September 21st So why exactly are we roped together like school children? The simple answer is safety and the more complicated one is crevasse rescue. Today we did mock rescues and we basically use the team to self arrest and the pull them out tug-of-war style with one person trying to make sure the downed individual doesn't smack their head on the way up. Here's my somber journal entry from the day "I'm living in a place where the bug dig their own graves. ...

September 18th As we passed our cache from the day before, I dreaded how much longer we would have to hike before arriving at camp. The going was extra slow since we had to break trail and kick step our way up the mountain. Luckily, the rocky stuff I used my sneakers on helped me have a less painful experience.Today I was hiking again with Gaurav and Charlie was leading the troop and doing to brunt of the work in the untouched snow. We actually got to our site mu...

September 15th The day was pretty eventful. We had another Hindi lesson and I'm proud to say I'm not too shabby at pronunciation. After that, we discussed altitude sickness and all of the talk about it may have messed with me because on the short hike after wards, I was definitely feeling it. In any case, we passed the steepest drop off I've ever been just inches away from on our way to have a class on risk assessment and safety. I chose to head back to camp with...

September 12th The next morning I had gotten 2 solid hours of sleep and had drank 8 liters of water over the night. The bright side is that I actually got rid of my sore throat and ear ache so I guess I was ready for another gruelling and rainy day of hiking.I'm with Gaurav again today, leading the pack and walking /through/ waterfalls and landslides till we reach our second bridge over the Pindari leading us to Dwali. As we waited for Gaurav to get his things si...

September 8th We started early for our long and enduring hike to Dhakuri. Luckily the hike was pretty gradual and the rain wasn't too bad, though we were going uphill for 6 solid hours. At the top we reached a temple but it was too far to visit and we were all so tired that we just wanted to make it to our destination. We waited at the top for the last 2 in our hiking team so I took off my pack; what surprised me was that I was the only one to do so! One of...