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Basic Mountaineering Course at Manali

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Page 1: Basic Mountaineering Course in Himalaya
Page 2: Basic Mountaineering Course in Himalaya

Copyright (c) 2010 SIDHARTH RAI

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU

Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software

Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found at http://www.daad.de/de/GNU_Free_Documentation_License.doc

This document has been written on the basis of personnel experience and Institute

authorities are not responsible for anything written in the document. I will not be responsible

for any change you find in the future BMC (Basic Mountaineering Course). Schedule is

Institute discretion and can be changed depending upon circumstances. For more details

kindly visit adventurehimalya.org and dmas.nic.in. http://www.treksinhimalaya.com Page 2

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Contents

Prologue ................................................................................................................................. 5 Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................... 6 Daily Account of Basic Mountaineering Course .............................................................................. 7

Day 1: ................................................................................................................................... 7

Day 2: ................................................................................................................................... 7

Day 3 .................................................................................................................................... 8

Day 4: ................................................................................................................................... 8

Day 5: ................................................................................................................................... 8

Day 6: ................................................................................................................................... 9

Day 7: ................................................................................................................................... 9

Day 8: ................................................................................................................................... 9

Day 9 .................................................................................................................................. 10

Day 10: ............................................................................................................................... 10

Day 11: ............................................................................................................................... 11

Day 12: ............................................................................................................................... 11

Day 13: ............................................................................................................................... 11

Day 14: ............................................................................................................................... 12

Day 15: ............................................................................................................................... 13

Day 16: ............................................................................................................................... 13

Day 17: ............................................................................................................................... 13

Day 18: ............................................................................................................................... 14

Day 19: ............................................................................................................................... 14

Day 20: ............................................................................................................................... 15

Day 21: ............................................................................................................................... 15

Day 22: ............................................................................................................................... 16

Day 23: ............................................................................................................................... 16

Day 24: ............................................................................................................................... 17

Day 25: ............................................................................................................................... 17

Day 26: ............................................................................................................................... 17 Things they provided us in BMC 297 ............................................................................................ 18 Things to bring (Buying this beforehand will help) ......................................................................... 18

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Prologue

I belong to student fraternity. I had decent health and did not have any

mountaineering experience before. I have done some trekking in Uttarakhand

and ran Delhi Half-Marathon that is all, I can say about my physical activities.

Batch was heterogeneous. It consisted of students from Sainik School,

NCC students, Engineers, MBAs, Army people, photographers, IAS,

lawyer, trekkers, civilians and some foreigners. Himachal local students

were tough and they helped others as well.

Before joining this course, I will recommend you to start running and

pushups from today onwards. It will help a lot because majority of

activities consists of trekking/running and using arms. We trekked

approx 158 KM which was spread over the month.

I have got ‘A’ Grade in the course and will recommend you not to involve in

any fighting or undisciplined activities during the course (this can lead to

disqualification from course). Always follow instructor’s advice and never be

late. These things are also accounted for calculating final grade.

I am writing this document for me and future aspirants of BMC. This will

help you to get glimpse of activities present in the course and prepare

yourself accordingly to get best out of it.

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Acknowledgement

It was pleasure to complete our basic mountaineering course at Atal

Bihari Vajepayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports Manali;

one of the oldest institute in India.

I am thankful to Mr. Rajiv Sharma (Deputy Director) for his motivating,

inspirational lectures. His lecture on Mt. Everest at Bakar-Thach filled us

with energy to go strong.

I want to especially thank Mr. Jagat Thakur (our course in charge) who was

always with us to provide his valuable insights and to oversee all the activities.

I would like to express my heartiest gratitude to our batch instructors;

Mr.Leelakaran Negi, Mr.Kanwar Verma, Mr.Narindra , Mr.Om Parkash

Pandey, Mr.Bhoomidhev, Mr.Namgyal Negi, Mr.Amar Negi, Mr.Narveer

Negi, Mr.Vinod, Mr. Arvind, Mr.Bikram, Mr.Rajesh, Mr.Surinder. They

were always keen to share their experience and ensured that we are

learning basic concepts of mountaineering to our best. They also

ensured our safety while practicing snow/ice/rock craft.

I am also thankful to Govt. of Himachal Pradesh and India for making

this course affordable to the people of India. http://www.treksinhimalaya.com Page 6

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Daily Account of Basic Mountaineering Course

Day 1:

1: Entrance

First day of the course consisted of waking up 6

in the morning and going for a morning walk of

3-4Km. There was PT after the walk which

continued for 1 hour. We were served ‘puri-

chole’ in the breakfast. After breakfast there

was registration. Lunch consists of ‘Ghiya’ and

Dal, there was fall in after lunch where ropes

(groups) were decided. Democratically Course

senior, Equipment In charge, Quarter Master

were chosen. I came in rope 4 and my rope

members include I,Siddharth Gadre, Dwapayan Chatterjee, Rajiv Meshram,Anshul Jain,Vineet Raj,Abhijit Sir and Vijeyesh.

Then we were asked to collect our equipments from the store. Now there was lecture on

knots where we learned climbing knots. Next day we were called again at 6 AM in the

morning. Our course senior told me to buy canvas shoes of rubber sole as it can offer good

grip while climbing up rocks. I went with him to market and bought a pair for me.

Day 2:

Getting up early, there was a problem of limited number of toilets due to which there was line

and one has to get up even early of others so I decide to wake up at 4:45AM instead of

5:00AM. Morning tea was served at 5:30AM.

It was running today and we ran for 3 Km after which we were being taken to nearby forest where

we did PT for one hour. Believe me this

PT really need hard effort. I took

breakfast and we were called with our

rucksacks. We were given Ditto(mango

juice) and it was 1.5Km walk to training

area. We were given lecture on rock

climbing and about various type of hold.

Today we climbed 4 rocks. My

performance was not very good. Our

instructors helped us in getting

recognized some holds and technique to

catch them. There was lecture today in

evening. Lectures were soothing as you can sit and relax there while listening. As per routine there was fall in after dinner. http://www.treksinhimalaya.com Page 7

2: My Roommates

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Day 3

We were asked to bring rucksack in the morning

itself .Post breakfast schedule was pretty much same

where we climbed chimney and overhang. Post

Lunch there was again a lecture.

Here come the big news today we had obstacles

after tea. Initially instructors told us to have 5 rounds

of obstacle. Big problem was running from end point

to start point of obstacle area. Finally they told us to

stop after 4 rounds.

After obstacles whole body was aching and we had 3: In Field (Rock Craft) fall in after dinner.

Day 4:

Today morning trek was towards our training area. We walked up to the mountain side and

came back.

4: Mountaineering Knots

Today I did well in rock climbing. Whole rope

was helping each other and we were enjoying it

today. Today there was knots lecture where we

learned anchoring, joining and special knot.

There was obstacles post tea where we

completed 5 rounds. We were asked to assemble

within 5 mins. Everybody was running and we

came back on time. We went to auditorium hall where we was shown mountaineering movie.

Day 5: Today we woke up at 4:15 as fall in was 30 mins

earlier. We went to ‘Suru Devi Temple’ where

some offered prayer and others took photographs.

It was a long walk. Today in training area course was divided in two parts. I was in rappelling group, we practiced.

Arm Rappelling

Shoulder Rappelling

Mechanical Rappelling 5: Rock Climbing (Free Style)

Other group was in rock climbing. Rappelling ended

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Soon and we tried acheval (technique to cross mountain with the help of hands).

After lunch we were taken to Snow and Avalanche Study Estt (SASE) undertaking of DRDO.

We learned about snow there. We were served ‘Pakora’ and tea. It started raining and we

came back running to our institute. It was fun to run in rain.

Day 6: 6: Climbing and Descending Overhang

Today we started walking at 5:00AM in the

morning with our rucksacks and it was a trek to

‘Hadimba’ temple.

Post breakfast other group practiced Rappelling

and we went for rock climbing. We climbed two

rocks and sat down for knot practice.

Today we got our climbing shoes and time to visit

library. Library is good, it has some good books. I

got book on treks in Himachal.

Day 7: Today is admin day which means a day to buy

stuff that we may need in mountains.

Instructors asked to buy following things if we

do not have them.

Goggles

Gloves

Woolen socks

Torch I along with my roommates went out. We did

some internet and it started raining. We bought some chocolates and dry fruits for our stay in mountains. Today we celebrated Purvesh birthday which was on 5

th May. We went to watch

‘Badmash Company’. Movie was average and we came back just on time.

Day 8: Today in the morning we were instructed to wear our climbing shoes to get use to it. We

went to walk of 2-3 Km in nearby places.

Post Breakfast course was divided into two parts. One team went to Jumaring while other

went to river crossing. I was in Jumaring. Today we learned and practiced http://www.treksinhimalaya.com Page 9

7: In Manali Market

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Double Jumaring (which is used on slope greater than 60 degree)

Single Jumaring (to be used on slope

less than 60 degree)

Single Jumaring was easy while in double

Jumar if one is following instructions it become

easy otherwise one has to use lot of energy.

After lunch we had a lecture from doctor who is

working with BSF Mountaineering team. He

explained us mountain deceases including 8: Our Hostel (Beas)

Frostbite, hypothermia, HAPO, HACO and AMS.

Day 9

In the morning we went for trekking to hydro power project site. It was a long walk.

Today our group went for river crossing. We practiced in tributary of Beas River. Water was

very cold and after each dip, we all were

standing in sun light to make ourselves warm.

We practiced crossing in five techniques. Crossing using ropes where one has to lie

upside down.

Crossing using pole.

Crossing making team and holding a pole.

Crossing by holding harness of team

member.

To cross by holding rope.

9: Obstacle Area After lunch we had a lecture from environmentalist

who was working for conservation of snow leopard

in Lahaul and Spiti area of Himachal Pradesh. We had obstacle test today where our team

(rope 4) showed full cooperation and we all completed on time.

Day 10:

In the morning we were asked to being towel and clothing. We went to ‘Vashisht temple’; it has natural hot water

spring. We all took bath in the water.

Today we had training on artificial wall climbing. I

volunteered to be the first one to climb it. It was really hard

in first time, after learning technique it became easy. There

was one other activity going on where students were

practicing jump from one rock to other. 10: Artificial Wall Climbing

Today post lunch time was admin day; we all can go to

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market. Nobody from my room was ready for market. It was last day before leaving for campsite so I

decided to eat as much as possible; I really enjoyed the day and bought some essential stuff.

Day 11:

It was day to leave for ‘Solang Nala’. We started trek around 8:30AM. Our rucksack was fully

packed with equipment and personnel clothing.

11: On way to Solang

Day 12:

We went through villages of old Manali, Bahang

and Bahua. It was total of 13KM trek and

became tiring in the end. We took some

photographs and reached our ‘Solang Nala’

centre by 1:00 PM. We were allotted tents here.

We went to tourist area where we bought some

biscuits etc and ate maggi in a Tibetan style dhaba.

We had acclimatization walk in the evening where

we also had a lecture on flora and fauna of the

area. In the post dinner fall in, we were instructed

to bring water bottle and day sack in the morning.

We took our breakfast and were ready to move to ‘Patalsu Peak’. We started at 8:45AM. The trek passes through ‘Solang Village’. We were all tired by 12 o’clock and we had

covered majority of the distance. We were at height of 12,000 feet when our instructors asked

us to stop and take rest. We started back by 1 12: View of Solang Mountains o’clock and reached our camp site by 3:00 PM.

In evening there was a lecture on tent pitching and we were told we have to pitch our tents

ourselves at our base camp. In night we were asked to bring our rucksack in the morning fall

in so we can move for ‘Bakar-Thach’ (base camp) as soon as possible.

Day 13:

It was day for trek to base camp. We left by 8:30AM. First 7 Km of the trek was road till

‘Dhundhi’; we took some shortcuts and reached the place around 10 o’ clock. Next was 4KM

of trek, we had covered only 2Km and it started raining. It took us 3 hours to cover this

distance and we reached our base camp around 1:30 PM.

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We were served tea there. Dhaval, my roommate in Manali had already occupied tent there.

So finally we were five people in the tent; Purvesh, Shailesh, Ganesh, Dhaval and I. There was fall in in

the evening where ropes were given task to check

tents, make dustbins and arrange for shelter. We played volleyball in the evening where we (rope 4)

played against rope 3 and won by 15-5. There was

dinner whistle and we all went to eat. Here up in hill

we did not had the luxury of plates and bowls, we had

to use mess tin to eat our food. It was really pain to

wash it in cold water, so I and purvesh decided to share 13: On way to Bakar-Thach mess tin for rest of the stay.

Day 14:

We had a luxury of having bed tea where duty rope had to serve tea to each tent. Breakfast

was served at 7:30AM.

14: Glacier Walk

Breakfast (everyday breakfast at base camp

was similar) Veg (Butter, Jam, Roti, Sabji) Non-Veg (Egg, Roti, Sabji)

Around 8:30AM we left for glacier walk with our

full gear on which include climbing shoes, Wind

sheet suit. First we reached Beas Glacier where

we did photography and took slides in the

snow. Next we moved to Beas Kund, from

where Bear River Starts. While coming back to

camp we crossed Moraine of Beas Glacier.

It was total of 16Km journey and we came back

to camp by 2:30 PM where we were served hot lunch.

Lunch: Veg and Non-Veg (Dal, Roti, rice, Sabji) In evening we had lecture on Ice-axe which we will be carrying with us on training from tomorrow

onwards.In Dinner Dal, Roti, Rice was served every day. Mutton was given alternate days for non

veg and some good Sabji like muttor-paneer, kofta etc will be there for veg on the same day.

Food at base-camp was delicious and much better than we had at Manali.

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Day 15: It was day of training on snow craft. After morning fall in, we marched towards our training

area which is 25mins walk from base camp. Today we learned following ice craft techniques:

Duck walking

Side step Zig zag

Single vertical step

Double vertical step

Plunging

Each technique has it own importance and is used 15: Our Snow Training Area depending upon slope, energy of mountaineer and

weight carried by him/her.

We were walking throughout the day using our climbing shoes which was not very

comfortable due to its heavy weight. Some of us got blisters; shoe was cutting me on left

leg.Post evening tea we had lecture on mountain terms. Due to cold, at start I was feeling

little bit uneasy but after some time Vicks helped me to get good sleep.

Day 16:

16: Kitchen at Bakar-Thach

Today we had training of falling and recovery

on snow. Today we learned

Self arrest

Team arrest

We were taken to higher slope where each of

us was practicing falling & recovery by falling

on different directions.

Today we got ‘Halwa’ along with tea. Full body is aching with pain and I slept early today.

Day 17: Weather was not clear today. After breakfast it was announced that next fall in will be at 11

AM. Rain continued and there was no news, we all were sitting inside our tents.

17: Inside tent

Tea was served inside tents by Neil (one of

our foreigner classmate). Water was coming

inside our tent so I went outside and repaired

the problem. We all ate ‘Chana’ and warned

‘Shailesh’.

Lunch consist of ‘Rajma’ and ‘Bhindi’. There was

crampon setting after tea where instructors

taught us how to wear and tight our crampons.

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Day 18:

It seemed to be a bad weather today also. Little sunshine came around 8:00 AM and we all

left for training area.

Around 9:00 AM, it started raining again and we all waited. Finally lecture took place in

raining which ended only with demonstrations. We all came back to tent by 12:30 PM.

18: Clear Night in Mountains the lectures).

We were given ‘Pakora’ and tea, after which

there was lecture by ‘Rajiv Sharma’ Deputy Director of the institute who came to

mountains to meet us. His lecture came

at time when everybody was tired. It was

motivating and inspirational.

Weather was clear. I went to play volleyball.

In the evening wind was blowing at fast

speed and we had to hold to our tent. It was

thundering and lighting in the night and we

were calculating distance of clouds from us

using time gap between lighting and

thundering (this was taught to us in one of

Day 19:

We (rope 4) were duty rope. It was our duty to serve tea at 6:00AM in the morning. I woke up at

5:15AM. I took some photographs of the beautiful mountains around us with Amit’s camera.

I and Anshul went to serve tea in tents. It was awesome experience to cry ‘chai’ in front of

everybody’s tent. Clouds were playing hide and seek with sun. I took risk of putting my

clothes outside the tent to get some sunlight.

Today we practiced anchoring using:

Axe Horizental

Axe Vdertical

Bollard formation

Snow Stake

Dead man / boy Belaying using

Hip Axe

Boot Axe

After this we came to know that we had

19: Good Morning

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lecture on crampon and cramponing today.

While coming from training area I fell down on Ice-Axe. Axe’s shovel hit me chest. Luckily

snow was soft, major part of ice axe was already inside snow and it was not a big injury.

There was lecture on glacier in the evening and we went out to collect some wood. We came to

tent and slept. We all missed dinner. In fall in some 10-12 students were missing so instructor

sent somebody to wake us up. Due to mass absence we were left with warning only.

Day 20:

We went to ice training on Beas Glacier. It was 1:30 hour walk from base-camp and we

reached there by 10:00 AM.

We practiced:

Rappelling Jumaring Cramponing (Front pointing) Cramponing (Flat footing)

20: Ice Training Area

Z pulley rescue

C pulley rescue

Self arrest rescue

It was 1:30 PM and it thought day is over.

We had lecture on Crevasse rescue. We

had lunch at glacier (Aloo, Sabji and

Roti). We practiced

Instructors asked us to rope up, then we were asked to do ice wall climbing and glacier

walk. We reached base camp by 6:30PM. We were distributed nuts and refreshments

for tomorrow height gain.

Day 21:

Today I woke up around 4:30 to avoid any queue in toilet. Breakfast whistle was blown

at sharp 5:00 AM. Everyone was ready and we left by 6:00AM. 21: at 15,800 feet

I was feeling very energetic as we were

allowed to wear our own trekking shoes

till snowline starts and we were carrying

our climbing shoes in our rucksacks. I

reached Beas Kund by 7:30 AM. From

here on as decided I and Purvesh both

were together for the rest of the journey.

We were feeling tired by 10:30 but

somehow we managed to walk. Rajiv

saw destination and we were energetic

again. We reached our target by

12:15PM.

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Mobile was working here. I called home, friends and came to know that my offer letter have

arrived home. It was double celebration. It was only when we were returning; we realized

how far we went. Himachal local students had good endurance and instructor decided to go

for peak with them but they came back from half way as they did not have the climbing rope.

Back at tent we were served ‘Pakora’ and tea. Dinner was good today.

Day 22:

I had a refreshing sleep, body was aching.

After 8:30 fall in course was divided into

two groups. 3 Person at a time were called

for different tests. We were judged on

following parameters: Equipment Knowledge

Rock Climbing

Knot Practice

Rappelling Demo

Ice-Axe Knowledge and it use

22: Free after all tests

I did pretty well and climbed rock easily. Instructors were happy with me. After test we all

took tea and washed our shoes, gaiters, crampons. People were talking about today night

being survival night.

We had lecture on survival in the evening. We were served with ‘Halwa’ and tea. Following

that we were asked to bring (no edible stuff was allowed to be carried):

Torch

Water Bottle

Empty Rucksack

Rain Sheet

Gurvinder found a good space; we were total of 10 people there. After some arrangement he

made out a shelter for us. There was raining in the night but we didn’t came back (some

people came back and they were punished).

Day 23:

Our tent went out for photography today. There was

call for all to pack their stuff. It was raining and we

thought we may not be going today. Finally we left the

place around 9:15AM.

I was in good shape today and was among the first group.

23: Way back to Solang

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By mistake I put my shoe in stream and whole journey became awful for me. Anyways I

reached Solang by 12:30 PM. I decided to go for tea. We were allotted tents again.

In evening we had lecture on improvised stretcher. We were given permission to go outside.

We went to eat maggi and ate lot.

Day 24:

Everyone was ready by 8:30AM. Journey this

time was much easier we took shortcut on the

way and reached our campus by 12:30.

After lunch there was submission of equipments.

Everything went well. We all decided to took bath

after 12 days at Vashisht, place where we took

our last bath on 10th

day. Hot water Kund was full

with people from BMC. Enjoyed a lot there and

took food on the way back. There was traffic on ‘Leh Highway’ in evening

time so we reached in fall in just on time. 24: at Vashisht Temple Tomorrow there was written test, took a reading of everything in night and slept well.

Day 25: Woke up early, Read again everything from Purvesh notes.Exam started at 10 AM, It was

easy exam and I came out in 20 mins. After lunch we had interview with Rajiv sir where

whole rope was called in together.

Evening was free again. We took permission from instructors to go for movie. ‘Kites’ was not

a good movie to be seen in such precious time.

Day 26: I and Purvesh went outside campus to transfer photos from camera to USB. I took photos

from Gadre and Anshul. We had fall in at 12 o’clock.

There was graduation ceremony and small

cultural program. Everyone was happy after

receiving batch from senior scientist of

DRDO, Mr. P.C.Negi.

Majority of the people left today only. I and

Shailesh went to market to spend some time

and left following morning.

25: Last Pic at Institute

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Things they provided us in BMC 297

Rain Coat / Pent

Climbing Shoes

Balaclava

Ice Axe

Rusk Sack

Sleeping Bag

Sleeping Bag inner

Feather Jacket (Half-arm)

Crampons

Mess Tin (It will work as a lunchbox and glass)

Things to bring (Buying this beforehand will help)

Woolen socks ( 4pair)

Gloves (2 pair)

Goggles (any dark goggles will work no need to buy expensive if not possible )

One LED Torch (other torch discharge fast)

Trekking Knife (not compulsory , you can bring it)

Rubber Sole Shoes (buy any PT shoes and attach tube rubber on the sole it gives good grip)

Apart from this, there are things mentioned on ABVIMAS website also (kindly take a look).

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