting stronger and stronger, right up to the point, when we were at the highest point with endless skies all around.

It was quite blissful at Kedarkantha summit where we stayed for around 30 minutes. Weather was already getting bad and so we started leaving down at 12:20 PM. Climbing down part is easier when there is fresh snow all around you. We covered the distance at great pace, until we were around 4 Km from Sankri, and trail was already too slippery and muddy, thanks to rain. I slipped for around 5-6 times, which was also fun in a way, though of course I did not intended it. We finally reached Sankri by 5 PM. and with this Kedarkantha trek was officially over now.

Next day, I caught the bus around 8 AM from Sankri. It was a direct bus to Dehradun. And finally from Dehradun to Delhi. Return journey was pretty tiring, since I took back to back buses without any rest. It was quite late night, when I finally set myself in my sweet bed. If time permits, one can also visit Dehradun. It has quite some places to explore.

For more photos from Kedarkantha trek, visit me on instagram.
You could also check out my other treks here. Feel free to share your queries or experiences in the comments section.