Wondering about the hyperbolic/oxymoronic title….but nothing else does justice to the experience of a high altitude trek in the Himalayas!!
The ‘Safety’ & ‘Danger’ of a high altitude trek
- Imagine walking on a mountain at 10,000 ft (yes, walking- not climbing), with nothing to grab on to if you plant your next step without full concentration and evaluation! And suddenly realizing how much you really love your wife and daughter, and that the last you talked to them was 5 days ago!!
- Or, imagine sitting in your tent and sipping on hot kahwa (local herbal tea) at 5.30am, while marveling/or just staring at the icy-rocky mountain standing right in front of you like a towering parent (you are sitting right at the base of it). You cant decide whether it’s challenging you to cross it or shielding you from icy winds raging behind it.
- Or, imagine rappelling (more like falling) down a 50ft wall of ice at 15000ft. Although you know you are wearing full protective gear, but your mind goes numb and reflexes take over. And your body does not come back to normal for a full 10min even after reaching the bottom.
Hope you can get the ‘safe’ as well as ‘danger’ part now 😊. This is how a high altitude trek feels like! If anything, it is a heady cocktail- made up of different but strong emotions- exhilaration, patience and moments that really test your mental strength.
Let me give you a taste of one of this drink- day by day…the huge ups and downs (literal :P, physical and psychological).
This is about my 7 day trek to Buran Ghati in Himachal Pradesh, one of the best treks in this region, even as per seasoned trekkers. You go from a height of 7000ft (Shimla) to 15000ft (the Buran pass), hence every day brings a new experience, scenery but also challenges.
And here’s a cool comparison fact for this trek- Everest base camp is at 17000ft. So yeah, you do climb to a pretty decent altitude! It’s a ‘high altitude’ trek after all! So, go on, become a cool storyteller (actually a show-off :P) at your evening get-togethers 😊.
Day 1: Shimla to Base Camp of trek
A grueling 12hr journey, on potholes (with some road in between). But the excitement of next 6 days keeps your spirits up. And when you are with 10 other people who have the same sorrows…this makes it more bearable (somehow). Finally you reach the end of road (literally, see pic below). It’s supposed to be a small 15min hike on a gradual slope up to the local village. But the effort it took, phew!!….should have given me an executive summary of the upcoming days. But, as they say, a motivated heart is similar to a one in love….blind to logic. Anyway, hot tea with some snacks and then a good simple dinner, accompanied with chitchat with total strangers, are enough to make you look forward to the next day.
Day 2: Base Camp to First Camp
We had to cover 8km in the full day (which was 5hrs, 9am- 3pm). Our trek leader told us: it’s the longest distance we will cover on any day of the trek. I was like, seriously dude! That’s all! This sounds like a breeze! (Afterall, I was relatively young at 30yrs of age, and could walk 3km in 30min without too much strain on my lungs). And as is common with high achievers, an arrogant thought fleeted through my mind…will this be a let down…this does not look like challenging enough! Little did I know this would probably be the most incorrect I would ever be in my life!
I need to mention here that in my zeal, I had opted to carry my backpack myself (~9kg). Again a big mistake. The trekking company provided a great option to offload my backpack to the porters (with donkeys)…which I had obviously decided to ignore.
Anyway, so the day started with an easy hike around the village into beautiful meadows…that would easily put the picture postcards of Switzerland to shame! That was the first hour. I had started to feel the heat a bit, but so far so good.
It is Hot!
Then, almost without warning, the terrain suddenly transformed into coniferous forests…although still with a pretty gradual slope. But now I started realizing the weight of my backpack, as my body started straining like an old piece of machinery undergoing a stress test. 15 minutes into the forests and I was sweating and panting like I had run a 10km. And mind you, I was almost at the back of the group (meaning I was 30 min behind the person at the front 😊).
By the time I reached the first camp, the only thing I was capable of doing was to lie on my back and just breathe ☹. After several cups of hot tea, some snacks and 3 hrs of rest, I was able to walk again and surprisingly enjoy the evening campfire with the group.
All in all, a major lesson learnt (the trek leader thankfully allowed me to offload my backpack for rest of the trip), but I felt I had earned my day 😊.
Day 3: First Camp to Second Camp
After sleeping like a log (probably after ages), I woke up fresh, at 5am. (For your information, the day starts early on such treks- so that we can reach the next camp by lunchtime, and light starts fading pretty quickly in mountains).
But at 5am, came another experience I hadn’t really thought of- using a 100% natural loo (Indian style, in dark, without support…umm…). Obviously, no choice except to accept it. So the lesser said about it, the better.
The hike was more difficult than the previous day, but slightly better without my backpack trying to break by shoulders 😊. The terrain was a mix of surreal meadows and forests, with no human or animal contact (except a lone flock of sheep- but without any shepherd in sight). And today we got the first glimpse of our icy-rocky destination (see pic below).
This was the most peaceful day of the trek- i drank water straight from a mountain stream (I know it sounds like a cheesy Bollywood scene or song, but yeah…), felt at peace, just being with myself and the nature around, just concentrating on walking the next 15min. I think that’s what they call ‘mindfulness’ or bliss.
Day 4: Second camp (and an unsuccessful attempt to reach an ancient misty mountain lake)
Nothing could have prepared me for this day! Probably the toughest of the trek.
The terrain and weather again changed dramatically, from meadows and forests to somewhat rocky with short grass and COLD! Add to it the mist and intermittent drizzle.
Had a pretty much uneventful journey to our camp at the base of Buran pass. Except when we had to cross a small river and made a human chain to cross the same…was fun!
But the real challenge lay elsewhere- in a 5hr trek to Chandranahan lake, a misty mysterious ancient mountain lake. It was optional, but the end was supposed to be worth the journey. True to my competitive and persistent spirit, I joined the party of 6 people undertaking it.
The trek turned out to be supremely treacherous with sharp rocky climbs, made almost impossible (for a city dweller like me) by dark rainy weather. Again sounds like a scene from a movie- but I guess this is where directors get their inspiration from!
The last 1km to the lake was a steep ascent on a completely rocky slippery mountain slope, and I was down on all my fours, evaluating which rock to put my hand on next.
If you know, climbing up the slope is always easier than climbing down. And I was already convinced that I would never be able to climb down these rocks, especially in such slippery conditions. But, thankfully, we were supposed to come back via an easier path on the other side of the lake.
However, as if in response to this thought, Gods chose this moment to bully me. They opened the tap further and it began to pour heavily.
The Real Drama Unfolds
I heard a faint shout from trek leader, that we cannot continue the climb now and had to turn back. TURN BACK! Are you insane! HOW?? I cant climb down these knives of rocks, especially when I cant even see ahead beyond my arm.
I stood frozen to my spot for what seemed like atleast 2 hours!! (Actually it was only 10 min, but as you know the rules of space-time continuum don’t hold in such situations). I suddenly realized how much I love my family and that the last I had talked to them was 5 days ago (there had been no mobile signal after that). The trek leader, mercifully, led me down the slope by almost handholding me. The journey to our camp was long and painful with multiple slips, hunger and joint pains.
But in hindsight, here is the one thing that got literally engraved in me as a result of this fantabulous experience (yeah, surprisingly, it’s a happy memory, and I can use this word 😊)- no matter how difficult the situation might seem, how hopeless the condition be, you just need to focus on the immediate next step, one step at a time. And just keep moving…😊
Day 5: Climb to Buran Pass– the actual ‘high altitude’ of the trek, and my first ever (but unpleasant) rappelling experience
Surprisingly, despite the torture of previous day, I woke up in good health and spirits (maybe that’s what mountain air does to you).
It was kinda the D-Day. We had to climb up to the Buran pass (pass is basically a narrow path between two mountains that allows you to ‘pass’ over from one side to the other). Again the last 500m of climb was steep and rocky, but much more manageable with a bright and sunny weather.
Finally, I set foot on the top of the pass, the highest point of our entire trek. And standing there, it truly felt like I was on top of the world- literally and metaphorically (having managed to reach here). The view from the top of the pass was really worth every second of the grueling past 3 days. I just stood there soaking in the view and the feeling.
Dude…What Just Happened!!
Moving on, the next challenge was to climb down to the other side…..which looked like a 50ft straight wall of snow & ice. And I saw trek leader setting up some complex equipment….for rappelling. I had only seen it in movies before this…where it had seemed pretty simple and fun. No prizes to guess, it is the exact opposite. You need some upper body strength and quick reflexes to manage it.
Since most of the group was new to it, we were being ‘lowered down’ instead of us controlling anything on the rope…which should have been simple…right! Except that it was terrifying…because it felt like a free fall!! I still sometimes wonder whether it happened only in my case!. Those 5 seconds were enough to make my mind go numb and reflexes to take over. After that I had to slide down another 100m of ice on a makeshift board…what we often see kids doing joyfully and easily. But since my body was almost in a shock from the rappelling (fall), I just managed to finally reach the bottom, cold and soaking wet with icy water.
Only the hot tea at our camp could finally bring me back to my normal self 😊
Day 6&7: Descent to the base camp on the other side and back to Shimla
After the adventure of last 2 days, the next two seemed relatively simple and straightforward. I was actually glad to start seeing back some human habitation. The descent took us through lovely hamlets, and remarkable apple orchards. But by now, my body has started protesting. I was actually ok to be back in the cab, heading back towards Shimla (the 12hr return journey).
SO….
Although super tough, these were easily one of the best 7 days of my life on most parameters, (yeah…it’s weird how humans are wired!). And this experience was one of the key inspirations for me to start this blog.
It might look like that you need to do a lot of ‘pre-work’ in the gym before even thinking about this adventure ☹! But trust me, you don’t need anything apart from a basic general fitness (defined as being able to walk 3 kms in 30min in your neighborhood). I am a regular office-going, fried food eating, weekend couch potato, and have never signed up for any gym membership ever! But yes, do start walking daily for 30 min atleast 2-3 weeks before your trip, to avoid giving a shock-treatment to your body 😊.
Just need to mention- All the above images were taken from a regular mobile phone camera (in 2016)….by me (who does know anything about photography whatsoever). But as they say, you just point and shoot anywhere on this trek…output will be magnificent. So if that is an added incentive for the photographers….:)
If it’s your first trek (like it was for me), I would highly recommend to go via a trekking company (such as India Hikes). This way, you don’t have to spend time/energy on planning the basic needs- your logistics, food, and ofcourse some company. You can just focus on what matters- having fun!😊
Bottomline–
Whatever age you are, if you can manage to free up 10-12 days of your life, then don’t think or wait! Just go on a high altitude trek, any place in the world, atleast once in your life….it will be worth it!
This is one spice you don’t want to miss…..
Cheers
Note: If you are still not motivated, or you have already had this experience, or you are really looking for some peace and quiet…here is one such unique experience…that will urge you to Leave Yourself Behind !!
