Hidden Retreat on the Mountains: Hemkund Sahib

When traveling in a foreign land there are two ways to go about it. The first is the to see the same sights that all the tourists see when they come to the country. The second is to go where usually only the citizens of the country itself know about. Hemkund Sahib is clearly a sight of the latter sitting at 15,500 feet in the heart of the Himalaya Mountains.

This journey is quite the hike stretching over a 3 day period. Individuals starting their pilgrimage begin from Gobind Ghat, also called the base camp, and begin early in the morning for a 8-12 hour hike to the halfway point. The next day's hike is a grueling 6 hour hike to the finish that is not especially difficult in terms of the path, but rather the lower oxygen content as you get to literally walk among the clouds.

The last section of the hike is three thousand stairs (tempting I know) and what makes this hard is not the actual stairs, but rather that after each stair you have to rest and regain your breath.

I may be making the journey sound difficult, but it is absolutely worth it in every facet. The experience of being on top of the world among the clouds is something completely unparalleled. This experience is absolutely blissful, and through the hiking many individuals experience a deep meditation and inner peace on their journey.

Hemkund Sahib become a site of pilgrimage due to its freezing lake. The area has been a site for meditation for thousands of years, and holds a tranquil space for all that visit it. The lake at the top of the mountain often has naturally free forming ice on its surface. When the depth was measured it was found to continue all the way down 15,000 feet to sea level.

Overall the experience of this journey is completely immeasurable to any other on the planet. The internal perspective and realization gained from embarking on one of nature's greatest gifts is something I would recommend to any who are able to experience it.