5 - 4 - 3 - 2 -1 - 0. This is how the connectivity looked like as we moved closer to the base camp
Can you imagine staying without connectivity - well we did it for 6 days and we didn’t miss it. The incessant need of replying to messages, or sending updates was washed away with the FOCUS shifting on doing the trek. Especially when 25 unknown folks from different background are put together with a common goal of reaching a summit. It was an experience of natural group dynamics - from not knowing each other to crying without any embarrassment, it all happened in next 6 days.
The Day 1 we had to pack (fit) everything we got from our home into our backpack and as were doing that I realized the layers of layers of stuff we were putting in and the only worry we had was - Can we ?
As I look back after the Trek, the biggest learning was just to surrender & let go!
Food is a very good example - Many of us carried many many protein bars including me. But I carried back more than half of it - because there was no time to have it. There were enough stop over during the trek to have some local juice.
We had all our meals in the tiffin box we carried - And very simple food, Dal - rice - 1 sabzi and 1 sweet. Roti was a luxury because of LPG issue. Nobody complained - we just wanted to have something hot at the end of day or after a long walk in cold. The temperature outside was freezing and anything warm was welcome. Beautiful cakes were made of suji which was shaped like a cake as we celebrated someone’s birthday. No fancy cakes like in cities
I and many of us were not used to the cold & even after many many layers we would just lose ourself to sleep because of sheer exhaustion. No Vodka to warm us. We managed fine.
I had 3 t-shirts and 3 lowers & we managed with them and 3 pair of sox
Probably the same is true for the migrant workers working in our city, the families - children surviving every day on what they can earn.
Surrendering - Letting Go in a mountain is easy - You do not have a choice
4 Weeks before we started - a group was formed of 25 hikers and we would get daily update.
One days - There was too much snow at the summit so the team could not summit
Next day - It’s bright and sunny
Next Day - for 3 days - It’s been raining non stop but we are hoping that it will clear very soon…..
Every time I got one of these posts I would be tense - how will I manage if it snows so much, how many layers or if my socks gets wet etc etc.
Summiting is the biggest HIGH for a trekker. And going all the way from Bangalore and not reaching the peak - in a pure input - output & KPI driven world is a failure. But, after seeing these messages very soon I realized there is no point in thinking about the summit.
And this true till the morning of April 1st (when we did the summit), I never thought “whether we will summit or not”. If it happens Awesome, if not - It’s ok
We have been taught told this since we are very young:
“It’s the journey - not the destination that matters”.
But at 56 this was driven home in those 10 days in the mountains. Looking back SUMMIT was just one thing we did but we will remember how we walked together, helped each other, joked, cried, sang and held each other in those 10 days.
Control - Is the other thing which got redefined / banished, we cannot control anything, it’s an illusion we live in. If weather is in the hand of Gods, food is in the hand of what gets transported on mules and gets made in the makeshift tent, sleep is a function of cold & with whom you sleep in the tea house.
Surya sir, a veteran trekker knew that he snores & was carrying ear buds which he gave me so I could sleep 😀. It's funny but also highly thoughtful for him to do so
