ii. After registering for the trek........

 

Having confirmed the period and the specific trek, the focus of the group shifted to going through YouTube videos of the same uploaded by the organiser TTH and other trekkers who have done this trek. The discussion in the group shifted to the nature of activity we need to do, to get physically fit for the trek. Residing in an apartment building having 14 floors / storeys I decided climbing up and down 14 floors at-least 4 days in a week - to start with - would be a good enough activity for me by way of preparation for the mountain climbing!

Since taking out time again from office schedule would be difficult, we decided to extend the total vacation by 2 or 3 days either before or after the trek to catch up with some sight seeing in and around Jammu - Kashmir - Ladakh area. After much deliberations we decided to take the additional days before the trek as this would enable us spend this extra 2/3 days by way of acclimatization.

As this was the first major trek for me, the group members guided me in selecting appropriate gear that would be required for this trek including, but not limited to shoes, bag, clothing, woolen, etc.

On 13 May, Sridhar forwarded an email from the organiser, containing instructions in detail, google sheet to be filled with personal details by all the trekkers, format of medical certificate to be obtained from the trekkers' family doctor confirming the trekker's physical fitness, etc. Going through the google sheet gave us an idea of who our co trekkers would be. This mail was very informative containing several other details.

At this point what the five of us consciously noticed was that all of us were Iyers, Tamil / Kerala Brahmins, with our own dietary peculiarities. All of us were strict vegetarians, none of us eat egg and two of us were used to half jain food at home - namely vegetarian diet without onion, garlic & raddish! We mentally prepared to carry along some supplementary eating stuff that would ensure that our dietary peculiarities are taken care of! 


click here to continue to the next part 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

some fotographs which I could not include as part of the blog................

Image
I have tried to give captions where possible, where you find no caption deem the picture to be self explanatory!!     Kulfi at Delhi airport on our way back to Mumbai.     Ladakh hospitality, when we visited for chang, mint tea... After a hard day's trek.............. The central structure is the washroom in a homestay facility Most monastaries have a trishul in the top.. Comfortable in an orthop dic mattress in a homestay! getting fresh at a mountain stream during one of the climb high sleep low walks, we visited this monastery which was under construction man and yak   lamayuru restaurant has been mentioned more than once in my write up Ramesh ordered this mango kheer during one dinner Lemon Ginger Honey tea in cafe shanti stupa art / cultural show at Leh market bread veg & cheese sandwich at Palaceview Hotel Yummy gulab jamun at Hotel New Punjab Leh market Best coffee in Leh at this cafe, don't remember the name though! Eco poplar resort mural at Hotel Ra...
Read more

viii. 24 May 2022 - Skiu to Sara .............

Image
Yesterday evening the trek lead Mayank had given us the timings for today as 630/800/830. Sunrise happened around 5AM. We got out of our sleeping bags and reported for tea at 630 AM. After a steaming cup of black tea, we folded the sleeping bags and kept them in its cover. The next step was removing the additional layers of clothing which we had added on to tackle the Himalayan nights. The next stage was disassembling the tents and keeping it back in its cover with the rods, pegs, etc. We were given specific instructions at the beginning of the trek that hot drinking water would be supplied at the catering tent at 630 AM & 630 PM everyday. I gave my thermos at the catering tent for filling it with hot drinking water. The bags were packed and we were ready for break fast by 8 AM. Each day the cook would come up with some new item in the breakfast. During the course of the 6 days when we had break fast in the tents we tasted porridge, bread and butter, parathas, noodles and momos. Re...
Read more

i. How this started .....

Image
  It was sheer chance that I got to participate in this trek. A WhatsApp group (of which I had not yet become a part) video call was scheduled to be held on 2 Feb 2022 at 10 PM, the existing members in the group were (1) Vaidy - my brother, (2) Ramesh - my brother in law, (3) Sridhar - old schoool friend, (4) Dr Narayanaswamy - a good friend of Vaidy, Ramesh & Sridhar and (5) Aditya - my nephew. All 5 were trekkers with previous experience of having trekked the Himalayan ranges.      Vaidy added me (with my trekking experience limited to a couple of overnight Sahyadri treks) to the group with an explanation to the other group members that I was also interested in attending the meeting! The agenda of the meeting was to identify a good Himalayan trek within the next 3 or 4 months with duration of about 6 to 8 days. The meeting started at 10 PM with all others participating and suggesting possible himalayan treks, period when this could be done, level of fitness req...
Read more