Bagini Glacier Trek

The twin peaks of Nanda devi and Nanda devi east(7,434 m) exude an aura unsurpassed by any mountain in the Indian Himalayas. Lying entirely within Indian borders Nanda Devi is just short of being an 8 thousander, but that has not been an impediment to its grandeur nor it has been a stumbling block in its reverence. Climbed first in 1937 by legendary climber and explorer Major Harold William Bill Tillman better known as H.W Tilman and famed Noel Odell,  (Noel was the last first person to see Mallory and Irvine supposedly climbing the Second step on Mount Everest on 8th June 1924) its tryst with exploration goes back to 1930s when a number to expeditions repeatedly failed to reach even its base. The reason for this lying in the fact that the main summit is surrounded by an impenetrable barrier of peaks. The average height of this barrier being 20000 ft,  the tag impenetrable is just right.

The Nanda Devi National Park is a national park situated around the peak of Nanda Devi.  The park encompasses the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, a glacial basin surrounded by a ring of peaks between 6,000 metres (19,700 ft) and 7,500 m (24,600 ft) high, and drained by the Rishi Ganga, through the Rishi Ganga Gorge, a steep, almost impassable defile. The entire park lies at an elevation of more than 3,500 m (11,500 ft) above mean sea level.Some of the peaks in this sanctuary are Dunagiri, Kalanka, Changabang, Rishi pahar, Nanda khat, Nanda Ghunti, Panwali Dwar, Trishul etc. After  many failed expeditions and ardeous explorations in 1934, British explorers Eric Shipton and Tillman found a route inside the sanctuary through the Rishi Gorge. Nanda devi main (7786m) is surrounded by a thick wall of peaks, there is an inner wall as well as an outer wall. Bagini glacier lies to the North of this outer wall. Bagini glacier trek is a short trek, it can be done within 5-6days. The trek starts from Jumma a small village on the Joshimath Malari highway which is around 40 km. From jumma its a 2-3 hour easy hike to Ruing. From Ruing it is a gradual steep hike to a place called Chaza which is devoid of any vegetation, after which there is a steep hike over landslide zone to the Alpine village of Dunagiri. From Dunagiri it is a two day hike to Bagini glacier and Changabang base camp.

The hamlet of Joshimath looked radiant and pristine in the early hours of october 2nd 2011, early morning before we started for the trek from Jumma we headed towards Auli. It was around 8 km from Auli. After the Auli trip we began our sojourn towards Jumma in a rented Mahindra Max. Initially the road was very good, partly because some of it was and is maintained by the Indian army. Near the Village of Tapovan we had the first and only glimpse of the fabled  Goddess, Nanda devi. Though clouds were obscuring the view but grandeur of the mountain was so evident, a little later we stopped at Suraithota to buy kerosene for our trek.As we let Suraithota the villages gradually lessened. The high point of the trip was the journey along the Dhauliganga river which ran in parallel and in level with the road towards Jumma. This road in stark contrast is in a bad condition to the road which started from Joshimath. It was around 12.00 pm when we landed in Jumma, but a cold wind was blowing which chilled us to the bone.



There was a hanging bridge to take us on the other side of the Dhauli ganga. It was here our guide Birendra joined us with the Ghorewala, as we cross the bridge we get a fascinating view of the Dhauli ganga and the meandering view of the Joshimath Malari highway.The path to Ruing village is not far away but we feel tired and drained of energy.



As we reach Ruing village we find a village made of brick and mortar houses, not more than 15-20 houses in total, a generally amused village folk who with inquisitive look in their eyes see us as one by one our trek team passes by their village. Normally people make Ruing a stayover but we did not stay here for the night, this happened courtesy our guide Birendra who said that around 2-3 kms from the village outskirts there is a place for camping, if we need to negotiate the steep climb to dronagiri we need to be a little ahead. But on reaching the place, we found the place to be a far less ideal place for camping. Water source was far below and the camping grounf far from level, nevertheless it was dusk, cold and we were dead tired. So we decided to call it a day as slept early eventually after a light dinner.

The next began early, since the camping site was in the sunshine less zone. We were feeling chilly so we decided not to waste time and began our sojourn early, after
a criss cross up down traverse through the forest we reached the beginning of the uphill climb to the vilage of the Dronagiri. There are two distinct paths to the village. An initial problem was deciding in which trail to take. We waited for our guide to arrive who pointed to us the trail on the up. It had ended abrupty after a sudden drop. The landslide and the broken trail is the result of earthquake which had destroyed much of the remaining trail. As a result of this everyone venturing out for this trek, had to negotiate for the steep climb. As we reached Dronagiri we noticed two distinct things. One is, inspite of a many number of houses, the village wore a deserted look.



It looked to me as if I am in mediveal era. The calm, the serenity was almost too real to be true. Another thing noticeable was the huge GMVN structure which is awaiting completion. From far it looked to me huge and should be able to accomodate 50-70 trekkers. We did stop at Dronagiri for 2 or 3 hours buying vegetables but we decided not to spend the night here and carried along forward. The path leads to the ridge which was visible when we were entering the village. We negotiate the curve and cross a downward spiralling path which brings us in confrontation with the Bagini nala. After about 20 - 25 minutes from Dronagiri, we reached the bridge over the nala. Once we crossed the nala it is again an upward climb over loose rocks. An hour and a half later we reached a place which bore resemblance to a meadow. Our guide decided that this was the place to camp. Unlike the last camp,this was a good place. The Rishi peak and the Kalanka peak were visible from here. As Bagini nala was flowing so getting drinking water was not a difficulty. There were huge rocks in the midde of which we pitched our tent. It protected us from the wind.The night was cold, but the chill factor was absent.



As we began our trek on at 9 am, we found that we have crossed the treeline zone and what remained of the vegetation was only shrubs and bushes. An hour from our camp was the meadow of Longatulli, where many trek teams were camping for the night , in order to acclamatize for the hike upto Bagini base camp. After Longatulli there is a sea of boulders in the path to Bagini lower base camp. The route is not very steep nonetheless its all the way up, as we walked we heard the roaring noise of the bagini nala in full flow. We reached bagini lower base camp at around 1 pm. It took us around 4 hours to come up to Bagini lower. At this point of time, the weather turned for the worse, as afternoon approached the weather became foggy and the mountains became hazzy. We had decided to camp here, but our guide said that around 5-6 kms from here is Bagini upper base camp.



Since its only 1 pm ,we should continue and camp there for the night. So we dragged ourselves over the ocean of boulders, hopped from one to another and another 120 minutes later reached upper Bagini. The weather had cleared a bit by then and we were treated by a panaroma of peaks which unfolded before us one after another. The Garuda, Trisuli, Hardeul, Rishi, Kalanka, Dunagiri, Satminal. Soon this period of panaroma viewing was over, the area became covered with mist. We anticipated snow but eventually that did not happen.



The weather pattern did not change today. It was still cloudy and misty. The early hours of morning were spent in eager anticipation of the fact that the weather will clear a bit and we will make our dash to Changabang base camp. We missed the glorious sunrise. Had it been cloudless, it would have been a treat to watch. The weather cleared a bit around 8am. But our guide decided against venturing out. We gradually and slowly traced our path back to Dronagiri village. The rest of the journey was uneventful, as we slowly headed back to the village, tired and dejected of the fact that we could not go to Changabang base camp.



We came back to Jumma . The journey back to Joshimath was twice as tiring as the trek, we had to wait over one hour for the vehicle and we had to share our
vehicle with another trekking team. Finally the trek ends. On the whole it was a great experience but somewhere we lament the fact that we could not make to Changabang base camp.