Yet to reach THE peak....
FY2004
| Yosemite National Park, my toughest hike, Half Dome peak. Also it was the first time i did not camp in the national park before a hike. I could hear the surprise of the NPS rep when i had called to book a campsite just 4days before July4, the answer was a firm "Sir, No campsites are available". So, after multiple plannings and re-plannings, we decided to DO Half Dome in one day end to end. Woke up early at 3:30am and by the time we were on the road, it was 4:45am. I slept peacefully between the pillows in the backseat and once in a while heard a few murmurs from boys about my sleep. With one pit stop at a Groveland gas station it took us solid 4 hours from Fremont,CA to Curry village, Yosemite. Buffet breakfast was heavenly, thanks to Aithala for the info, man we missed him. After a real heavy breakfast and some rest we were ready for the HIKE. 10:30am the bus drops us at the trailhead and we start. Sun was already pretty high, it did not bother us, the hike through the forest all the way to Nevada falls was smooth with a couple of 2-3minutes stops. Thanks to Ruchi for hurting her ankle exactly at Nevada falls, all of us decided to cool our heels in the cold cold water of the falls, it was soooo refreshing. That's exactly when Manohara started his first funda, by the time we came down abt 7hrs later he had bestowed upon us 23 golden fundas. The next 1hr of the hike was smooth and then with the peak in sight, the fun started, our resting frequency increased and our resting time increased as well. With lots of huffing and puffing and breaks and downing water we made it to the base of the final stretch. THE stretch, flat, narrow rock face with no shade whatsoever was merciless under the sun, even the resting was under direct sun. It took all my energy to make it to the peak, and for only once, when resting holding on to the ropes i felt like turning back, again that was only once. We made it to the peak, rested a few minutes, i was disappointed to see no signal on my cell phone and then due to the distant thunders decided to hurry down. With cramped legs, tired body but an unexplainable joyness i made it to the base of the flat rock face. All of us rested for about 20 minutes and started, walking slowly but steadily and getting more and more tired and looking forward to the Curry village dinner buffet. The short break at Vernal falls and the refreshing walk down the steps of Vernal falls in the mist lifted our spirits. By the time we made it to the parking lot of the Curry village it was 8:45pm. We made it. Rest all is trivial, quick shower, quick pizza at Curry village, the drive back, quick nap in a remote village accompanied by a sharp knock by the cop on the car window to check our well being and then the final stretch of driving, thanks to caffeine, it really keeps a man going, we made it back to Fremont at 2:45am. We made it with still 45 minutes left for the full 24hrs. I crashed at 3:15am in my sleeping bag, i made it. Photos... | 
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| Rocky Mountain National Park, my highest climb was here on Longs Peak. Read on.... Me and Gadi had just one goal in mind on the labour day weekend, to make it to the Longs peak. We reached the Longs peak campground on Saturday early morning around 3am and slept in the car. We were lucky to get the campground on a busy long weekend. Woke up around 8, pitched the tent and slept, woke up, drove down to Estes Park, had coffee, came back, had lunch and slept, woke up around 4, drove down to Lyon, had coffee, came back had dinner and slept. The whole day was time shared between eating, sleeping and some praying for a good weather the next day. Looking back both of us had a very good laugh. Imagine sleeping, eating, sleeping cycle, frankly we had nothing else in mind on that day. Before hitting the bed, we packed food, water and prayed a little more for good weather (definition of good is shaky, as we found out later). Woke up at 2am, ate some food and started at 2.30am, it was cold. The hike was pretty good through the Goblin forest and the Chasm lake. By the time we reached the Boulder field the sky started getting bright enough to switch off my little hand torch. We had climbed 5+miles and 2,500+ft in about 3.5hours with just 3 breaks of 5 minutes. We felt good and our spirits were high. We saw lots of stars in the beautiful dark sky, most important we saw Mars when it was closest to the earth, but to our naked eyes it looked like a red ball and just an other thing. Throughout our ascent the cold was bothering me and the clear sky promised us of no showers (our prayers for a good weather was a compromise). As we climbed higher the winds became more and more and without a proper headgear i started feeling really cold and numb. We took a good 15 minute break at Boulder field, ate some bananas and energy bars and started moving towards the Keyhole. For the first time i started to feel the altitude and the lack of air, but we were moving slowly and it did not bother me much. What was bothering me was the cold winds. Finally around 7am we made it to the Agnes Vaille Shelter, took a break and moved towards the Keyhole. Within minutes i saw one of the breathtaking views from Keyhole, but sadly i also felt the worst of the cold due to high velocity winds and my inadequate clothing. I decided i could continue no longer against the cold winds. Gadi also decided not to continue any further. We took some photos and started heading down. Thus marking my highest climb of 13,120Ft. Our descent was uneventful and very relaxing, thankfully the sun came out around 10am and we felt very good. We spent a fair amount of time around Chasm lake and finally made it to the campground around 11.45am, ending my hike for the year 2003. The next 2 days was very relaxing, spending time in and around Estes park, Colorado Springs. The drive to Pikes peak was good. Our journey to Colorado ended at the ripoff Seven falls with some hilarious moments. Overall a satisfying hike, but the peak still beckons me and i do not know when i will try again. Photos... | 
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| Alaska, my first sighting of a 20,000ft+ mountain, Mt.Mckinley. It really made me wonder about the 28000ft+, the magnificient Mt Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga. Ah! when will i see them. The bright sun greeted me when i landed at 11.30pm in Anchorage. Having seen the sun for 22hrs in Iceland it was nothing new. But with the sun up, it is always tough to sleep even after a 8hour flight across a 4hour time zone. This state of zombieness continued on all 5days in Alaska. We did things at odd hours, hike in the middle of night, sleep in the afternoon... We were cut off the world, in the sense no newspaper, TV, and many a times we stopped looking at the time too. We travelled on road from Anchorage to Seward on the scenic route. Aithal got his first speeding ticket, reached Seward in the morning, pitched the tent, slept till afternoon and started our first hike to Hardings Ice Field, a moderate level 4+ hour trail.
On the way up we saw a black bear from a distance. Another hiking group who had better view from the top, told us when we met them that at one point the bear was pretty close about 15ft from us. Reached the peak after 7.30pm, enjoyed the snow top at the Field. It was good that we had anti-glare glasses, the sun and the white snow really hurt the eyes. Came back by 10pm, had food, partied in Seward, slept. Next day was relaxing, took a 1/2 day cruise, saw 2 humpback whales, sea lions etc. Started our journey back to Anchorage, had dinner around 11pm, partied till 1am at chillcoot charlies , a very big and very very nice place, thanks to the kids at the dinner place for suggesting the same. Came out of charlies and partied elsewhere and eventually started our drive towards Denali around 4Am. Aithal got his second speeding ticket in the town of Talkeetna, and a total of 6points so far, pitched tent at the camping grounds, slept till evening, hiked Mt.Healy, ate, slept. Woke up early next day,
took the first bus to Mt.Eielson visitor center, started our wilderness hiking towards Mt.Eielson, hiked till 2pm, decided that it will be too late to reach the peak, we were about 1000+ft away from the peak, started our way back thus ending our Alaskan adventure. From there it was all back to Denali, back to Anchorage, back to DC, back home. Overall had some very exciting moments like Aithal shouting at the really really good looking officer (she was very polite though), Amit freaking out after getting to know that we were on a wilderness hike without even the very basic compass :(, a group of foxes chasing the caribou in Denali and many more. Overall Alaska will remain in me forever...
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| Zion National Park, my first visit to the beautiful canyons. Driving from Vegas we reached Zion at about the right time, sunset. The orange, red valley was lit up by the sun and it looked all the more red,orange,yellow. We pitched our tents in a private campground, had good dinner along with some jumpy moments when we accidently sat next to the ant hill having dinner. We started early next day, but still turned out to be a bit late to get the permit for "The Narrows", a 15 mile hiking involving mostly wading through the Virgin river. We quickly made some changes to our plan and decided to head towards "Angels Landing", thanks to an hiker for the suggestion. We started our ascent around 8am, reached the peak at around 10am. It was strenous towards the summit, but was worth it. Rested for a few minutes, clicked photographs, ate food, noticed it was getting more and more crowded and started our descent. We returned back around 11.30am.
With nothing else to do, we decided to check the virgin river and the canyon. It was a unique experience wading though the canyon against the current and sometimes in hip deep water. It was a tiring and testing 3 mile upstream walk. Finally we decided to head back. The walk back was monotonus mostly, except for saying hi to a lot of random people. By the time we completed the walk, our feet was numb. We spent some time drying our feet, shoes, socks. Overall it was fun, fairly relaxed and one of its kind. After the hike all we did was think about Vegas.
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| Grand Teton, my best hike till date, nothing can match it, be it the breathtaking view of the mountains or be it the madness of me, Aithal and Gadi, it is one hike that will make me feel good forever. Though it was early june we could see the snow covered mountains and feel the ice cold water in the beautiful lakes.
Hiking 24+ miles in a day, total madness, ran out of food, water, energy, strength, more than that thanks to a loose step i twisted my left ankle. It was my turn to rip badmax bethu throughout our descent, when my ankle hurted real badly. The swelling remained for more than 2 weeks, but then it is nothing in comparison to the beautiful memories of the trail. I am going too fast, let me start from the beginning.
We started our Paintbrush Canyon Cascade loop early in the morning around 6.30. We hiked across the shore lines of Jenny lake (tourists like to do it in a boat), reached inspiration point took a break and then proceeded further towards lake solitude.
Around inspiration point we met the beautiful afghani couple who are living in salt lake city for more than 40 years. It was so nice talking to them. We met them quite a few times along our trail and used to exchange small talk. They were impressed with our elaborate cooking and eating and we inturn were impressed with their energy bar/banana intake.
Our many thanks to them for informing the park ranger and getting the SR team almost ready, when we did not return untill 10 in the night. When we reached finally at 10.45, the ranger came down and had a small chat with us. All i remember is saying hi to him and then i crashed to wake up with a huge swelling the next day and this time the exhaustion was real.
Again i jumped, back to story, we reached lake Solitude around 11 and with no water reached the Paintbrush Divide (elevation 10,700 feet) around 1pm. Here we learnt ice will not melt into water in a water bottle no matter how strong the sun light is. From here the fun starts and this was last time we saw the afghani couple. We did not know how to get down the peak, we tried getting down with no equipments and were stuck for a long time. Aithala had some cliff hanging moments, which really scared me and Gadi. But all went fine, we got down from the cliff around 3.30. We never even imagined that we could have slide down the snow covered mountains, learnt after we saw some people doing it, by then it was too late, we had got down the peak and had started our ardous journey without realising that we still had close to 13 miles to reach the campsite.
Had some breathtaking view at the gorgeous lake Holly, filled up our water bottles, by then my leg started to pain more and more.
So, cussing and cursing and shouting at each other and with our torch lights on we reached jenny lake around 8pm knowing that the last boat would have left. Lucky us, it added 4 more miles to our campsite. We stopped no where for food, only short breaks for water, and we ran out of water again. Finally we all reached to be greeted by the ranger, and i just slumped.
One thing, though all of us shouted at each other in the thick of the action, i know this was the best hike. Thanks to bethu, Gadi for making this madness happen.
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| Smoky Mountains, my first hike in US. I should say i had to spend a great deal, the hiking boots, sleeping bag, backpack. I drove down all the way from windsor to gatlinburg overnight along with 3 more friends. 4 more joined us at gatlinburg, then we were supposed to start early at 8, eventually started at 11, thanks to a flat tire. This costed us the precious sunlight and when the sun was going down it costed some war of words among us as to what next.
We started climbing Mt.Leconte around 11, stopped for lunch at the beautiful rainbow falls around 2.30 and then continued our hike. Our heavy backpacks really slowed us and tired us very quickly, finally we reached the peak at around 5.30. We still had about 5 more miles to complete the loop, though we started moving ahead we knew it would be tough to make it and had to stop. I know few (or maybe all!!!) were really shouting at me and badmax bethu. We stopped, had a good dinner, thanks guys for cooking, i faked total exhaustion and escaped cooking and cleaning, and then all of us crashed, waking up in turns to keep the fire glowing and as usual i took the 4-6 job.
Next day we had to turn back, i would have loved if we had completed the loop, but it's ok. It was my first hike in US, learnt a lot. For one, there is a lot more help in terms of signs, directions.... but it kills the fun. We used to have so much fun and excitement when we had make path using our old blunt NCC axe. ah!! good old college days.
Overall it was a not so relaxed hike. We made mistakes, sadly we repeated some of them in grand teton. Look at our luck, we had forgot to switch off the car lights and the battery got discharged, this caused a delay in our return to real world. We are still learning.
But the best part of it was 8 of us meeting after a long time, and some of us were seeing each other after 4.5 years, since college. Most of the time was spent in just catching up with what's going on in life.
It was fun talking, fighting, pulling legs and catching up with old times, especially after such a long time. I wish for more of these, but i know it will be tough even to meet, leave alone hiking.
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