Monday, May 26, 2014

No kidding

I was in the mountains, for over a month. It is very exciting to share that it was the longest and the coldest time up for this wayward wanderer. But with a lesser excitement I also share that what I'd set out for wasn't achieved - which would've been in the form of a summit for my girlfriend, who had to abort (the expedition) because of a knee injury, and video diaries for the entire expedition which were left incomplete coz of the early exit.

However, now that I'm back, I plan to share a lot. Going through the events in a chronological order - in pictures and videos - one can well judge how crazy and otherworldly it was. Despite knowing the nature of things in the wild, and in the snows, it was different. If nature was a master-chef, the delightful dish it served us was a combination of the people - of the mountain profession - and the situations that made it so memorable.

In the followup to our return, some very good news has come. There have been summits; most importantly an Indian summit of Makalu. That was GP Pune's Ashish Mane creating history a day back, and I can imagine it would've been a crazy climb. Then there was a 16 year old (American) summitting the same mountain 2 hours after Ashish, which makes for another inspiring tale, one which I hardly know anything about. Swee Chow, the gregarious Singaporean and the Grand Slam-mer, also summitted. So did Dr. Dragan, everyone's best man at the basecamp - I suspect cheating, since mere prayers would've been enough to take him to at least the French Couloir, if not the summit.

Much to follow.