My Best One Day Trek
By: Priyam Seth
Tags: Kamrunag Lake, Hiking, Trekking, Iit, Mandi

This year, I stepped into the pool of snow treks. I went to Manali, Parashar Lake, and Kamrunag Lake. All of them were literally covered with snow but my favorite and the toughest one was the trek to Kamrunag Lake.

Kamrunag Temple

Trek to Kamrunag lake was organized by our college Hiking and Trekking club (HnT), an adventure sports club that organizes hikes, treks and adventure sports activity for the students of IIT Mandi. It was indeed an unforgettable and learning experience. The trek made me to push my limits to a new extent.

From the last few months, few thoughts were lingering in my mind. I lived in IIT Mandi campus that lies in the valley of Himalayas. It is near to many of the amazing tourist spots. Still, I haven’t went to any trip nearby. Also, I was tensed about my HnT hours as they were very less. I didn’t got chance to go to any trek before. So, as soon as I came to college in February, I was determined that I would travel this semester a lot.

Moving onto February 27th, 2020: three days before the trek. We got a mail that HnT is organizing a trek to Kamrunag. To my surprise, they have organized a fitness test for who can go. However, it may sound simple to you just give a fitness test and go for the trek. But it was first time, they had asked for fitness test. So, I knew that it was not going to be easy. To break that bubble of not going anywhere, I pushed myself and filled the form.

February 28th, 2020: two days to the trek. Although I had come up with the plan to go for the test, I wasn’t confident. I thought of dropping the plan and instead try for the next trek.But my friend Saikiran encouraged me to go with him for the test in the evening. I gave the fitness test, and it went above my expectation. The results came the next day, and yes we both were selected!

This was exactly my reaction when I heard I got selected. Also I was excited as only four 1st year students were selected for the trek. Travel was sorted as planning as HnT Club would take care of that. At night I packed my bag, and sorted things I would need for the trek. And the things which I didn’t have? I took it from my friends at hostel 😝. Few hours of work and I was ready for the trek.

Mandi covered with a blanket of clouds

Date May 1st, 2020: Finally the day came for the trek. I woke up early in the morning. Got ready and it was now time to get into the battlefield to complete my first trek with HnT Club. Saikiran and I went to the bus stop. We didn’t got time to have our breakfast, so I have taken a lot dry fruits like cashew, almonds and walnuts. As the bus started, a feeling of excitement roused inside me. The whole bus journey, I listened to music and we both enjoyed the dry fruits. The way when the bus crossed Mandi, it was really beautiful as shown in the picture.

Finally when the bus reached to Rohanda at 11o’clock. From there we had to start the trek. I was almost packed with winter clothes, but seeing the weather all around, I thought it was so warn and the sun was shining very brightly. It was so hot outside that I was almost thinking how can we trek in such a hot weather.

Resting on the way, picture taken by me

We had to go up around 3kms above from there. The trek started. While going up it was normal, no such big rocks or anything. A simple way to go up. It gradually became so steep that I guess most of us in the group started to feel tired soon. We used to take short brakes in between, like this.

However we were getting tired, the enthusiasm was high. In between, we used to have fun saying “Why we took Hiking and Trekking in the college?” The path was getting harder and harder. Walking for about 3 hours was not as easy job, but our spirit kept us going. The rocks were so big on the way.

Photo taken by Parimal Sir

There was no snow all around. Only the mountains and valleys surrounded us. We reached so high it was unable to believe for me how I reached. The feeling of happiness came in when the flakes of snow started to be seen. We knew then the destination was not so far. It was a great relief for me.

But suddenly, the rain started. We were then in hurry to reach above as soon as we can. It was around 2 o’clock, we tired and devastated started to walk quickly. Then the gate appeared!

Our speeds increased, everyone was taking photos and all. The way was then all surrounded by snow, we followed the footsteps on the snow. Rachit Bhaiya helped us a lot, giving us advice how to walk and handle things. He also suggested, keep going, there is much better snow above. Going on the slippery way fully covered with snow. Finally, we reached!

The lake was frozen. All around was only snow. There were few houses for stay. Seeing that awesome view, I think the tiresome faded away from everyone. My curious mind was then wondering “This is the beauty! How the whole place is covered with snow?”.