Indiahikes Trek Leaders Complete A Technical Training Course at Hampta Pass

Over this weekend six trek leaders and assistant trek leaders completed a technical training course at Hampta Pass. The course spanned over four days and was conducted by Ashish Sukhadare, our technical safety trainer.

With the Hampta Pass season just around the corner, the team conducted a thorough training session before any trekkers embarked on the trail. While training, they also completed a recce in the process, uncovering a more challenging aspect of Hampta Pass that trekkers don't typically encounter.

Hampta pass is a challenging trek when it comes to bad weather. After the heavy rains last year, we became even more aware of the safety hazards for our trekkers and realised how important it is for our team to constantly improve our technical and medical skills.

Technical Learnings:

• Set up rappelling bases
• Navigate through rock fall
• Navigate through lightning
• Evacuation planning
• Conduct safe river crossings
• Use navigation devices
• Read topographic maps

Medical Learnings:

• High altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) drills
• Make stretchers incase of evacuation

Here is what Lakshmi Selvakumaran, the head of the learning and development team at Indiahikes, had to say regarding our training programs. “Our training programs are structured for our trek leaders in a certain way where they have a space where they can put themselves in real life situations and be able to tackle all the challenges that are thrown at them in the mountains. It is not only about dealing with a situation and learning from it on the spot or during the course of the trek, but also being completely prepared and preventing those situations from happening in the first place. The Learning and Development team is constantly setting up and improving these training programs so that the safety of our trekkers is not compromised.”

We plan on conducting more training programs in the coming months so that our trek leaders are equipped to face any such situations in the mountains. This will in turn help make our treks safer and run in a more smooth and efficient way.