My Happiest Trek Moment – Personal Stories of Love, Pride And Serenity - Part 6

What is the My Happiest Trek Moment campaign?

Frankly, we’re tired of all the negative news around us. You must be too.

We are cooped up at home, not meeting people dear to us. All we get is bad news about Coronavirus spreading its devilish arms. Almost any conversation becomes about Coronavirus. It’s become quite frustrating.

So we have created a space that takes us as far away from Coronavirus as possible — to the trekking world where we all yearn to be.

As a trekker, we’re sure you relive moments from your trek every now and then — it could be that euphoric moment when you finally reached the summit! It could be that moment you were moved to tears by a beautiful sunrise. It could be the reflective time you spent by yourself at a campsite.

You’re welcome to share your stories! We’d be happy to feature them! Find all the steps to send it here.

With no further ado, here are some fantastic stories that trekkers sent to us! 🙂

Btw, make sure you share these stories further, to help more people beat the lockdown blues!

| The magical rays of the Sun on Mt Annapurna!

“What other motivation do you need than catching up on the sunrise at Annapurna Base Camp during my ABC trek in 2019. To start at 4 am and getting rewarded for it is all you need. A 1-1.5 hour walk from MBC took us to the moment we were all waiting for!

For a brief moment before the sunrise, our Indiahikes Trek Leader Raj, asked us to switch off our torches and headlamps and have a look around ourselves. And oh my God! It was the most beautiful sight I had seen. I couldn’t believe what was laid on my eyes. Hiunchuli to the left. Annapurna South in front. Annapurna Glacier on the right. Macchapuchare behind us.

And a visible mesmerizing Milky Way overhead. Unknowingly, there were tears in my eyes. I couldn’t figure out where they were because of the hard work we put before getting there or because of the heavenly sight. But it brought a sense of satisfaction, happiness, and relief.

Siddhanth Shah

| My happy tears for the mighty Himalayas 🙂

“On the day of the Chandrashila summit, we get up by 3.30am and start for Chopta by 4am in complete darkness. Funnily enough, this was the day I misplaced my head torch(I found it the next day tucked away in my backpack) and was completely dependent on my other trek members to help me walk and follow trails till the sun was up. Everyone was always there to offer a helping hand and that helped all the jitters that I had about reaching the summit fly right out of the window!

Fast forwarding it to a few hours later, when we started for the Chandrashila summit from Tungnath, that 1km climb was tough and the last 15-20 steps were a challenge. But there it was, the temple, the flag, the blue ranges on one side and the mighty snow clad peaks of Chaukhamba, Kedar and kedar Dome on the other. I walked a few steps ahead and it was as if everyone around me disappeared and my eyes welled with tears and I cried like a baby!

These were complete happy tears because the sense of joy and achievement that I felt on my reaching the summit of a mountain in the Great Himalayas is just something I cannot explain.

Something inside me clicked and as I stood there watching the floating clouds all I could think of was how little all the other worries are and how proud I am of myself and since then I’m in love with the Mountains!

After I got a hold on the dam that broke loose from my eyes and we started descent I was full of mischief and happiness and was the first one in my group to start creating snow slides and also encouraging everyone to give it a go!” – Alefiya Raja

| The Badge of Happiness

“It was 16th Jan, 2020 last day of the Kedarkantha Trek & after completing the trek happily & safely we all reached Sankri. After resting the whole afternoon, our trek leader asked us to gather at the passage.

He started by congratulating us, thanking us, expressed his gratitude, taught us many good things, gave so much knowledge & information & also asked us one by one to come to express our views & experience during the trek & to honour us with the badge.

I felt like wow this is really awesome! First day at the beginning of the trek we all were stranger to each other & the trek ended with no more stranger but as a team, like a family.

I decided to be the last person to express my views & experience as I was enjoying myself observing & listening to everyone. Getting up one by one, receiving the badge from the trek leaders, everybody cheering with the claps, making every person feel more Positive, more confident, its like an achievement.

One by one all were expressing their gratitude towards the leaders, towards the team, sharing their knowledge, their stories, how they made it to this trek, what they learnt, the fun they had, how they pushed the limits & many other things which even made all of us a bit emotional too.

It was my turn & being alone in the beginning then getting a team, a family like bond I was speechless as more than everything was already said by others. Just with few words of Gratitude & then I ended my speech with a shayari. It made me feel really great to receive this Badge. Its actually the Badge of Appreciation, the Badge of Achievement, the badge of Confidence, the Badge of Teamwork, the Badge of Happiness.

And few hours later while sitting ideal in my room, I just realized that We didn’t click a single picture of this final gathering. We just forgot to take a picture of our expressions of happiness shared by us as a team.

And this made me think that sometimes the happiest moments aren’t treasured in photograph but in our eyes so that we can see it anytime, anywhere and just smile happily.” – Jay Mehta

| A poem in the lap of Mt Thalaysagar

“I’m in the picture not because I want to be;

Kalpesh Mange

| My new found secret keeper 🙂

“Though Kedarkantha was my first ever Himalayan trek or any other trek for that matter .. I have certainly come back with not just happy moments but as a life changing experience.

It gave me an insight of how blessed I am in my life and also that there’s so much more to this life that I am yet to explore and experience.. I came back with a sense of gratitude , responsibility and realization of my own strengths .. truly fell in love with how the mountains smell,, the taste of that water and how the cold wind feels in the skin ..

And how just hugging a tree became a treasure for me ..

On the day of summit while we were opening the snow covered tails to ourselves

I witnessed an intoxicating sight as the first rays of sun hit the frozen droplets on trees and leaves . It felt so serene even when I was walking into the unknown wilds for the first time . This one activity that our trek leader conducted struck the chords and stayed with me forever ..

He asked us to find a tree , we could relate with and hug it ..telling us that we could whisper any secret knowing that it will stay safe with it !

And though the feeling is indescribable, I actually found a tree I could resonate with and emptied myself to it .. hugged it for long .. I felt light and comforting ..

Since then, mountains became my secret keepers and I cannot wait to go back to them ..” – Pragati Mantri Maheshwari

| The day I received “Spirit of Trekking” Badge!

“I have done one trek only, that is Kedarkantha. This all the journey was happy for me but in that few moments are never forgot in my life one is when we reached summit first time. I feel different feeling like I never experienced before in life and my heart was giving like some special sound that I have done something special in my life. Actually I cant express that feeling in words to any one, and my body was flying in air and my heart feeling something special, my eyes are watching something new sunrise in my life, my legs lost all the pain. I don’t know whether for me only it will happen or to all this will happen but I have reached new place new feeling something new in my life. And after that trek completed last day we talked about trek experience to each other in one room. And in that meeting I got one compliment that I am a good team leader, like after trek leader.

In my team almost 21 members and one trek leader two trek guides are there. out of this 21 peoples 4 peoples are too fast and 1 person was too late because of his wait so team guide was with him. One more guide along with too fast people and team leader was with second gang they are also like 4 peoples and remaining 10 to 12 people are in middle, in this no one was fast and not slow but if some one should lead these people, then we will reach our daily target. So, I have done that like giving some help to heavy peoples and asking them to move, giving hand some stage to go up. And moving forward and asking all the information about all and back side few people are there I am taking update from them also and giving information about way how difficult it is and how we can move like that.

But, final day I got one award like spirit of trekking award. Thank you thank you very much to all in my team that they gave special days in my life.” – Ragula Raju

| The perfect date to find my soulmate! 🙂 

“Right before my trek to Valley of Flowers with IH in August, 2019, I received an e-mail from Prathima Chhabria regarding an article written by Arjun Majumdar suggesting a trek date. And that went right into my checklist, even though I was single at that time and didn’t know if my partner would be interested to trek. A month later, I found my man and asked if he would be interested to go on a snow trek to Brahmatal with my friends, in January, 2020. Guess what! HE SAID A YES! It was a dream-come-true moment for me 🙂 We did get to know each other to a great extent, and trust me, it wasn’t “a walk in the park”, we were our candid selves, which gave us a fair idea of how we’d deal with life, together! 🙂 I feel it was a perfect idea to go on a trek date, before getting married to that person! 2020 couldn’t have had a better start.

My sincere thanks to Indiahikes and to Mr. Arjun Majumdar, for that piece of article which played such an important role in my life!” – Aishwarya A

| The moment we fell in love with Kashmir

“This photo may not be the most picturesque from the lens of my DSLR , but definitely paints my happiest moment of my trek. This is us (3 of us decided to join this trek for our once in a lifetime experience and never regretted it) on the last day of our KGL 2017 trek. Behind us is the grand Mountain Harmukh , which is only seen towards the end of our Kashmir Great Lakes Trek. Never have I thought I would make it through the 7 days – from the steep climb through dense forest to alpine lakes , from the most evergreen meadows ,to the majestic Himalayan mountain range. And here we were, standing in awe on the land of Kashmir! Surely this is the best moment of our life.” – Kenneth Chun Kok Sheng

| Overcoming my own fear and a new found love

“The challenge

I was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB), only 1 year before the trip to the mountains. It was really a difficult decision of whether I should go up the mountains, considering the high air pressure & less oxygen levels available in the environment. My parents, particularly, were worried, and they plainly denied.

I had recovered completely but they thought one should not take a risk, specially when we are talking about the Kedarkantha (KK) trek which is 12,500 Ft above sea-level.

The Preparation

D-day

The Ecstasy

Vishesh Singh

| My first trek to Dreamland!

“My trek to Valley of Flowers. First one is always special. I would say it was my first trip out of my town. Never had the chance before to visit far lands with family and friends.

On the very first trek we made it completely adventurous.

So this first one will be always special for me because it built the base for my love towards mountain trekking and traveling .

I was blown away by the vast view of valley of flowers during its trek. For the first time I realized how beautiful and pure nature is.

It was my first time when I visited a Gurdwara and it was the holiest one in Sikhism Hemkund Sahib.

Life is like climbing a mountain with all the struggles and achievements that go with it.” – Sanjay Thakor

This just the beginning…

We have so many more beautiful stories shared by trekkers. We’ll be sharing all of them in this space. Stay tuned to our website!

If you’d like to contribute your photo and story, send them to tws@indiahikes.com

Use the subject line: My Happiest Trek Moment

We’ll be featuring the best of entries that we get.

Meanwhile, stay home, stay safe. While we’re locked down physically, let’s allow our minds to wander and feel the joys of trekking.  🙂