Soliloquy of a Wandering Pilgrim

Climber on the south ridge of Nanda Devi East 7434m, June -July 2014 Photo: Anindya Mukherjee I have posted a short outline report of our expedition to Nanda Devi East 7434m in a separate blog. Here is the link:  http://nandadevi2014.blogspot.in/2014/07/brief-outline-report-of-indo-american.html?spref=tw

Rebirth in the hills: From the heartland of Garhwal to Unknown Spiti Kuari Pass trek and the Singekang Expedition Dunagiri and Nandadevi from Gorson top The Kuari pass is a wonderful trail offering a grand panoramic view of many of the famous Himalayan summits like Chaukhamba 7138m, Nilkantha 6596m, Dunagiri 7066m, Kamet 7756m, Mana 7272m, Trishul 7120m and Nandaghunti 6309m and of course Nanda Devi (7816m) and yet just the trek one would like to take if he/she is taking their first steps in this “devabhumi”-the land of Gods, Garhwal. Ronti, Trisul and Nandaghunti By mid October, 2010, after overcoming massive landslides en route our team was in Auli, the starting point of our trek. The sight of Dunagiri and Nanda Devi was simply out of this world. For me it was like a rebirth in the hills. With every bout of violent cough I had, I knew I have come so far and there was no stopping. The mountains at night and at dawn were silent witness of my struggle (it was aroun...

Escape to Gangotri: the long six days In June 2010 I was supposed to be dead. I was deep inside the upper reaches of the Gangotri glacier when that incident took place. It so happens that I had two cysts in my right lung. They grew inside me without my knowledge of course, over the years, to the size and shape of tennis balls. They are called hydatid cysts, kind of a tapeworm ( echynococcus granulosus ) infection one can get either from dogs or from sheep. I may have got them from eating ( or should I say ‘tasting’ because I only had a tiny bit out of sheer curiosity) raw sheep liver in the base camp of Mount Kamet back in 2005. It amazes me to this day that with these growing cysts in my lung I had participated in many high altitude mountaineering expeditions over 6000m to major summits and even raced on Mt Elbrus (20 trips between 2005 June and 2010 June to be precise)! Should this incident have happened in one of those extreme conditions I sure stood less chance of survival! G...