Hiking in the Himayalas

Growing up in boarding school in the Himalayas, we had a lot of activities related to the outdoors, such as tree plantation to stop deforestation, collecting dried pine needles off the forest floor to prevent forest fires and general studies to achieve ecological balance. The entire school went for annual hiking and camping trips in the last week of April, usually in small groups of 15-20 students organized by class and house and accompanied by a teacher and a bearer.

Over the course of 7 years in boarding school, I went for hikes and camps to a variety of places, some by the river like Giripul and Rampur Bushehar and others height on top of mountains, such as Chansal Pass, Gangotri and Gaumuckh, the legendary source of the river Ganges, where we had to trek on glaciers. The last stretch to Gaumukh was especially tough, with the track barely a foot wide and the icy river below on one side.

On these hikes and camps, all students were responsible to carry their own supplies and help the bearer in carrying food and utensils to cook food in. At each halt, students were also responsible for collecting firewood, chopping vegetables and preparing the food. Having a good, dependable and sharp knife that was multi purpose such as pocket kniveswas essential so we were able to handle any kind of work for the one week we were at camp.

The school had a special stock of knives, such as Buck, Benchmade and Gerber for these camping trips. Although hunting was not required as part of these hikes and camps, students who were skilled in using a Bowie or with throwing knives were always appreciated. Being skilled in the knife sports is quite an essential for any serious hiking and camping expedition.