Old photographs of Shrikhand Mahadev Trek in new look || Black & White photographs of Shrikhand Mahadev Trek in Himachal Pradesh, INDIA
Shrikhand Mahadev in Himachal Pradesh is one of the most difficult Treks, I have done so far. All these photographs are more than 4 years old now, but memories are still fresh in our mind. This Photo Journey is sharing some of the black & White photographs shot during Shrikhand Mahadev Trek in 2008. Let's check out and know more about this wonderful place in Himalayas...
Very first photograph shows a huge rock standing still on top of snow covered hill at the height of approximately 1700 feets. This place is of high importance for Shiva followers. This rock is considered as Shivling and every year various pilgrim come to this place from various parts of the country. This Trek opens in July for approximately 3 months.
I remember the moment when this Trek was planned by Vikas, Vishal & Narender Ji... I was one of the passive member who was not involved in planning and other folks were best at it :) ... It was very quick plan... Three of us started from Delhi and all of us met at Shimla to start next journey. We went till Nirmand Town in our car and parked it there at some friend's home... From their, we hired a cab to drop us at Jaon Village. jaon village is base from where Shrikhand Mahadev Trek Starts. This whole stretch from Jaon to Shrikhand Mahadev peak was very beautiful with various herbs, plants and flowers on the way...
This climb from Jaon to Shrikhand peak took 3 days and third day was mainly through rocky hills with not plants and most of them covered with snow... Last day was challenging one with last stretch was also creating some breathing problems for some of us.. So idea was to reach final destination, spend little time there and come back to Parvali Bag for spending night... During back journey we took 2 days to reach Jaon Village...
Here is another photographs from third day of climb.. This place is just above Nain-Sarovar... I call it cloud store... Even this kind of clouds can't be seen from airplane... The size of hills in background will give you some idea about the diameter of this Cloud store.. It was most beautiful moment to see these clouds.. I wish I had a video to share this moment...
Here is a photograph showing two of our friends climbing up through snow covered hill around Shrikhand Mahadev Peak. After this stretch some of us started feeling breathing problems but we managed to handle this through some of the medicines we were carrying with us..
During this trek to Shrikhand Mahadev, clouds keep walking with you and at times start racing and of-course you can't compete with them :) ... Although these clouds make you most uncomfortable when they plan to throw heavy showers on you, while you have backpack on your shoulders and climbing high...
Shrikhand Mahadev Trek is part of Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh, India. Although route to reach the place is through Shimla town if you are coming from Delhi or Chandigarh... Weather on these hills is extremely unpredictable... Rains can start anytime... It's hard to see sun after 9am as clouds start moving from one place to another and whole day is spent with roaming clouds.. Most of the times, weather is good for trekking unless rain starts.. After first day, you don't even see trees where you can protect yourself from raindrops...
Here is a photograph of fuggy day.. It was day one near Thachru which is one of the halts, where tents can be arranged for night stay but many folks target for Kali-Ghati or Parvati Bag on first day... We stayed at Thacharu as we didn't want to rush.. After first day of trek two of us were down with fever due to sudden change in weather and continuous trekking throughout the day...
Here is a photograph of Shrikhand River which starts following you from Baghi-pul and during first day you have to walk through it or along the parallel paths during first half... A beautiful river with chilled water which comes from snow capped peaks around Shrikhand Mahadev Peak.
Here is a photograph of Parvati Bag. This is the place which is targeted for first stay by many trekkers and for us it was very aggressive... So on first day we stayed at Thachru and on second day at Foolon ki Ghati which is next to Parwati bag....Lush green hills all around with shining white snow on the top and inside the corners of these hills.... Many of the water sources were also frozen on the way... At times, walking on those was extremely risky and you never know that which part of it has hallow below it...
In some of the water streams, flow of water was very high during the day time and it used to increase as time passes in a day... During evening all of these streams used to get highest flow and slows down during night and cycle gets repeated.
Here is a nother photograph of one of the hills covered with Hills... But this is much below the Shrikhand Mahadev Peak as we can see some tree in the bottom... This one is probably shot during first day or even on the way from Shimla to Jaon village...
One of the rare photographs from Shrikhand Mahadev when we saw uncovered sky which was not wrapped by dense clouds...