Mayali Pass Trek

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Route : Ghuttu - Gangi - Chauki - Masar tal - mayali pass - Painya Tal - Vasuki Tal - Kedarnath 
September 2007
Pramod Kala
Whenever I remembered my khatling Masar Tal trek, I felt very bad because we had to return back from maser tal due to heavy snow in June 2001. Now the time  has come to complete this trek in Sep.2007. For this trek we started preparation activities from first week of August. I was posted in Gairsain (Chamoli), Other team members were Sh. Shiv Singh Negi (Hitam) Tehri, Mr. Anil Sharma (Advocate) Tehri and Mr. Rajendra Rawat (Raju Bhai) B.E.L. kotdwar. I was keen to complete this trek because of failure in 2001 but I was known to the problems what we could face. Negi ji & Sharma ji were doing arrangements of ration & fuel so we took responsibilities for tent and medicines. I had already taken leave, because I don't want that the trekking preparation get effected due to official work load. Sep. 01 2007, me and raju bhai reached New Tehri in evening. It was a rainy day, so I was thinking about the success of trek.
We stayed in Keshav’s room, who is posted in New Tehri and lives in a govt. house. It was raining whole night. Next morning weather was little changed then we went to Negi ji’s house where we took bath and lunch. Here Negi ji introduced us to Kedar Bhai, he was also fond of trekking & mountaineering and few days back he did manali – leh by his maruti 800 car. While lunch he shared his Manali–Leh exp. His actual name is not kedar, but he was named Kedar by his friends, because he has been visiting Panch kedar every year since last 25 years.
We loaded our luggage on bus and moved to Ghansali, enroute we heard that a bus has got accident in same route and many local people have died. Most of the victims were from Ghuttu and near by area. We reached Guttu by taxi from ghansali and stayed in GMVN TRH. 
On 03/09 we wasted our lot of time on porter search and at last we got two nepali porters who came ghuttu few days back and finally we started our trek very late. We reached Reah via debling village. Sky was clear and land was green everywhere. Our porters (Kali & Kamal Bahadur) had got tired as they were not experienced porter, we were encouraging them to move forward. I was again on same route after 6 years but nothing was changed except some electricity poles without wire. Before Reah, Raju bhai and sharmaji were trapped among bushes and could come out only after hard job. Sharma ji’s leg started paining now and reah was 6-7 km. from here.. 
It became dark slowly-slowly and everybody lighted the torch. Rain was started and we were walking fast to reach Gangi. Negiji, Raju Bhai and porters had moved fast so me and sharmaji were in last and got distance from our friends, suddenly sharmaji slipped from the route and fell down in slope, I was shouting only. It was a dark and rainy night and I was alone for rescue. Sharma ji was lucky that he was dangled in a tree 20-25 feet below. I focused torch light and saw him on tree in a deep ditch. Bhilangana was flowing just behind him. I kept my backpacks and shouted for help but no body listened me. I couldn’t leave sharma ji in this situation so I decided to rescue alone. I went down slowly slowly and stood with the help of a tree and after a strenuous work, sharma ji could come back on trail.
It’s was a dark night and I was helping sharmaji to walk. Our friends were waiting for us in a next turn but they were in another side so they couldn’t listen my voice, we didn’t tell them anything and moved ahead, suddenly we heard dog’s bark and we became hopeful that we were in safe zone, because dogs live with people only. After moving forward, we saw a temple and two saint were sitting there. After their permission we went inside, where they had set a fire. They have made an asharam near the temple for saint and travelers. Here we told the story to other members, Negi ji prepared tasty dinner and we had a good sleep.
Next morning we started porter search because nepali porter was not ready to move ahead with us, so we sent them back and started porter search in Gangi village, which is the last village of route. After visiting gangi we came to know that they have to celebrate a function on 5th , only then any local guy can join us. We had no option except to stay there. It was good that we were with saint otherwise we could face problem. 05/09 It was a festival day in Gangi. Shepherds were coming back from high altitude after summer. Villagers were welcoming them and playing local musical instruments. Each shepherds was coming with 800-1000 sheep. Lord Shomeshwara’s temple is located in the middle of village.
Nobody was ready to come with us till the next seven days because it’s business time for them. They had to shave their sheep and many people from outside had came to village for business. I met an old porter gajendra who went with us in 2001 during our Khatling, Masar Tal, Sahashtra Tal trek, he introduced us to kundan and he became ready to join us after two 
days so we decided to move on 07/09. We were very thankful to saints who helped us. They gave us local Rajma, Potato & Ghee. On 07/09 we started trek from gangi with Kundan, his son Jai and Tirepan Singh. After few mts. walk we had understood that one more group was going ahead because every camp site was filled with rubbish. We reached kharsoli (2896 mts.) in evening. Which was 16-17 km. from gangi. Next day we started at 8:15 am, from here the trail was beautiful and snow capped peaks were looking fabulous. En route we met to a shepherd, whose one sheep was died last night. We purchased mutton from him. We met a maharashtriyan group en-route who were going to khatling glacier. We reached chowki (4000 mts.) at 2 pm and pitched our tent. We lived in a cave in 2001 but this time we could not go there because water level was high in the river.
Chowki is base for Khatling & maser Tal and is 14 km. from kharsoli. Maharastriyan group had pitched their tent near us. We burn the fire in night and enjoyed mutton. From this place tirepan singh was not ready to go ahead so only Kundan and his 14 yrs. son were with us as porter. Next morning (09/09) we moved towards Masar Tal but this time I was feeling tiredness. It might possible that in 2001 we left our backpacks at chowki site and this time we were carrying more load due to porters problem. It was a steep climb and it's tough to hold our breath. While holding our breath we were viewing Himalayan peaks which were looking marvelous. Till evening we reached few mts. down from Masar Tall, where a group of Bengali trekkers have pitched their tents. We also pitched our tent and did rest due to tiredness and enjoyed Himalayan beauty at this location. Here we met the guide of bangali group karan singh who was from uttarkashi and was an experienced guide. Raju Bhai and Jai singh went to masar tal for photography.
Next morning we got up late and reached Masar Tal (5100 mts.). When I came in June 2001, the lake was frozen but this time water was clear and we could see the reflection of nearby peaks in lake. From here the route was totally new for me. Now we were gaining height and walking on boulders. We were facing problem in each step. We reach now at Masar top. We were near glaciers and Himalayan peaks. We took a little rest then moved. Trails was tough from here and we were walking on big boulders, we were following the experienced Negiji, who was guiding us on right direction. There we had to cross a big glaciers to reach mayali pass.
We sat on one side of glacier and did planning to cross. We crossed it slowly-slowly, glacier has lot of crevasses. It was a time of horripilation. I tried to peep inside a crevasse but it was so horrid. After crossing this, we again had to walk on boulders and after a short time we reached at top and that was the highest point (5300 mts.) of the trek, Mayali Pass.
We stayed here for few minutes, jai singh faced the AMS problem here, after a little puja we moved ahead. We were in steep slope and walking on boulders, after trekking in such tough trail, we saw the beautiful lake Painya Tal. It was a beautiful lake. Land was without vegetation. We didn’t stop here because we had decide to reach Kedarnath as we had already wasted our lot of time in gangi. Now the vegetation zone started and the land was filled by Braham kamals & Fen kama and we were climbing down in green land. From here we saw the Vasuki tal. I had already visited vasuki tal so I know the route from here. Now it was the time of kundan singh and he didn’t want to walk now due to tiredness, but he had to walk as rain has started and his son jai singh was feeling cold. It was a continuous rain and sometimes rain is getting changed in snow fall. We left our ration at vasuki tal, because we could get everything at Kedarnath. Raju Bhai gave his pullower to jain Singh, our youngest team member (14 years).
We walked very fast till the top. Kedarnath was looking very beautiful from here and we took the photographs. Now network has started so we gave messages to our family members. From here negiji and sharma ji walked very fast, I was walking slow and Raju Bhai and porter were following me. We reached kedarnath very late and negiji has to come back to take raju bhai and porters because they were not carrying torch. We stayed in a lodge at kedarnath and next morning after temple visit we moved towards our destinations. We put our backpacks on mules and hired a taxi from gaurikund.