Goecha-La was my first trek. Back in 2008, me and my friends made an attempt to reach there. Poor planning, poor fitness and general lack of awareness of what a trek entails resulted in a hilarious and failed trip. I haven’t shied away from documenting that embarrassing piece of history. If you are interested, please … [Read more…]
Nowadays I enjoy some bit of hiking and backpacking. It wasn’t like this. Allow me tell a story that started it all. It is also a story that involves failures of spectacular proportions. I hope that would be mildly entertaining. In April 2008, I was about to complete my second semester as a doctoral candidate. … [Read more…]
We packed all our stuff one last time, returned the micro-crampons and had some tea and pancakes for breakfast. It still amazes me how these guys were able to cook anything so tasty at that altitude, battling those dips in mercury. I would praise myself if I was able to cook anything at all. Once I … [Read more…]
I, along with the others in the group, had to wake up by 5:30 AM, freshen up, have breakfast and leave. I was not so confident about the state of my stomach but last evening’s dosage of Loperamide appeared to have done its job. I had no issues for the rest of the day. One of the trekkers was … [Read more…]
If waking up early in extreme cold was a problem, imagine the amount of pains I had to endure when I had to go for a pee at midnight! I was on a course Diamox. It was not necessary but it helped in acclimatisation. The compound, Acetazolamide, is a diuretic and caused me to rush to the toilet one … [Read more…]
Karthik came and woke us up at 7:00 AM. Today’s trek was supposed to be three-and-a-half kilometres only. We were served tea, followed by our breakfast. We were also given some roti and sabji which we had to pack in our tiffin boxes for lunch. Karthik called us all for briefing and slowly went through the … [Read more…]
Indiahike’s vehicles—a tempo traveller and two cabs—were waiting opposite to Dehradun Railway Station. I reached there by 6:30 AM. New Delhi to Dehradun – Nanda Devi Express, on which few trekkers would be arriving, was late by an hour. This delayed our start by another hour and half. The tempo traveller I was in had people from … [Read more…]
Last night, while I was on phone with Mogit, I felt the building shake. I thought it might have been some heavy vehicle passing in front of the hotel. I found no traces of any vehicle in the darkness outside my room’s balcony. It wasn’t until today morning that I got to know that an earthquake of … [Read more…]
I must admit that the cold made me a lot lazier. I didn’t feel like waking up before 7:30 AM. Hotel Heaven felt further from its namesake with its rooms and room service. I had to wake up the caretaker for some hot water so that I could make some tea. What I was given was lukewarm water, … [Read more…]
I was invited by my bandmates Korak and Shounak to join their gang from IISc for this trek. An upcoming trip of mine demands considerable fitness. I took up this opportunity to prepare a bit for the trip and test out few of my gears. Other than Korak and Shounak, I had the company of … [Read more…]
