Hemkund Sahib Trek

[Thanatos]

Sangat Ji, Looking to hopefully maybe take a trek to Hemkund Sahib before my uni starts if Akaal wills, I tried looking up online for information on it but I can't seem to find any proper ones regarding fees and cost.

 

Any help would be great.

[singhbj singh]

This will give you some idea

http://www.sikhtourism.com/hemkund.htm

I'll suggest that you find & travel with local jatha who organise such trips every year. 

[Not2Cool2Argue]

I just did the trek on Aug 16. You need a driver to take you to uttrakhand state all the way to gobindghat gurudwara. It takes 3 or 4 days of driving from panjab. We stayed at gurudwara rishikesh and paonta sahib on the way. (The driver asked us for 35,000 rupees but someone told us the normal rate is 20,000 for a big tempo traveler. If u get small car. Shud be less)Then theres a 13 km trek to gobinddham. It takes about 5-7 hours to do depending on your speed. Stay the night at gurudwara gobinddham then next morning start trek early at six am or so.cuz if u want to see all 7 nishaan sahibs, u have to beat the fog which roles anywhere from 10-12.  So this last trek is 6 km, but its really hard trek becuz its very steep and its cold. And it was raining for us, so we got all wet n were freezing, my feet got red n swollen, thought i was gonna get frostbite. 

So wear chapla or sandles, dont wear shoes cuz they will become wet and waterlogged. Unless u can afford expensive boots that wont get waterlogged. Try to get footwear with traction so u dont slip. Take extra clothes in waterproof bag. Cuz our clothes got wet n dirty (there is donkey poop everywhere) but when we tried to change, our bag had gotten wet n so had our extra clothes.it was miserable. So leave ur bag at gobinddham, so it wont get wet on the trek, leave another bag with clothes at gobindghat. Also buy those plastic raincoats or take a good raincoat of ur own. Take a lot of rupees cuz those mountain ppl charge for everything. Only free stuff is at gurudware. Take a water bottle on the trek, cuz water gets more expensive the higher u get. Also u have to head down from hemkunt sahib b4 noon, cuz too little oxygen n it gets cold. 

U might want to take ur own blankets n sheets if u mind smelly, old  things. But then carrying them might get hard. And the donkey ppl ask for 700-1000 rupees to carry ur stuff..make sure to keep in shape and practice 19 km or 9 mile hikes b4 the attempt. I mean with gurus kirpa even old ladies with canes can finish the trek, but when ur doing the trek, a kind of fear takes hold that i have to make it b4 dark n ppl start ignoring the beautiful scenery n just rushing, n it can leave u feeling despondent n sucks ur energy, esp the cold.

Also Hemkunt sahib is not the tap asthan of guru gobind singh, it was the ishnaan isthaan. Guruji did tap even higher than this n would come down to where hemkunt sahib is to do ishnaan. Hence the sarover. Some ppl say theyve climbed higher to see tap asthaan but idk, i didnt see any trails leading to it

[singhbj singh]

In addition to what Not2cool2argue said

carry a toilet roll & a big bottle of hand sanitizer.

Water is extremely cold, don't use soap as it won't rinse.