There were beds in Sankri and a bunch of hotels. Some our trek buddies were ill-equipped and in a discussion with Neeraj our trek leader a night before we had learnt a few items needed to be purchased.
Dawn was greeted with brushing our teeth, something we would crave for coming weeks. India hikes issued us our supplies like Gaiters, crampons, sleeping bag liners and so on. I had brought my own gear so I was good. We had a healthy and hefty breakfast in our own plates (something that in coming days we would leave due to biting cold).
As I write about this it has been a number of weeks but I can still taste the bread, butter, jams and a spread that I was not adventurous to try. There was also some instant coffee and milk present.
Gary and I!
I guess I made my first friend on this trek at this stage, the two of us walked down to stores she needed a pair of shares and I needed some ORS and while we were at it we got some chocolates for the road.
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1st Group Pic
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The long talk before the long walk
By the time we were back people we getting ready to start off for the next trek, unfortunately we had to go through an exercise on how to use Gaiters, crampons, walk, dance, sing and other topics that tickle Neeraj's fancy likes including a derivation by reason for the domain of a semi circle.
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| Us outside our base camp |
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| The basecamp marker |
Finally we start to walk
Once everything was finalized we drank water filled some and started off to our trek, our local guide Terapan took the lead and we started to pace off. Unfortunately my iPod was not working and my pace ended up being erratic for fist hour or so,
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| Start of the trail |
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| The trail |
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| More of the trail |
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| I am running out how to describe the trail |
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| Yes its the trail |
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| You guessed it! |
Our destination for the day was to be Juda ka talab which would take us some five hours to complete. The trail was easy, no steep ascent and I think I was having a nice pace. There came a bridge we had to cross where Neeraj asked some of us to hold on as we were faster than most of the group we sat and talked at this point. It gave me a bit of boost as I for the first time was being grouped into a fast pace crowd.
Neeraj had to back and forth between teams as some people were super slow.
Fear grips me
Eventually we came to a rest point where everyone filled water and was to move. I reached the spot some five minutes after most of the fast group, however when people left I got separated from the team by a time gap of around 10-15 minutes.
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| My separation point |
For those who do not know me I am horrible and can get lost anywhere! Having lived in New Delhi I struggle to find my way around and this was terrible for me, though the paths in mountains are linear but fear gripped me. Fear, loss of moral and being alone slowed me to a snails pace. I got lost on the trail multiple times but was able to come back.
Eventually Neeraj came and met me on the trail, however as he had tasks to perform he picked his pace and moved on. Just before the camp I met Terepan who was our local guide and told me hot drinks await us at the camp.
A crash landing
I guess I crash landed into the camp where happy had already arranged our tent and I just stepped in and had some food.
I later realized there were a number of people way slower than me on that day and I had done good time. There will be an introspection at the end of this trek as always where I talk about how to improve. My audience if wish may take those learnings to there own style.
The food as always was great however we had been supplied by poor quality sleeping mats by India hikes and cold was coming from bottom. While Neeraj understood this issue some of the assistant trek leads he had did not seem to have an understanding of how sleeping bags work, concepts of loft and the need for a high quality sleeping mat even if you have the best sleeping bag in the world.
While every one rested I did small acclimatization climb and proceeded for dinner.
Next day we took more pics in the morning, but later on that.
