Gangotri -Journey to the Retreating Glacier

gangotri Hike himalayas India journey photo story Trek

"It was a privilege to be able to travel to such far off places leaving everything behind especially in an year like this... "

A bit chaotic scenes at the Dehradun Airport as people had to produce a COVID negative certificate for entry into uttarakhand

Right into the storm clouds

The Brewing

Feels like a Hand reaching out

Going off the Tarmac at IGI Airport Delhi after switching flight to Dehradun

Initially confused whether these are Clouds or Mountains from the window? Later got to know that It was the Chaukambha's range

The fertile plains of the North

Serpentining Basin of the Ganges

Numerous streams of Ganges towards the foot hills of Himalayas

I am really here now isn't it?

A huge smile on my face as I finally see the land in front of me rising up towards the sky as I travel to Rishikesh

Peaceful sunset on the banks of Ganges at Rishikesh

followed by a cold evening afterwards...

The onset of evening marks the taking place of mandatory ritual - The Ganga Arti which unusually drew a very limited crowd
because of Pandemic

A lady prays to the flame of the Arti as Lord Shiva watches over her from the back

Movement on the Ram Jhula from one of the Ghats

A lazy sunrise marked the diminishing of cold

Ram Jhula is an active playground for the monkeys in the area

"Meditating on the banks of Ganga is your birth right" -Written on a wall at Rishikesh

A frame loaded with Holiness

The streets of were a weird reminder of port towns in Tamil Nadu

A pathway within the Beetle's ashram, where one can see the nature's take over after it was abandoned in the 70s

Grafitti within the main auditorium at the ashram

The work on the walls there is really cool graffiti and gels well with the haunted hallways.

The Bus from Rishikesh early morning also serves as a mail delivery van

Road ahead of Rishikesh

My backpack with the "Orange Shell" stuffed between crunched up seats and sacks of mail

The tedious construction on the Char Dham pilgrimage circuit resulting
in a dust covered 5 hr bumpy ride enough to break anyone's back

A classy relief in the form of a smooth Highway as we approached Uttarkashi

A child gazed as us as we halted for a cup of chai at Bhatwadi

Only 5 of us in the Bus

Bhagirathi River keeps one company throughout the river as we approach the Bhaironghati Gorge

The valleys got deeper at the juncture of the Jadh Ganga and Bhagirathi Rivers at Bhaironghati

Gangotri group of peaks light up at an altitude of 6672m towards the right as we approached Sukhi top a small settlement
along the road to Gangotri

The Valley from the Sukkhi Top, the extent of the Gangotri glacier can be seen all the way till here

As it continued to get darker the peaks around startled us with their golden avatar

Further up the valley, while listening to life lessons from our driver we finally made our way to Gangotri during which Mt. Sudarshan 6,507 m, the one who looks over the town of Gangotri blew us away with its black rock against a dusky magenta sky

The Gangotri Temple where Goddess Ganga has supposedly made her descent on this earth

The sun lighting up the neighbouring peaks as seen from the area opposite the main temple

Band of Rays descending down the valley

Sun is almost there

The ghat adjacent to the main temple where the King Bhagiratha had prayed for the descent of goddess Ganga from the heaven

Being religious, I took the time out to get a Puja done along the banks. It is primarily done for salvation of ones ancestors. Also, I felt really thankful to the almighty for putting me in a place like this especially and blessing me with the resources that I had at hand. During the Puja, the priest explained me the legend of the origin of Ganga which is as follows:

A pony carrying river sand to one of the nearby construction site which resumed after the lockdown

The Surya Kund, a place where one feel the force of River Bhagirathi gushing out and eroding anything in its path

The guest house where we were stationed

Mt. Sudarshan standing tall at noon

Rituj from our group in the left basking in the bright sun while Anna decided to do her laundry

A Needle in the Sky

Sunset over Sudarshan

A last bow to the River before we left. You can never know how things turn out in the mountains and glad I did...

O' misty mountains

A cleanliness message along the trail

A stone cut house

Entry into the National park

The Valley ahead as seen from the National Parks entrance

Strict instructions were given as to how far we can go near the Glacier at Gaumukh 500m to be precise, I thought fair enough

The colors started coming out

Crossing a run off area

A look back after an hour on the trail

The reds bringing in a diversity to the landscape

Colors of autumn and the peaks of Gangotri

A couple of hours into the trek, Bhagirathi reveals herself. In the picture our Guid, Sumeer Singh

She is looking over you from everywhere

The last slope towards Chirbasa

The entire Bhagirath massif from head to toe at the Bhojbasa campsite.
From Left to Right: Bhagirathi II 6,513m, Bhagirathi III 6,454m, Bhagirathi I 6,856m

A 360 degree view of Bhojbasa campsite, one can hear Suraj narrating the story of origin of Ganga at the back where he describes the mountains as the dread locks of Shiva

Lord Shiva is deeply associated with the Indian Himalayas. So whenever I would venture out into the mountains my mother used to tell me that one day or the other you will come across Shiva in one form or the other as I would be wandering in his domain. As fate would have it, I did come across the lord in the form of Rock, Stone and Ice at the Bhojbasa campsite in the lap of Bhagirathi massif.

The Lord is often seen in the Hindu mythology with a Crescent of Moon over his dreadlocks which are the Himalayas

Blanket of Clouds over Bhairathi at Sunset

A timelapse of the Sunset

The last rays for the day

We were stationed at the Lal Baba Ashram there. A place with sufficient bedding to keep you warm through the
night of Sub zero temperatures and hot, timely food

But even with all that extra bedding and clothing it did get cold as the night progressed

An Overcast day as we begin our hike to Gaumukh

The Lal Baba Ashram where we were stationed

A mystical looking landscape first thing in the morning

A 360 Deg. view

Bhagirathi's first appearance for the Day

On the trail to Gaumukh

The fading of foliage as we move further towards the glacier

The trail gets more and more rocky

The first view of the Glacier in the far covered underneath that earth

Our Guide Sumeer Singh just before I click the valley at the back which leads to Bhojbasa

All of this was under ice at one point of time...

"It was like hell" -Anna
.
Nothing grows there, it's empty, no birds, it's barren....

A small flat patch on the terrain

The Gaumukh as seen from the nearest position we could get and the same place a bit upclose
as seen from archival footage sourced from Flickr. A Bitter -sweet moment.
However, a sense of contentment did come loom over because at least we tried

Meanwhile Mt. Shivling 6,543m started to slowly reveal himself

A marker showing the location of Gaumukh in 1966

You can see saffron flags at the temple towards the left of the photo. It was built because of Gaumukh's previous location

Gaumukh was here

The entire 30Km of Gangotri Glacier, Source: NASA

Places of Significance along the Glacier

The positions of Gaumukh from the year 1780 till 2001 when it was last recorded

Suraj just being himself

He wanted a photograph with Shivling at the back. From what I've seen Shivling is a peak that he is really passionate about.
May be it is because of his Spiritual inclination to Lord Shiva and I do hope he gets to summit it some day

Just about the moment we started our retreat to Bhojbasa and back to Gangotri the majestic
Shivling stunned us with its massive South face

The clouds continued to gather up at the back leading to snowfall at higher altitudes in the surroundings

And just before leaving the moraine I turned back to witness the scale of us in the grand scheme of things. It makes one wonder even though we are so small how come we are capable of causing destruction on such a large scale ?

Maybe, being on top of the food chain has it's downsides afterall...