Base Camp - Day 1

The next day (21 May) we were woken up at 5 AM with a cup of morning tea. After getting up and running off to the loo ASAP (I had lived in a hostel and I knew how bad the morning rush can get ) we assembled for the morning exercises. We were assigned a group number (SP-21). After the exercises, we assembled together to send off another group off to the higher camp.

This was the day for our acclimatization walk and orientation. The purpose of the acclimatization walk is to check if all our equipment is functional and we are not having any trouble with our shoes. We were issued a rucksack and we packed it with 2 blankets. For our walk, we had to climb a small hill next to our camp itself. On the first day itself, I realized that my regular exercising has started paying off. I did not have much trouble in climbing the hill. We also selected a group leader, group co-leader and an environment leader for our group. The role of the environment leader was to make sure no one was littering the trail.

Once we reached back at the camp, I took a shower and had lunch. The time after lunch was for orientation. The Field Director explained to us the precautions that we needed to take and the facilities made available by YHAI at the higher camps. After sitting through the orientation, we took our evening tea and I spent most of the evening by sitting near the river flowing next to our camp. We had dinner at 7:30 and campfire at 9 and then we went off to our tents.