Just as we had reached Kathmandu on the 28th September, Pats asks me if I was writing a travelogue about our Mera peak expedition. Something made me cringe then. I had my necessary tools at hand yet something kept tugging at me not to get them going. Then one fine day towards the very end of our expedition, I knew what I had to write. The lessons I learnt here were life lessons and that’s what id like to share with you. You may be aware of some but I hope you have the patience to read this…
Lesson 1. : Humility
Mera peak has been my 4th trip to the Nepal Himalayas and every single time the impact has been more pronounced than earlier. Here you realize the value of simple things we normally take much for granted. Like a hot shower or a warm bed or a home cooked meal for instance. Or even a hug from your child or a pat from your loved one. And Mera peak epitomizes that like no other. The trail is pretty challenging by itself. Teahouses along the way have absolutely basic food, almost no telephone connectivity and electricity is a luxury. What is there in abundance, however, is a sense of calm that pervades everything you see. The trail soars and dives like a roller coaster taking 2 passes along its way. If you thought that this would be your average Himalayan trek, you’d be sorely disappointed. The trail challenges your every instinct. You’ll hardly encounter other trekkers/ mountaineers here along the trail. Which makes it more challenging for the mind. Here, you are on your own. Deal with it. Once you are done with the trail for the day, there are no teahouse chats you’d normally find on the EBC trail. Just curl up and rest. As the darkness envelopes your senses, and you lie in your sleeping bag, you realize the insignificance of your being in the larger scheme of things. The overpowering scale of the mountains reduces your ego, grinds your self to a speck. All that we as city folk strive for at our work, our professions and our daily life is rendered impotent. It is from situations like these that your real self can reemerge as a better and a more humble human being.
Lesson 2 : Shortcuts
Through our growing years, our peers and superiors tell us, that shortcuts are costly in the long run. If that hasn’t quite been clear to you yet then the Mera peak reaffirms it comprehensively. Once we start from Lukla, our 3rd halt is supposed to be Kothe (3500 meters). There are 3 routes to get there from Lukla. The longest route takes 7 days. There is another, which takes 5 days too, but we take the shortest one, which is over 3 days and 2 halts at Chutanga and Chettarwa. But there are also 2 back-to-back passes we encounter before we reach Kothe. So you climb from Lukla (2800mtrs) to Chutanga (3200 meters) in one day. Then from Chutanga to Zetthra La Pass (4350 meters) to Chettra La Pass (4460 meters) down to Chettarwa (3800 meters) all in one day. From Mumbai at sea level to 4460 meters on the 4th day and the 2nd day of the trail itself is an extremely demanding ask. To make matters worse the rain was incessant. From Chettarwa again we ascend to 4000 meters before descending again to Kothe at 3500 meters on the 3rd day. By the time you reach Kothe itself you realize that all those meters you gained were lost halfway into the trail. Much like our stock markets. So much for shortcuts! However there is a positive side. The upheavals in the trail acclimatize you for the days to come. And you feel lighter and tougher as you enter the more demanding section of the expedition.
Lesson 3: Invest in equipment
Most of you guys have been trekking in the Sahyadris for a few years now and in terms of pure trek hours put in, I’m sure you must be thinking equipment is glorified and an exaggerated expenditure. My take is diametrically different. Given that the Sahyadris is an extremely challenging mountain range for trekking. But I believe it is very kind to shortcomings of trekkers where equipment is concerned. The Himalayas are completely different in character. Every other thing is dwarfed by the sheer size, the scale of the mountain. And if the trekker has a glitch in equipment it is exposed…. ruthlessly. I know equipment and gear is an expensive and touchy subject, especially in India because quality mountaineering tools are not made here and are subsequently exorbitantly expensive at times. The trick is to know that when you spend on quality equipment it is not an additional expense. It is an investment that you make for your life. That quality equipment could be the difference between you making it back from the expedition safe, and not! So know your strengths and weaknesses and gear up accordingly. Over equipped and over geared is still better than being underdone. Despite our meticulous preparation and care our high camp tent was cramped, pathetic and flimsy. Fortunately that night the weather was a little kind and we weren’t there for a long time to get badly affected. Our shoes were good but still not top notch for that kind of high altitude climbing. Fortunately we managed to make it despite them. But we may not be so lucky every time.
So all you aspiring mountaineers, remember this, if you want high altitude mountaineering to be a part of your life then start investing in gear now. In the balance sheet of mountaineering, equipment goes under the Assets and not the Expense head.
Lesson 4 : To Endure is to Prevail
For me, this is the one message that the Himalayas sends to every trekker and climber. Loud and clear! As Mark twain has said “Its not about the dog in the fight but about the fight in the dog”. No matter how well you prepare, or how good you are as a low altitude trekker or how good your equipment is, the bottom line is how your mind copes with the elements. The trail throws up challenges and obstacles galore. The altitude chips away at your mental equilibrium all the time. The cold which dips as low as -15 deg Celsius at high camp, is an omnipresent factor which you can never disregard. The food and water, which you can never really get used to and are always wary for the fear of stomach upsets. And then there is your fatigue, which at every given opportunity tries a game of one-upmanship with your mind and goals. It’s a barrage of never ending issues that you are constantly battling, silently but surely, as you put one tired step after another, closer to the summit. That feeling was never more pronounced than on summit day, when we started sometime in the dead of the night, plodding on in knee deep snow, oblivious to the beauty of the sight around us. All we wanted was to reach the summit. Which seemed to be light years away. As morning broke, the sun was shining, nay scorching bright in all its glory, adding to our woes. Sunburn is a very real fear that can escalate badly if not taken care of. But if you ask me it was not the individual issues but rather the cumulative effect of all the elements hitherto mentioned which kept chipping away at our resilience. At that time, its up to you to ensure that what keeps your sanity intact is stronger than what is trying to tear it to pieces. Maybe take one more step before you stop. Then another one. And then another. Till you lose count of the steps and just focus on what you are there for. And then before you know it. Viola!! You are there. And even then, your mind has to be in the right place to take in and decode what you are seeing. To take in the sights and the views because they are those very 10-15 odd minutes which you have endured everything for. It’s a massive adrenaline rush. And it drains you completely. But wait! Its only 50% of the job done. We still had to keep our mind and body together and make sure we got down, and safely. Then you are finally done. To endure is to prevail, and when you get off the mountain you will be a stronger person when you started climbing it.
Lesson 5: Team Strength
Mountain climbing is a team sport. You already know that. It’s not just about climbing a mountain. It is also about sharing that pain and agony of going through the grind. Preparing days, sometimes weeks or months in advance. Collaborating on ideas, locations, trails and the various pitfalls that could be awaiting us during the expedition. You form a bond with your partner/s which is built on faith, trust and understanding. And most of all it is about sharing they joy when you reach your summit or your goal.
Pats and I have been climbing mountains and trekking for some time now and I would like to believe that ours is a reasonably formidable team, which has achieved a fair amount of success over the past few years. We have partnered each other in our successes, fed off each other’s strengths and backed ourselves in our weak moments during a climb. This time though was different.
We started our summit attempt late in the night at about 0230 hrs. The climb would take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours, depending on our speed. Conditions were near perfect for the summit attempt not withstanding the fact that we had fresh snowfall the previous evening. It was a brilliantly clear night. Not much wind although it was bone chilling cold. Temperatures must have been hovering around -15 degrees or thereabouts. Midway into the climb however, Pats had some difficulty in breathing. It was not something we had envisaged and we weren’t really prepared for that eventuality. After much deliberation, he decided to turn back although I felt then he should have pushed himself a little more. I could see he was not fatigued but just having breathing problems because of the cold. Regardless, he headed back to the high camp. It was a real conflict for me because although I wanted to help him, I wasn’t really sure of how to deal with breathing issues. But I also wanted to summit, real bad. And soon! Our sherpa, Renjhi and I walked on, leaving Pats to retreat, eventually reaching the summit in another couple of hours. As was expected the sight from the summit is indescribable. The weather was brilliant, clear and cloudless. It was as if the entire range of mountains from Ama Dablam, Cho Yu, Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, Makalu and Kanchenjunga in the far east had been painted on this gigantic panorama.
But despite the wondrous displays, I felt a curious emptiness that was quite inexplicable. I did the perfunctory photo session with the national flag but what I realized was that not having my partner had halved my joy of summiting. It was lonely and cold. And all I wanted was to get back. We left soon and reached back at high camp in a couple of hours, utterly exhausted and drained.
But the emptiness stayed on for a while longer. This, I think is a lesson for all aspiring mountaineers. That no matter how strong we are individually, it is important to form and succeed as a team. The joy of reaching your desired summit is doubled when your team succeeds and not just you individually.
Note: I would have you know that these are just random ramblings of an infantile mountaineer and in no way the rules of the larger game of mountaineering. Just a few casual observations I made during the course of this expedition.
