Trekking tips for a safe and enjoyable trek through the Himalayas

While you would of course have taken at most care to address all the aspects of preparation, we thought of letting you know of some of the most important aspects we realized through our experience. In some cases, we were well prepared and in some we were not. While everyone plans things differently and cares of different aspects, we think that this set should help you consider in your preparation plan any aspects you may have inadvertently missed out. We will be happy if you write to this blog and add any other aspects we did not realize or encounter, but you believe could be useful for other fellow trekkers. These are in no particular order.

1. The best season to trek in Uttarakhand is 15^th September to 15^th October, a week here and there depending on how early the monsoon sets in that year. You would hit the most perfect weather possible, with little rain and not as cold as it would get later on in the year. This is also not the thick of the pilgrimage season, so you will not hit too much crowd on the way back and forth to the trek base. The second best would be between 15^th April and 15^th May.
2. Early morning between sunrise and 9:00 am is the best time for clear views of the peaks and the mountains. Post mid-morning, the clouds invariably start gathering restricting the view significantly. So, try and camp as close as possible to the mountain top (I know it will be much more open and cold the higher you camp), so that you could reach the top within an hours’ trek up.
3. Start you day as early as you can. Have an early breakfast; pack your lunch for the break on the way and try to reach the next camp before 2:00 pm or 3:30 pm at the latest. The weather tends to be great till about 2:00 with the Sun shining, but is very likely to turn nastier beyond 2:00 pm with gusty cold winds and likely showers (mind you the Himalayan weather is quite unpredictable really, but does demonstrate this basic pattern anyway)
4. However much you hate it, stretching exercises at the start and the end of the day everyday are absolutely important to a healthy and happy trek. Ensure you spend at least 10 minutes stretching every part of your body from head to toes. It is best if you assign a member with fitness orientation the task of leading everyone through this.
5. Eat a lot through the day, predominantly proteins. Eggs, milk and bran (daliya) for breakfast, dry fruit, dink laddus, khajur and alepak work best along the way, cooked pulses  and a candy bar with the lunch, warm soup in the evening greatly help. Avoid oily/spicy food, alcohol and smoking, if you can; though small measure of alcohol in the evening could help keep you warm in the night. Remember you would lose about 500-600 calories per every hour of your trek. For a 15 km trek through the day, typically you would lose at least about 3500 calories.
6. Ensure you are always properly hydrated. You should consume at least 3-4 litres of water every day during the trek. You don’t need to carry a lot of bottled water; as the water from the streams is extremely clean and cold. It is important to carry lot of Electral or Glucon-D though; mix it with the water at the start of the day. A water bag with an attached sipper works best, as the weight of the water gets spread evenly (water weighs a ton) and the sipper allows you to drink small quantities at a time and multiple time. You will feel exhausted quicker if you get dehydration.
7. Ensure you wear good shoes. Trekking shoes work best, as they have thick soles that allow you to step on the stones more comfortably. It is great if you can apply the water proofing spray to the shoes to keep them dry, even when you step through the flowing water or even if it rains. Keep in mind that the trek lasts longer than a day and there are no easy ways to dry and heat up your wet shoes to wear the next day. I like to carry another pair and it surely helped me this time round.
8. Even in the best of the seasons, the Himalayan weather is as unpredictable as you. It is warm and sunny during the day, but shifts to cold after 2:00 pm and gets quite cold. The best way to manage this is the dress up in layers. Wear at least 3-4 layers of the clothes. Layers create intermediate resistance for heat dispersion and protect you well. A thermal layer inside (compression layers work best as Prashant and Nikhil can tell you) and a layered jacket outside (ask Pramod) will surely protect you. Carry a poncho with you for protection from rain if the outer layer of your jacket in not water proof. Ditto for the legs; wear warm, semi water proof breathable trekking pants and thermal if you feel cold.
9. It is important to bring along a local guide, who knows his way along the trek. With significant limestone content, the Himalayan ranges are much more prone to land sides and rock falls. The landslides block your usual route and the guide must be able to understand a safe workaround for the missing trails. He will also ensure that you don’t lose your trail. Being on a wrong path after 2:00 pm is inviting for trouble.
10. Nothing better than having a guide with you who is equipped with all the good gadgets such as the compass, the GPS etc; and someone who knows his peaks and rivers correctly irrespective of which direction you look at them.
11. Ensure you carry good tents (double layered to protect from rain), double mats below the sleeping bags for comfort from the uneven tent ground and warm sleeping bags. You will need to carry enough warm cloths and also protection from rain. Ensure all your clothes are packed in plastic bags for protection from rain, unless you carry a plastic cover for your ruck sack itself which will provide overall protection.
12. It gets pitch dark in the night at the camp, so you need to carry a strong torch at a minimum. An LED based white light with sharp focus that covers long distance is good. Carry extra batteries if needed. Pramod and Nikhil carries head mounted (hands free and auto focus) torches, which were quite popularly borrowed by everyone. Even when you have a good torch, don’t venture out alone in the night for any reason; don’t hesitate to wake your buddy up and ask him to join you.  Umedji had a clever gadget of solar lamps that we could charge during the day and use through the night as needed. They supported us well through the cooking and dining in the night. He provided one such lamp for each tent for the night.
13. Hopefully you don’t need them much; but you can never be underprepared with medicines. Treat them like insurance; thank god if you don’t need to use them, but you should have them handy in case of need. Carry all kinds of medicine including cold, cough, sore throat, fever, indigestion, stomach flu, loose motion, allergy, insect bites, muscle pull, pain medicine and whatever else you can think of. We carried some Ayurvedic medicines such as the oil of Bhimseni Kapur, Narayan oil and Divya dhara oil from Baba Ramdev. These are all useful to massage and relax your muscles in the night and I used them regularly to good effect.
14. There is paucity of good medicine in the villages that you will pass through the journey due to the lack of accessibility and you will come across hordes of sweet children asking you for medicine. Typically they don’t even know which medicine is to be used for what purpose, so you will need to carefully tell them about it. Carry a lot of additional fever and pain medicine specifically to distribute in the villages. And give away all your medicine that you don’t need towards the end of your trek. We are also planning to carry a bunch of chocolates for the little ones that you meet along the way.
15. And last but not the least, the golden rule of “No littering” anywhere during the trek. We take all the effort to visit the parts of India for their pristine unadulterated nature; so let us make all the attempts to keep it that way. Nothing makes me madder than seeing a torn Lays packet at the top of a majestic mountain. Otherwise, these places will not remain worth visiting any more. You would have observed this as well; while you see clean mountains and forest away from human civilization the moment you approach human population (and it gets worse in the dense cities such as Mumbai) you start seeing a lot of cleanliness issues. It pains me immensely to see all the places of pilgrimage so full of unclean surroundings; nowhere in the western world would you see this; something we all can learn from.

     For your convenience, I have added below a small table listing all the items you should carry for the Himalayan trek. Even though your list may differ and I am sure this will evolve for us as well through future years; it should still serve you as a guide. 

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Kuari Pass Trek October 2012

Journey through the Kuari Pass

Granted I have not been to the Kilimanjaros or Mont Blancs of the world, but I am not talking about exotic expeditions. It is not as if I have not trekked in different parts of the world and so have my friends on this amazing trek through the Kuari Pass that I am going to talk about. We have been places, some more than others; but certainly none of us was ever just a couch warmer. This is as sure as the majestic eagles that fly over the huge peaks in the Himalayas; never in the past have I had such an out of body experience. Never have I been a part of such magnificence or been presented with such grandeur. Just take a brief look at the picture here and you will know what I am talking about.

No wonder I am behaving like a 10 year old, excited and bragging about our little adventure. So, if you find this all amateurish, so be it. And you may be right, so if you were hoping to get some professional insights into the Himalayan trekking; read no further. This is not designed to be an article which provides expert advice to professionals and you may be disappointed. But if you are a Himalayan enthusiast, professional or amateur, and enjoy reading about the experiences of the fellow trekkers, read on and I assure you of a virtual tour that would take you to the Kuari Pass.

I present the article in roughly four sections, namely the section that provides the day by day count of our memorable journey through the Himalayan Mountains, the section on trekking tips for amateur trekking enthusiasts, the section on our impressions of the local Uttarakhand areas and last but not the least a section on our takeaways.  Feel free to skip and hop through the sections back and forth, if you will; but I would advise a straight read for better enjoyment as I have attempted to string the thoughts through the sections.

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Takeaways from the trek in the Himalayas

See our little camp site? Feel humbled and proud at the same time.

If we did not take anything away from the trek, we can call ourselves brain dead. There was so much to understand, grasp and internalize; I sometimes think that had we not been so engrossed in ourselves and our comforts we would have been able to take away many more lessons of life. All you had to do was to keep you ears, eyes and most importantly your mind open.

Humbling experience

The most profound effect of the entire journey on me and surely on all my friends as well is the good loss of our egos; such was the humbling experience within the realm of the grand Himalayas. It doesn't take much thought and intelligence to understanding how small we are in the greater context, just looking at the soaring mountains and the deep valleys, just realizing how much effort and struggle it is for us tiny little beings to cross a mountain range and also seeing milky white band of our galaxy in the dark night sky. But what hits you more is not the part that we are small but the part that we matter so little in the grand design of the nature.

And then you start thinking about our petty problems, our need to control the environment around us and our bloated ego; and you realize how very futile it all was and is. If this does not make you feel elated reminiscing the small things in life, saddened about all the hurt you have caused to your dear ones and all the opportunities you have lost to make the life of the ones you care that much more worth living; then I am sorry but I have to say that you have lost it as a human being. This really forces us to think about what roles we play and why or to whom we matter in the gigantic playground; that we surely start making our utmost little effort to make the world a better place for everyone that we can.

A proud feel of achievement

Once we embraced the humility, the doors to the pride of achievement opened easily. Just as we saw how very little we mattered in the grand scheme, we realized how much our actions and achievements mattered in our little context within us, the people we cared for and the people who cared for us. We were filled up to the brim with this sense of pride every step we took, every story we told and every reaction we received. We felt hungry for more achievement and at the same time satisfied for the value we added to everyone around us.

Then we began to think about what man has achieved in this grand scheme of the world, with every little step taken by everyone, with every progress man has made understanding the natural laws and utilising the knowledge to make further progress.

Confidence in the Indian democracy

As we traveled through these remote interiors of Uttarakhand, the engagement of the people of Uttarakhand and the contributions made by the Indian government towards progress and betterment of the local communities was quite apparent. For the evidence, we saw drivable roads being made to improve accessibility to the remote parts and to create jobs for the local folk; we heard about the various schemes the government was running to help improve the education levels of the community; we witnessed the progress made by various hydro power projects run by NHPC and Jaypee Associates; we saw the work being done by the BRO (Border Roads Organisation) in ensuring that the roads are drivable and any determent to that through landslides was addressed right away;  and we also felt the solid presence of Indian army for protection of our borders.

The involvement of people in the polity and administration of the state and their active participation was clearly evident through their conversations and actions. The responsibility carried by the Panchayats and the wise investments of the funds provided by the government as also visible. This gave us a lot of confidence that Uttarakhand and India definitely has bright days ahead thanks to the empowerment created by the democratic government.  The only feeling was that this needs to be accelerated significantly.

A renewed sense of responsibility towards the greater context

And last but not the least of the takeaways was the renewed sense of responsibility we all have as citizens of India towards the greater context. While we make progress bringing better lives and better environment to ourselves, we must be careful not to cause irreparable damage to the nature in the process. The progress needs to be in harmony and not in conflict. We must ensure that while we expand our existence, it does not come at the cost of the nature, the forests and the wild life. While we move towards better living for ourselves, we should improve the natural ecosystem and not make it dirty or damaged in any way. It is our duty to preserve this pristine beauty while we make it more convenient for us to enjoy it and we must never forget that.

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Impressions and expressions of Uttarakhand

No story of the trek can ever be complete without a discussion on the local people, their life styles, benefits and challenges of living in the mountains, their culture and overall progress of the local societies. The interaction with the locals really rounds out the trek experiences and truly enriches your journey. There is so much to talk about the Uttarakhand we experienced and I am so excited to talk about it; that I may run short of blog space and possibly your mind share as well. So, I will stick to the simple formula of listing those aspects down that have left a lasting impression on me; made me introspect and think hard about life itself. Every anecdote I have jotted down below has somewhere touched my heart and I am sure it will touch your as well.

Interiors and remote interiors of Uttarakhand

The very first thing that strikes you when you set on the bus journey, from say Rishikesh like we did, towards your trekking base destination is that you are driving through ghats (road through the mountains) that never seem to end, even when you drive for say 10-12 hours. It does not take much to realize that the slopes are really far bigger than you are generally used to seeing; the peaks climb very high on you even when you are driving at heights and the rivers run really deep below making for a gorgeous panorama that you could easily lose yourself into.

The roads on the two ranges of the mountains, one that you are on and the one opposite you never seem to meet each other and they probably never do, except for when you see small bridges low in the valley crossing the rivers, albeit rarely.

The second noticeable aspect is the interplay of the shades of the sky blue, the grey white clouds, the sun rays, the mountain greens, the blue rivers and the grey white rocks that surrounds you as you wind up or down the slopes of various ranges. And mind you the ranges are also never ending, one behind the other keeps rising up becoming visible to you as you gain heights.

I have lived in the Sahyadri ghats of western Maharashtra. So seeing the heights to which these ranges rise and the number of such high ranges behind each other for several hundreds of kilometers  my first exclamation was that the Himalayas are the big brother of the Sahyadri. Only when we reached the snow peaks and snow filled ranges did I realize how different and how very unique the Himalayas are.  

Habitats on the slopes

On the very first day of our trek from Ghat to Ghunni, a steep 1100 meters climb, we came across several little alleys of houses. Interestingly, the village of Ghunni is kind of spread over across the whole mountain and you get to see these alleys at various heights along the climb. Every time there is a small flat landmass, you will see a village, firstly because it is easier to build houses on flat land as opposed to a sloping mountain and secondly you can grow crop and vegetable in the fields. An interesting feature of these houses is that you typically enter the house from the top floor and then go on down to the lower floors built on the descending slope below the street.

You see thus pattern all along the trek, though Ghunni was probably the last big village (when I say big, I mean about 500 houses and a total population of about 2000) that you see till you hit the end of the trek in Auli and Joshimath. Rest of the villages are small hamlets of about 20-50 houses, typically. Most of these small villages neither have electricity nor the mobile network, so all activity stops around 6:00 pm every day. Interestingly as Nikhil mentioned, Uttarakhand has so much water flowing down the valleys at such speed; if it is all harnessed properly by the NHPC, we could light up the entire country of India. But alas, these houses remain in dark thanks to no action on the power front.

Enthusiastic and happy kids

The most striking aspect of these villages is the happy kids who greet you with a Namaste every time you cross them. They were really blissful and full of hope, curiosity and enthusiasm; which was really heartening for us to see.

On this day we were climbing our 7 km climb from the base of the mountain, a government appointed doctor was visiting the school in the highest parts of the mountain, since it was approachable via roads. He was visiting to consult with children on how to manage viral fever and check them up. Just for this purpose, these little 100 odd 5-8 year old climbed up 3-4 km of the mountain. We all wondered why the doctor could not descend the mountain half way to make it convenient for the kids. Never the less, these little angels did not seem to care and were running up the hills beating us at the climb. I shudder to think that some of them may even have the viral fever and even then they were climbing up.

Means of existence

We wondered why the parents were not involved in this consultation with the doctor that I talked about. After talking to our support team we realized that in these villages, the men of the house are away trying to earn some money in larger towns and the fields and houses were mostly manned by the women folk. We learnt that even when 4-5 folk of the family work in the field for the maximum possible of 6-8 months of the year, they will grow crop/vegetable that would last them for only about a month. Hence, the men had to find other means of earnings for the family. This is driving many a men out to towns in search of jobs.

One must not forget that the village folk did not seem very ambitious. They were really content with what they had and just wanted to ensure that they make enough to live happily the lives they have been living for ages. For example, our guide was telling us that for 2-3 months of winter, the link with the rest of the world is broken and no work is possible for that period; so everyone just tries to ensure that they have just about enough to get through those 2-3 months. Every one owned some piece of land, where they had their own house and fields. They seemed to take care of the elderly and the young ones. Interestingly, as the land gets split through the generations, the crop provisions reduce and this accelerates the search of work in towns for the young adults. They did not seem to have bank accounts or any other concept of saving money for future.

Accessibility

Most villages we passed on the trek were accessible only on foot, just like we approached them. It was apparent at multiple locations that the government was planning to put in drivable roads to connect these towns. For example, the Ghat to Ramni section of the trek is now built in for 7 kms, so we only needed to climb up 7 odd kms as opposed to 14 kms as the earlier trekkers would have done. We could clearly see that the Ramni and Pana villages were being connected with a drivable road. We also came across several JCBs making the road. All this effort should certainly help create better accessibility to the towns as well as create jobs and earnings for the local village folk by improving the tourism for Uttarakhand.

One of the side effects of this, as we saw, is that the roads bring in more external traffic affecting the pure and clean environment. So one has to be careful in ensuring the beauty and sanctity of the place is not damaged in any way. For example, the action of drivable road creation had clearly created some more landslides and the trekking trail was lost or became treacherous at places. As we also see in the places of pilgrimage, which by the way have the road access, the electricity and the mobile network; cleanliness and lack of care from the tourists becomes a big issue to manage.

Health care

All along our trails through the villages, children would walk to us; with their blissful smiles say a sweet Namaste and then ask for chocolates and medicines. I could understand the former, but the latter was what took me by surprise. When we asked, they would say that their mother has fever and they have no fever medicine. What we realized was that they literally had little access to life critical medicine; not even pain killers or fever reducers, let alone the antacids and common cold medicines. We did not see any doctors in town; and of course there were no hospitals as well. Given that there are no approach roads to these towns, I could not imagine how a sick or wounded would get the medical attention and urgent care that they would need.

 Granted that these village folks are stronger by nature and it was easily visible to use as we saw our support staff making the distance of the day in half our time running with the horses trying to man them on the treacherous slopes. Also agree that these folks don’t have any chronic lifestyle related illnesses; but how would they survive an accident or a viral attack? The next time we go on a trek, we will surely carry lots of medicine to distribute. Our guide mentioned to us that they mostly tend to have teeth/gum issues and skin problems thanks to the lack of personal care resulting from extreme cold weather.

Education

Something that stood out amongst all this though was the newly found keen interest in educating their young ones. There seem to be many government run schools from kindergarten right up to intermediate (12^th standard) in some village within the 10-15 km radius from anywhere. Pretty much each village had a primary school. The typical teachers had achieved a degree of B Ed. In fact, our helper Dhiraj, who was putting up tents, bringing water and also manning the horses had a B. Ed degree, had taught in schools for about an year and was preparing for his M.A. exams.

We learnt that in the recent past, there had been a growing awareness about the need to educate the girl child and almost every girl in every village we passed was studying in school. The government actually is running these schools and also several good schemes to encourage girl education. For example, if there is a lady in the village who as passed the inter exam, she would automatically qualify for the job of primary school teacher with a government stipend of Rs. 10,000/-. I would like to recount an interesting interaction with a little girl. When I asked her in Hindi if she goes to school and which grade, she replied in English saying she is studying in 7^th standard.

Culture, progress and government contributions

Uttarakhand presents itself with a great of balance of respect for tradition and aspiration for progress. On one hand we see a very religious, self-righteous, respectful for elders and trusting good natured village folk; while on the other hand we see the entire family contributing to the needs of the home with the ladies working in the fields, an aspiration to educate their children – especially the girl children and taking up teaching and social welfare jobs.

Interestingly, it was also very apparent that every one of support staff was politically and administratively engaged. Mahinderji was an active BJP follower with significant contributions to the party cause locally, while Nr, Umed is a Congress affiliate with many connections with high end leaders who can make things happen. The local Panchayats have significant powers in terms of how the villages receive welfare funds from the government and how they utilize the same. The state government on the other hand has introduced several schemes to help job creation and accessibility for the folks. All the folks that we talked to understood what is good for them and were able to purposefully express the same to us. We heard several comments from the local Uttarakhand folks that the formation of the separate state has helped Uttarakhand get of the shadows of the big brother UP and get more visibility for funds and welfare schemes at the central government level. Our trek was within the Chamoli district, which is primarily lagging in terms of progress due to its remote interior geography but the citizens are hopeful of brighter future ahead.

Here are a few more glimpses of the Uttarakhand...

The peaks are high and the valleys deep

My valley is still green, fields lush and crops springing colors


In the high sloping remote mountains we do find plains for habitation

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