Dayara Bugyal – Simple yet Beautiful

Dayara Bugyal – The biggest meadow of Uttarakhand

Bugyal in the local mountain dialect means “High Altitude Meadow”. Trekking to Dayara Bugyal is one of the most beautiful places in Uttaranchal, situated at an elevation ranging from 10,000 – 12,000 ft. This vast meadow is second to none in natural beauty in Uttarakhand trekking circuit. The possibility of Nordic as well as Alpine skiing are immense here, since during winter it provides one of the best ski slopes in India spread over an area of 28 sq/kms, one can combine a trek and ski during winter trekking season.

Dayara Bugyal trek starts from two places Barsu and Raithal. The road to Dayara Bugyal branches off near Bhatwari- a little township on Uttarkashi Gangotri road about 35 kms. From Uttarkashi, Vehicles can go up to the village of Raithal from where one has to trek a steep incline covering a distance of about 7 kms to reach Dayara and the other route is via village Barsu, 10 kms from Bhatwari from where one has to trek about 8kms to Dayara Bugyal.

Gray langurs or Hanuman langurs, the most widespread langurs of South Asia, are a group of Old World monkeys constituting the entirety of the genus Semnopithecus.

Monal – State Bird of Uttarakhand

This is the best time for birding as all the birds descends from high altitude to lower altitudes due to drop in temperatures.

If some one wants to do this trek here is the ideal itinerary

Day 1 Dehradun to Guest House at Barsu

Arrive at Dehradun/Haridwar in the morning, freshen up, have breakfast and leave for Barsu village Lunch on the way. Arrive at Camp by late afternoon and relax with a hot cup of tea and prepare yourself for trekking in Himalayas. The camp overlooks the Himalayan peaks of Gangotri I, II and III, Jaunli, Draupdi ka Danda and Srikanth.

Days 2 Barsu – Barnala (2700 m) 4 km / 4 hr

Have an early breakfast and get ready for a trekking to Barnala lake (2700 m) about 5 hours away. Trek through the dense forest of Pine and Oak trees. Lunch enroute. Reach Barnala by late afternoon. Explore the forest around the lake and do some bird watching. Barnala is great for bird watching, the most common birds here Whistling Thrush, Red Finch, Monal Pheasant, Koklas etc. Overnight stay in tents.

Day 3 Barnala – Dayara (3250 m) 5 km / 4 hr

Have breakfast and prepare to trek to Dayara. Hot lunch on arrival. The bugyals (meadows), spread over 28 sq kms, are grazing grounds for sheep and cattle and have a 360 degree view of the Himalayas. Spend rest of day walking around the meadows. Overnight stay in tents

Day 4 Dayara – Raithal 7 km / 4 hr

Wake up to a lovely sunrise and walk a little higher for a nice view of Bandarpoonch (6500 mtrs). After breakfast, we will start trekking to village Raithal. Reach camp by early evening. Relax with a hot cup of tea and sumptuous dinner with bonfire. Overnight stay in tents.

Days 5 Raithal – Dehradun / Haridwar

After breakfast leave for Dehradun/Haridwar. Lunch on way, arrive by late afternoon and catch train to go home..

Renok Adventures is having a fixed departure on various dates 3rd November, 10th November and 29th December. For more details please follow the link  www.renokadventures.com

 

Everest in Numbers

Everest 2012: 229 Summits 9 Deaths 

A long line of climbers follow each other up Mt. Everest. Image: Ralf Dujmovits.

8,850 meters (29,029 feet): Height at the peak.

60 million years: Approximate age of Mount Everest.

$25,000: Cost of a climbing permit per person.

8,000: Height in meters (approximately 26,000 feet) at Mount Everest’s “death zone,” the low-oxygen area above the last camp and before the summit where conditions become increasingly harsh.

1953: The year Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first recorded climbers to reach Everest’s summit.

3: Number of countries visible from the summit (Tibet,India, andNepal).

11: Number of people who have died on the mountain in 2012. (till 23 May 2012)

19: Number of people who died in one year—1996, the deadliest ever on Mount Everest—during a trek chronicled by writer Jon Krakauer in Into Thin Air.

30: Number of minutes before a climber dies after contracting hypothermia on Mount Everest, depending on how fast his or her body temperature drops

40: Record number of people to successfully reach Everest’s summit in one day(May 10, 1993).

200: Approximate number of total climbers who have died on the peak’s treacherous slopes.

4,000: Approximate number of people who have climbedMount Everestsince Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

13: Age of Jordan Romero, the youngest climber to reach the summit, in May 2010.

76: Age of the oldest climber to reach the summit, Min Bahadur Sherchan, in May 2008.

73: Oldest Women climber to reach the summit, Tamae Watanabe on 19th May, she broke her own record set a decade ago at the age of 63.

21: Record number of successful climbs to the summit by Apa Sherpa.

 

Epic Day for Indian Mountaineering – Everest 2012

 First time in History of India Civil expeditions from India announced the success. A dozen civilian mountaineers from Pune today reached the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain at 8,848-metres. Sagarmatha Giryarohan Sanstha and Giripremi – the two Pune groups – announced success of their respective expeditions on their Facebook pages.  However Ramesh Gulave succumb to death from Sagarmatha Giryarohan Sanstha due to AMS.

Mr. Ramesh Gulave

Eight climbers from Giripremi, including Tekraj Adhikari and Krishna Dhokale, and four from Sagarmatha Giryarohan – Shrihari Tapkir, Sagar Palkar, Balaji Mane and Anand Bansode – reached the summit from the ‘South Col’ route, from Nepal.

This is the first time that civilian mountaineering expeditions have scaled the peak.

 

Mount Everest 2012

The Tourism Ministry has issued climbing permit to scale the Mount Everest, the world highest peak,to 32 teams consisting 337 climbers (325 foreigners) for this spring. Of the climbers who were issued the permit, 49 are female.

Mt. Everest

With the surge in the number of prospective climbers, the government’s royalty too has increased impressively. The ministry collected Rs 262.9 million in royalty from this spring’s Everest expedition. “Appreciation of the US dollar against the Nepali rupee also helped augment the royalty this year,” a report by the Kathmandu Post quoted Tilak Pandey, liaison officer at the ministry’s Industry Division.

Mountaineering is considered as high-value tourism, and the government annually collects around Rs 200 million in royalty from Everest expeditions alone. Last spring, the government collected Rs 170 million from 26 expedition teams consisting 251 foreign climbers.

The royalty for climbing Everest ranges from $15,000 to $70,000 per expedition, depending on the number of expedition members (maximum seven) and the route. For an expedition having a maximum of 15 members, a fee of $10,000 per person is charged. According to the ministry, it received the highest number of applications from the US followed by India and the UK.

This spring’s expedition is expected to start from the first week of May if the weather favours climbers. All mountaineers have left for the Khumbu region to spend time on the lower reaches of the Himalaya for acclimatisation. “Some mountaineers have reached to Everest Base Camps while some are on their way to acclimatising themselves,” said Pandey.

Over 3,000 climbers have scaled Everest since it was first conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Sherpa in 1953, according to official data.