Leap of Faith - Navigating the lofty reaches of Uttarakhand's Panpatia Col

Leap of Faith - Navigating the lofty reaches of Uttarakhand's Panpatia Col

Spurred by Hindu gods and English explorers, a group of mad mountain men navigate the lofty reaches of Uttarakhand's Panpatia Col.  

Walking on the Panpatia Snowfield at an avg altitude of 5000m. More pics here

 

  The May 2015 edition of "National Geographic Traveller India" features a story on the first commercial crossing of Panpatia Col by WhiteMagic, written by renowned photographer and travel writer Sankar Sridhar. The Panpatia Col trek is a relatively new find and did create major waves in the Himalaya trekking and exploration community when the route connecting the haloed temples of Badrinath and Kedarnath was first mapped. There goes a very famous legend in Garhwal region of Uttarakhand that there once existed a priest who worshiped at Kedarnath temple in the morning and walked to Badrinath temple to worship there in the evening! This legend sparked the interest of great explorers like C.F. Meade in 1912 and Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman in 1934 who all endured great adventures but came back unsuccessful. The route remained a mystery till as recently as June 2007 when a team of Bengali Explorers including Debabrata Mukherjee, Tapan and Usha Pandit trail blazed through it. They found what could be a possible route using Google Earth!  

A Map showing the Route connecting Badrinath and Kedarnath

 

  Reproduced here are the scanned pages from the Magazine where Sankar Sridhar pens down a vivid account of the expedition as well as the mythical and factual history around it. WhiteMagic first crossed this Col in June,2012.     You can view snaps from this particular Expedition on WhiteMagic's Facebook Page. Album titled - "Trek across the Panpatia Col".   Further trip details including itinerary and costs can be found at http://www.whitemagicadventure.com/details/panpatia-col.html

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