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Here Is What Happens Before Your Trek Begins

Here Is What Happens Before Your Trek Begins

Category Working With Indiahikes About Indiahikes

By Swathi Chatrapathy

2016-02-29

Have you ever wondered what goes into running a trek?

You might have done a trek and enjoyed the sceneries, the trails, the camp sites, the hospitality – tea thrice a day, popcorn in the evening, chowmein for a snack, the most sumptuous food after each day’s trek! So here’s a peek into how exactly we manage to organise all this at high altitude!

A few weeks before the season for our high altitude treks is to begin on a particular slope, our operations folk and trek leaders are on their toes!

Our team usually goes to the closest Metro store in to buy provisions for our treks before they begin! They really mean business, because when they are done, they leave the store with no less than 17 tonnes of provisions!

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Here’s Mahi with all the stash

More than 1000 litres of oil, three tonnes of rice, 100 kilograms of just tea(!), 100 litres of ghee, 200 kilograms of salt, the list is endless!

“It takes us two entire days to shop for everything and five hours just to load the truck!” says Dushyant, our trek leader. Right from making a check-list, to budgeting the goods, buying them, packaging them and sending them to different base camps, our team works its backside off, and the season hasn’t even begun yet!

We’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves. Take a look.

Step 1: Making a checklist. This probably required several cups of chai before it got done

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(L-R) Kushal, Jagdish, Mahi and Dushyant making an endless checklist.

 

Step 2: Walking from isle to isle to pick up samaan

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Coconuts, anyone?

 

Step 3: Once they had too much samaan, they couldn’t really walk around the isles. They needed this.

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Like a boss

 

Step 4: Checking out of the store. “Door delivery” they say. Wonder if they would deliver this to the Himalayas?

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Notice the labels? “Hold for Har Ki Dun”

 

Step 5: Loading the truck. They started early. It got dark as they got done.

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Jagdish, Mahi and Kushal helping load goods onto the truck. This isn’t even half of it.

 

Step 7: Heave ho!

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Heave ho!

 

Step 8: After some point in time, they needed more than just muscle strength. 

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You’ll need the help of these machines to load the truck.

 

Step 9: Once the truck was loaded, they began their journey to Sari, Sankri and Lohajung, base camps of different treks.

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Dushyant poses with the truck that is going to be the roof over his head for the next four days

 

Step 10: Driving around the hillside to deliver the goods. A delightful four day journey!

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The truck drivers say hello!

So our Operations Team has a grand time gearing up for every season. It’s no mean feat to run treks across the Himalayas, at such remote places and on such a large scale. They’ll tell you all about it when you meet them on the slopes this season!

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Swathi Chatrapathy

Chief Editor

About the author

Swathi Chatrapathy heads the digital content team at Indiahikes. She is also the face behind India's popular trekking video channel, Trek With Swathi. Unknown to many, Swathi also writes a weekly column at Indiahikes which has more than 100,000 followers.

A TEDx speaker and a frequent guest at other events, Swathi is a much sought after resource for her expertise in digital content.

Before joining Indiahikes, Swathi worked as a reporter and sub-editor at a daily newspaper. She holds a Masters's in Digital Journalism and continues to contribute to publications. Trekking, to her, is a sport that liberates the mind more than anything else. Through trekking, Swathi hopes to bring about a profound impact on a person's mind, body and spirit.

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