Bakhim to HMI base camp via Dzongri

Even with the cold wind coming in from broken panes, I slept peacefully - the institute issued down sleeping bag was amazingly warm. However, I woke up earlier than usual because there were no closed loos here at Bakhim for either gender - just two separate yellow flag areas. Considering I had never used the natural open surroundings for my morning ablutions, I wanted to get out there before rest of the crowd woke up. So I stepped out with a head lamp and an ice axe. Former because it was completely dark outside and latter because the protocol is to dig a hole, do your business and cover it up! Digging holes at 4 am in pitch dark with shivering hands...what had I signed up for!!!

~11000 ft. End point of acclimatization hike from Bakhim

Today was the acclimatization hike on the same route that we would take tomorrow to Dzongri. We started at 8 am and reached the end point of today's hike (~11,000 ft high) by 10:15 am or so. We didn't have our backpacks on and the terrain was pretty flat but it still left me breathless.  I started to worry even more about the next day's hike. If without backpack, on the easier half of the trail, I was so tired and breathless, how would I manage the whole hike with 12 kilo backpack the next day?

We came back to Bakhim around 12:30 pm or so, had lunch and attended a class out in the open. By the time we finished the class my anxiety over next day's hike had reached new levels. The last 2 hours of hike from Yuksom to Bakhim had shook my confidence completely. I was just looking for another person to say that s/he will go back and I would have joined him/her. In the meanwhile, an interesting thing happened - I noticed that one of the American girls was carrying the boots on her own. Women had the discount on same - our boots were 'shipped' to base camp using the yaks. When I asked her for the reason, she said she wanted to make the hike count...I told her, carry my bag too if that would help your cause :)

Anyway, I made a deal with her - since she was finding it tough to carry the boots - that I will get the boots offloaded to the yaks and she can carry a portion of the load reduced for me instead. It took some work on my part and her part but the instructors finally relented. And that's how she and I both lightened our loads a bit.

Dzongri - women accomodations, kitchen & a shop

Next day, with this lighter backpack and armed with a precautionary pain killer (a suggestion from my Czech friend), I got ready for the toughest day of our hike - 11 km from Bakhim (~9000 ft) to Dzongri (~13,200ft). I don't know what it was - lighter backpack, painkiller, or the half day rest that we got on the acclimatization day or simply that I could get some breakfast inside me - but I was amongst the first quartile to reach the destination for the day. It wasn't easy - after all we climbed 4000 ft in one day - even without any backpack it's a really tough hike but I didn't feel close to dying as I did on way to Bakhim. I was elated at having made it without incident because we were told that last day's hike isn't too tough.

Acclimatization hike from Dzongri

In the evening, post lunch we went for a short acclimatization hike to about 14000 ft of height. Both the altitude and the approaching winter had made the weather really cold. The exhaustion hit me after this acclimatization hike and I crashed pretty early without dinner. The accommodations for women were again wooden quarters (limited space but warmer than tents) and men were again in tents.

On the last and final day of the hike, we were all very excited about the hike as we would get to see the base camp - our home for next 8 days. The first 2 hours of this 13 km trail were not too bad in terms of terrain but the altitude gain definitely started to cause problems - air got thinner and weather got colder. We first had to gain 1500 ft to Dzongri La (14,500 ft), lose almost all it and gain some more - the destination for the day being HMI base camp at height of 14,600 ft. So while net gain was 1400 ft, gross climb would still be close to 3000 ft - not an easy task given a tough hike the previous day plus acclimatization hike and limited rest.

On way to Dzongri La, I got to meet Jamling Tenzing Norgay - son of Tenzing Norgay and author of "Touching My Father's Soul: A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest". We exchanged pleasantries and he thanked me for reading his book! Given I had missed him when he had visited our camp at Bakhim, I was more than delighted to have run into him here.

 

Weather started to worsen as soon as we left Dzongri

The weather continued to worsen and half way into the hike, the snowfall began - we were cold and tired and journey seemed endless. Again around 1 pm, I hit my wall - I was completely devoid of energy as I hadn't had dinner the previous night and the breakfast just wasn't enough to keep me going from 7 am to 3 pm in this cold weather. Instructors sensed frailty of our minds and tiredness of our bodies - they kept pushing us by saying that base camp is just 20 minutes away.

Around 2:20 pm, we were greeted by advanced course students, who had come down to help us. At first, I refused the offer of having my bag carried by an advanced course student thinking that we are there, but then I learnt that we are still "20 minutes away" and I almost broke into tears when another student offered to carry the bag. Gratefully, I handed her my bag and followed her to the base camp.

 

Finally, at 3 pm I reached the base camp - I had completed the toughest hike of my life so far with atleast 10 kg on back at any given point of time. Of course, I had help - a lot of help - both in form of motivation and in form of actual help in carrying the load.

 

But even with that help, there were numerous occasions where I would ask myself, "this is real suffering, why are you doing it? you are the oldest in the batch, 10 people - some of them less than half your age have turned back, why are you still at it?"

 

There were many times when I had to focus hard on just putting one foot in front of another. There were multiple moments when I wouldn't take off my backpack to rest, for the fear that I won't be able to lift it again. In spite of all this - I made it to the base camp. No it wasn't to prove any point - I was ready to go back on day 1 itself - I think it was because at some level, universe conspired for it to happen. I got help whenever I needed it - mostly without even me asking. It had to happen - my love for mountain made me overcome all physical and mental hurdles and complete this really tough hike.

Trek Map - from Dzongri we took left trail to HMI base camp,
the right route one is part of the famous Goechala trek

Darjeeling to Bakhim via Yuksom

There was no PT on the morning of 26th Oct but we still woke up early to review our packing list one last time. Today we were to leave the warm confines of our hostel and start the 5 day long journey to HMI Base Camp. Today's destination was Yuksom (6000 ft) and the journey was to be made by road. We were all travelling in teams of 10 by Tata Sumos - 8 students crammed in the middle and last rows of the vehicle with one instructor and one driver in the front row.  The road was non existent, very dusty and the weather was actually hot - all this caused nausea in most of us...one of us actually fell sick just one hour into the journey.

A temple enroute to Yuksom

Entry to Sikkim requires permits that were pre arranged for everyone but we had quite a few foreigners in our batch and they had to report personally at the Melli check post. Some of us (yours truly included) had signed up to be part of the vehicles that carried foreigners as we had made friends with them. We assumed the early departure of these vehicles to be a good thing and never bothered to find out the real reason behind it. The real reason was that the check post stop at Melli actually made the route to Jorethang (our lunch halt) really long (almost double) as compared to the route vehicles carrying only Indian nationals undertook.

We had started earlier than the rest and reached Jorethang only at 12:30 pm or so...while the rest of the batch had been there since 11 am. They started for Yuksom as soon as we arrived into Jorethang. Rest of us grabbed  a quick bite and were on our way to Yuksom a little after 1 pm. The roads continued to be bad and dusty and by the time we reached the camp site for the night, we were totally exhausted also because we couldn't even move much due to lack of space. I was still recovering from the throat infection I had contracted while in Darjeeling, so I was feeling the worst of the lot.

Accommodations at Yuksom

There were two tents for 27 of us women and one loo. Men had more tents but no access to loo - a 'yellow flag' area was marked for them about 500 meters from where we camped. Everyone had grabbed their space and since our two vehicles were last, we had to struggle a bit to get into one of the tents (both tents' existing occupants kept telling us that there was no space). The dinner was served earlier than usual - yes we had support staff also travelling with us - they and the instructors would also undertake the arduous trek to HMI base camp over the next 4 days.
I could barely eat as the long journey over terrible roads in confined quarters coupled with my existing illness had made me really sick. There was not enough space in the tent as well, I had to actually get up at 2 am to leave the warm confines of the tent to get some fresh air as I was feeling terrible. I walked around for an hour and when I couldn't tolerate the cold any more, I went back into my sleeping bag.

We woke up at 5 am as we had an early start and before that the tents had to be packed as well. So we all packed our sleeping bags back into our backpacks, rolled the mats, hauled our asses out into the cold and started with taking down the tents. The breakfast was served at 6 am though I couldn't eat any and hence consulted with the course doctor travelling with us who gave me medication to help settle my stomach down. By 7 am we had our 'fall-in' where course director gave us another set of instructions for the hike.

Dog came with us from Yuksom to base camp

Today's agenda was to cover 13 km and gain 3000 ft from Yuksom  (~6000 ft) to Bakhim (~9000 ft). The Tiger Hill trek had given me a hint of what to expect when carrying 12 kilos on my back but our instructors had also warned us that in terms of terrain difficulty, that trail was not even 5% of what we would experience over these 4 days. We started the hike around 7:30 am or so - the start was slow and we were all handed some candy as we exited the camp site. Some of us were happy enough to sing songs as the initial part was mostly flat and then downhill towards a river crossing. My heart started to sink at the downhill part because anyone who has hiked knows that downhill is always followed by an even steeper uphill.

As expected, this was no exception and about 45 minutes into the hike, began our first ascent. Compared to the ascents we encountered later in the hike, this was honestly nothing but this was our first day of the hike and we all had slept poorly due to congested tents, hence most of us started to feel it. The singing stopped and some of us started to lag behind. Those who decided to halt were reprimanded by instructors. Apparently, you can take a break only when allowed to - otherwise you just keep walking. The breaks were only as long as the last set of hikers arrived and then would resume immediately. So if you were in the last batch, you never really caught a break - literally and figuratively!

Around 10:30 am we reached our 3rd or 4th bridge of the day. So far, I had managed to stay in the middle of the pack. Though we were barely half way into today's hike, my shoulders were already killing me. I started to wonder if I had bitten more than I could chew and after learning from instructors that the difficulty level of hike from Bakhim to Dzongri will be exponentially higher than today's I decided to turn back. I asked my Czech friend who was carrying my sleeping bag to exchange our bags back so that I could start the descent back - she laughed it off as a joke and told me that she wouldn't allow me to turn back. She made me give her more of my stuff to lighten my load and also asked a few others to help me. With my ice axe, my fleece, and couple of other items out of my backpack, I could feel it significantly lighter and decided to continue with the hike. This break was also a long one and helped the cause!

We resumed hike around 11 am. Initially the ascent wasn't too tough, but slowly it became steeper. Apparently, so far we had not gained much altitude - we had to gain 3000 ft today and the true ascent had begun just now and that was the reason for a long break. Till about noon, the pain in my shoulders didn't go up any further but I hit a wall in terms of energy. I hadn't had any dinner or breakfast, I had distributed the nuts I was carrying to reduce my load and now while I wasn't really hungry, I was really really tired. I asked folks for some snacks and with some fruits and some chocolate inside me I resumed the hike but honestly that wasn't enough.

By around 1 pm, the pain in my shoulders had become unbearable inspite of using my jacket to increase the padding between them and my backpack straps. The destination was atleast an hour away, the heat wasn't helping and instructors weren't happy with my inability to stay with the pack. While I wasn't really last, I was no longer in the middle of the pack either. At this point, I stopped thinking and just focused on putting one foot in front of another. An instructor helped me by talking about his mountaineering expeditions as conversing with him took my mind away from the pain.

Rest House at Bakhim

Finally around 2 pm, I reached Bakhim. Around 2/3rd of the batch was already there - support staff was preparing lunch, men were busy pitching the tents for their accommodations and women were asked if we would be willing to sleep in the first floor of the rest house with a big hole in the middle. The rest house had suffered during the earthquakes the region had experienced earlier that year. We all voted for the wooden rest house over tents and happily hauled our backpacks to first floor through a barely held rickety staircase with missing rungs.

Men's quarters at Bakhim

The lunch was served at 3 pm and I managed to eat a bit. The 'fall-in' at 4 pm was short - we were told that there will no class today as we must be tired and that we could rest instead. I happily went back to my sleeping bag - I had chosen a corner for myself that no one else wanted  - as it had two sets of windows with broken panes allowing cold air and had a big hole in the floor just where the mats ended. Giving me company in that corner were two American girls from my rope and my Czech friend. We preferred this nook because Bakhim was our stop for two nights and it was good to be in a corner where no one would walk/climb over your legs when you are sleeping.

Kitchen at Bakhim

 

I took a pain killer for my shoulder pain and continued to rest alone in that big hall while everyone else was out singing and having fun. I kind of liked this me time - 27 women cooped up in a room is a recipe for disaster and I wanted to get as much peaceful time as I could before the crazy dominated the atmosphere. For dinner, one of the American gals managed to score some bread for her and me as we were both still sick to eat regular food. Thus ended the day 1 of the tough hike I had heard and read so much about!