Goecha-la Trek – Samir, Anu Palnitkar – April 17-26, 2019

Arrival into Siliguri – Tue, April 16

We took the flight from Kolkata to Bagdogra Airport (Siliguri) and arrived in Siliguri on the evening of Tue, April 16. “Siliguri” means a stack of pebbles or stones.  Siliguri is known as the gateway of Northeast India because of its strategic location. Nepal, Bhutan, China and Bangladesh borders are very close by. You can take trains to the North East from Siliguri.

We stayed at a non-descript hotel called Niladrii Galaxy in the center of Bidhan market. Surprisingly for the price (Rs. 1,000 per night), the hotel was spanking clean.

We decided to roam the town in the evening. We went to restaurant called Kaidi Kitchen, with a jail theme. Your meal is served in a cell. A jailor takes your order and the prisoners serve you food.

Siliguri to Yuksom – Wed, April 17

We had joined a trekking group called Trek and Fly Himalayas run by a mountaineer called Suman Dey from Kolkata. There were 10 trekkers in the group, 7 were Bengali speakers (3 from Kolkata, 3 from Bangladesh, 1 from Pune) and 3 Marathi speakers (all from Pune). Soumyadeep Haldar, Sumit Banerjee, Paolomi Karmakar, Shoma, Tamim, Sabrina, Sadi, Vishram Kulkarni, Samir Palnitkar, Anu Palnitkar.

There were 5 crew members (Suman, Nandan, Sunil, Rajdev and Tapas)

We were also joined by Sumita (Suman’s wife) and Suchana (Suman’s 7 year old daughter) who were going to do the trek with us.

We all met at the New Jalpaiguri (NJP) Railway Station at 7.30 am on Wed, April 17.

Yuksom – Saachen – 10 km – Thu, April 18

Flags planted by the the people of Sikkim in Yuksom to celebrate the coronation of their king.

The trek was very green with lush green mountains and dense forests.

We finally arrived in Saachen at around 2 pm. The terrain was fairly difficult with lots of ups and downs. We came from Yuksom (1,780 m, 5,927 ft) to Saachen (2,179 m, 7,256 ft), a net altitude gain of about 1,300 ft.

At Saachen, our tents were pitched at a campground which was at least 100 ft higher than the meeting hut. We had to climb up every time we had to go back to our tent.

Saachen – Tsoka (via Bakhim) – 7 km – Fri, April 19

Lots of rivers and waterfalls along the way.

On the way from Saachen to Tsoka, we stopped at Bakhim (2,727 m, 9,080 ft), a resting area about 2 km from Tsoka. We had some tea and biscuits.

We arrived in Tsoka around 2 pm. Again about a 5 hour climb, but with a significant altitude gain. We saw lots of Rhododendrons (red, pink) as well as a tree laden with white flowers.

Suman’s daughter Suchana posing with Rhododendrons she found lying on the ground along the way. You are not allowed to pluck the flowers.

Our campground at Tsoka. Tsoka also had a place where you could buy coffee, Maggi etc.

The tents were fairly comfortable.

Tsoka – Dzongri – 10 km – Sat, April 20

We saw lots of Rhododendrons along the way.

Suman Dey, our group leader, with his family, Sumita and Suchana. I had a small race going with Suchana to motivate her. She would try and beat me to the destination every day. I would give her a small chocolate for winning 🙂

These mauve colored wildflowers dotted our path along the way.

We stopped at Phedang along the way. Phedang is a rest stop along the way from Tsoka to Dzongri. We got a little lost on the way. Anu and I were the only people on the route, no one else was visible. There was a lot of snow on the route. It was a whiteout. We decided to wait for a little for other team members to catch up.

This is what the trail looked from the top of the hill.

We finally reached Dzongri around 3 pm. It was a really tough climb. Two members Tamim and Sabri had some trouble with Altitude Mountain Sickness (AMS) and they reached very late around 5.30 pm. We were really worried about them. This is a picture of our campsite at Dzongri at 13,186 ft altitude.

Normally, trekkers visit Dzongri top in the morning. But somehow we decided not to go Dzongri top. There are good views of Kanchenjunga. We missed that.

Dzongri to Thansing – 6 km – Sunday, April 21

There was a lot of snow along the way.

It was quite chilly. Lots of clouds. In Sikkim, the mornings are very nice and clear till about 11 am. After that the clouds start settling in.

Interesting tree.

We had planned to reach Lamuney, but we decided to stop in Thansing because there would be no way we would make it comfortably to Lamuney. Lamuney was a staging point for the Goecha-la summit.

Thansing to Lamuney – 2 km – Monday, April 22

Views of Mount Pandim on the way from Thansing to Lamuney.

The walk to Lamuney was really easy. It took us about 2.15 hours to get from Thansing to Lamuney.

Lamuney was the staging point of the trek. On the 5th day, without any change of clothes or a bath, we had been in the same set of clothes since the beginning of the trek.

In the afternoon, it snowed at the Lamuney campsite. There were winds and snow at around 5 pm. It was very cloudy. We were really worried about the summit ascent the next day (Tuesday). If it snowed during the summit ascent, then we would not be able to summit comfortably.

Lamuney to Goecha-la Summit and back – 10 km – Tuesday, April 23

The various peaks that are visible from Goecha-la are:

Kanchenjunga ( 8586m ),
Talung ( 7349m ),
Rathong ( 6679m ),
Kabru N ( 7353m ),
Koktang ( 6147m ),
Simvo ( 6812m ),
Kabru S ( 7318m ),
Kabru Dome ( 6600m ),
Kabru Forked ( 6100m ),
Pandim ( 6691m ),
Tenchenkhang ( 6010m ),
Jupono ( 5650m )

Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest peak, is at the right-most in the picture. Kanchenjunga is at the border of India and Nepal.

This is a video of the surroundings at Goecha-la. It gives an idea of what the location was like. Mount Pandim was right next to Goecha-la. We were joking that Mount Pandim looked so accessible that we could easily climb it 🙂 Of course, it was 1,500 meters higher than where we were.

It was quite cold at the summit. We stayed at the summit for about 40 mins and took lots of pictures.

It is fun to hold the national flag. A proud moment for us.

Since we had Bangladeshis in our group, they also displayed their national flag.

We started coming down from the summit at around 6.10 am. On the way, we caught views of Samiti lake. We could see a reflection of the mountain.

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Here is a view of the path back from the summit. Samiti lake is visible in the distance.

When we descended down to Samiti lake, we relaxed a little bit and took some pictures. It was a clear, still lake at that altitude.

We reached the camp at Lamuney at around 9 am on Tue, April 23. We had a quick breakfast and then continued on to walk past Thansing to Kokchurong. We had planned to reach Yuksom in 3 days.

Lamuney to Kokchurong – 6 km – Tue, April 23

Now that the summit was done, we could relax a little and enjoy our walk. We decided to gain a little distance and go to Kokchurong. It was going to be tough after the summit climb, but we did it anyways. Kokchurong is at an altitude of 3,660m or 12,187 ft. Net descent from Lamuney.

On the way from Lamuney to Kokchurong. We had planned to do an overnight at Kokchurong.

A huge rock under which one could even pitch a tent. Interesting places along the way.

Nice views along the way.

Arrival at Kokchurong at around 2 pm.

Kokchurong to Tsoka – 12 km – Wed, April 24

Surprisingly, we saw snow at altitudes below 12,000 ft.

We finally arrived at Phedang about about 11 am.

We relaxed at Phedang for about 15 mins and then continued on to Tsoka.

We finally reached Tsoka around 2 pm. This had become a norm, walking 6 hours per day. The Tsoka campsite was visible from a distance. Mount Pandim is visible in a distance.

In the evening at Tsoka, there was a small celebration. The team had baked a cake to celebrate the 100% success rate for the summit. With very little baking equipment and the effects of higher altitude, the team did a pretty good job of baking the cake.

Tsoka to Yuksom – 16 km – Thursday, April 25

Now that we were below 12,000 ft, we could see a lot of greenery.

Interesting photos that we did not bother to take along the way up.  We passed Saachen along the way, but we stopped to eat a few biscuits and moved on.

We finally reached the exit gate of Kanchenjunga National Park. There was a big sense of relief and happiness that we had finally reached our destination.

However, after the exit gate it took us at least 50 mins to get to our hotel in Yuksom. The walk never seemed to end 🙂 Now that we were nearing the end of the trek, our feet began to hurt and the sun seemed to be burning us up. But we were satisfied and happy that we had completed the trek inspite of Anuradha’s foot injury.

We finally reached our hotel in Yuksom at 12.20 am. It took us 6.20 hours after we had left from Tsoka at 6 am. We celebrated with a pizza at a cafe called Guptaji’s. All our Bengali team members were yearning for fish-rice and they had their fill too.

In the evening, we tasted a little bit of Rhododendron wine. I found it to be ok, not great, but then I am not a wine drinker.

In the night, there was a  presentation ceremony where each successful team member was awarded a completion certificate. Each member then spoke about their experiences with the trek.

Yuksom to Siliguri by car – Thu, April 26

We once again stayed at Niladrii Galaxy in Bidhan Market. We headed out of a restaurant called Desi Galli Food Court in Bidhan Market and had Chola Bhatura, Pav Bhaji, Onion Uttapam, Ghugni Chat and a Cold Coffee.

I visited a local barber and got a leisurely shave. After a shave and a shower, I felt like a human again 🙂 We had been in the same clothes for nearly 9 days and it was good to get a change of clothes. For fun’s sake I took before and after photos.

Siliguri to Pune – Saturday, April 27, 2019

Trek Summary