88	Abode of Gods
to negotiate. We reached Vasuki Tal (16,000ft.) in the evening.
The lake is beautiful. We could see pheasant and other birds here.
At Vasuki Tal we rested for two days for acclimatisation, clim-
bing practice over snow and ferrying of goods upto higher camp
I at 18,500 ft. It was a tiring job but good experience of
climbing nearly 2500 ft. over thick sheet of snow and that too
in a process of continuous climb. Ultimately, we established our
camp I and halted there. It was terribly biting cold over there.
Everything was frozen and night was full of chill, gale and snow
storm was beating around our tent but fortunately for us the
morning was pleasant and we started early about 6 a.m. for the
ascent and acclimatisation.Next day we repeated the process. Maj
Surat Singh was leading, the other members were Dr. Chaudhari,
Thakur, Rawat, Jamil (Instructor), Suanglu (Instructor) Bhagwal
.and myself. I also led for nearly 500 feet at the initial stage of the
climb. At about 11.00 a.m. we were at 20,000 ft. From here
rocky ridge started which was very difficult to negotiate but
fortunately for us Rawat took the lead. He showed immense
reserves of energy. Progress was very slow. After four hours of
climbing we could reach the top 21,365 ft. around 1500 hrs. It
was the finest hour for us. We remained there for half an hour and
had couple of quick photographs. It started snowing, therefore,
soon we started descending down. Driven by excessive enthu-
siasm, I started descending down but soon lost control over my-
self as a result of which I slipped in an uncontrollable manner for
,a few hundred feet but as luck would have it, I arrested my fall
and got a lease of life.
The return journey was eventful.
The trek to the source of third river—Saraswati
The third river which meets Ganga and Yamuna at the holy
-confluence (Sangam) of Allahabad is Saraswati about which various
stories are narrated. River Saraswati originates from Tara Glacier
below Mana Pass and meets Alaknanda below Nana village, thus
it has a very short career but as per traditional accounts it goes
underground over here and from here emerges again at the holy
confluence (Sangam). I went three times all along the course of
this river, which descends down Arwa Valley. The vegetation is
scanty.