“The Day the Mountain Let Me Live: Kedartal, 2022”
I had always heard mountaineers say in their stories, “I’m alive today only because of my Sherpa.” I never imagined I would one day live that truth myself. On 26th May 2022, I was on a trek to Kedartal in Uttarakhand with 23 trekkers from across Karnataka. Blogs had warned me it was one of the most daunting trails — spider walls, loose gravel slopes, falling stones, and knife-edge ridges. But reality hit us at the first camp. We had already crossed sections so treacherous that one misstep could send you tumbling into the valley below, into the river. Yet our team navigated each patch with skill and nerve. It was 27th May 2022. We trekked to Kedar Kharak, where we faced a choice: traverse the gravel mountains or cross the river. The gravel route meant risking loose stones and rockfall — a single slip could be fatal. So we chose the less dangerous option: the river. But that wasn’t easy either. We had to descend nearly 100 feet down a steep gravel slope to reach the riverbed. The path wa...