A Trek to Dokriani Glacier, Uttaranchal, India

What started as a college excursion to a small hillock a year back became a challenging affair. The trekking bug caught me when I was 15years. later a wild- aimless- adventure ended me up with 5 friends in a Dokriani Glacier beneath the white peaks of Drapawdi ka Danda (18740ft) and Jaonli (around 6500 m).. A Himalayan dimension got added to the wanderlust. Ever since-the passion has been to satiate mind-body--soul in the lap of the King of Mountains. Me Girikumar from Bangalore Persuing Mtech in Design Engg in IIT Roorkee (Uttarakhand , India).. As hobby started to trek to Himalays finally it became my real loving sport ... An attempt here to collect and share some of the experiences, thoughts and glimpses.

Day 1 Acclamatizing Day

Here we go ... Started our journey from IIT Roorkee at 4.30 am on Saturday morning on 15 th march 2008 it was about 9 hrs journey to Uttarkashi, the district headquarters. The town of Uttarkashi is right under big hills. It is low for the region - only 1158 metres - but all around it, there is sharp height-gaining. This lack of altitude also makes Uttarkashi relatively warm, and a decent choice for a base where you can spend nights and explore the region. The road from Roorkee to Uttarkashi touches Haridwar, Rishikesh, Chamba, Tehri to name few of the significant ones. The chage in relative relief becomes clearly perceptable at Rishikesh as the plains suddenly changes to steep terrain and serpentining roads. I was yet to acclamatize having gained 1500 m in less then 10 hrs. got a accomadation at Hotel Satyam jus opposite to GMVN guest house. Since we were tired we had nice veg food in Satyam restaurant and slept.

View of Theri Dam Back waters Enroute to Uttarakshi

The Blue Reflection of Bhagirathi

Day 2 Trek via Bamak Peaks

Early morning Satish a local guide with 2 porters came to our room to take us to Bukki the Near by village where we starded our trek for 6 days to the Glacier. Ride to Bukki The distance is 37 Kms of cirss crossed road on the banks (true right) of Bhagirathi river. From Bukki road to Bukki (actual Hill top village ) is 2 Kms up hill . A suspension bridge led to the other side of Bhagarathi at Bhukki where the trek started. After an hour of steep climb we crossed Bukki village, the last habitation where people lived year round. The trek was more steep...more or less cirss cross climb ....we probably gain just a few hundred mtrs over Bukki . If I am not wrong- its alti is about 1650 mtrs. We took around 3.5 Hrs to reach Thela Base… passed all up hill climb with lot of bamak trees with red coloured eye catching flowers on our enroute to Thela base Tela was a small patch of not so flat land with small "Bugyals"( high altitude medows). Finally reached Thela base at 4.30 pm in the evening. Later at late 9.30 pm roti and dhal was prepared by our cooks Vishwanath and Ashish and Dinesh. That night was cold pleasant night . All of us had a good sleep.

The Real explorers on the move
Crossing Bhagirathi River (origin of Ganga .. Near Bukki )
Clip shot from Bukki village
Bukki village one of the high altitude Village in mighty Himalays

Day 3 Trek To Unkown Peak

The day started with the gentle trail towards Thela top and Buoo Top. Today's trek is through beautiful forests of Chestnut, Walnut and Willows. A gradual ascent brings us to the picturesque Thela Base Bugyals along the swift rivulet. we capture many shots. One of the greatest fun is that Me , Jeyanth , Abhi and Shetty were lost in the foot hills of Buoo top and it was 3.30 pm in the evening we were still trying to climb up .. But then as Jeyanth was shouting on us then we decided to descent but. Which way to go … complete lost the route... since the route was filled with snow … finally the Jaan the dog showed us were to descent … it was a thrilling experience for us .. Then we found Varun and Ashish waiting near buggiyal Of the mystique Himalyan peaks. with out food just 3 rotis in the morning we continued to trek for 7 hrs continuously. And we wer back again to thela base at 6.30 pm .

On our Ascent in mid way to Thela top

Too tough to balance right

Sunset in peaks

Steep descent

Totally exhausted roll towards Bugiyal

That night was eerie. None of us had a good sleep. I was experiencing palpitations, which I have never experienced before, In the midnight woke up and went on Bugyals. The sky was clear and innumerable stars shone in the sky. The frequency of shooting stars that one sees in the skies there are probably unparalleled. In that 15 minutes I saw two of them happening. Lost in my thoughts I think I saw stars shooting out into the sky. but I cant pinpoint it for sure. Whether it was an objective observation or combined effects of insomnia, altitude and the ethereal ambience. Early morning at 6oo Hrs we went for a morning photoshoot.The shot was worth the effort.

Day 4 : The Real Trek

Early morning we started of with packing up all things and including tent from Thela base and we strated our trek towards Gujjar hut .

Team Posing for a Pic before leaving Thela Base ..

Too Tough Terrain to climb with Luggage

Crossing lot of Ridges Streams Enroute to Gujjar BaseAfter 7 km of walking, we reached a small clearing in the forest. In front of us was a beautiful tree with several hundred coins buried in its trunk. For a while we thought we had discovered what every man dreams . Dinesh (cook ) announced that this was to be our camping site for the day. He sid we cant make up till gujjar hut because it was already 3 pm still 6 Km steep trek leads to Gujjar Hut . We were a little disappointed at this - it was only around 3 pm and we were all ready for more action. But all of us was tired .The place was the valley of seven hills called Jungle camp site wasn't the normal where the tree we huge and big. Dingad stream is a route offered to cross the several up and down ridges, many samll and big streams and dense mixed forests of deodar, rhododendron (burans), oak, pine etc. provide an atmosphere of perfect peace and tranquility then we camped that night in the valley .

Base camp Valley of seven Hills - Jangal Camp Enroute to Gujjar

We gathered some wood and started a camp fire. Meanwhile we started preparing for the chilly night by putting on layers of woolens. We all gathered around the fire. Dinesh(cook ) Dhanvir (guide) and porter Ashish started sharing stories of their various treks. Their favorite stories seemed to be the ones in which things have gone horribly wrong. The trek in which they had heavy snowfall, and some of the team members had given up on the way back and started demanding them to camp on the glacier.

My team carrying logs for the night camp in front of Dingad river just a few km from Glacier

Full Moon light Night .....

Day 5 : The "D" Day

It was the morning i am going to see the Glacier for the first time in my life And the day is also going to be one of the most adventurous days of my life. An adventure bordering on extreme and horror at times. We left jungle camp at 9 am with packed lunch (pori and aloo) varun did not joined us he stayed back in the base camp, all 4 of us with Dhanvir started out trek towards Gujjar hut. After a strenuous 4 hrs of trek we had a glimpse of all the snow white peaks we are standing in the middle of the hills sourrounded by Lingudhar(4804m), Mati(5390m), Joanli(6740m) , Huru glacier(5348m), Drapawdi ka Danda (18740ft), Dhokrani(5670m) and Rakku top(5120m) * Heights are aprox . The valley has a gentle slope with different land features formed by the glacier and surrounded by snow-covered peaks.One can walk up to the glacier and adjoining areas and climb the small peaks.

Paronamic Clipshot of Kheda Tal One of the high altitude lakes

Come on Xplorers still a Km walk we will touch the Glacier
Finally in the Destination

Shhhhh... full tuss Puss no energy to climb up take in rest

Gujjar hut base became our final destination since the snow was too much as 6 to 8 feet we could not go near to the glacier but we can have a glimpse of 10 feet Glacier sliding down form Drapawdi ka Danda and Dokriani.

Enroute to Dokriani Glacier Crossing the Dingad River .orign of the river is just 500m ahead from the glacier

Xplorers posing in front of Drapawdi ka Danda (18740ft) the place where the Glacier starts

Drapawdi ka Danda (18740ft) and the Dingad river , you need to cross this river to have a paronamic view of Kheda Tal on of the High altitude lake

Paronamic clip shot of Rakku Top just adjacent to Dokirani

We did not stopped our zeal of climbling lead to a High altitude lake clad Kheda Tal for the first time in my life i saw Tal- lake top layer solid ice and below freeing water. And the view of Drapawdi ka Danda and the lake all together made me to stand breathless.
Then we finshed our packed lunch in front of Gujjar hut .then we started our descent at 3 pm it was tough to get down since we had a heavy snow fall but experienced guide Dhanvir made us to reach the base camp safe .

Day : 6 The Day of Descent

Early morning we packed up all our baggage’s including our sleeping bags and mattress, started our trek back to Bukki Village ,we left jungle camp and trekked for 6 hrs continuously with 15 min rest at Thela base reached Bukki at 3 pm in the evening and 5 pm we reached to Uttaraksahi.The hard and most adventurous trek came to an end.


The first glacier of my life. Dokriani Glacier trek thought me lot of lessons to live in this World. This was a single step towards our zeal of adventure.
A single step leads to giant leap

Guys after a long 56 km trek waiting for me on the Hanging bridge 300m ahead to finish our Trek