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Published: October 22nd 2008
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Institute
Department Of Mountaineering & Allied Sports When you are alone in a city that too standing in a crowd , with noone to look upon , merely nothing to learn from anyone that can help you anyhow, thats the situation I was in when I decided to take the plunge , not to kill myself of course but to reinvent myself in a new place and dire life threatning situation , besides this is what I wanted to do for a while and physically I dont believe I was in a better condition than now.
Some questions can only be answered noone else but you.
So I filled in the application for Basic Mountaineering Course , to be conducted at Department of Mountaineering n Allied Sports(DMAS) , Manali, Himachal Pradesh , India. I chose this Institute over 4 others mainly bcoz I have been to Manali before and I simply got intrigued by the amazing landscape and vegetation so different than Eastern Himalaya , Sikkim & East Nepal especially.
To give an intro to Manali, it is a picturesque himalayan tourist destination beside the rivers Beas , famous for its apple production and obviously for its infamous marijuana byproducts 'bout which I wont talk
Night Vision
Misty Night Covers Manali much.
To go there u'll have a take a bus ride from Delhi or Chandigarh , nearest airport is at Kullu, 40km away from Manali.
Reaching there was not a big deal , the story starts from there. Every trainee has to stay at DMAS campus, we were provided accomodation in dorms , being used to 4 years of hostel life in an Engineering College I had seen condition worse than this, besides I donno since when gettin along with people got easy to me.
Maybe wen you are alone you dont really have an air around you. Guys from different background and obligations kept joining the course, in my dorms there were 3 NCC guys , others were from paramilitary forces.
1st Sep , the big day has come we were assembled at ground at 5:30 and the story began, everyday running for 6km along with all kinda streching and strength gaining exercises , post breakfast we were moved to Rock Climbing Training Area where we were trained in Free climbing, different types of anchoring , jumaring , belaying etc.
Afternoons were a little bit relaxed though , we usually had lectures and occasionaly obstacle
races(Oh GOD!!!)
Gradually afterwards in morning we were taken to nearby (3-5 km) temples and places of interest with our whole ruksack ( including cllimbing boots and crampons and even ice axes) , this still was better than running around , it also biult the endurance of carrying the load , supposedly.
Then the day comes atlast 10th Sep, we r to move towards Solang Valley, our stop before base camp.
Solang was a nice valley again beside the river Beas , but you'll have a gut feeling that you are closer to the mountains. Solang is essencially a sking slope(In winter) and a good place to learn basic paragliding.
We were bereft of the pleasures coz we were not allowed as we were already part of a course.
From Solang we did an acclaimatisation climb at Patalsu Peak ( 4500 m) , it took us a whole day go to up there and obviously to come back , this is when my ankle started to hurt and I was walking in immense pain, the day was good but my left ankle started an episode of its own.
Oh in solang we did an exciting stuff,
Night
When The Darkness Sets In, Manali River Crossing, we learned different techniques like physical crossing forming human chain, and also for trecherous rivers and crevasses a technique called Teralyn Traverse.
On 12th Sep'08 we started to move towards Bakrdhaj to establish base camp, raching there you'll obviously feel that why its called Base Camp, with all major peaks of Himachal Pradesh in the vicinity and you'll find urself in a mountain bowl formed by mainly the glacial erosion (thousands years ago). Peaks of surrounding are : Hanuman Tibba , Shitidhar ( one we attemped) , 7 sister peaks , Friendship peak etc.
First day at BC , we were taken out for a walk around base camp, its a different story that the walk lasted for a whole day. But we saw and manuvered through amazing landscapes which I ve never done before. We were taken to a glacial Moraine , nearby was the Beas Kund Glacier , the origin of river Beas. Walking over that unstable and continiously changing landscape was quite an experience , there were occasional holes in the glacier with boundless depth and darkness, they are called Tarn, we launched a huge stone in one of them and it sank
Training
Rock Climbing Session, topic : Jumaring (ascending through Fixed Rope) without a trace and sound whatsoever. Beas Kund glacier was our training area for Icecraft . After the glacier we moved towards the Beas Kund , from where the river literally starts, a cool green (or blue maybe) high altitude lake at the foot of Mt.Shitidhar.
Next few days at BC was meant for training, 3 days of snowcraft where we went through different walking techniques in snow like zigzag style, duckstep etc, achoring technique in snow with equipments like deadboy , deadman , snow stack and a technique called Snowbollard, its amazing to know even IceAxes can be used for anchoring when they are inserted properly in the snow. Most important thing to learn in Snowcraft is SelfArrest Technique, that is how to arrest a fall, holding of the ice axe is important so that we can react with better body posture in case of a fall. One funny thing to do in snowcraft is quick but controlled descending with methods like : Glissading . But we were warned not to do that on unfamiliar slopes as you might find urself at the bottom of a crevasse. One technical thing we learned is Sequence Climbing, where climbers ,
Training
Jumaring: Demo By Instructor roped up together climb successively a pitch and the GuideMan(1st Climber) anchors himself and gives belay (support) to the climber below him , when the MiddleMan reaches the safe spot he anchors himself and helps the EndMan, as the GuideMan continues to climb, this sequence continues.
In Icecraft we were made to wear crampons and were trained to climb hard ice, also fixed rope climbing using Jumars and IceHammers.
Then the day finally comes when at 4:00 sharp in morning we moved towards Shitidhar peak, a 5500 m not much technical peak , there was fresh snowfall bcoz of 2 previous days of bad weather so every step was knee deep, talkin 'bout by left ankle , it made its presense felt in every agonising step. So as usual going was slow and by 9:00 we reached camp 1, approx. 5000 m , and as per the instructors it was too late to climb after that as the sun was high up and bcoz of the fresh snow there might be chances of an avalanche, so we turned back , and I dont have any regrets either as I ve seen the scenes that I ve never
Solang Valley
Our Frst Stop Towards Base Camp, Solang Valley, Paragliding Slope. seen in my life, how it feels to be Snowblind , well in a literally way speakin, coz 2 of our guys had suffered Snowblindness and their eyes were scary red even while they were going home.
So it ends almost like that , a trip coming to a full circle.
See the pics so that : You Can See Now...............What I Saw Then
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