Beware !!! My Fellow Himalayan Trekkers

Yeah.. As rightly the line in Hotel California(Eagles) say:

"You can Checkin any time you want...
But you can never leave......."

Welcome to the Grand Himlayas.

even my relatives and friends say to me --"wahan koi ladki to nahin hai"..
I tell them nothing can beat the beauty of the Himalayas..
I have been travelling to the Kumaun hills from my early childhood, the craze towards the hills,mountains and himalayas will never end.....

I have been going to the mountains since 1995. I started with visit of Sandakphu/ Phalut with my friends. I was so much enthralled with views of Kanchedzonga that I went there again the next year. After trekking for 2 consecutive years I planned for Dzongri & Samiti Lake with only one friend. We succeeded to go to Samity Lake.

After going to an altitude of more than 12000 ft. for 3 consecutive years I came to a conclusion that it is not for the urge of trekking & sight seeing that attracts us towards the mountains. It is the transformation of our Brain function for scarcity of oxygen which lead us to forget all our materialistic thinking. It is my observation that it is only for the scarcity of Oxygen which transforms our Brain to act likewise. It is only for this reason that Sadhus and Saints go to the Himalayas for Austerity.

One thing I forgot to mention that after my three years of consecutive Himalayan Trek I almost hated to go for normal outings. I refused to go for small trips to avail one big trek during Sept/ Oct every year.

Right I also look forward only to go to himalayas ( sadly once in a year) no other places attracts me that much.You've said it's your observation that scarcity of oxygen transforms brain to act likewise,i can't dump your theory but what are the base of it.Kindly share if you have other view.

himalayantrakker,

Thanks for yr views.

It is only the observation given by me from my years of experience in the Himalayas. I do not care who dumps my opinion or accepts it. I enjoy trekking and will go to trek in the Himalayas else something grave happens.

Interesting Observation.. Never heard anything like that. I had always heard that the excess of oxygen changes the brain.. like the way AoL guys do in Sudharshan Kriya or Baba Ramdev does in his Bhrastika or Ujjayi breathing techniques.

Why Himalayas attract? Some observations and theories:

-- Trekking in the mountains give respite from the humdrum of daily life. A change of routine work. A stark contrast to 9-5 daily grind.

--While on trekking each day is a new day. Constantly on the move. Going to different locations. An escape from predictability and monotonous nature of everyday life back in the plains.

-- Difficult routes with a bit of climbing bring trekkers to splendid panaromic views. Mind blowing experience, really. That could be a compensation for the hardships. And also for high adventure seekers, its an ultimate adrenaline surge experience, which could be addictive. And keep hankering after such trails to just get high.

-- A challenging trek with death as constant companion makes one face one's own existence, mortality, life, values...In that situation, one hardly cares about one's materialistic possessions, I think. What one is is revealed in those conditions: one's strengths and lacks, fears and what one really cares about and purpose and meaning one's life etc.

--For people born and brought up in the hot and flat plains, the sight of mighty masses confound their imagination and they feel awe struck.

--Religious conditioning of mind early on. Association of Himalayas with Gods, Moksha, Mukti, liberation, ultimate journey...Our collective unconscious is shaped by our culture, religion,literature and arts. That influences our ways of looking at the world and experiencing it.

-- Closeness to the source of life like forests, glaciers, rivers that sustain life in the plains. One feels proximity to the Source.

--Change of weather mostly pleasant, even if a bit cold, one can get into sweater and tent and a hot cuppa. Ah, that snug feeling...

--Mountainous terrain gives lot of visual stimulation ie. many surprises at every corner await the travellers.

-- A sense of achievement. Just to reach those places one has to do considerable travel and face hardships along the way. A feeling of being arrived and achieved.

-- Living in the mountains involves physical exercise...that improves one's fitness and mental health too. Hence the good feelings. Nice and undisturbed sleep after a hard trek or a hard day's work

-- Less pollution in the air and water and the peaceful environment, less people around...the ambient ecology is transformed. As one is intimately connected to its environment, one's previous 'mundane' sense of self is dissolved and a fresh sense of what one is is generated.

-- No distractions except Nature. No TV, newspapers, Internet twitter and facebook updates. No pressing demands of family life either. qThat contributes to 'self realization'. One confronts oneself better in that environment. With no disturbances, its easy to meditate with a calmer mind and know one's 'true essence or being'.

-- Not all places in the hills lack so much of oxygen and produce hallucinations of spirituality. With purity of air in lower hills one's brain is more oxygenated and stimulated. That gives rise to that uplifting feeling, freshness of mind and positive outlook on life.

--Modern world produced many objects of desire. And hence more craving. And more suffering. If all these objects vanish from one's life and one is blissfully ignorant of the latest gadgets and gizmos, does n't it reduce one's running after them and make him/her concentrate of one's being and self? Life in the mountains promised such reflections.

-- Till very recently life in the mountains is bare and almost ascetic. Even if a hill person has millions of rupees, what would he/she do with all the money? With no objects available to splurge on, his life was basically not very different from common peasant. He could be a landlord at most. But his diet is the same as other common folk. No tantalizing Mexican tortillas or Japanese sushi or fine dining in French style. A life of few wants and needs. One is constrained to experience less in such a setting than a person in a modern world with multiplicity of experiences that can be bought. With not many choices and temptations around, one does n't agonize over making decisions and be content with what one is and be at peace with the environment around. No rapacious greed to exploit nature and fellow humans for one's comforts and maintaining social status.

-- A promising vision of what a contented life could be. Rather than what it has been so far - a rat race or running faster and faster to remain in one place or a 'plain' boredom.

These are some of the attractions of simple hill life and high altitude thinking, I guess.

Did I miss something? I shall be back with more..

excellent compilation of +ve points, dont think you missed anything
love with Himalayas is an addiction rather ever increasing one...
one thing more, one is able to feel and get dissolved in that environment more if he is alone (solo).

Now there's a novel explanation.

You forget that all possible with wireless internet and laptop/Blackberry.

But I agree with your sentiment. It'll be a sad day when people are able to blog from Kalindi Khal or Anchari Tal. That's if it's through a telecom tower. If it's direct via satellite I suppose I have no complaint - like with a GPS device.

Imagine my shock when a member was at Chaukori last year and wrote a post from there! Airtel data card and lappy, signal coming from the next town.
And many members ask during their travel preparations "Can I use abc data card from def place?" or "Is there boradband available in ghi area?"

Nice observations and theories Rajkumar. But frankly all of this comes to nought if one doesn't feel the "connection" with Himalayas and "that" comes from a source as mysterious as the Himalayas themselves. Sorry, but "that" can't be explained in any theory or observation, it just comes from "within"....period! Coz if it didn't, the experience of the Himalayas won't be as surreal; it will just be another "rant"

hi dilliwala,
Now most of the villages in Darma valley have public satellite phones. Charge : 1 rupee per min. Govt. wants to enhance the infrastructure along Indo-Tibetan border.
For a old timer even to get a telephone call from Choukori or Munsiary would have been a strange experience. Once the 'tower' is there, its only a short step to get connected to the internet. I think it takes time for people like us to get used to such hyper connectivity. This generation wants to share their impressions of the new place instantly.
Sometimes I see travelers more bent on capturing the images in their cameras than enjoying and appreciating the place where there are in. With the introduction of easy digital cameras at affordable costs, new forms of sharing their experiences and immediate transmission using wireless devices are also on the rise. new desires...Times are changing, can't help it.

Right, I recall KS and SK saying they called you from there last year.


You're right - Chaukori doesn't even have landlines now!

I agree - nothing wrong with capturing images, but priority should be the other way around.

Excellent post #83 Rajkumar, I agree with most of your observations.
Nittsmehta - what you have to say is also true - if you don't have the calling you will never get here.
@Bhaskarghosh - human body is an amazingly versatile machine. It can adjust to any situation given time. So I don't think that your theory would hold true except for the once or twice a year three day trippers. For people who stay here for longer periods of time - our bodies adjust to the rarer atmosphere.
From personal experience I feel that the detachment to the material things come when you see people all around you living a full, contented and happy life with very little to exist on. This in stark contrast of urban lives where we tie ourselves up to acquiring and bind ourselves to possessions. Once you live with people who have nothing - you realize how little you actually need to live a contented life.
The mountains are food for our subtle senses and not our baser ones. once we feed our subtle senses - our perception of life changes and the uselessness of the material trappings becomes clearer - it diminishes again once we go back to our routine lives and feed our baser senses which become dominant again and our subtle senses starve and become dormant till the next time we return.

Excellent post on the gains of trekking the Himalayas!

One point you missed ... sometimes the Himalayas can be source of a nice wife (or husband)
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