Har Ki Dun Trek Blog – Trek Summary and Itinerary

Overview:

• Introduction
• Trek Planning
• Fitness
• Things to Carry
• Detailed Trip Itinerary
• Per-head expenses for the trek
• Thoughts on clothing
• Other Important Points and Tips
• Reference contacts
• Har Ki Dun Photo Gallery and wallpapers

Introduction:

Have you experienced the magic of the mountains ? If not, plan your next, (or first 🙂 ) trek to Har Ki Dun (in the state of Uttarakhand, India)!

The Himalayas offer plenty of opportunities for avid trekkers. Treks such as – Har Ki Dun, Annapurna circuit, Roopkund trek, Kedarkanta trek, Valley of Flowers, Chadar trek – are quite famous. Out of this Har Ki Dun valley is probably one of the best and well documented place for trekking in India, specially trekking in Himalayas.

Har Ki Dun is a cradle shaped valley in the Garhwal Himalayas (Hindi: गढ़वाल). It is in the Uttarkashi district of the state of Uttarakhand in India. It is surrounded by snow-covered peaks and alpine vegetation. This valley is at an altitude of 3500 m (11,480 t) above mean sea level and is snow-covered during October to March. The valley is about 25 km from the village of Taluka. [wiki]

Detailed travelogue of our trek to Har Ki Dun, in the month of May 2015, will be documented in the following posts very soon:

Rest of the post describes over all summary, trek planning and preparation details.

Har Ki Dun valley provides a beautiful view of ‘Swargarohini’ mountain. The legend says, Pandavas scaled Swargarohini mountain in a bid to enter heaven in mortal form.

This trek is of Easy-to-Moderate intensity. Starting point for the trek to Har Ki Dun is Taluka village (2110 m, 6922 ft). Trail passes under the Datmir village, in front of Gangaad village, through Seema/Osla and ends at Har Ki Dun. Trail runs along the tributary of Tons river and has few steep climbs and descents.

Each major crossover and climbs from the mountain ridges, offers stunning views of ice clad peaks of Sankri range of Garhwal Himalayas.

Sankri village – Entry point for Har Ki Dun and various other treks. Actual trail starts from Taluka.

Round trip trek duration is 4-days. Distance from Taluka to Seema (13 Km) is covered on the first day, and from Seema to Har Ki Dun (12 Km) is covered on second day. Trekkers usually camp at Har-Ki-Dun for one or two nights. Return route is same as the onward route and also completed in two days. If trekkers are habituated to trekking long distances (~ 20 Km) in one day, they can attempt return journey from Har Ki Dun to Taluka in one day.

The trek takes you to a completely different world which is so close to the nature and completely free from any kind of gadgets! Beautiful vistas, unfolding in front of your eyes, are a visual treat. It makes you appreciate beauty of the Himalayas and the mother nature. This is a ‘must do’ trek for every nature lover !

View of the mountains as we reach near the first day halt – Seema !

Trek Planning:

Har Ki Dun trek can be done from May till September, or during months of early winter that is November-December. Following are the possibilities:

• May : If you want to enjoy comfortable trek, and see the ice covered peaks and play on the frozen rivers at Har Ki Dun.
• June: Same of above, little more comfortable and warmer, rapidly reducing ice cover.
• August-September: More warmer, almost nil ice, except on the far-away peaks, and entire trek route is full of greenery and beautiful wild flowers.
• November-December: If you love freezing temperatures and lots and lots of ice everywhere right from the beginning !

Make your choice and plan and prepare accordingly.

Twelve of us from our office team started planning for the trek from the Month of Jan-2015. Abhishek, experienced trekker from our team, started gathering leads and began communicating with his old contacts. We decided to do Har Ki Dun trek and visit Rishikesh after the trek. It was a 9 day trip. We planned the trek in third week of May and immediately booked onward and return flight tickets to Dehradun.

After booking flight tickets, one of our team member, who had already been to Har Ki Dun, contacted his previous trek guide and told the dates. Trek guides handle all the logistics during trek duration. It includes booking accommodation at Sankri, booking Forest/GMVN guest houses or making arrangements for tents and sleeping bags, food, and luggage transport (on Mules) during the trek. About 2-3 months before the journey, you need to follow-up with them at least once in a fortnight to make sure accommodations at Seema and Har Ki Dun are booked. You can tell trek guides if your group have any specific food constraint (e.g. Jain food). However individual food customization will not be possible. They will prepare and serve you morning tea, breakfast, lunch, high tea and dinner. Food served will be simple and nutritious. For us, we got excellent food on all the trek days, it was much better than our expectations ! However, it is best to keep expectations at minimum level.

Fitness:

This trek requires endurance. Although it is an easy trek, it can be quite hard on your knees if you are not accustomed to long distance (~20-25kms in a day) trekking or walking. We all started preparing couple of months before the actual trek. Some members of our team started going to gym and started doing cardio exercises (Jogging, climbing stairs, etc.) to improve stamina. About one month before the actual trek, as a warm up exercise, some team members went for a one day trek to Madhugiri hill near Bangalore.

I suffered severe knee joint pain issue towards the end of the third day of the trek and that day we did almost 20+Km of trekking ! I had never trekked so much in one shot. Walking on the road is different and trekking downhill is completely different ! Downhill trek will test your knees. However, with more practice it will be easily manageable and it is not a big issue.

Another important consideration is reduced air pressure and hence reduced oxygen availability at the height of 3500 m above MSL. Usual oxygen percentage in the air at MSL is 20.9, and effective oxygen percentage at 3500 m is 13.5, which is reduction of 35% !! Although for average youngster, this will not be a significant issue (unless one is couch potato !) as body will naturally adjust as the trek progresses. Some people might feel weird feeling as you start final climb before reaching Har Ki Dun. Hence, stamina building is very important if you really want to enjoy the trek. Simple half an hour of jogging or 1-1.5 hours of walking can be very helpful to avoid altitude sickness.

Things to Carry:

Such small trail-side tea thelas (shops) are a great relief ! They are not many, hardly two to three thelas for every 5 to 7 Kms.

Per-head expenses for the trek:

This table is provided for a reference and to get an idea of overall, per head, expenses. I have clubbed some small-small expenses together to keep things simple.

Thoughts on clothing:

Since this was my first Himalayan trek and I am usually over sensitive to the cold, I carried lots of cloths. However, I ended up not using 30% of them (This is after discounting contingent cloths that I carried considering possibility of rain) !!! Since Har ki dun weather is cold, and sweating will happen only during the day time, cloths will not get that much dirty. We were lucky to have clear weather on all days of the trek. If it rains during the trek, you will need extra cloths.

During the trek days (Sankri-to-Sankri) I used following cloths:
Day time: Inner wears, Dark coloured thick half sleeve tee shirt, and sweat shirt (on-and-off as required), stretchable jeans + cotton warmer (bottom)
Night time: Inner wears, Cotton warmers (top) + same tee shirt + thick jacket, cotton warmer (bottom) + track pant + trouser, monkey cap.

Other Important Points and Tips:

Following are some important points you should consider while planning and executing the trek:

• After returning from the trek we realized it was our best choice to plan the trek during 3rd week of May. Because, this is the time when Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI) will also begin their month long trek program to Har Ki Dun. It is advisable to align starting day of your trek during first few batches of YHAI, because the ice and route will still be fresh. Although YHAI takes immense efforts to leave nature neat and clean (and I am really positively surprised at the discipline shown by their huge groups throughout the trek), ice will become murky/dirty as number of footfalls increase.
• Be prepared for the rains. There will be about 30% chances of rains. However, no need to carry rain-coats. You will get cheap plastic ponchos at Sankri. These ponchos can cover you from head to knees.
• Wear stretchable jeans or flexible trousers during the trek. In summer even though it is cold, you will still sweat as you trek. Strictly don’t wear tight fitting cloths.
• Have a jacket preferably with a zip, so that you can open up the zip whenever you start sweating. As soon as you stop walking, you will start feeling cold due to valley breeze. This effect will be much more pronounced as you start nearing towards Har Ki Dun.
• Do not compete with others or push your self too much during the trek! It is an high altitude trek and if you don’t listen to your body, altitude sickness will start affecting you. Take frequent breaks as required and enjoy the nature at your own pace.
• Pack your rucksack at least 2 days before the trek and DO NOT overstuff it at any cost. Keep at least 10% free space.
• There is no guarantee of mobile network or electricity from Purola. Electricity and mobile network at Sankri is not reliable (Only Cell One network, no other networks will work there even in roaming mode). Plan your calls accordingly. There absolutely no electricity or mobile coverage after Sankri.
• Drink plenty of water during the trek, it will prevent muscle cramps.

Reference contacts:
Our trek logistics were arranged by Mr. Meghraj (ID: garhwaltrekguide [a~t~] gmail [-d~o~t] com, Num: nine~4[one][one[380[eight~1[8 OR 9~]four]five]6~double 3[five six~ double 3)

Our trek guide was Mr. Chain Singh. He is very simple and extremely enthusiastic person. He and his team handled our trek really well. We got exceptionally good food during our trek. He acts as a guide for treks in Himalayas (Har Ki Dun, Borasu Pass, Swargarohini, etc.) (Num: seven~three[five[1~5[one-two~0]four 1)

On the way to Maninder Taal. Our guide, Chain Singh, waiting for slow turtles !

It is advisable to send them an email or text message before calling them on phone. You will not get reply immediately if they are on a trek. [Note: Cell Numbers and Email addresses are purposely obfuscated to prevent spammers.]

Photo Gallery:
Har Ki Dun photos and wallpapers from our trek:

Keywords:
#HarKiDun #Himalaya #Himalayas #Sankri #Travel #Trekking #Uttarakhand #garhwal #sankri #seema #osla #taluka #trek #altitude sickness #gmvn #Rafting rishikesh #dehradun #Mussoorie #hiking #har-map #white-water-rafting #himalayan-trek

+1