June 3rd: Nagaru - Biskerithatch
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Just after we left Nagaru. My favourite pic from the whole trip! |
We could hardly sleep that night and were up at 2 AM. The temperature must have been 0 degrees (felt worse because of the wind). Tea was supposed to be at 2.30 AM and we never looked forward to it more. Most of the guys from our tent finished answering nature calls while the guys in the other tents were happily sleeping. The sky was 100% clear. I will never forget the number of stars I had seen that night. That was probably the most beautiful sky I had ever seen. I got ready by about 3.15 AM when tea was finally served. Gulped down two full tumblers and then a little breakfast. We were given some dry stuff for lunch. 4 AM. No signs of starting yet. People took their own sweet time to get ready and the few people who were ready stood there in the cold. Waiting. I was really pissed off now. We finally started and as always, slowest people first and no passing. We were moving at a snail's pace for a long time before I decided to move up ahead in the line. Before long, I was climbing just after the first group. One should always climb at a pace they're comfortable with. Like the Ratapani day, I climbed at my own pace and it was really fun. The terrain, unlike anything before, was 100% snow now and it helped that the snow was hard. Reached the top soon and found a few guys who had just reached. The maximum height we reached was about 4000m (~14000 feet). Surprisingly, most people very quickly arrived at the top with the guide, the sherpa and the porters helping a few. This sherpa, Lakhpa, had climbed Everest in 2007. I got my bakra for the walk! I asked him an innumerable number of questions and he patiently answered all of them. His accent was hard to understand at first but I got used to it later on. Very nice guy. We soon reached the so called "Biskeri Top" after a testing 50 feet climb of an incline of 70-80 degrees. This last climb was one of the most challenging and enjoyable ones during the whole trek. From here, we are supposed to slide down as far down as possible towards the lunch point. We were VERY thirsty by now and I could have downed a couple of litres of water. Was time for the much talked about slide now. I was the first one to take the first slide. I slid for a bit and then stopped because there wasn't a real slide path yet. I walked down to the next slide. I let a couple of guys do the second slide before me so that some sort of path would be there for me to slide when I got my turn. The second slide was better but very bumpy. Was completely wet waist down. Reached a stream after god knows how long. Drank a LOT of water. Had a mild headache by then. Walked on ahead to the lunch point. We were instructed to wait at the LP until everyone came. However, after an hour or so there, I decided to go on along with a few others. After a long but fun walk, we reached the Biskerithatch camp.
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At the top of Tilalotni |
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With Lakhpa who climbed Everest in 2007. |
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At Sar Pass |
The plan for the day was to just relax and luckily, we had a chilled out camp leader here. We finally sat down to play a few games of Wolf and as expected, everyone liked it. Pulkit turned out to be quite the pro. Went through the usual routine of Tea, soup and dinner before crashing for the night.
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