7 Realities Of Trekking No One Tells You About

Before you head out on a Himalayan trek, experienced trekkers will tell you all about the freezing nights, the starry skies, the difficult terrain, and the beautiful mountain scenery. 

But there are several small realities that make every Himalayan trek challenging and no one tells you about them. These are experiences that you’ll possibly despise when you’re experiencing them, yet fondly think of them later.

And I would rather have you know about these now, much before you embark on your trek so that they don’t come at you as surprises. 

So let’s talk about them.

1.) Long road journeys 

Any Himalayan trek, no matter which region of the country you choose, has a long drive to the base camp. It could be an 8-hour drive from Shimla or a 10-hour drive from Dehradun. These long road journeys are inevitable. 

The bad: These are winding journeys with uncomfortable hairpin bends. The roads are bumpy, sometimes just dirt tracks. And if you suffer from motion sickness, you have to be extra cautious! 

How to deal with it: For the bumpy, winding roads, the best thing you can do is distract yourself with the journey itself. Look out the window to watch stunning landscapes, make conversation with your driver, ask for stories from the region, and get to know other travellers with you. If you’re someone who is prone to motion sickness, then using this guide could help you prevent motion sickness on your road journey. It worked for me. 
The good: The good part is that these are a few of the most beautiful road journeys you will go on. Trekkers don’t talk much about it because the trek itself overshadows the journey, but these are fantastic locations you drive through. Thousands of tourists come from all over the country (and outside our country) just to drive on these roads. So take in the journey. These are some of the greatest mountain journeys you will do in your life.

2.) Zero Mobile Networks

Most of our trekking trails have no network, right from the base camps. So your trek is a week-long goodbye to the over-connected world that we live in. 

The bad: On certain treks your family/friends will not be able to get in touch with you. You will not be able to call or text them. You’ll have to leave your work aside for a week. The worst thing is, if there is an emergency back at home no one will be able to get in touch with you, not even through us.  

How to deal with it: Ask your driver till when you’ll have a network and finish up all important calls before that. Tell your family and closest friends that you’re going to the Himalayas and will be out of network for a few days.

The good: Being out of the network area for a week is not necessarily a bad thing. Psychologists are always suggesting we detox ourselves from technology. A trek is a very natural way to do it. We seldom get a chance to do this in our urban lives, which are increasingly dominated by technology. Trekkers understand this importance. They get a chance to look inward and reflect.

3.) No/Intermittent electricity

Here’s a reality that leaves most trekkers taken aback. They go to the base camps and find very intermittent electricity. They find it difficult to charge their phones/cameras. A week-long plan of taking good pictures or videos is ruined. 

The bad: This will affect you if you’re someone who is carrying any gadgets that need charging -- cameras, GoPros, phones, video equipment, drones and so on. None of them can be charged once you leave the base camp. You’ll have to make do with whatever battery juice you have for the next 4-5 days. 

To make matters worse, you’re usually dealing with extremely low temperatures in the mountains. The cold weather alone drains out the battery even if it’s not being used.

How to deal with it: We usually take power banks for our phones. One power bank above 10,000 mAh will easily last you 3-4 charges. For cameras and drones, there’s no option but to carry spare batteries. Further, you’ll need to wrap all batteries in something warm (your woollen socks or gloves). We usually keep them inside our jacket pockets at night to keep them warm. 

The good: This is a wonderful chance to push yourself to see how much you can achieve even when you’re low on resources. It pushes your boundaries and makes you think out of the box. If you’re a photographer, you’ll learn to plan your shots in advance instead of impulsively getting many shots and picking the best one. If you’re just using your phone, you’ll learn to conserve your battery better.

4.) Staying in tents and sleeping in sleeping bags on a hard floor

Trekkers don’t realise how different it is to sleep on the ground that is not their bed. It is enough to make many lose their sleep. This is the truth about trekking. We sleep where we can.  

The bad: Our Hillman tents and sleeping bags are extremely warm and top-quality. But camping outdoors means you are roughing it out. You’re camping in cold snow sometimes, or camping on sloping surfaces, mostly on hard earth. Sometimes you hear heavy rain battering the tent through the night, with snow and water leaking in. Sometimes you might even have a tent mate who snores! 

How to deal with it: Mental conditioning plays a big role here. You must be prepared for such conditions much before you get on your trek. You must also be layered and cosy much before you go to bed (even before sundown). But come what may, you will roll over to the corner of the tent, or be bunched up in the morning, will wake up multiple times in the night. Even given all these factors, trust your body to take rest. A couple of hours of sleep will rejuvenate your body even if you feel you have not rested enough.

The good: This is one of the best experiences on a trek. It’s what gives you a feeling of adventure, an experience of the wilderness. Even stepping out of your tent in the middle of the night to answer nature’s call is a celestial experience. You’re not going to see the Milky Way spread out above you every day. No matter how cold you get in the middle of the night, it’s going to remain one of your favourite experiences for life. 

5.) The (great) food

I can’t speak for anyone trekking on their own or with others, but if you’re trekking with Indiahikes, you can remove all worries about food from your head. If you’re not trekking with us, however, minimal food is a reality you have to prepare yourself for. 

The bad: It is not easy to get good food at high altitudes. First, it’s difficult to take provisions up to remote locations (there’s always a weight constraint). Second, it takes very long to cook anything in low temperatures and high altitudes. It also requires good cooking skills. 

On most self-managed treks, you’ll see that people manage with very limited food (canned or dehydrated food). Even on treks with enough infrastructure, dal bhaat is the staple. When you’re trekking you don’t see much deviation from the staple. 

How to deal with it: If you’re trekking with Indiahikes, you don’t have to deal with it. We have dedicated cooks who are trained to make good food for you. You could even expect gulab jamuns at 14,000 ft! However, if you’re trekking on your own, dehydrated food is definitely something you should explore. You should also carry dry fruits, channa (Bengal gram), with you for instant energy and nutrition while trekking. For long, Maggi has been considered trekkers' food. Avoid Maggi -- it is hard to digest, extremely unhealthy and gives you low energy.

The good: Being able to manage with minimal food helps you build a whole lot of resilience. You realise that you don’t really need much to live with. It gives you a very strong understanding of what you want vs what you need. On another note, you’ll appreciate almost any meal at the end of an exhausting trek.

6.) Washing your own cutlery

At Indiahikes, we expect all trekkers to bring their own cutlery, eat from them and wash their own cutlery. Trekkers sometimes ask why we do not ask our staff to clean their cutlery like in a hotel. The danger to that is something that does not occur to most trekkers -- stomach disorders. When cutlery is mass washed, it invariably leaves unwanted bacteria and germs on them. The last thing you want on a trek is a stomach disorder. 

The bad: Eating out of your own cutlery, dipping your hands (which have gotten warm after great difficulty) in freezing water, scrubbing your dish until it’s clean and putting your gloves back on. This is the life of a high-altitude trekker. It makes you wish you could be back home, using regular temperature water, or just leave your dish in the sink until later. But you cannot do that on a trek. 

How to deal with it: Some trekkers share their cutleries and end up having to wash just one dish among three of them, and they take turns to do this. On another note, some trekkers don’t wash their dishes for 2-3 meals at a stretch. These are examples of what not to do. The best thing to do is face it head-on. There’s no way out of it. Use steel cutlery instead of plastic, the grime comes off a lot easier. That way, your hands will be wet for much less time. 

The good: We’ve seen that after a trek, many people begin to become more efficient with their work. They learn to do things on their own, especially those who have house help at home. Washing your own cutlery plays a major role in it. Trekkers who come with children appreciate this learning even more. It teaches children basic life skills. 

7.) Using dry toilets

In the mountains, there are only dry toilets. These are deep pits dug into the earth, where you finish your business and use toilet paper to clean up. There’s no water, no seat, no pot (Indian or Western). 

The bad: Getting used to cleaning up with toilet rolls is something many of us have trouble with. Not being able to use water is another. You also have to cover up your business with mud (or at Indiahikes, we use a fast composting mixture). And doing all this in a space alien to you, a toilet tent, which is slightly away from the campsite takes time to get used to.

How to deal with it: Practice using toilet paper at home for a week before your trek, you’ll get used to it. Another tip is to wet the toilet paper a bit, to make it like wet tissue. Note: We do not allow packaged wet tissues in the mountains. They are non-biodegradable and harmful to the environment. 
The good: The good part of a dry toilet is that there’s no sight or smell when you go in. Everything is covered up with earth, there’s no mess from the usage of water. It’s a clean and hygienic experience. Many trekkers prefer it to normal public toilets by the end of the week.

So those are a few of the realities we wanted to share with you. 

Over the past ten years, we have found that just one week-long trek in the Himalayas leaves trekkers in a much better mental space. They are more open to challenges, they solve problems more easily, and they are more humble and open to learning.

I want to share with you all what Sandhya Chandrashekharayya, co-founder of Indiahikes, mentioned in one of her statements: ‘Everyone Must Trek.’ This belief comes from the transformative power of trekking. Trekking brings changes to our minds, bodies, and spirits that are hard to imagine.’

With this, I conclude. These are 7 small realities but highly impactful ones that change them for life. And that’s the beauty of a Himalayan trek! If you trek with Indiahikes, it becomes even more eventful & memorable.

If you have been on a trek and have any more points you’d like to add, drop in a comment below. We’d love to hear from you!