Kalindi

Kalindi is a high altitude mountain pass connecting the famous shrines of Gangotri and Badrinath in Garhwal Himalayas. The pass is situated at 5,950 metres (19,520 ft) elevation and is the most famous trekking pass of Garhwal Himalayas with a challenging high altitude glacial trek.

The route to the peak at 6245 M can either be along the ridge emanating from the pass towards the peak or directly up the Glacier camp to the south east of the peak.

The pass is heavily glaciated and the peak is not very frequently attempted. The glacier west of the pass flows into the Gangotri glacier which forms the source of the river Ganges.
The trek takes 6 days if already acclimatized and is usually done in summer from mid-June to mid-September.
We started the expedition from Badrinath and after acclimatising there, we trekked to Ghastoli which at 3980 M is at the junction of Arwa Tal and en-route to Mana Pass.

Ghastoli at that time was a military post and used to serve as staging camp for soldiers stationed at Mana Pass. From Ghastoli, we turned towards north and the climb begins along the badly strewn path of big boulders merging into morainous terrain before the going gets steep over icefield towards the pass.

After a long day on ice we camped at Glacier camp at 4770M. Melting snow for water by using the carry mat was a new learning for me as there was no source of water here and though there was plenty of ice around, we wanted to conserve the butane gas.

We climbed the peak from this camp climbing the southern slope of the peak. The day was sunny thus making it difficult to climb the steep snow and ice slopes during the day. After climbing the peak, we descended to the same camp for another night stay.
Next day proved tougher as the last day’s climb was tiring and due to limited availability of water, we all were partially dehydrated. The climb to Kalandi khal was long, ardous, due to skirting along crevasses and laborious due to soft snow. We made it over the pass by noon and started descending towards the base of the pass towards the Vasuki Parvat. The northern slope is deeply crevassed and the descent became more challenging as one of our porters had to be rescued due to HAPO. Since he could not walk on his own and carrying in such treacherous terrain was a major challenge.

However, we devised and improvised stretcher made of multiple carry mats and managed to drag the ailing porter through the maze of crevasses till the base of the slope beyond which it was rocky and morainous. From here we carried him for three days tilll he could be evacuated by helicopter from Vasuki Tal at 4800 M.
The route from the base over Chaturangi Bamak was broken due to churning of glaciers dropping from maze of peaks on both east and west of the glacier.

It took us three days to reach Gomukh at 4023 M and finally along the broad and easy path through pine and birch forests, to the road head at Gangotri.
This was my first expedition as team leader and was of immense learning.

Evacuation of the porter added more to the challenge as well as to the learning, which came handy in future expeditions as well.