On reaching KedarKantha Base camp

At this moment I was only happy that there were just two more nights to be spent in the sleeping bag. Morning when I came out of the tent to pour in some hot tea into my cup I realized that it wasn't me alone but the whole team had a similar plight the previous night. One would say I could sleep for only two hours while the other would sulk for not getting sleep even for a minute.

I had no other option but to make some deal with my heavy bag to stop it troubling me further. JP Sir had a huge army bag which was to go on Mule. So a jacket and couple of extra clothes of mine perfectly got fitted into his bag. And my back was much happier after this. By the time we could start our next day’s trek, 2 of them in the team had decided to go back to the base camp. My stomach was upset from last evening which dint let me eat Chole-Bathura for breakfast. I had to sustain with my energy bars and fruits. Since it was only me & Suma as women population, Bharti was extra sweet to us. She could very easily make out if even one of us had not come to the dinning area. She would call out for us loudly if she doesn’t sight us around for while… :D That was very nice of this lady.

  

It was very late like 10:00am we started the day’s trek. It was an easier climb than yesterday. And with the lighter backpack and smooth walk on snow we reached Kedarkantha Base camp. The tents were laid on a flat surface and everything around you is just snow. The Christmas celebrations were evident in all the tents with a santa cap on all of them. And a snow man beside our tents. There was enough sun to keep us warm till dusk. The camp leader of this camp, here comes the most impressive person in this trek, Raj Mohan Ji. Its difficult to describe him but he was a synonym of qualities like Dynamic, quick, sharp, strong, humble & lots more. I only remember when he started to speak & he went on & on till we completed the trek. His voice was in the background almost throughout from now on, even when he was not around. He gave us instructions on using the crampons and basic facilities available at the campsite. Bharti was in high spirits to make another Snow man in the ice. The ice was as dry as sand, it was difficult to make even a small snow ball forget a man standing with a huge tummy. We then decided to make a snow mountain and dressed it like a man. And then started the snow bullets bombarding on us. We played till almost the previous batch left the camp after their successful summit.

Just when I was ready with few more fresh layers of clothes, I heard RajMohan ji calling for us to assemble on the snow. I could not afford getting my clothes wet, I quickly pulled out few layers and was back in 2 mins. We all cursed and wondered what on earth was he making us do on the snow now. Will he make us slide or yet another snow man ???? Unfolding the surprise he went on to demonstrate how to save ourselves from avalanche. Interesting! I was now hiding myself behind the tall guys for not becoming his subject. Unfortunately my tiny stature made it convenient to conduct his experiment on me. Even before I could realize, I was sleeping inside a sleeping bag covered all over with thick blanket of snow. The moment my face was covered my mind started racing to get out of it, my mind shouted inside my head to just throw away all the snow pressed on me right away & get out of that bag. With great difficulty I held back my otherwise reactive mind to stay calm for a while and very politely told Raj Mohanji to keep my face uncovered. I am dead Claustrophobic. Recollecting that scene even now makes me uncomfortable. A little while from then, I realized how warm the ice can actually make you feel inside this Igloo. I was the “Igloo-women” of our batch.

They struggled to cut down a tree to feed the fire. I almost felt dead waiting for fire to be put on, I took refuge inside the kitchen tent. Once again, his experiences in Indian army, stories about the life in army, siachen and several other stories kept us listening to him with amazement. Raj Mohanji would go on. We assembled around the campfire again after dinner for few more stories. And then most of them decided to catch bed and compensate for yesterday’s loss of sleep. Few of us had no hopes of getting any sleep and we preferred to stay around the fire than to stay stagnant inside the cold sleeping bag waiting for another night to get over. Sitting around the fire was an awesome pastime. Exploring everybody’s hidden talents. Ha ha J I had strong plans to kill Danny at the end of the campfire session for teasing me about everything I was telling. Shimoo would go silent the moment I asked him anything about Jaguar. I kept eating his head and he begged me to spare him. In between these conversations, JP sir would choose to share his experiences on his past treks. Shubhoo tried to make an excuse and get into his tent but he wasn’t let to break the campfire promise. We fixed the time to get into tents as 10:30PM but the interesting sessions, stories, discussions, arguments & what not, forced us to extend it till 11PM.

The tents were set with sleeping bags and all we did was to drape the two layers of sleeping bags on us and waited for the sleep to conquer us. To my surprise, the sleeping bag almost felt like a cradle and I dozed off in no time and slept like a baby.