Last Updated on July 29, 2022 by Kuldeep Bisht
Great! You want to do Pindari Glacier trek and that’s why you’re here.
Am I right?
I’ll share my trip experience of Pindari Glacier and How I made this awesome trip happen.
Also, I’ll share some important tips which you must know before trekking to Pindari Glacier.
We all know that Travel is important and we must travel once in three months (at least). But because of a busy schedule, we won’t be able to travel.
So, my suggestion is whenever you get a long weekend holiday, you should make a trip.
I think;
1 week of holiday around hills is enough to peace your mind for the next year.
I made a surprise trek to Dhakuri Pass and had a wonderful experience. I learned great things, earned happy life moments, and I trekked on a very low budget. I am going to share everything to help you.
Lets get started…
Table of Contents
My Pindari glacier trekking story
After ending up a hectic day at work on Friday, I and Viru (My friend, who came to visit me for some work) got an invitation to trek to Pindari Glacier. At the moment, there was a long weekend ahead so I have decided to experience this trek. And the best part is it was not much expensive than I thought.
I have visited many sites to get an idea of the destination and package and I have noticed a few websites which were offering very high packages. So, I talked with my friend about the expenses and he said the price is not that much high as shown on the other websites. And don’t worry we’ll share it. I was happy to hear this and I said Yes.
Next morning we started our trip. 👇 Before starting the story Let me tell you a brief about the location and trek.
Where is Pindari Glacier?
Pindari Glacier is one of the most easily accessible Himalayan glaciers located in Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand. The glacier is 4150 meters above the sea level and most visited glacier in the Kumaon Hills of Uttarakhand.
My Pindari Glacier Trek Experience
Here is our personal trek experience to Dhakuri Top, Pindari Glacier, Kumaon Hills, Uttarakhand.
Started Journey from Delhi
Early morning, I packed my backpack with all the essential goods that are recommended for the trek like trekking boots, snow jacket, warm inner, etc, and started traveling to Pindari glacier from Delhi by road. It was my first trek and I was very excited to see Himalayan valley very close.
After 8 hour journey, I took rest at Bhimtal for tea to refresh my body. Here I took a few shots of Bhimtal Lake.
After 10 minutes, I continued on my journey towards Pindari Trek.
First Stop at Almora
After 10 hours drive from Delhi, we got tired and decided to make a stop at a friend’s house in Almora District of Uttarakhand. We told another friend about the trek and surprisingly he got excited and planned to trek with us. His name is Harry. So, now we’re a group of three friends.
We called a friend of Viru who was hosting the trek on the Behalf of KMVN (Kumaon Mandal Vikash Nigam). And, he got our referral from the office to guide us as well.
Next morning, we (I, Viru and Harry) started our journey from Almora to Bageshwar by our own car. It was approx 70 kilometers. We’re supposed to meet our travel assistant and he was supposed to pick up us from Bageshwar on their vehicle. But we met “Sultaan” (A Tibetan Mastiff Dog). You can say hello to him! 👇
After 2.5 hours hilly drive, we reached Bageshwar and met with our travel assistant. We asked him if we can continue carrying our car to the destination. He said, it is not possible to reach the destination in a Sedan car, so we have to move on to the SUV. However, he told us that we can still drive our own car till to Kapkot, which was 25 kilometers from Bageshwar.
After a cup of tea, we moved from Bageshwer and reached Kapkot, we parked our car at Kapkot with his reference. (I recommend you drive your own car till Bageshwar, so you can get car parking easily or carry an SUV car.)
After parking our car, we moved on Mahindra Bolero (SUV car) with a group who were also traveling to Pindari glacier.
At Kapkot Market, our trekking group made one hour stop to buy the things. Because Kapkot is the last market where you can buy things for your need. Further, you won’t get any big market.
So, we bought some goods for our two nights stay.
After buying goods, our group moved from Kapkot and we started moving further to our trek. We entered into a dirt track after 10 km. Going a few kilometers on that track, I realized why one needs a big heavy tyres vehicle to reach the destination. We’re driving on uphills. The last road stop was at Karmi. There is only 1 small shop to buy daily things, so this was a last warning if you want to buy or forget to buy something earlier. Then we moved further to our destination.
The time was running and it was almost 5 O’clock and still, we need to drive 25 kilometers. After passing Karmi we reached the top of the hill and we found Himalaya in front of our eyes. It was a mesmerizing experience and can’t be explained in words. Our group got more excited and we could see some amount of snow on our road.
At, 6.30 PM we reached Dhur Kharkiya and our road journey ended here. Now it was the real time to trek with footsteps to the Dhakuri, uphills.
It was a cool experience to make a trip with the fellow passengers, we made some friends, shared knowledge and promised to meet in return. At Dhur Kharkiya, we met with our trek host or tour guide and a friend of my friend. His name is Deepak Bafila. We were a trekking group of 10 members group which was a complete responsibility of this awesome Guy. 👇
Now, we all need to leave Dhur Kharkiya and trek upward to Dhakuri, it was approx 3.5 kilometers. We all moved fast at 6:45 PM because we all didn’t want to trek at night in that raw stone path. But, we couldn’t trek all without dark. At 7:30 we got completely dark.
Well, my group with our host friend were last in trekking the path because we’re busy in talking about the places to visit, location details, and he was very experienced. He told us that he spent 20+ years in the lap of Himalayas and trekked all highest peak in the Pindari Glacier Himalayan Range.We’re still trekking in
It was a complete dark and we’re still trekking. Although, it was really a terrific experience to trek at night. I had never experienced that before.
Finally, we reached the destination. The night trek took approx 2.5 hours to reach Dhakuri Village cottage, It was a guest house offered by KMVN.
Second Stop at Dhakuri
We reached 9:00 PM at our destination. We were late and tired, but we did spend some time with the group and staff over there. After having that fantastic enjoyment, delicious dinner, we went to our rooms and to bed at 11:30 PM.
The next morning was so very surprising.
The Next Day at Dhakuri Top
WooooooW! This was the first word from my mouth in the morning. And, it was really a fascinating view in front of our window or eyes. We’re surprised to see the Himalayan peak in front of our eyes and the stunning view of rising sun rays in the snow mountains. See a few pictures by yourself and let me know your view.
We could see snow under our feet and were excited to play with that. However, it was a -3 temperature over there but we couldn’t stop ourselves to play with the snow.
Deepak, our trek host told us to be ready for the real moderate trek, which was 3 km upward known as the Dhakuri top. Our main destination was Chilta Temple. He told us that we can see more snow up there and can see the bigger Himalayan peaks like Nandakot, Panwali Dwar, Maiktoli, etc.we started trekking to Chilta Mai Temple or Dhakuri Top with our group. It was still a raw path and the path was almost covered with snow. So, it was hard to step in that, our guide told us to get a support stick so we can trek.
After morning tea and light breakfast, we started trekking to Chilta Mai Temple or Dhakuri Top with our group. It was still a tough stone path and the path was covered with snow. So, it was hard to step in that, our guide told us to get a support stick so we can trek a little easy.
After trekking 1.5 km to the top we reached a Chilta Mata temple. The hills view was ultimate so I took a few photographs. Also, I have captured this video. Watch out!
Then we start trekking to the Dhakuri Top and it was 3.5 km upward from our guest house. Meanwhile, we have seen beautiful sceneries, hills covered with snow, clean and fresh air providing an inner peace to our mind. Truly, it can’t be explained in words.
We reached the Dhakuri Top and this is the👇 main Chilta Mai Temple that we came for. Look the memorable view in this video. (Don’t forget to follow on Instagram 😊)
While our a few group members were busy creating a snowman, we melt and boiled some snow to make it a drinkable water. We were spending a good time up there, suddenly we have seen a sudden climate change above Himalaya and our trek guide instructed us to trek downward. The cold snow air was too fast and we’re not able to stand properly in that air flow. It was a little scary as well. 😀 We downhill fast with our group and after trekking 1 km in the below direction, we could see a new weather and colorful view. We’re not able to see Himalayan peak but only blue sky and sky fog.
After spending 2 more hours in the high hills, capturing some moments and nature activities, we came back to our guest house. My friend’s group relaxed and enjoyed the changing climate view from Dhakuri guest house field.
At night we light some sky lamp to celebrate our night. We welcome a new group which was reached that night.
Leaving Dhakuri Next Morning
Next morning after breakfast we left Dhakuri to downhill and our vehicle was waiting for us at Dhur Kharkiya. We shared our trek experience with the group, they dropped us at Kapkot and from there we drive our own vehicle and reached Almora. Next Morning, I came back to Delhi.
The trek was a 4 days trip to Dharkuri Top from Delhi. And I am excited to make another trek with my group and host.
If you need any assistance for trekking in Uttarakhand then you can contact me or Dev Bhoomi Trekkers.
Enjoy!
1 Comment
Amazing! I know nothing about traveling all over the country, what a wonderful looking place to explore.