Finally At 16000 Feet. Touching The Horizon <3

I never knew the value of small steps before this day.

These are the words that kept going in my head when I finally saw this before my eyes. And suddenly it applied to everything in my life. 4 days taught me so much more about myself which I had not even expected. But before we reach there, let me tell you about "how" we got there.

In my previous post, I had mentioned that we were all decked up and went to sleep for the final ascend. But things didn't work out the way we'd thought. The moment we barely got out of sleep was the exact same moment when we realised the weather was not in our favour. It was raining cats and dogs! We couldn't hear anything outside except the strong rain. All of us were in our tents not knowing what to do. We thought of waiting it out but it was nowhere close to slowing down.

I & @komal decided to go to the kitchen tent in hope of keeping ourselves a little warmer than the tent. Oh I forgot to tell you, it was around zero degrees or even lower I guess. So, a bad thunderstorm, crazy winds and us struggling to function with our numb hands. And the only thing we hoped for was the tents to stay over our head. When we entered the kitchen tent @footlooselatika and @rovinman were already there having a cuppa tea with Mr. Bhupinder who, as usual, welcomed us with a BIG smile which felt warmer than anything!

We took his advice and decided to wait the storm out which kept getting crazier because the chances of landslide/cloudburst were much higher. Meanwhile he shared some interesting stories about legends and gods which the locals believe to be true. We spent about 2 hours and that was it. I had to pee so bad that I had to get out. And what do I see next? NO. MORE. TOILET. TENT. It got blown away in the storm and well.... I got the sweet experience of peeing in the rain!

Anyway we slipped back in our tents which were fortunately there but one could actually witness fear on our faces. At that moment we only wanted to be safe and not roam around without roofs over our heads. By this hour we were really tired of sitting and thought it would probably be best to catch some rest after all that was the safest place we could be.. I could hear other people deciding wether or not to go at the lake during that hour...and moments later I dozed off.

It was around 5:30 when I woke up (thanks to my undying wish of peeing in the worst of times) and headed out. It was still drizzling BUT I saw some of the most incredible vies of my life! I didn't have my phone or anything as such and not a single person in sight. I walked a little further away from camp and that was it. Standing at the edge of a cliff I could se everything which was basically hidden from the fog. The only sounds were that of a waterfall, me walking in puddles and soft winds which were cold enough to chill your bones. I suddenly forgot about the night before and was completely absorbed in the beauty I was in! I could see the trail we were about to walk on and the exact spot where the end of the climb was.

Within 30-40 mins I saw my people rising and shining and what was next? It was summit time!! We geared up and carried only our water bottles and phones/cameras. We kept moving and refilling our bottles with the coldest water EVER but were so thrilled that it was finally happening.

Do you see the small tents inside the circle? If you do, that was our camp site. I kept looking at it just to see how far we had come.

We stopped for water breaks even though that was the least thirsty I had ever felt but that wasn't an option. A small video where you can see @komal, delighted as ever :) It was great fun for us to walk around with pink faces like that :D

We kept crossing such streams which would look infinite either we looked up or down the hill.

Here we were 1 km away from Roopkund which meant about an hour of walking...Pffff. Easy right..? WRONG.

By this point I felt dead. I had lost my poncho bag containing my poncho and gloves because I did the mistake of throwing it first before crossing a snow trail. The bag bounced and went down the hill and honestly I didn't even care about it at that moment even if I could see it right there stuck between 2 pieces of rocks. The view was the only thing that distracted me from all of this and why not?

Here comes the moment. Taking my phone out to record this was literally painful for me at that point but I really didnt want to miss this. @komal was already waiting for me and you can see her waving and calling out to me in the beginning of this video. Seeing her there smiling at me boosted the last of my energy levels and I somehow managed to drag myself upto her. I apologise for recording vertically but hope you understand why :)

ANNNNND..... VOILA!!! PRESENTING YOU THE MYSTERIOUS LAKE!

Do you see them bones? Those are actual human bones.

As you can see from the pictures, the visibility kept changing constantly because of the massive cover of clouds. But there were many moments when the lake would reflect the mirror image of these hills just like a mirror. Beautifully still like not meant to be touched.. <3

A celebration jump... or an almost celebration jump :P I am glad at least I, @komal & @footlosselatika were able to make that jump with perfect timing. I mean look at that coordination ;)

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We descended after an hour (pictures in next blog) and slowly left it behind..one step at a time. It definitely felt a little sad that we had to go. But I don't think we were the sam people who had started the journey though, I know I wasn't. This trek tested us ways we had not even imagined.

And what altered my mind was when I saw what willpower can make you do. It can literally make you cross mountains, go through conditions that no one in their right minds would and ultimately put you at the very top.

I don't know how many treks I will be doing in the future but this is the first trek that I chose to do and completed it successfully inspite of not being completely fit for it. It makes so much sense to me when I relate this experience with anything now. Even if you think you aren't prepared for something and it seems too big for you to overcome/handle, always trust your instincts and your heart. You will definitely find a way :)

Hope you enjoyed my journey so far and I wish you have a wonderful day. Cheers! <3

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Lots Of Love <3