By Bruce
I walked out of the airport. I felt lost. I had been transported to a different world where it was hot and hard to breathe. I looked around and met eyes with the tall man with the widest and happiest smile I had ever seen. He was wearing a hat that read, “NOLS.”
Less than an hour later, I was on a bus heading towards Ranikhet, India. The bus ride was long, over 12 hours, but extended by our stops for lunch, dinner and a flat tire. On the bus ride, I became acquainted with a lot of my fellow students on my mountaineering course, including another Duke Gapper. They all had very unique and different backgrounds. Within 30 minutes of arriving in Ranikhet, I was fast asleep.
The next morning at breakfast, the group was split into two. Each group would mostly remain separate for the rest of course. For the next two days, I prepared the gear that I would rely on for the next month in the backcountry. It was fast paced and exhausting.
Early in the morning of my third day in India, we were loaded into jeeps for a brutal 7 hour drive to Loharkhet to start our expedition. As we drove deeper into the Himalayas, the mountains grew in size. We spent that night cowboy camping under a terrace of a guest house. The next day held our first big challenge, an exhausting hike to cross an almost 3,000m pass. It was probably the hardest day of the expedition for me. The next couple days flew by. We spent a day at the Dhakuri guest house resting and doing a day hike back to the pass, before setting off to Khati the next day. Khati was a lovely little village that had in recent years got power and road access. But, that would be my last glimpse into civilization for a long time.
We trekked up the Pindari Valley for 3 days, crossing and snaking our way up the Pindari River to arrive at “Zero Point” at an elevation of 12,500 feet. At Zero Point, we spent five days acclimatizing to the altitude, load ferrying (caching supplies at higher altitude), trying to dry clothes that would never dry, and meeting the amazing Baba Ji. Baba Ji was the local Hindu holy man who calls Zero Point home in all seasons except winter. Baba Ji was always gleeing and giggling. He cared deeply about the region and loved caring for us! Even keeping record of all the NOLS students who have visited him since the 90’s.
On October 2nd, 2025, we enjoyed a massive brunch provided by Baba Ji before leaving our temporary home in the valley for Camp 1 at 14,500 ft. We spent 3 days at Camp 1 learning some glaciology, practicing rope teams, load ferrying to the next camp, and playing games before leaving for Camp 2. Camp 2 was located at 16,300 ft. Within about 30 minutes of arriving at Camp 2 and while setting up our tents it started to snow. The snow would not let up for 3 days. There was nothing to do but wait out this storm. We took shifts throughout the day and middle of the night shoveling feet of snow off the tent. Walking around camp became hard, bulldozing through waist deep snow while already gasping to breath from the altitude. I couldn’t take more than 9 steps before becoming exhausted. Because of the hypoxic environment, I developed Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) causing headaches and insomnia. I would be awake late at night, laying in my sleeping bag, listening to the roar of avalanches and serac falls nearby.
Once the storm let, we spent a couple days learning basic mountaineering skills like self-arresting falls, crevasse rescue, basic avalanche training, and waiting for snow melt for avalanche conditions to improve. Our instructors eventually determined that the avalanche conditions were not going to improve, making our intended mountain pass impassable, so we would most likely have to return to Pindari Valley. But, they decided we should see how far we can get to the pass. We left camp early in the morning in rope teams heading towards the pass, navigating glaciers and steep snow slopes. By noon we reached almost 17,500 feet before deciding that we would have to head back to camp due to the heat. The next day we spent learning ice climbing on a small pitch on a vertical face of a glacier.
We left Camp 2 early in the morning on October 14th with the intention of making it all the way back down to Zero Point. Because there was no load ferrying down to lower camps, we packed our 100 liter packs to the brim with all of our equipment. This was the heaviest pack I had ever carried. We slid down massive scree slopes and crossed back through the massive moraine back to Camp 1, but at a much slower pace than expected. We did not get back to Camp 1 until 4pm forcing us to stop there for the night. That night was particularly cold. We woke up early in the morning the next day, packed up camp, and continued on our journey to Zero Point, but taking a different route than our original move to Camp 1 from Zero Point. In order to save time , we decided to descend a steep slope that required us to set up a fixed line. While setting up the fixed line, someone spotted a few small looking people that were a few hundred feet away from the base of our slope. We realized they were the other NOLS group. People I had not seen in almost a month. I was so happy to see them even if it was from a distance. We descended our fixed line and continued over some technical terrain to get back to Zero Point.
We rested at Zero Point for one day, reuniting with Baba Ji. The next day the group split by gender and descended the valley separately. The other guys and I decided we would try to get back to Khati as fast as possible. We raced many kilometers, passing many of our previous camps to finally stop outside a hut where tea was served to trekkers during the day. We cowboy camped under the terrace that night after making a backcountry cake to celebrate. The next day was the final day of our trek. We hiked back to Khati, but stopped just before the village to set up camp at someone’s house before going to explore the village again. We reunited with the other group and took an extra day to explore Khati before leaving on a long jeep ride back to Ranikhet. It was a surreal experience to be back with civilization.
My last days in India went by fast. Cleaning gear, taking a shower for the first time in a month, exploring Ranikhet, and talking with the other group about their experience. It took a jeep ride and a nine hour train ride to get back to Delhi. I spent a day exploring Red Fort and Old Delhi before leaving on a long flight back home. India and my experiences in India will be something I will hold close to my heart for the rest of my life.
