In the Shadow of Nanda Devi Peak (7817m), Overcoming Fears and Finding Peace at Rudranath Temple

Yesterday the journey from Sagar village to Rudranath was very thrilling. While on the way through the jungle I heard the sound of a bear howling, the knee-deep snow after Pung Bugyal left no stone unturned in testing me. And in the last 3.5 km, snowfall started which made me realize that now my life is in danger because neither I nor the locals knew that there would be any human being in the temple. So when there is no one then how will I get help. With many problems, I sleep in my sleeping bag to avoid getting wet.

I took shelter at night in a broken hut whose gate was broken so it could not be closed, I slept with the gate open, while lying down many times the thought also came that some man-eating animal might enter inside and play games with me. When my mind got tired of thinking about the matter for a long time, then I slept thinking that whatever happens will be seen now. I slept well at night, of course the cold wind coming from the open gate left no stone unturned in forming a layer of snow on my sleeping bag.

It is winter in the Himalayas and it is ruthless. Snowfall or frost is as dangerous as driving a car on black ice. I am enjoying this winter a lot and one reason for this is that the #winterchallenge started in the month of December which is being organized by @worldmappin. Yesterday #traveldigest mentioned my post which has played a great role in motivating me. Till yesterday I was in the fourth position in the leaderboard of this contest, now let's see what happens after this post.

Waking up in the morning, I could see the remains of last night's snowfall outside. By now the redness of the sun had knocked on the courtyard of the mountains. While the horizon was turning from yellow to red, Nanda Devi Peak appeared so decorated as if the sun was its lover. Seeing Nanda Devi strutting from behind a hazy veil was like someone had melted gold and shaped it like this sacred peak. My favourite Nanda Devi peak is 7816 metres high. I would like to go to its base camp someday.

At a distance, other mountains like Kamet, Bandarpoonch Peak, Chaukhambha Peak, Nanda Ghunti, Trishul Peak and Hathi Parvat were making their presence felt. In this journey, I learnt that being alone is scary but nature stands with you in step with respect, ready to pick you up wherever you fall. So I kept walking holding the hand of nature without fear and today I am sitting here in the courtyard of Lord Rudranath where Nanda Devi is protecting us.

Coming out of the sleeping bag, I wear shoes and go to the temple complex, it will take some time for the rays of the sun to reach here. The temple is giving a feeling of peace after the storm. I stand with folded hands in front of Lord Rudra and receiving his blessings, thinking that I will always remember this #adventure. Although I have visited many places in #winters, but the lively energy of this place has captivated me. Even after returning home, I feel like hiking here everyday.

After coming out of the temple premises, I wear a warm cap on my head with the intention of roaming around and set out to conquer a small mountain nearby. My only effort is to not slip and fall on the snow because there is no help here and no one will know what happened to me. After hiking for about 4.5 km, I cross a large patch of snow on which I can clearly see the marks of my own shoes when I look back. I got a good feeling by carving my #footprint on the canvas of #nature.

In this part of the mountain, light sunlight is falling on the ground through the clouds, the weather here is a little less cold but the wind is stronger here. I sit and look at my shoes and pants which have become wet with the melting snow and now when the cold wind is hitting my legs, I am feeling even more cold. Saying to myself that “I will go back quickly because I will get sick of cold here”, I start turning back.

As I turn back, I see a person coming towards me from a distance, I stop for this person coming #solo to see if he needs help. After about 15 minutes, an unknown person reaches me and directly asks me “Who are you and what are you doing here”. I reply that I reached here yesterday and I did not find anyone here. The unknown person introduces himself that I am from the forest department and our team will repair the footpath leading to the temple, so I have come to do a recce of the path.

The person from the forest department and I now reach the temple premises together where I feed him chocolates and biscuits that I have brought with me. His clothes are wet and he is also shivering with cold towards me. Since I have dry clothes, I first change my clothes and offer him my sleeping bag to rest, which the unknown person from the forest department gladly accepts. He sleeps for about an hour.

After waking up, he says that I have to go back today itself but now I don't have the courage to go back, so now I will go back tomorrow. After listening to him, I also tell him that okay, we both will go down together. According to uncle, his team has kept blankets in a hut here, which we go to look for in the evening. We find blankets in a closed hut, which we bring to our hut. Now uncle has many blankets to protect us from the cold night.

Uncle had brought parathas with him, after eating which he lies down, it gets dark very early here and as soon as the sun sets, the cold increases. We lie down for a while and talk about family and then say good night and go to sleep. I close my eyes and remember this journey and fall asleep thinking about the return journey tomorrow. So this was another day of mine at Rudranath temple which was very nice and cool. See you tomorrow where I will share the return journey with you.

Below are some screenshots of maps so that you can better understand where I was and what kind of places I visited. The following maps are screenshots from google.com and https://www.mapmyrun.com has been used for a better understanding of the route.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from canon 77d and edited in lightroom, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop

[//]:# (!worldmappin 30.51929 lat 79.31851 long In the Shadow of Nanda Devi Peak (7817m), Overcoming Fears and Finding Peace at Rudranath Temple d3scr)