Trek to Goecha-la through Singhalila ridge - Part 1

Nilanjan Patra

Photographs: Author, Avijit Sur, Raja Saha, Saikat Das
Category: Trekking, Hiking
Date of Publication: Oct 3 , 2012Vol-01 Issue-01

We planned to reach base camp like altitude, we wanted to walk on the snowy trail, we love greenly misty and colorful adventurous trail, we like to walk in the rain through a deep forest, we like to have famous mountain peaks within handshaking distances, we like...everything what a nature loving trekker dreams. These were our conditions while we were searching for a route for the last trek.

When you talk about Indo-Nepal Himalayan region, the options are many more. They can be categorized by their altitude and/or by toughness. In this context, if Kalapathar is famous for Everest then Goecha-la is famous for the Mt. Kanchenjunga, third highest mountain peak of the world. But what about the other conditions!! More famous places lead to have more crowds in the trail which again leads to add more noise to the trail and have less adventure.

Trading of all the conditions we decided to trek Goecha-la through the Singalila ridge. In the conventional way to reach Goecha-la, one has to start from Yuksom (5148 ft), a village in southern Sikkim. The trail goes through some beautiful villages like Bakhim, Tshoka and it leads to the Dzongri top. After Dzongri the trail becomes narrow and it enters into the Prek-chuvally. After two days of trekking from the place Kockchirang one can reach Goecha-la through some beautiful meadow like Thansing, Lumeny.

In our case, it (trail) starts from the village Nambu (not yet popular for trekkers) which is located nearby the village Rimbi. Some trekkers who are interested to have a flavor of Singalila ridge, take a rout from this Nambu village to visit the famous Dhafevir (or may be Daphevir) pass (15,282 ft) then come back to the Nambu village again. It takes three to four days to reach Daphevir pass and two to three to come down. However we consider this route because it would take us into the Singalilaridge which starts from the Darjiling area, West Bengal and heads towards the west portion of Mt. Kanchenjunga. Those who are interested in only Singalila ridge trek can start journey from Manebhanjan in West Bengal to Dzongri through Sandakphu, Phalut, Singalila Pass, Chewabhanjan Pass, Meghu, Daphevir Pass, Lampokhri, Gomathang, Panding and then rout ends in Yuksom via Bakhim (see in the map). Goechala trekking The typical ridge trek will take minimum 15 days. The main attractions of the ridge trek are: to cross high altitude passes, high altitude lakes, glaciers, Singalila national park and the Kanchenjunga national park, varieties of flora and fauna, to have a glimpse of the majestic view of Mt. Everest, Mt. Kanchenjunga, Kabur group, Mt. Pandim, Mt. Kumbhakarna, Mt. Tinolchu and many more. We planned we would start from Nambu and through Sangkhola. Chowri, Nayapatal, Yambong we would join the typical Singalila ridge trek route at Daphevir pass (15,282 ft.) which would head toward Dzongri. From Dzongri village we would take the conventional Goecha-la route to reach Goecha-la Pass (17,200 ft.) and then back to the village Yuksom via Phedong (see map for more details). This idea came because of the fact that we possibly can fulfill maximum of the above said conditions. The date of journey was fixed on 20th May (from Kolkata) and the duration of the trip was 15 days. At that period of time when the high altitude Rhododendron (very very famous at Singalila and Kanchenjunga region!) comes with its full bloom and the beginning of the monsoon would add more of its beauty to the green, even pure green high altitude meadows and yaks' grazing ground. The Singalila Ridge would be then queen of all beauty and ready to welcome one solitary trek group. So we get lonely, color, magical induction with rain drops, high altitude passes, lakes, long-very long variation of trail with full of mountain view and finally to meet Mt. Kanchenjunga with her family at Goecha-la Pass(16,800 ft). But it is not an easy task at all as the average altitude is about 10,000 ft. with plenty ups and downs. Before reaching at Goecha-la three high altitude passes are to be crossed during the Singalila ridge trek. So it's a big tournament!

with this plan we, five friends started our journey from Kolkata on 20th May, 2012 by train. At the beginning, everybody was exciting about making a long list of missing materials which were supposed to be collected from the Jorthang bazaar. The list was quite lengthy as we hardly could manage time to collect appropriate materials before commencing the journey (most of the time was spent by making plans, arranging trekking gears, booking guide, porter, yak etc.!!). The road which connects the NJP railway station to Jorthang bazaar was no more new to us. The river Tista could not draw our attention to her as we were not at all interested in seeing its beauty and taking some snaps! We were still calculating about the rationing stuff and related issues about cost effectiveness and availability etc. However in Jorthang we divided ourselves into subgroups and started shopping. For 15 days and 10 heads (we five plus five supporting staff), the volume of the ration was like a mammoth! Finally we packed them on the roof of the jeep and taking a short quick lunch we again started for Yuksom. The maximum portion of the dry materials could be managed except the green vegetables and some kitchen stuff which were to be taken from Yuksom bazar after having a discussion with guide and cook. After finishing a long distance (125 km) it was late afternoon to reach Yuksom. As per our plan we would stay over there (Yuksom) for two days because we were to take permission and collecting all the necessary things along with the rest of ration items. It would also help us to get acclimatized with the altitude. So no hurry! Only take a rest and deep sleep.

yuksom Yuksom was the capital of the Sikkim previously. The place is beautiful and no more just like another simple village. The famous Kanchenjunga base camp trek starts from here which makes Yuksom popular and different from the other places in Sikkim in front of the world. You can see all time trekkers are roaming around the Yuksom bazaar collecting rations and the other necessary stuff. Some are returning back with a fresh experience. Apart from trekking some beautiful places are there to visit for general travelers. Almost every shop keeps some materials which are necessary for the trek. Moreover we got a touch of adventure in everywhere. By the evening we finished a primary meeting with the guide and porter and we were roaming around the villages watching slow lives and the colorful gardens here and there. Before going to bed once again we went for the calculation of the trail, check list, to do list etc. We had no such experience of commencing such a big and tough trek before which caused anxiety among us.

yuksom Morning came with a very busy schedule. At last night it was raining, naturally we could complete a longer course of sleep. Everybody was assigned to the number of responsibilities with a given restricted time period. We had to collect all the vegetables for the next 10-12 days, kitchen utensils, materials for kitchen tent, permit from the local police station, permit from the local hospital after giving a test on our health condition, permit from the forest officer for Kanchenjunga National Park and finally repacking all the stuff. As our expectation we could manage only a few as the morning was swept away in no time. No permit could be managed as the same picture of the absence of the staff existed everywhere. But some materials could be managed from the local market with the cost which was as high as Kanchenjunga. The vegetables were to order to have in the next morning! That too paying excessively high price (few thousand) in advance. Kerosene and other cooking materials were ordered long back before coming here that is why that could be managed somehow. yuksom village south sikkim Anyway the post lunch session was continued with the much busier schedule. We were surprisingly exhausted completely just on the day before starting the trek. Still the green signal from the police was unavailable to us. Still there is a huge confusion about the number of Yuk required for us. Nothing was running smoothly. The forest officer came in the evening from his home after putting numerous requests throughout the whole day! So tomorrow morning we would start trek from the village Nambu with full team but we required to have police permit and vegetables before leaving Yuksom in the early morning. Just before the evening the cloud blasted on Yuksom. It was raining heavily with a mixture of sounds. We got settled in an open hut like place (umbrella like roof with sitting arrangement) in front of a beautiful cottage to enjoy the rainy evening. We loitered around the hut and the rain was badly continuing to show his power. It was certainly the sweetest rainy evening I had ever before in my life. We ordered some local made hot snacks to spice up the mood and it went fantastic with the shaded dark blue-green colored evening. All the exhaustion and the tension were splashed away and we spent there till the dinner.

we waited for this morning since last eight months! It was a clear shiny morning of the late May. The goods and the nicely packed rucksacks were loaded into the jeep right on time. We were in black colored dream wanderlust T-shirt. nambu village sikkim The jeep took five of us and four supporting staff from the hotel room to the police station near Yuksom bazaar in very early in the morning. Thank God we got the man finally who issued the permission letter immediately after seeing the medical clearance! From the market place we packed the precious (!) green vegetables loosing lump sum amount of money. The distance between Yuksom and Nambu is around 35 km. Around 10 AM we reached at Nambu beside the river Rimbi. Yak harder was waiting there with six Yuk for us. The Yak man came for making a drama that we had to take all the six Yaks, but actually we ordered for hiring four Yaks. It took one hour to negotiate five Yaks after weighing the goods which would be carried by them.(Saikat managed one weighing machine from the local health center to prove the carriage materials are of below 250kg excluding packing rucksacks and kitchen utensils) It was a bitter experience which we never expected to be happening just before the start.