The Sar Pass Trek 2011: Day 9

June 4th: Biskerithatch - Bhandakthatch

Bhavin lining up for the "rappel"

Slept like a log the previous night. Felt super fresh and was raring to go. As usual, everyone took their own sweet time to get ready. We started off at around 9.30 AM after cleaning up the camp site. I have to say something about all the litter that I saw during the whole trip. Why do people have to litter? WHY? Why do they have to spoil something so clean and pure? If you're reading this and are thinking what you could do, you could carry the waste with you (especially plastic) and throw it in dustbins at camps or at places where the trash will be properly taken care of. Try it once. It really isn't hard. I take a moment here to thank everyone who did their bit by not littering and who picked up a lot of trash themselves. Anyway, we quickly reached the point from where we were supposed to "rappel" down (pic. above). I just climbed down normally. Was too easy now :P. Immediately after this, we had our lunch point. Took a short break here, had lunch and started off with a small group again. Reached a point from where we had to climb for about 15-20 minutes to the camp. My mind just couldn't accept any more climbing and especially when it was hot! Slowly dragged myself up the last few feet and reached the camp. We were told that it was the best camp site of all and that it was almost like Switzerland. Yes, it was nice. Had very nice views etc.. But I thought the Nagaru camp site was a better location. This camp has only 4 tents as against the 5 at every other camp. WTF? This created a little panic among everyone and we were finally assured by the camp leader that we would be provided comfortable shelter somehow. We then taught the two doctors, a couple of girls and a few guys Wolf and played a few games sitting outside the tents, enjoying the nice views. Was really awesome fun. While we were at it, we got news that a girl from the Indore group had just collapsed after the final climb and the two doctors who were playing with us rushed to help her and it turned out to be a case of lack of Calcium which had caused her difficulty in breathing. Eventually, after a little bit of treatment, it was decided that she would be better off at a hospital and then she was carried down on the porter's back to the hospital (which was about 2 hours away) in the dark! The people and porters especially are really strong. They literally run up and down the hills with heavy loads! And this guy who had carried the girl down, came back up the same night to climb down with us the next morning!

The sunset at Bhandakthatch

After this incident, I think I should do a basic life support course. This can happen to anyone, anytime and if there aren't any doctors around, the BLS information might be really handy. Also, I felt that the organizers of any treks in the Himalayas should be able to arrange for helicopter rescues within a short duration. Could really save lives.