Rock climbing training - Nehru Institute of Mountaineering

Today was the day when our mountaineering training actually began. The first 9 days out of 28 days would consist of rock climbing training in Tekhla, which is at a distance of 10km from the NIM campus. That meant trekking 10km’s everyday just to reach the training area! A day prior we had been issued with all the technical equipment’s for rock, ice and snow craft. We were instructed to carry all of it every day on our march to Tekhla. The bag weighed up to staggering 25kg. The idea behind making us carry the load was to get us used to carrying heavy rucksacks while we trek high up into the mountains 10 days from now for our snow and ice craft training; also in general it is very important for a mountaineer to be comfortable with a heavy rucksack.

NIM is known for its discipline and strictness. Most of the staff and instructors are ex-army officers. We had a fall-in time of 6am outside the hostel before we began marching which meant gathering at 5:55am. I got late by 5 minutes and everyone had already gathered. The duty instructor made me do 50 push-ups with my 25 kg rucksack on and believe me, after this I always arrived 15 minutes before the fall-in time.

We began marching in a single line from the campus. I had always seen this sight in pictures of trainees carrying heavy backpack with NIM logo on it and walking in a single line. It all felt so unreal now now I am a part of that march!

Most of the march to Tekhla is on concrete roads but with beautiful changing scenery at every turn. Curious passerby’s on road always stared at us and I assume they wondered as to where are these 80 people going with such heavy backpacks so early in the morning? Walking on flat concrete roads strangely was much more tiring than walking on hilly terrains. It used to take us exactly 2 hours every day to reach Tekhla with just one break in the middle at the exact same point every time. Honestly, I hated this part of the day. It was pretty boring to walk the same road every day. If we had to trek every day in the mountainous terrain to reach Tekhla, that would have been much better.

After reaching Tekhla we used to be drenched in sweat and we used to be crazy hungry. Upon arrival we used to keep our heavy bags and gather for a cool down session. All one could think about during the cool down was having a lot of breakfast. As soon as we dispersed from cool down and stretching session, everyone used to run with their mess tins to the breakfast counter as if this is the last meal left on earth! The breakfast usually was very tasty and healthy like eggs, porridge, cornflakes, fruits, chole bhature or aloo paratha sometimes and of course, tea.

Immediately after breakfast we used to take all the rock climbing equipment’s from our bags and leave with our rope instructors to the climbing area. Each rope had been given a separate rock face so everyone got a chance to get as much hands on experience as they could. Tekhla rock climbing area is huge with variety of rock faces, boulders and chimneys. It was suitable for beginners as well as very experienced climbers.

In our 9 days at Tekhla, we learned all aspects of rocks climbing such as bouldering, how to fix ropes, belaying techniques, jumarring, long pitch climbing, rappelling, anchor techniques, how to create a base for rappelling and climbing, rock terminology and so much more. I was good at some and not so good at some but it was a learning experience of a lifetime. The practical sessions started at 9am and would break off for lunch at 1pm. We would be exhausted by then. After lunch we would be given 30 minutes of rest and then we had lectures from 2:30pm to 4pm on various aspects of rock climbing. I loved these lectures. Sitting under trees and learning about outdoors from some of the finest instructors of India.

After the lecture we were given tea! Drinking tea in outdoors has a different charm. While going back to NIM we had to go by buses and didn’t have to march back (thank God).

After reaching NIM campus, we had only 15 minutes to relax before gathering in the auditorium for another lecture. By this point we were not very excited about doing anything. The lectures would be on topics such as mountaineering history, map reading, first aid, the Himalayas etc. Very informative always! What followed after the lectures is what we looked forward to all day. Mountaineering film! Yes, we were shown movies every day! Movies like Meru, Touching the Void etc. It was the perfect place to see those movies.

After the movie we were served with dinner and off to bed soon after to wake up early next day for almost same routine for 9 days.

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