So close to giving up- 15th May

The journey from Bakkhim to Dzongri was awful. I have no other words for it, no positive spin, no silver lining. It is known as one of the toughest treks around, and is one of the main reasons why the HMI basic course is considered so difficult.  I had been dreading the trek, and had…

Acclimatisation day- 14th

Having just arrived at 9000ft, we were given a day to acclimatise to th altitude. This consisted of a relatively easy 3 hour traipse up the trail we would be taking the following day followed by a brief lecture on on camp placement and hygiene.  The walk took us up through the wooded slopes of…

Getting on the way- 13th May

Day one of trekking- a day of firsts. First time brushing teeth in a garden, going to the loo in the wild, and using an ice axe to dig and bury my business. And all this before five am. We quickly replaced our sleeping bags (into those horrendous compression bags), clothes and mattresses in our…

Return to Civilisation- 27th May

Last night we got back from the glacier and reached HMI. I finally have phone signal, charge and some spare time, so I will be catching up with the blog. I was using an old school notebook and pen whilst I was at Chaurikhang, so I have some notes, but many were written with a…

Winding roads- 12th May

Early morning, bags packed, a hurried breakfast and lunch stuffed into mess tins (copious amounts of chhola, poori and suji halva [chickpeas, flatbread and semolina sweet dish]), we crushed ourselves into jeeps for the six hour journey from HMI Darjeeling to Yuksum, the first capital of Sikkim. This proved to be deceptively easy start to…