A year of training and fundraising efforts culminated for the five members of Make-It-Real 7, in the completion our Technical Mountaineering Course in June 08. Held in Manali India, the course grounded us in the Basics of Alpine mountaineering.

Leaving on 19 May, the team flew into Delhi where we were greeted by our Head Instructor for the course, Hem P. Rana. Hem would prove to be a man of good humour and vast mountaineering experience, over the course of the three weeks or so that we would spend in his company.

From Delhi, we travelled by rail to Chandigarh, where we boarded a van that would take us on a 16 hour drive to Manali where our trek began.

Our first campsite was at Bakar Thach, at a height of 3500m and lying just a short distance from the snowline. With the weather on our side, we took our time setting up camp and settling into the place that we would call home for the next eight days.

Our home for the next 10 days!

The next morning we awoke to hot tea and a hearty breakfast whipped up by our resident cook, Sibu. It’s fair to say that the amount of good food that lay before us really caught everyone by surprise. Bread, eggs, honey, chapatis, beans, dahl – I thought we were supposed to be roughing it out! The plentiful food however proved not to be a luxury but rather a necessity, given our training schedule and the demanding mountain environment.

Following breakfast, we geared up and made the short trek to the area of snow near our campsite to begin our first experience with snow craft. This would be our routine for the next eight days – breakfast followed by training in the snow, in a variety of techniques and procedures that every mountaineer has to know. We began with simple techniques of how to walk up and descend an inclined stretch of snow and eventually progressed onto more challenging procedures, such as learning how to arrest our fall should we loose our footing.

Self arrest in action!

As the end of our stay in Bakar Thach loomed, so did our first major challenge of the trip – an attempt to summit one of the many peaks that encircled our campsite: Priya Dashni.

Finally! At the top of Priya Dashni

View from Beas Kund camp

The peak proved to be a daunting task. For one, the steep gully that we had to ascend on route to the summit’s shoulder literally sapped the team of its energy and made it necessary for us to take several breaks just so we could catch our breath. Also, the snow in many areas had become compacted, making it difficult for us to cut steps into it while climbing. Every member did eventually make it to the top but the mountain had exposed our limitations and had provided us with our first rue test of the trip.

The day after was time to head off for our next camp, at Beas Kund. Situated near the Beas Kund glacier and a small pond like formation from which it takes it takes it’s name, our campsite also provided us a stunning view of the peak that we would attempt to summit at the end of our course: Shiti Dhar.

Camping near an actual glacier, albeit one covered with a thick layer of snow, allowed us to hone several new techniques which were not possible to learn at Bakar Thach. Beas Kund was where we were introduced to cramponing – the use of spiked metal attachments that are strapped to our boots for added traction when walking on a glacier.

But the highlight of our training at Beas Kund, and also possibly the most difficult skill we had to acquire, was traction climbing with crampons and ice-axes – on a 4 metre high ice-wall that stood on the glacier no less. The act of balancing on the tiny points of metal, which one had to jab into the wall of ice, proved a stiff challenge for the best of us.

As our week-long training period at Beas Kund drew to a close, the team began to grow anxious, in expectance of what would certainly be an arduous climb up to Shiti Dhar’s high camp. Our concerns proved warranted. Laden with clothing and equipment that we would need for the summit push, our steep ascent up to high camp was indeed the toughest part of the entire climb. When we arrived at the snow covered camping grounds we had barely enough energy left to tuck into a hot bowl of noodles and bundle ourselves into our sleeping bags.

I was roused at three the next morning by our instructor, Hem. “The weather’s cleared up. Wake the rest. Let’s give it a go,” he ordered. Shaking off sleep and soreness from the previous day’s climb, the team sprung into action. By 4:15 am, we were off, plodding in the dim gloom of our headlamps, towards the dark horizon.

The Majestic Hanuman Tibba behind us

The climb was not easy. I for one was sinking into the loose fresh snow, up till my knees sometimes, with almost every other step I took. As we marched on toward our distant goal, the weather turned on us yet again, hurling what felt like a mini blizzard at us. Nonetheless we soldiered on in remarkable fashion, perhaps remembering how our numerous breaks on Priya Darshni had done us more harm than good.

Our resilience paid off. By 8am every member of the team was standing on the summit of Shitidhar, at a height of 5293m – higher than anything in the Swiss Alps. The weather, coincidentally had given us a brief respite, allowing us to soak in the magnificent views of the surrounding peaks and snap the summit photo. Once done, we rappelled down to high camp, where we packed up and made the trek back down to Beas Kund.

Completely drained but accomplished. There was little left to do upon arrival than to soak in our achievement and reflect on a truly memorable trip and perhaps for most of us, the first of many amazing experiences yet to be had in the mountains.

Account by: Ashok Narandran