Morning Trek followers, Walford here. Just back from our first trek, a quick post before we leave by jeep for our project in Kibber.

Before some details a quick word about the mountains we have just trekked through. They are massive; jaw-droppingly, hair-curlingly, spine-tinglingly huge. Big. Enormous. You know when you look out at the night sky and see all the stars and wonder at the insignificance of it all? Well, the Himalayas do that without you having to crane your neck. They are both inspiring and terrible.

Some details; Day 1, Manali to Panduropa, 700 vertical metres took us 6 hours through apple orchards and cedar forests, lovely. The last hour was spoiled by walking past the scar of a massive HEP project though. We reached camp where a mess tent, cook tent and pit latrine tents had already been set up by the team of porters. Panchu the chef (and bona fide legend) greeted us with pakora, we pitched our tents, did some yoga then tucked into a three, yes three, course meal......5-star camping indeed!

Day 2 dawned bright and suny, too sunny for some as it turned out as we trekked up to 3500m through glorious mountain scenery and the thinning atmosphere. This was tough going for many, especially above 3000m and a tricky river crossing, but after 7 hours we pitched camp (I won't bore you with the meal details but more of the same basically).

Day 3; climbing the Hampta Pass at 4200m then dropping down to Shea Gatru camp at 3800m. A stern examination of character for all. Late snow on the Hampta Pass means nothing to you but to us it meant climbing an ice gully in freezing fog at 4000m followed by a descent via another ice gully overlooking a healthy drop on the other side of Hampta. After 8 hrs we did it, we may have been breathless, aching and headachy (and a bit jealous of the porters as they skipped past in their flip-flops) but we made it into another stunning valley at the foot of a glacier.

Day 4, a swift descent to 3200m in increasing rain which rather obscured the view down the valley to the main valley separating two Himalayan ranges. Chips for lunch cheered us up as we pitched camp in the rain.

You've noticed that I've not mentioned anyone by name, that's because I can't. All of them have had to dig deep into reserves of fortitude, courage and humour which I suspect they never realised they had. They are not the same trekkers that left CVS on 20th July.

I will however mention the leader of the trek, Steve Ford. Steve is indomitable, standing bare-legged in a river of glacial melt-water for 45 minutes during the river crossing on Day2, making steps to traverse an ice-gully above a raging torrent or being totally sensitive to the health and well-being of each trekker individually, be reassured, your children are in very safe hands.

So, off to Kibber for the project. Not sure about the contact availability there so don't worry if there's no further posts for a while, we'll be off having a good time.


On the right (I don't seem to be able to get it over to the left!) Buying provisions for the trek in Manali General Store for the next 18 days (treks and Kibber)


Day one, up from Manali. Lovely forests and alpine scenery.










First night camp site, pit latrine tent (squatting only!) out of sight and smell! Oh the joys.







My, those mountains look big. climbing to 3500m on Day 2. it looks like we're going down but we went up as well, lots.







Day 2 camp. The mess tent where we have our meals is the bigger olive green one. White fluffy things are clouds.







Late snow on the Hampta Pass indeed! A cheery group due to appropriate clothing purchases in UK. The porters plus mules skipped up this in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops (nearly!)






Taken on my Canon SureShot, this doesn't do the majesty of the scenery justice but I hope you get the idea.







Next stop Kibber.

See you soon.