23/01/2017
Trek: Chokramudi Peak, Munnar, Kerala
Date: 22 January 2017
Organised by:
Finally! Western Ghats Explorers' maiden organized trek to one of the tallest peaks in South India was a successful one. A group of 17 trekking enthusiasts from around the country came together to take a challenging trek to the less-known, yet one of the most beautiful peaks of the majestic Western Ghats.
The team came together at Kannan Devan Hills Club on a drizzling Saturday evening and stayed for the night. Next day at 5.30 am, we reached the basecamp and geared up for the climb with one common motive: to witness the scintillating view of Munnar waking up to yet another sunrise, from nearly 7200 ft. above sea level.
After briefing the team, we began climbing the first and the most difficult part of Chokkramudi peak. The first steep curve to the first halting point up top, offers almost no grip and the slight drizzle yesterday, made the surface wet and slippery. However, these are predictable and acceptable hurdles in any trek and we made it to the first halting point in an hour, without much hiccup.
With the most daring part of the trek successfully cleared, it gave a huge morale boost to the team. We halted there to view the sunlight breaking through the clouds, peeking onto us. After a quick break, we had a long stroll into some greenery with tall grass and sections of trees setting up an ambience of a forest up the hills. Inhaling the cool, fresh air whilst making our way to the top, made us think to start a civilization of our own up there! It is infact something to think on. That, we have to trek to peaks to get some fresh air...
The next section was another near-vertical hill climb and by then, we could see the clouds passing below us, caressing our feet as it glided away.
And after 3 hours and 4kms of climb, walk and crawl (at times), we made it to the summit of , one among the five tallest peaks in South India. It was also one of the fastest climb made by us. While we scheduled to reach the summit at 10am, the team made it up top, almost 2 hours less!
The view from there.. Well, its not worth writing in any language because it won't do any justice to what we saw! So, here are the pictures... We are leaving it to you. If you could come up words to describe this, well, you haven't been there before!
