All we NIM trainee
went for puja for the success of our course in the temple. From NIM we
started our journey early morning to a village Bookhi which is approx.
half the distance between Gangotri & Uttarkashi. Then from their we
need to take two intermediate camps, Tel (8500 ft) & Gujarhat (11200
ft). This could be a tiring treks. You need to be well prepared for that.
Also one should not forget to snaps some picturesque area. In the winter
you will find snow at Gujarhat also. So the Best season is May-Oct. |
|
|
Base Camp
: 12500 ft.
|
|
Go
Top
|
|
At Base camp, I
found a wonderful place for camping. You can find a lake called Khiratal
towards left of the root between Gujarhat & Base Camp. Above Khiratal
a mountain ridge called Macha Dhar exists, towards right of root a ridge
called Choro ki dhar lies. At Base camp one can see Dingadh river on left.
Also you can see a helipad constructed by NIM for their Search & Rescue
course.
After Base camp we
went to Advance Base Camp(ABC) where we did our ICE craft practice for
few days. ABC lies at 13500 ft. where you can see top of the Draupadi-Ka-Danda-II.
Here we are exactly in the valley of mountain. Ahead lies a glacier. Also
a research centre. Then we marched towards the Camp-I at 15800 ft., for
snow craft & height gain. The root from ABC to camp-I is initially
from morain then with many crevasses in between, for mass no. of participant
you may need to fix a rope on the away to avoid any accident. |
At Camp-I practice
for a week. 12th May 99 around 4pm. our duty instructor of the day came
out with smile on his face. Whistled everybody to gather all the adv.
trainee. Then he cheered us by telling us to prepare for next day morning
for Summit. We took dinner on that day at 5:30pm. 13th May 1999 our day
started at 2:00am. I was the one who was very much interested went first
for the bed tea in the dark. We had our packed breakfast cum lunch at
3:00am. We were told since this is a Holy peak
not to carry/have non-veg. At 4:00am we started our final ascent to the
summit. It was dark, most of the trainee was carrying their head torch.
After four hr. I reached at the top. We need to fix a rope at last patch
of 400 ft. since it was a 900 climb. I never had any food except
morning tea & a seep of water inbetween to avoid waste of time, so
that I will reach early on top. At top as I reached, first of all I never
trust on myself that I climbed a peak called Draupadi-Ka-Danda since another
peak was watching me, & I thought of still to climb but latter my
instructor solved my confusion of achievement mentioning that the peak
we see in front as soon we climb this is Draupadi-Ka-Danda-I & where
we were is Draupadi-Ka-Danda-II a difference of 100 ft. in ht. & our
aim is to climb II only. So we don't know latter how time elapsed while
catching all beauty of nature in our camera & viewing the same. This
is my first ever summit after unsuccessful attempt to Mt. Gangotri-I(21980
ft) expedition. So thank's to NIM. Click
here for summite photo. |
|
|
|
|
Mail us at rajan_rikame@mtnl.net.in
|
|
|
