Winter in Kedarnath
In November 2005 my daughter Fiona and I went to Kedarnath two days before the temple closed for the winter. It snowed for much of the walk up, but we arrived safely before dark. The night was frigid (and even colder in unheated an concrete building) and the next morning the hills were covered with this new snow at sunrise.
There were still people on the trail the day we climbed to Kedarnath, including this Gujarati family, who insisted on having their picture taken with Fiona (the two older ladies look a lot like sisters). This was sharply different from the summer season, when thousands go to Kedarnath every day.
I was surprised that the settlements on the path were virtually deserted, and since many of the structures had no roofs, the journey was pretty spooky. In retrospect this makes perfect sense. If earnings depend on pilgrim traffic, when this tapers off the diminishing returns can induce people to close up shop. Some of these buildings are permanent (masonry and tin roofs), but most are temporary structures built of wood with plastic roofs.
When we arrived in Kedarnath we found most buildings tightly locked, with the locks covered in cloth and plastic to prevent rust. The door sills were also sealed with stones and plastic to prevent the snow from sifting in. Seeing the first shuttered buildings made me a little concerned--it was already 4 pm, and getting dusky--but music from a tape player led us to a place that was still open. The town that night was virtually deserted--probably only 30 people.
The frigid temperatures that night probably fell into the 20s (Far.), and as we were leaving the next morning we had to cross a section of the road where where an open water tap had created an ice sheet several inches thick. Such severe weather is why Kedarnath closes every winter. Locals told me that the snowfall piles up to the second stories of the buildings, and that even the birds move further down (mice/rats are the only living creatures who remain there).
Here's the town--so small against the mountains--and some Bengali pilgrims puzzling out how to walk across the ice (which they were probably seeing for the first time) The first part of the path had ice patches where meltwater had frozen, but after that the sun started to do its work.
