Sanjana Sivaram, a young school student from Mumbai, and already an avid hiker, recently went on the Dayara Bugyal Trek with her schoolmates. It was a remarkably memorable trip for this group of young school students.
Her account will give you a small peek into the wilderness, the beauty of the Himalayas, and above all, how fun and exciting it can be to explore the outdoors from an incredibly young age!
In December 2021, four of my school friends and I decided to do the Dayara Bugyal trek to bring in the new year in the mountains. We started planning early so that we could be well prepared for the trek. It was a 5-day trek from 28th December to 1st January. All 5 of us were beginners. Not only had we not done a snow trek before, but some of us had also never done any trek before. We had our set of apprehensions on whether we would be able to complete the trek but all we wanted was to have a New Year's away from the city and to spend time together.
It was colder than any of us had expected but we were well prepared for it. The first day of the trek was about 6 hrs of gradual ascent. Not long into the trek did we get a reality check of how it was going to be. Luckily, we had great company and met many like-minded people on the trek who made the difficult parts also breeze through.
Trekking through the snow is the most unique experience I have had. It was challenging yet mesmerising at the same time. Every view we saw was truly breathtaking, be it the tall oak and pine trees of the trail or the snow-clad mountains from the summit. The trekking leaders and assistants were the backbone of the journey. They would constantly motivate us and keep our morale high.
Although it has been months since the trek, I can picture everything like it happened yesterday. My favourite memory has to be the whole team sliding down the snowy hills on our descent from the summit. To ease the steep descent, we decided on simply sliding down. Although there was snow in our shoes and our pants, the adrenaline rush was worth it!
Another cool thing we did was that we got to stand on and walk across a frozen lake. Even though it was extremely challenging, the whole team of 20 completed the trek. We pushed our limits every step of the way and adapted in ways we never imagined we could. And most of all we made bonds and created memories that we will cherish for a lifetime!
All credits to Reccy for curating such a memorable experience for us. Right from selecting the right trek to doing all the bookings to arranging suitable travel to guiding us on what to pack, we had the perfect assistance from the Reccy team. They even accommodated the trek dates as per our preference as we wanted to spend the New Year on the summit. All options and necessary details were given to us by Reccy which made the whole process smooth for us. They even guided us to where we could rent the required equipment for the trek. Thanks to the full team of Reccy for going out of their way to give us the most memorable trip of our lives. I would definitely recommend Reccy to others and will plan future treks with them only.
Sanjana’s friend also wanted to contribute to our newsletter regarding her memorable experience and who are we to stand in between. So, have a go through this short and nice paragraph.
Every single place while doing the Dayara Bugyal summit was scenic. Every time we stopped and looked around, something as simple as a dried leaf looked beautiful. The resting point at Dayara village was indeed a spectacle. Our instructor showed us multiple mountain peaks from this spot, and it was indeed informative.
As told to the Cross the Line correspondent.