DAY 5
It all started like any other day with chai. It was a pretty simple morning, no 'Operation Campfire' due to no wood left so we did some exercises to stay warm. Frost covered the ground and the sky was pretty clear, but that was soon to change. We got around to having breakfast and that's when I noticed a few white spots landing on Isaac's beanie. This originally excited me. I had never seen snow actually fall before so I did what everyone else would of done and tried to catch some snow on my tongue. By the time we started the day's walk the snow was a bit heavier. The route for today was to go around and up the ridge we were on yesterday, go over the other side, travel around, over another ridge, then up to the base camp. If you looked at a map without contour lines it was by far the shortest day, only a little segment compared to the distances we had done the days before. But this day was the longest, 8 hours of walking along the side of steep mountain, being pelted with snow. It was the scariest day of my life and I had never felt so worried for my own welfare and the welfare of those around me. It's a plain miracle no one died or got injured, a big long prayer was had when I went to bed. As we started to scale up the first ridge people started to get a little worried, the small trail we were following ended and the we were left on a exposed mountain side where one slip led to a 20+ meter fall. We all slowly made our way to the top of the ridge and thought the worst was probably over, nope. The clouds covered the sky and thick clouds reduced visibility to about 15m. The snow picked up and water bottles were starting to freeze. So far we had all be going uphill and no we had to go down. Mr Conrad and Shantanu gave us a quick talk at the top of the ridge about how to safely go down this steep decline. They told us to avoid stepping on rocks due to them being slippery from the snow and to try fall up hill if you do slip. We hesitantly started the decline, we slowly scaled down the side of the ridge watching every step with extreme caution. For about 4 hours we slowly made our way up and down. The original plan for the day was to have lunch at our next camp, unfortunately it became 2:30 and we still hadn't had lunch, our guides said we were about 2 hours away from camp so we had lunch under this overhanging rock. There was a very depressing vibe at lunch. All of us were freezing, agitated at going so slow and wanting to go home. After a quick lunch we started to walk again, it was still dangerous and there was one event that sent shivers done my spine when I saw it. We were zig zagging down the hill and someone uphill dislodged a rock that came tumbling down, missing a kid named Bao by about 30cm. The rock, if it hit, would easily of pushed Bao off the cliff to very serious injury. Everyone just stopped at that moment and we were all thinking the same thing. Mr Conrad just summed up the whole moment by saying to us "Guys...." in a voice trying to be serious but inside was as scared and worried as the rest of us. By some miracle we got to camp and set up our tents in the 5cm thick snow. This is where the day starts getting better. The porter's brought all the food and afternoon snacks directly to our tents, except dinner, which was a massive mood booster. It was a good afternoon in the tent talking to Cory and Isaac while sipping on hot chai and macaroni with a masala sauce thing. We slept until dinner, had dinner, then slept until the morning. What a crazy day I always think to myself. I'm proud of my achievements that day but ill never want to do it again. We decided at the debriefing after getting back to school that Woodstock should not do this trek again mainly due to this day.
DAY 6
Today was the day we finally got to go to the lake. We woke up at 6:30 to frozen water bottles and frozen shoes. I checked my fancy clock I have that can tell me the temperature and it reads -4 degrees. That was met with a 'Not bad' expression on my face and moans as I told Cory and Isaac. The plan for the day was to get day packs and make our way to the lake without breakfast, spend some time there then come down, have breakfast, pack up tents then leave. When we got out of our tents there was a incredibly strong wind that felt like it went straight through you. I kept running in circles and anything else I could do to keep warm. It was the coldest I have ever been. The walk to the lake was about an hour long and was all up hill along a pretty good trail made of strategically placed stones. It was a huge relief getting up those last steps and getting my first glimpse of the lake. It was a bit larger then I expected, maybe 100m wide. It was incredibly still and silent, it was a incredibly holy place for Hindu's so we were all told to be respectful other wise it will hail. The porter's had some sort of ritual they did when they got to the lake and it was cool to watch. After a few minuted resting at the lake Mr Conrad asked if any of us would like to climb up the side of the ridge surrounding the lake. I obviously said yes, so a few of the boys including Cory and Isaac and I started to climb up to the ridge. It was a very rocky path and was quite steep so we pushed up our way through the boulders, sorta like rock climbing but not on such an angel. It was stacks of fun especially because I hadn't rock climbed in over a week and I was craving it badly and this was the closest thing to it. When we reached the top of the ridge we had a full 180 degree view of snow peaks and glaciers. It was a weird feeling up there, I felt a bit detached from my body, totally absorbed in the mountains. I never wanted to leave that place. After we climbed back down from the ridge and the back to camp we were all filled with pride and a big since of accomplishment, yet we knew it wasn't over yet. The snow had stopped but we still had a long 6 hours of hiking down the mountain. We started at about 10am and walked pretty steeply downhill until lunch. I enjoyed this days walk because there were so many different environments, we started in the snow, then plain mountainsides, then as we entered the tree line we started bush whacking our way through heavy shrubs. A funny tale unfolded a few hours before we got to camp. It starts with Cory Isaac and I and we're just walking having a good time, we're about 10 mins in front of the main group of people when I feel my right foot get caught in some hole in the ground. I look down and take my foot out, I keep looking at the hole as I continue walking. Soon I see about 30 bees come flying out of the hole. I alert Cory who at this point is standing right above it. Cory just looks at Isaac and I and says 'RUN!' and run we did. We sprinted for a good minute until we felt a good distance away. We soon all bursted out in laughter as Cory said that the bee's could of easily followed us if we didn't run. We continued to walk and got to camp. Since we were there early we had already set up our tents before everyone else got there. When everyone finally came into the camp the first thing we hear is a guy called Donny say "Did any of you step in a damn bee's nest?!" The three of us just burst out laughing and we tell them the story. Turns out 3 of them had been stung multiple times. It was probably the funniest moment of the week and I'll forever be known as the kid that got them stung by a bunch of bee's.
DAY 7
Today was pretty standard day, we had gone down the mountain yesterday so all that was left to do today was a 6 hour walk following the river to the campsite close to Taluka, the place where we started. We saw really cool animals like the yellow throated marten and it was pretty flat most of the time. We walked through a village called Oslo and it was really cool. There was extremely detailed woodwork which was really interesting. There were lots of locals there and we played with some of the local kids, the had plastic guns and we had a little pretend shoot out. We were given some holy food which I cant remember the name of. It was some brown goop that had the consistency of minced beef. It tasted plain but wasn't to bad. We were told we had to eat it otherwise it's seen as an insult so we all ate a good handful of it. We continued walking until we got to our campsite. It was in a place we had rested on the very first day and was a open area next to a large stream. We realised we had just done one huge circle and it felt nice to be in a semi familiar place. We played various card games until dinner then had a pretty chill evening.
DAY 8
The final day, we got up at 7, packed our sleeping bags and tents for the very last time and started the short walk to Taluka where we would be taken by jeeps to the bus. The bus ride was just as bad as the first, maybe even worse. I didn't get a single bit of sleep and for lunch they gave us some money and expected us to get our own. If I could go back I wouldn't eat the paratha I ordered, I would of just stocked up on chips and oreo's. Due to eating that paratha I got food poising that ruined my whole term break, but that's another story. We got back to school around 4:30 but we had to go to Hanifl centre to return all our borrowed stuff. It was a painful walk back from the Hanifl centre and I was really looking forward to that warm shower. But since were in India we had to wait an hour for hot water to be on and theres was 30+ boys all trying to jam into 8 showers. It was chaos but I eventually got in, and boy did it feel good!
PHOTO'S:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vozs1y6hvsoxxcn/AADBw6760u2L_23Owf6IOgoBa?dl=0
Stay well,
Lachy Wild