In 2018, I did the Basic Mountaineering Course from the Himalayan Institute in Darjeeling. However, my first real education on the art of mountaineering came from a trip more than seven years ago in California.
The trip was to Mt Dade, an unassuming mountain in the Sierra Nevadas of California. Three friends and I tried and failed to climb it, not because of some force of nature forces us to turn back, but because we were dumb.
You could say I learned by doing the right things in the Mountaineering Course. And in the trip I'm talking about here, the learnings came from doing all the wrong things!
So, here, in random order are some of the things you should keep in mind when out in the mountains.
Wear proper clothing
To put it mildly, I came unprepared for a climb. I didn't have gloves, I didn't have enough layers, and I didn't have warm socks. I borrowed a jacket from one of my friends, and wore socks (!) for gloves. I guess, in a way, this lesson is also improvisation. The best gear right now is the gear you have.
The first evening, when we were reaching the campsite, I fell into a river while walking on a log, and my right leg got completely soaked in the freezing water. It was so cold that it started hurting. I couldn't walk properly, so I covered myself with a sleeping bag in our tent.
My friends were outside, laughing and chatting by the river, and I was in the tent, miserable and irritated. My boots were wet, my socks were wet, my pants were wet. The world sucked. The only small relief was a plate of Maggi that my friend brought to me in the tent.
Lesson: It is important when going out in the cold to be prepared for the cold.
Have proper gear for the snow
We stopped on the way at an equipment rental shop to rent an ice axe for each of us. The guy who worked there asked us which mountain we were climbing and we told him.
He was surprised that we were trying to do it without crampons, and convinced us that it wouldn't be possible. It was probably easy to convince me because at that point, I didn't even know what crampons were.
He saw that I had sneakers on, and informed me that sneakers were a bad idea on this mountain. Crampons couldn't be used with sneakers anyway. He convinced me that boots were necessary, and it was then that I purchased my first pair of hiking boots.
The mountain turned to be a mix of snow and ice, and there is no way we would have made it as far as we did if the nice guy at that the store hadn't told us we needed crampons.
Lesson: Research what to expect in terms of weather, and pack accordingly.
Get an Alpine Start
An Alpine start means starting really early, sometimes even before midnight. There are many reasons mountaineers prefer alpine starts: the snow cover starts melting rapidly in the afternoon and causes rockfall, you get to come back before the evening in case the hike is long, you can climb before the day gets to its hottest, there is less chance of a storm, and so on.
We did not think of any of these reasons, and we didn't know the term "Alpine Start" existed.
We slept through the night and started hiking at 6:30 AM. We had camped a bit far from the base of the mountain, so we actually started climbing at around 10. At the beginning, we had to walk along the sloped bank of a lake. Without crampons, this is where we would have turned around, but with them it was an easy walk around.
At around 2 PM, we were all dead tired (me more than the others, because of the lack of sleep the last few days), and the peak was nowhere in sight. We met a climber coming down who told us that it was at least two more hours to the summit.
Continuing on would mean that there was no way we would get back to camp before night, so we decided to turn around.
The bank of the lake looked slightly different now. Close the opposite side of where we were standing was a big gap in the ice. The ice and snow that had been holding that section up had melted, and now we would have to jump across.
When we got to the gap, we debated whether to take the leap, or to go all the way around the other way. I jumped, missed, and almost fell into the lake. I still remember that moment. I was terrified that I would fall into the lake and freeze to death. Thankfully only my right foot went in, and the crampon on my left foot gripped the ice.
I was cold, and wet. Again. This time a little less because the mountaineering store guy had given us gaiters as well.
Lesson: Do Alpine Starts on summit days when you're on a long climb.
Protect your eyes
The other guys took the long way around and we met by a stream. We had (surprise, surprise) not packed enough water, so we decided to drink from the stream. Our leader filled his bottle and dropped two Iodine water purification tablets in them.
I didn't know I was supposed to wait till the tablets dissolved completely, plus I was feeling too cold to be patient, so I drank a sip immediately.
That night, we were sleeping in a guest house. I woke up at around midnight, and my eyes were burning. The pain was unlike anything I had experienced before; I couldn't even open my eyes. My first thought was that I had drank impure water, and now I was going blind!
I made my way to the other room and was very glad to find that my friend had the same problem. He was unable to open his eyes as well. At least I had company in my misery. We would grow blind together.
We stopped at the forest office to tell the guy what happened. He looked at us for less than a second and told us that we both had snow blindness. It hadn't occurred to us to wear (or in my case, even bring) sunglasses on the mountain, and all that reflected sunlight from the snow had not been kind to our eyes.
My eyes recovered in three days.
Lesson: When hiking in the snow, wear sunglasses! Always!
Joy and Basic Mountaineering Technique
You maybe reading all this and thinking that the trip was a total failure. It wasn't! I loved every moment of it.
It wasn't just the mistakes. I learned how to walk with an ice axe. You have to treat it like your third limb, and at least two limbs should be on the trail at any point of time. So: ice-axe, left, right, ice-axe, left, right, and you make your way up the hill. I learned how use crampons, how to glissade down a hill.
I remember the joy of running with abandon down the snow on the way back, completely lost in the moment.
If you come back in one piece, all time spent on a mountain is a good time.
I loved this piece. I hope to go on trekking climbs at some point in my life and this was very useful. Also, I love the clarity in your writing. Thanks for this piece!
Learning from mistakes - it seems like not so bad option 😄😊