vii. 23 May 2022 - Bye bye vacation, Hello trek ..............
Personally, with lot of excitement I got up today morning with the anticipation of having to begin the trek. At 850 AM sharp (after duly completing the breakfast) as required by TTH all the 9 trekkers were ready with our luggage split into 3 parts. Part 1 to be left behind at the hotel (consisting of what will not be required during the trek period), Part 2 to be transported by mule, part 3 to be carried by each trekker as back pack on his / her body. 4 out of 9 trekkers (which included me) had opted to transport a major part of their luggage by mule. Leaving behind Part 1, the other luggage was loaded to the mini bus which was to take us upto Chilling, the starting point. At this point a local trek leader, Wangtok, joined the team. In the course of talks with him later, we came to know that Wangtok has guided Indian Armed Forces in the Siachen glacier, so we knew that an expert was with us.
On the way we crossed Gurudwara Pathar Sahib (a gurudwara dedicated to Guru Nanakji) and Magnetic Hill (as per wikipedia Magnet Hill is a gravity hill located near Leh in Ladakh, India. The layout of the area and surrounding slopes create the optical illusion of a hill. The hill road is actually a downhill road. Objects and cars on the hill road may appear to roll uphill!) A couple of minutes' halt at magnetic hill for some group members to take selfie.
After the group picture, we boarded the bus and continued the journey. At around 30 minutes past 11 AM, Wangtok instructed the bus driver to stop the bus & announced the beginning of the trek. To say the least, I was surprised! Just stopping the bus at the middle of the road and telling everyone to take along your bags and start walking. I expected the bus to stop at a suitable place, probably get some space to freshen up and then start walking. The trekking group 9 trekkers + Mayank + Wangtok alighted from the bus, took our respective bags and started walking.
A major part of the walking today was on the road, with a fair bit of dry dust drifting up each time we walked on the road. As per one of the trekkers smart sports watch (atleast 2 trekkers in the group wore Garmin watches and atleast 2 others some other model of sports watch that monitors distance, and several other parameters), our walk today covered around 9 kilometres in around 2 hours. Our actual trek was from Chilling to Skiu.
At 4 PM, after tea, Wangtok took us for a small walk to a place located at an altitude slightly higher than the place we have camped. I was informed later that this technique of "Climb High, Sleep Low" is frequently used during high altitude trekking. We returned to the camp by 6PM and had a hot cup of soup. This was followed by oxymeter reading for all trekkers. Dinner was served at 730 PM, when we also had a briefing about the schedule for the next day, namely 7/8/830 i.e Tea at 7 AM, Breakfast at 8 AM, pack & leave at 830 AM.
I use a Vodafone post paid service for my regular mobile number & an Airtel pre paid one for my secondary number. I was aware that pre paid services do not work in these parts. Strangely enough i had difficulty in contacting through my Vodafone service also. And this was right from reaching Srinagar on 18th afternoon. Atleast as long as we were in hotel rooms the hotel wifi was available. So connectivity, though restricted was possible during night times when we were within the hotel wifi range. But now after reaching the mountains, my 2 mobile devices were useful only as alarms and cameras. I had decided earlier to use the Vivo V 2025 in which I normally use my prepaid Airtel card as my main camera and almost all the images captured by me and appearing in these blogs and else where were through this mobile phone.
Sleeping arrangement in the tent was arranged on twin sharing basis for the men and independently for Rushali. Each trekker was provided with 2 sleeping bags, the additional one for extra protection. After dinner, when I got into the tent, I ensured that I wore my thermal in addition to the couple of layers I was already wearing. My normal socks were replaced with a woollen pair. Spending night in the tent on a Himalayan trek is going to be a new experience for me. Myself and my tent-mate made sure that our headlamp, sandals, hot water flask were readily available at an arm's distance. Both of us informed each other that in case of having to go out of the tent during night time to attend nature call, to inform the buddy and take him along if required.
I then snuggled into the sleeping bag with my e book reader and settled down for a good read. Not sure what the time was and how long I read, I flicked off my ebook reader, thrust it into my bag & tried to sleep. Not being used to sleep in such extreme conditions, I twisted and turned and in general tried whatever I could to ensure I fall asleep, but no, nothing worked. In some time (I saw my wristwatch, it was 1030 PM) I could feel the wind blowing, gently at first, and then picking up speed...... We could feel the vibrations in the tent, the tent flapping wildly. It then started raining, or probably snowing. After about half an hour, this stopped and returned to condition what it was about 45 minutes earlier. I could hear someone snoring from one of the other tents. Lost track of time & did not realise when I went off to sleep.
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