Climbing the hill: an excursion to Triund

Dharamkot from the start of our hike

20th May

Triund Hill is classified by TripAdvisor as the #1 thing to do around McLeod Ganj, so I really needed to include it in my excursions.  All other considerations aside, the prospect of cooler weather some 2000 metres above our current altitude was wonderfully appealing

Forward planning for this weekend had started on Tuesday; I asked Sarah if she wanted to hike – probably the waterfall, (I wanted to work up to the hill) but she was keen to do the hill – the weather will break soon enough.  Plans are laid for Saturday.  We invited Nate, he was already making plans with student Zangpo, who asked if he can join us – of course, we would be delighted!!  I just hoped I wouldn’t slow them down too much.

The view after 30 minutes on the trail

Friday afternoon saw me walking to Fatiphur to buy eggs (for hard boiling), bananas and biscuits.  Hardly a balanced diet, but hopefully sufficiently energy providing and easy to carry and eat.

The taxi arrived at 6:30am as ordered and the driver was prepared to take us to a higher starting point, Galu Temple, for the hike for an extra 300 rupees.  While this seemed a lot extra, the condition of the road (4-wheel drive track with some serious subsiding issues at the edges) probably justified the extra.

Zangpo decides he will take his motor bike as far as McLeod Ganj, with Kelsun riding pillion – we subsequently find out that he is planning to stay the night.  There is some delay while we locate Zangpo in McLeod Ganj – the taxi driver picks up enough of our conversation to stop and call him – and a little more as Zangpo finds somewhere to park his bike for the day that will not get him into trouble.

Dharamkot (foreground) McLeod Ganj (mid picture)
Dharmsala behind and more of the Kangra valley
obscured by pollution

We arrive at the Galu Temple and it is significantly cooler – verging on chilly with the wind.  Sarah has only the clothes she is wearing – leggings and a singlet-type top – and the taxi driver kindly lends his “leather” jacket – Zangpo knows him and the jacket will be returned later.  The café provides Chai and snickers for Sarah and additional food for Nate.  Zangpo has purchased Tibetan bread and yogurt in McLeod Ganj.  My inquiry re a toilet has me directed up to a guest house, and Zangpo accompanies me.  The proprietor asks an extortionate 20 rupees for use of said facility – at least it is clean, I can sit upon it, it flushes and there is a clean hand basin with running water.  These are real luxuries in rural India.

We return to the café and consume our packed breakfast and the others drink their chai before we set off.  We are stopped before we are really on the walking track, there should be a book to record our names and foreigners should provided photos and copies of their passports, but the book is not there yet, so the requirements are waived.  Just as well, none of us even dreamed we might need to provide this level of ID to hike. 

Meanwhile Zangpo has done a disappearing act – possibly a result of past experience and encounters with authority.

Gorgeous valley views

The “authority” reinforces the sign which says “no loud music” amongst other do’s and don’t for the hike. I thank him.  The Indian man concerned turns his phone with speakers down for a split second.  The “authority” reinforces his previous statement, and I also comment, which gets me positive feedback from the “authority”.  The loud music is quite the thing with many walkers, unfortunately.  To actually camp on top of Triund hill is very popular and it is reputed to be a young person’s party scene.

The weather is ideal for hiking – the cold wind moderates as we wind our way around the side of the hill, in and out of the valleys, there is some cloud cover to protect us from what can be a scorching sun, and we are in shadow for at least part of the walk.  Our starting time is no doubt a positive factor in the cooler weather for the ascent.

The walk takes us through a little bit of pine forest into mixed forest but we are soon out of this and into rhododendron forest – I can only start to imagine how stunningly beautiful this would have been a couple of months earlier.  Some of these trees are huge, they must be incredibly ancient. 

Dharamkot and McLeod Ganj from a little higher on the trail

Some small white wildflowers stud the banks and provide additional beauty to the walk.  The view, when we get to gaps in the trees, is stunning – we are looking down steep valleys to Dharamkot and McLeod Ganj – easily picked by the awnings above the temple grounds – and Dharamsala.  Much further afield is a bit hard to pick due to air pollution – a bit of a scary reminder of the shape of things to come if the world cannot manage a unified approach to this problem.  The cricket ground is pointed out to us, apparently as a “must know” feature.  India recently played Australia here and the Australian team was honoured with an audience with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.

I am not as fit as I ought to be, and am very slow.  Disturbed sleep the night before, digestive system problems (fortunately only transient) along with a reduced amount of protein in my diet is possibly not contributing to my energy and stamina levels.  Zangpo offers from the start to take my pack – at an hour and a half I gratefully accept his kind offer – I offer to carry his small pack in return, but he is happy to double pack.

Transport for goods for the "shops"

The track is well formed, and in most places at least wide enough for 2 people, which is just as well given the amount of traffic.  There are not many people passing me.  For a while I am playing leapfrog with one group of Indian men –the same who were told about the loud music – and at one point as I walk past, one tells me I am an inspiration to him – I ask if that means if an old lady like me can do the walk, so can he, to which he agrees.  A number of others ask my age outright.  Obviously older women walking this track are not common in their experience!

At some places where the track become narrower and the drop more precipitous there is protective fencing erected, with evidence of more such construction underway.  Zangpo is a little derogatory about the need for this.  From someone who crossed the Tibetan-Nepali border on foot, away from formed paths which might be patrolled, this is scarcely surprising.

Along the way there is the occasional café and any number of “shops”.  The shops are located in crevices in the rock, or partially constructed rock huts, and are completed with the use of tarpaulins.  They are well stocked with chocolate bars, biscuits, soft drinks and many serve hot drinks and instant noodles “maggi”.  For some there is evidence of semi-permanent abodes nearby – constructed from the rock from the mountain, of course.

Trailside "shop"

I try to persuade my camera to pick up satellite information so I can evaluate our progress with altitude, but to no avail!  I am almost at the point of telling the others I will find a comfortable rock on which to sit and await their return, when a few people coming down tell us that the top is only 15-20 minutes away.  OK, can manage that, I think.

To reach the crest of the ridge is a really positive feeling.  It is a bit over 2800m.

On top of the hill there are a number of businesses – most of them in makeshift shelters of blue tarpaulin.  These businesses are offering hire of tents, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, purchase of hot food and drinks, along with the ubiquitous soft drinks and junk food.  These businesses are resupplied by pack horses – as presumably are the shops on the way up.

From the ridge, looking up towards the
real peak of Triund - like most people we
didn't have the energy for the extra
400m ascent

While to stay on the mountain would be nice, I neither fancy the young-peoples party atmosphere as I have seen it described, the necessity for the sign at the bottom to request that people carry their empty alcohol bottles off the mountain, or the prospect of a hired sleeping bag.  With cheaper hotels known for not changing the bed sheet (singular, bottom only) between guests, I cannot even start to imagine what may or may not be done to ensure some degree of cleanliness of hired sleeping bags.

The view from the top is magic – it would be more magic if the snowy peaks of the Dhauladhar range were not enveloped in cloud.  These are the same peaks we can see from the school and to get a clear view of them from closer would have been nice, but it is clearly not to be.

We pick a relatively quiet place with good views for our picnic lunch and enjoy our various interpretations of what that means.  Zangpo purchases a plate of rice and beans from one of the makeshift cafés and I eat hard boiled eggs, banana and crackers.  After eating we soak in the view and chat about this and that. 

Lovely alpine meadow on the ridge - with the addition of
temporary businesses

Zangpo shows me some pictures of where he comes from in Tibet – there is a picture of a high altitude (that could be tautological when talking about Tibet) valley, just sprinkled with wildflowers – truly beautiful.  Encouraged by my positive comments, he goes on to show me pictures of his family and tell me how much he misses his mother.  He cannot communicate with her because the Chinese administration has cracked down on communication between that area of Tibet and the outside world.  The only way he can communicate with his family is indirectly via his younger brother who is living in China.  At least he can get the message through that he is safe and well, but he says she worries about his health and whether he is eating the right food and studying hard enough.  I tell him he should give up cigarettes – he smoked one before setting off on the hike this morning “for energy”.

As part of his sharing of pictures, he shows me pictures of cordyceps and is surprised that I know what it is.  I explain that it is also found in Bhutan and is collected there.  A little later as he reemerges from behind a convenient rock a little down the hill, he is bent over and searching the ground closely, to the amusement and curiosity of Sarah and Nate – I just call out to ask if he has found any, to which his response is to mime finding one and stowing it quickly in his pocket.  I love the sense of fun of the students – in many ways delightfully child-like, which, given their experiences probably contributes to their resilience.

Zangpo & Sarah

We start to head back down a bit after 1pm, and this is when we encounter the Saturday night party crowd on their way up.  We are thankful that our ascent was much more peaceful.  We are also amused by the range of attire, suitable and otherwise, of the hikers, what they are carrying and  how, and the apparent capacity of some to actually achieve their goal.  Also, by the starting time of some.  It does take us (me, anyway) almost as long to descend and we pass people starting out only a couple of hours before dark.  I decide I need to find a suitable bush/rock at one point, something that is a bit of a challenge on this precipitous hillside, and the others ended up waiting quite some time for me as I needed to clamber higher that I thought.

This lovely little creature (possibly a Himalayan Pika)
 was about 10cm long

When I rejoined them, Sarah asked what I though about getting a taxi from the temple down to Dharamkot, where we had decided to eat dinner – at a (most unlikely) genuine Italian restaurant.  My response was, did she really feel she needed to ask.  We were all (except Zangpo) feeling exhausted.

The first taxi driver we asked wanted to charge us more than I thought reasonable and refused my counter offer, but pointed out a driver who would do it for my offered price.  It turned out that driver was going in that direction anyway, and was only going to drop us at the point at which he was diverging – which was only 50m from the path to the restaurant.

Dharamkot from the Italian Restaurant

The restaurant was rather surreal:  an Italian restaurant, with a proper pizza oven, started by an Italian family, staffed by Indians and overlooking the Himalayan fir (or cyprus – I cannot remember) and looking towards the peaks of the Dhualadhar range (still obscured by cloud).  I ordered a pizza but was a little overwhelmed by the size when pizza was delivered to the adjacent table.  No way was I going to get through that, but Zangpo offered to help me and Sarah had already begged a piece to taste – she had ordered pasta.  And I could bring some back for later (side note: cold pizza the following day was definitely not as good)

Zangpo offered to share the cost of the pizza, no need, my treat for his carrying my backpack for so much of the walk.

After dinner, the only taxi in sight would take us back for an agreed price, but we needed to estimate the road distance from Fatiphur – I estimated 2km (subsequent checking: maps says 1.8km); his conditions were an extra 100rupees per Km from Fatiphur – seriously over the top so we took a tuk-tuk down to McLeod Ganj and negotiated a taxi from there.  A hot bath would have been nice, but half a bucket of cold water served the purpose of washing off the insect repellant, sunscreen, sweat and grit.  We declined Tashi’s offer at 8:30pm to cook extra for our dinner.  It was a very tired 3 teachers who slept well that night.