On The Trail.....

The twin Peaks of Shivling with the East Pillar in front seems close enough to touch but as usual its foreshortening at work.. Very difficult to get the true scale of these mighty peaks..

There is an old saying (which is specially true in the mountains) : DO NOT MISTAKE A CLEAR VIEW FOR A SHORT DISTANCE ...

The peak is still around 20 miles away as the crow flies and the trail climbing up from Gaumukh (the once traditional source of the Ganga but now retreated higher) to the meadows of Tapovan winds through some of the most dramatic scenery .. huge boulders, loose rocky hillsides and finally over the lateral moraines of the Gangotri glacier itself, which is covered with numerous glaciated boulders and crevasses and mainly made up of shattered rock

The whole locale looks something like Mordor out of LOTR...

Everywhere destructive forces are at work, with nary a sign of anything growing .. The shale and slate moraines are the remains of boulders crushed by the most erosive force in the world - a glacier - a slow moving river of ice, which decimates everything even mountains as it inexorably tumbles down to the valley floor below..

All this time Shivling looms on the right, until it passes out of view and you begin a steep ascent which finally culminates at the meadows of Tapovan, the contrast to the trail is total, here verdant hillsides, lichen covered rocks and wild flowers in profusion and it's such a joy to see things growing again and a grand vista of mighty peaks come into view those peaks which make up the great crique of the Gangotri Group of Peaks.. (Bhagirathi, Karchakund, Sumeru, Kedar Dome, Shivling, Meru, Bhrigupanth, Thalay Sagar)

The view alone is worth the toil of the trail...