Trek to our glacier training Base Camp (12,500 feet) - Garwhal Himalayas

After 9 days of rock climbing training in Tekhla, it was finally time to leave for our glacier training high up in the Garwhal Himalayas. The glacier that NIM trains on is Dokrani Bamak glacier which is a 3 days trek away from Uttarkashi.

We were to be gone for straight 20 days without any network coverage and with very minimal comforts so an evening prior to leaving, we hogged on some final junk food and stocked on some chocolates for the days ahead. Next morning we gathered outside hostel at 6am with our bags packed and loaded them onto the buses that were going to take us to Bhukki village. I looked up at the sky; it was covered with dense dark clouds. That can’t be good news. Trekking in rains in the Himalayas is never fun, especially when your bag and belongings get wet on the first day itself. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the clouds fade away. Both, the basic course and advanced course got into the buses and we left the NIM campus. The next few days were going to crazy!

Bhukki village, where our trek starts lies 40km from Uttarkashi on the Gangotri road. It takes little over an hour to reach Bhukki. The entire road is next to the mighty Bhagirathi River which eventually turns into Ganga further downstream. I slept through most of the journey and woke up when the bus stopped at Bhukki. I looked up at the sky and I didn’t see any clouds. The weather had cleared up in a very beautiful way. We unloaded the rucksacks from the bus and got ready to start trekking.

Our destination for the day was Tela camp at 10,000 feet which is a constant uphill trek from Bhukki and usually takes around 4 hours to reach with average speed. From the road head, the trail heads down towards a suspension bridge on the gushing Bhagirathi River. The bridge is suspended at about 200 feet above the river and you look down at the river in its full power and wonder what would happen if the bridge breaks and you fall into that river? Well, I don’t want to find out.

As soon as the bridge ends, the trail winds up steeply in a zig zag manner. Slowly and steadily the course moved up. We were about 120 people with both basic and advanced course combined. I have never trekked with so many people in my life. The speed was excruciatingly and it tired me a lot strangely. With the 30 kg rucksack on my back, I wanted to walk at my own pace but I guess this is something I needed to learn too.

Half way through the trek, the trail enters into a very dense and beautiful forest. The temperature and the air completely changed when we entered the forest. Pine trees has this peculiar fragrance to it and the whole forest smelled of it. it was so refreshing!

Towards the end of it, the trail again winds up steeply to a ridge from where the Tela camp is finally visible. By now everyone was completely drained and bashed! We reached the camp and dropped our bags. The campsite was completely surrounded by pine forest. It was such a beautiful place. It was so good to be back in the mountains.

We had a very delicious lunch and got in our tents for the noon. We were suddenly woken up by sound of rain on our tent. It is very common for weather to turn bad in the Himalayas in the afternoon. The rain stopped but the clouds remained on our heads for the rest of the day. After an early and a light dinner, we retired for the night

I woke up suddenly at 1am when a drop of water fell on my face from the roof of the tent. It was raining heavily and the entire tent was flooded; my mat and sleeping bag were soaking wet. I got out of my tent and went into a neighboring tent with my belongings. They let me sleep in there for the night. I could not use the sleeping bag anymore until it dried off. That night was rough!

Today was going to be a long day to our next camp, Gujjar hut at 11,500 feet. It would take around 7 hours to reach there. It was raining when we left in the morning. It was not at all pleasant to walk in rain, in slushy mud and slippery rocks. The route initially was with uphill and downhill terrain with a lot of river crossings. The logs placed on the river for crossing were super slippery because of rain. A couple of trainees fell into the river because of that.

About two hours into the trek, I felt a very sharp sting on my forehead. I thought initially that someone through a rock at me. With that thought in mind, I felt another sharper sting on my head and I heard our instructor shout RUN!! HONEYBEES!! And in no time I ran away from the spot. While running I got bit by several honeybees on my head. It hurt like hell. I stopped after a while screaming in pain and agony. It felt like my head was about to explode! The area where bees bit me were staring to get swollen. the instructors removed most of the stings from the wound and applied anti septic. I still had around 5 hours of trek to complete with this pain and the rain wasn’t helping. I continued walking. Fever usually follows honeybee bites and the only thing that scared me was if I’ll have to quit the training and go home. I could not bear the thought of going back. I had waited too long to be here.

We reached Gujjar hut camp by 3pm.

It had been a very long and an exhausting trek. The last one hour of the trek was constantly uphill and the pain in my head had only gotten worse. I got in my tent and took a small nap. The Doctor along with us gave me some painkillers and anti-allergy medications. The next day when I woke up, my face had swollen beyond recognition and everything was itching too much and it was still raining outside.

It was not the ideal time for me. Today it was a short 2 hours trek to base camp, where we’d be staying for the next 15 days. I had to get through the day.

The trek to base camp was constantly slightly uphill. It wasn’t too much compared to the past 2 days and yes, it was still raining.

Everything was wet! We reached the base camp at 11am and quickly set up tents.

The location of base camp is too beautiful. It is situated at the snout of Dokrani Bamak glacier, the glacier where we will train for the next one week and surrounded by massive mountains on 3 sides. To the far west was the massive Joanli peak (6670m) and to the south-west was DKD 2 (5670m). I got a very good feel at that place and it felt like home instantly.

The rest of the day was chilled out! The instructors gave us some free time to relax and sort our wet clothes out. Our ice training began tomorrow and all of us hoped for the rain to stop. It had been a while since we had seen and felt sun. In times like these you value little things in life which would make all the difference if you had them right now.

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