Life at NIM Base Camp (12,500 feet) - Garwhal Himalayas

It was continuously raining ever since we started our trek to base camp. Everything was wet; our clothes, socks, bags, shoes, EVERYTHING! Wet shoes and socks get very cold to wear after taking off so we didn’t even feel like going out of tents now, not even to have a meal. Everything inside the tents was wet too.

We had managed to keep our sleeping bags dry, so that was one safe and dry place. Everyone was losing patience. But this is what a mountaineer must learn. Bad weather is always a part and parcel. Our glacier training began tomorrow and with this rain it would be hell! We went to sleep hoping that rain God’s would show some mercy tomorrow onwards.

My tent mate got out of the tent at 2am to pee and he woke up all of us screaming CLEAR SKIES! We all woke up in frustration but when we heard him, we all got out of the tent with excitement and saw a billion stars shinning over our heads. The skies had cleared up after 3 days, like nothing had happened. It was such a beautiful sight. We slept with such relief knowing that we are going to dry everything when the sun shows up.

The mornings on base camp were usually the toughest time of the day, at least for me! It was crazy cold and our hands went numb every single day while having breakfast. The cold mess tins, the hot gravy which would get cold instantly and add to numbing of hands and the cold tea. Everything was COLD and strangely it affected only the hands! The breakfast must have been delicious but I could never enjoy it completely.

I completed my breakfast as quickly as I could and drank tea like shots! I didn’t have the guts to wash my mess tin after breakfast so I used to keep it in my bag the way it was and washed it only before lunch. Desperate times, desperate measures, right?! We had the fall-in time of 7:55am before leaving for glacier training. Between that and breakfast, we used to have a window of about 15 minutes and during that I used to get inside my sleeping bag to rewarm my hands. I have been in extreme cold conditions in the past 6 years but I’ve never ever felt this cold like the mornings at base camp.

Everyday exactly during our fall-in time, the sun rays would hit the base camp and that’s when I used to get out of the sleeping bag. One realizes importance and beauty of sun only in such cold conditions. Everyday at 8am sharp we used to start marching towards the Dokrani Bamak glacier, our ice training area. I will get into more details about our ice training in the next blog.

After our ice training, we used to return to the base camp at about 2pm everyday and by this point all of us would be hungry beyond control but there was a cool down and a stretching session between us and lunch! Though it is very very important, our hungry minds hated it.

As soon as it was over, we used to run to the dining area like hounds! My friend actually twisted his ankle running one fine afternoon. It was unfortunate as well as funny. Not a scratch during the one month training but running for lunch twisted his ankle; irony! Lunch used to be the most rewarding meal of the day. We had a variety of food options for vegetarian, non-vegetarian and also for eggetarians. I had chosen the option of eggetarian meal. I never had less than 5 rotis during my stay at base camp. My appetite had increased a lot due to the hard work we were putting on the glacier. The mess-tin was properly washed once a day only after lunch.

From 2:30pm to 3:30pm we used to have free time. I used to sit outside my tent and listen to some music. I cannot function without music in my day. At sharp 3:30pm we had to gather in the lecture hall. The lecture hall was a beautiful and cozy structure made out of rocks. It was where we received lectures and saw movies in the night. The lectures in the noon used to be on some very important topics ranging from glaciers, avalanches, high altitude sickness, basic rescue techniques, map reading, first aid etc. We had to make notes because apparently there was a theory exam during the end of the course and this had gotten everyone worried, but exams never scared me, especially when it is on mountaineering.

After the lectures, it was tea time! I used to take my cup of tea and go on a little elevation and sit there. I could see the entire base camp from there. It was my get-away spot for a while to enjoy the views with some music.

Evenings were usually free and we spent it playing volleyball or with flying disk. The volleyball matches usually got intense and competitive when it was the instructors vs us. Instructors always won.

Those who didn’t want to play volleyball roamed around and chatted with fellow trainees. There were some front benchers who actually sat and studied for the test. That was a sickening sight honestly!

Some of the best sights of Mother Nature were witnessed in the evenings around the base camp when the setting sun’s rays hit the snowcapped peaks of Joanli and DKD 2. Those were some incredible sights.

At 6:30pm we used to get hot soup daily. By that time it started getting cold. Immediately after soup, we had to fall-in for attendance followed by dinner. My dinner used to be very light. At 7:30pm, we gathered in the lecture hall for mountaineering movies. I loved this! Watching mountaineering movies like Meru, touching the void at 12,500 feet was an awesome thing! I remember the film Meru inspiring me so much, though I’ve seen it before, it reignited the fire and I went to sleep thinking about doing great climbs like that in the future.

This was a typical day at NIM base camp.

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