Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

June 4, 2010

My Trip to Gangotri and Gaumukh

Filed under: My Life,Travel/Trips — Suramya @ 11:35 PM

I think its about time I blogged about my trip because certain people have been bugging me about it. It took so long because I brought back an unwanted guest with me from the trip – Some sort of stomach virus.

We (Me, Dad and Mom) left for Gangotri on the 29th at 6 am and drove 526 km to Gangotri. The last 300 something kilometers were in the hills so it took us a little over 14 hours to make the journey. We got there a little after 8pm and it was a bit chilly over there so we quickly walked to the guest house (I don’t really remember the name but it was a facility run by the Gadhwal Government). While talking to the manager at the place we found out that since last year a restriction has been put on travel to Gaumukh and now only 150 people per day are allowed to make the trip. Another wrinkle was that in addition to the 150 people limit the forest department has also set the limit on the no of horses allowed up to the glacier to 15.

Since we didn’t have permission we had to wait for the Forest department to open at 8am the next day before we could leave for the glacier. If that hadn’t been the case we would have left at around 6am. We spent that extra two hours visiting the famous temple and having breakfast.

Thankfully we got the permission to visit Gaumukh quite easily but unfortunately by that time the permitted no of horses had already left. So we had to convince the person incharge to allow 3 extra horses to make the trip (No there was no bribe involved. Just told them about our time constraint etc). Initially it was planned that mom and dad would take horses but I would walk but since its quite boring to walk alone and I had no intention of walking 14 kms alone I also got to ride up on a horse.

The journey to the actual Gaumukh is a total of 18 kms but horses are only allowed till the first 14 kms and the last 4 kilometers have to be covered on foot.

It took us about 5 hours to make the 14 km journey by horse and the view was amazing for most of the way. Towards the end though the greenery (trees) was replaced by shrubs and then plain rocks and dirt because we were over the snowline. By the time we got to Bhojwassa it was about 2 pm and my backside was no longer on speaking terms with me. We stopped over there for the night. Initially we had thought that we would make the remaining 4km trek to Gaumukh the same day but then decided to wait for the next day to permit our bodies to acclimatize to the high altitude. (This was at 3792 mts elevation)

Unfortunately mom got a mild case of Acute mountain sickness so we decided that she wouldn’t make the last 4 km walk. So it was just dad and me at 5:30 am the next day when we left for the Glacier (which is at 4463 mtrs elevation) . The trek wasn’t that bad. Infact the hardest part was the first 500 mtrs because it was a pretty steep climb. After that the climbs and descents were quite manageable. It took us 1 1/2 hours to make it to the official termination of the path which is about 500 mtrs from the mouth of the glacier. Since everyone else was continuing the trek to get to the actual mouth of the glacier we also did the same and ended up climbing pretty much to the mouth of the glacier. This last 500 mtrs took us another 1/2 hour since there was no track anymore and we had to climb over boulders and then slide down to get to the glacier.

At this point the temperature was way below freezing and the wind chill made things even more fun. It was so cold that in the time it took me to take 3 photos my fingers were numb enough that I couldn’t make changes to my camera settings anymore. But it was worth it. Because of the cold we only stayed there for about 10-15 mins before heading back. By this time the sun had come out so it wasn’t that cold anymore. In fact by the time we reached base camp I was sweating enough to remove my sweater.

After we got back we rested for about 2 hours and had breakfast and then hired horses to take us back. The ride back was more endured than enjoyed because by that time pretty much most of my body parts had gone on strike. If you think that you don’t get tired when riding a horse I suggest you go ride one for 4-5 hours and then come back and talk to me.

The trail between Gangotri and Bhojwassa is quite steep and there were a lot of places where my body was at an angle of almost 45 degrees from perpendicular to keep my balance on the horse. (You are supposed to lean back if your horse is descending a slope to allow it to maintain its balance).

Once we got back to Gangotri we picked up our luggage from the locker and started driving back towards Uttarkashi. It took us a bit over 5 hours to get there and we all crashed quite quickly once we got to the hotel. The next day we left the hotel at 7:30 am and drove back to Delhi with a small detour to visit my cousin on the way.

I did take a lot of pictures and I will be posting some of them on Facebook (I am still considering the changes to the photogallery over here) once I publish this post.

Well this is all for now. Will post more later.

Edit: Posted the pics Here

– Suramya

11 Comments »

  1. Hi,

    Just saw your blog on your trip to Gangotri.
    Am leaving for it tomorrow early morn.
    Wonder how the roads are going to be after this years rains.

    Bye

    Sujit

    Comment by Sujit — October 9, 2010 @ 4:49 PM

  2. Don’t know.. depends on how much it rained over there and how much repair work has been done.
    Check with the Tourism Board, or one of the tour companies (http://www.garhwaltourism.com/about/contact.asp) and they might be able to give you more info.

    – Suramya

    Comment by Suramya — October 9, 2010 @ 5:58 PM

  3. Hello Suramya, We have planned for Gangotri_tapovan & Yamnotri yatra during 21-31st May 2012. Thanks for sharing information for making journey little easier.

    Comment by DR Zankyani — April 3, 2012 @ 2:51 PM

  4. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience.

    Can you please tell me the porter/horse charges from Gangotri to Gomukh ?
    Do we get a porter to carry kids ?
    Is it possible to take 2yrs and 5yrs old kids along to Gomukh ?

    Comment by Pranab — July 3, 2012 @ 5:13 PM

  5. Hi Pranab,

    Its been a while since my trip (over 2 years) so don’t really remember the prices though I do remember that they weren’t that high. Do remember to bargain a lot as the initial quote will be quite high.

    You can get porter’s for kids and you can carry kids to Gomukh, but not sure if it would be ok to do so. Keep in mind that the temperature will be quite low and since the altitude is high the oxygen level in the air is quite low. I recommend consulting a doctor.

    Wish you all the best.

    – Suramya

    Comment by Suramya — July 4, 2012 @ 9:31 PM

  6. I am going in month of November, any suggestions!!!! I got plenty of quality cold weather footwear and outfits.
    Ty

    Raj

    Comment by Raj — October 23, 2012 @ 6:07 AM

  7. Hey Raj,

    November is going to be cold so make sure you wear a lot of layers and are adequately covered. Secondly don’t rush to climb to the top. Altitude sickness is not a joke and it would suck if you can’t complete the trip because you rushed without giving yourself enough time to acclimatize to the high altitude .

    Those would be my two suggestions for your trip. Other than that, have fun. It’s a beautiful place to visit.

    – Suramya

    Comment by Suramya — October 26, 2012 @ 10:56 PM

  8. Hi,

    Is April a good time to visit gaumukh? I want to visit when there are no pilgrims

    Ramesh

    Comment by RameshB — January 15, 2013 @ 10:33 PM

  9. So well written and very informative. Thanks.

    Comment by Rajeev — June 12, 2013 @ 7:38 PM

  10. According to your description I, eoman of 68, decide to go upto bhojbasa. But horse riding 14 km will it be possible?

    Thanks for the detailed information.

    Comment by Shakuntala Bhowmick — March 25, 2019 @ 9:58 AM

  11. Sorry for the delayed response. Things have been super busy on the work and personal front and thus the blog got ignored a bit.

    To answer your question, riding a horse isn’t usually that hard and most people are fine with the ride. It is a bit scary at times due to the steep drops but safe.

    However you need to keep in mind that the temperature will be quite low and since the altitude is high the oxygen level in the air is quite low. I recommend consulting a doctor to be on the safe side.

    – Suramya

    Comment by Suramya — May 24, 2019 @ 10:48 AM

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