Here Is What Happens Before Your Trek Begins

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!

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

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

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

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

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

Step 7: Heave ho!

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

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

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

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!