N O V E L PAT H S Fresh from the Kedarkantha trek, CHAHAK MITTAL believes that it is not the mountain you come to conquer, but yourself. ARJUN AGARWAL captures the journey
LOST
in thoughts of nothingness, I lean on a fence, sipping my steaming hot tea, which warms me up, but, only a tad bit. The temperature is -9ºC, precisely. I hardly feel my numb feet, which makes me anxious about the challenging expedition ahead. For the next five days, I’ll be treading the soaring, snow-covered trails of the Himalayas in pursuit of the Kedarkantha peak, situated at 12,500 ft. At the heart of it is the belief that nature will be the balm to soothe and heal me from the vagaries of the past few months. At Sankari village, the trek's starting point, I arm myself with energy bars, banana chips, walnuts and altitude sickness tablets.
I,
DIGGING THE MYSTERIES OF A FROZEN LAKE
along with six friends, leave from Sankari, armed with bamboo trekking poles. The adrenaline is pumping with excitement of doing something at which few of us are novices. My surroundings have an unusual calm and an appealing vibe, which I’ve been craving for since the lockdown. I finally feel like a free bird, traversing challenges and navigating my path in the clouds.
COLD MESS
