NIM - Nehru Institute of Mountaineering

himadventures

You are going in good institute-if you wish to be a mountaineer.
HMI is having reputation of a military camp and instructors are popular for thier harshness.
DMAS has lost it's reputation with more than 100 students in basic courses-it is just a money minting machine now !

NIM is only hope alive for quality teaching !!
Good Luck !!

rhushan

I have just bought the application form for the nim basic course for women, which begins this may.
any suggestions for a fitness programme that would prepare me for the worst?

anindya911

Hi rhushan

You can do long distance running/jogging to build up stamina apart from Squats, push ups, pull up, ab-crunches and stretching. The idea is to develope stamina as well as strengthen major group of muscles for overall fittness. A healthy diet to boot will give you the required boost.
And, yes! Do practise carrying load of 15-20 Kg on your back (prefferably in form of rucksack) on uneven surface for 4-5 Km atleast two times a week, in addtion to atleast 1-2 trips of over 10 kms at a stretch before you go for the BMC. This will give you some idea about carrying loads, a lot of which you'll be doing in the BMC.
Best of Luck

Anindya

__________________
Let Your mind roam ...
and the body will follow!

drsoptics

Hello all,

I am brand-new to India Mike and I am looking forward to getting some advice. I have registered for the Basic Mountaineering course offered by NIM-Uttarkashi from 13 Sep to 10 Oct 2007. Has anyone taken courses there?

I checked out their website and looked at some pictures, but I am trying to get the 'vibe' of the institute. Who actually takes the courses? What is the average age of the trainees? Are they foreigners as well as Indians? Do they all want to be there, what is the camaraderie like?

About me: I am a 29-year old from the USA, I have done some trekking before, but nothing this intense. This is my first trip to India, and I am really looking forward to spending some time in the Himalayas, so I thought a mountaineering course would be better/easier than trying to organize everything by myself.

thanks for the help!

beklemmung

I'm taking the basic course that starts next month. I'm coming from a similar angle - first trip to India, and though I have a good amount of backpacking/trekking experience in the American West and the Alps, I have no climbing experience at all. I'll definitely be posting about my experience there, or if you want you can send me a PM sometime in April and I'll let you know what I think of it.

praks

Did the course a long time ago when things were a little different, but not much. A good number of trainees will be from the armed forces and not all of them want to be there. They have to take the course as part of their services training. Most of the trainees will be in their twenties. Not too many foreigners as there is a big demand for the course from the armed forces as well as Indian civilians. You will be divided into groups called 'ropes' each with a rope leader. Each rope has an instructor. So you will spend most of the time with your 'rope'.
You get all sorts there from those who want to be there to those who have been sent there. But it's a great experience and if you are fit, you will enjoy it thoroughly. If not, then it's going to be tough.

VSK Sharma

I agree with the type of people doing the course but people from Armed Forces are not coming in such large numbers.
Anyway the course is worth doing and it will open the Himalaya for you for the time to come. It must be quite cheap.

drsoptics

Thanks for the comments! The course runs US $510 for one month, which I think is pretty reasonable.

I'm pretty suprised, a combination of armed forces members, indian civilians, and foreigners in the same training is not something that would every happen in my country (USA), but I am open for the experience. A couple for questions...

Since one man's 'fit' is another man's 'out of shape', exactly how fit do you need to be to do the basic mountaineering course? Please be specific, I am already in pretty good shape, but if I was going to do some additional training in the one month preceding the course, what should I do?

Also, is there anything in addition to the things on their list (http://www.nimindia.org/nim/admissio...onalitems.aspx) that I should bring? I am not going to be able to bring everything from the USA, but I will at least have my trekking boots, I am hoping I can buy the rest in Dehradun or uttarkashi.

Trishul

Hi,
this is the nice idea for do Basic mountianeering course for n.i.m.uttarkashi.Actually this the best institute of india or world for mounatineering like nlos.lots of forgineers are coming there for cousre.
I have laso done bisic,advance & search & Rescue from there

VSK Sharma

Hi,
The cost is not much if you compare with the courses outside India. Well, the course involves physical fitness, rock climbing and then going to glacier training area for snow and Ice climbing training and also height gain where you climb a peak. There will also be theory classes. All in all it makes you ready for the mountains.
I went through the list of items. Get a pair of trail running shoes for normal excercise and moving around the campus of NIM during your stay there. At Uttarkashi you will get everything of day to day use. Digi camera is better. Must carry a small bag where you can lock you valuables.
From Delhi catch the Shatabdi Express going to Dehradun and get down at Haridwar. From there take a Bus to Rishikesh and go to the Shared Taxi stand near Natraj Hotel. Six hours and you are at Uttarkashi.
Best go to Dehradun and see the place that day. next morning take the Vishwanath travels Bus to Uttarkashi and reach by afternoon.

beklemmung

Hey all,

I just completed the basic mountaineering course at NIM earlier this week. While I can't make any direct comparisons with HMI or any other mountaineering institutes, I can give you my opinions and observations regarding NIM. If you have any specific questions, please post them here. Some basic info:

- I'd recommend taking your own backpack and, if you have them, your own gaiters. I was planning to use a NIM-provided pack, but the ones they issue are only around 55-60 liters and the condition can be wretched. I had a 55 liter Marmot pack that I was using just as a general travel bag, and it was just big enough to use for the course. I saw two packs in which the stitching holding the shoulder straps to the padding came undone, which forced people to tie knots with the straps (the buckles dangled uselessly) and they had no padding on their shoulders. The hip belts also seemed useless, forcing you to carry all the weight on your shoulders. Also, because we were the earlier course for the year, there was a lot of snow, and the gaiters that NIM issued weren't very good. They're fairly cheap gaiters, and many people had problems with snow coming up from the bottom. I had my personal OR gaiters and was glad I did.

- The food is nearly the exact same for every breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There isn't much you can do about this, but unfortunately eating became a duty, and at times it wasn't an easy one in spite of being hungry. The food isn't bad, it's just always the same.

- While I thought that, overall, the course and quality of instruction were fairly good, be warned that very few of the instructors speak more than very basic English. Our senior instructor's English was quite good, but the other 15 or so were all more or less unable to explain things in English. Other students will be keen to translate for you (hopefully you get at least one good translator in your "rope," a subunit of 6-7 people), but there will still be times when you're frustrated by language difficulties if you can't understand Hindi.

- Basic syllabus: 3 days on campus going over basics, having equipment issued, and some knot learning and artificial wall climbing. 4 days of trekking about 7km each morning with full packs to a nearby rock climbing area, where you'll practice all morning til lunch, then have a lecture and take the bus back to NIM each afternoon. 18 days in the mountains, a few days spent trekking in/out, and the rest learning snowcraft, icecraft, crevasse rescue, and "high altitude rock climbing" (climbing w/out climbing shoes).

Klysamik

Dear beklemmung,
Congratulation for completing the basic mountaineering course.
Now I would like to tell something about your experience about the foods offered to you during the course, as you described in the write up. I noticed that you are from New York, USA. In India we do not have so much fund flowing in adventure sports like mountaineering or so. We have to arrange trekking and mountaineering expeditions with our own funds. Most of the time, we don’t get any sponsor. Therefore we can not afford the luxuries like foreign teams. We have to eat same meal everyday to cut the expenses short. That is why our institutes train us in this way. We are taught not to be luxurious in the mountains.
But I agree with you about the equipments and the communication skills of the instructors. Definitely those areas should be improved.

Samik

beklemmung

Klysamik -

I tend to think the reason we were provided with more or less the same food everyday was that the cooks were army cooks, and the whole institute is run by the Ministry of Defense. I don't think that they were specifically trying to prepare the students for a future necessity, but rather just treating us as a military unit would be treated. Most of the students seemed to have no problem with the food, but I'd hazard a guess that around 20-25% shared in my frustration.

I also don't think that cost is strictly the reason for the lack of variation in the food. Given that they were cooking for between 90 and 120 people (a search and rescue course was also going on for part of the time), they would have been buying whatever they cooked in large quantity, even if they were only making one meal.

drsoptics

hello beklemmung,

So many questions! I am signed up for the same NIM course in September, and I am trying to figure out if I actually want to do it.

Gear questions - I have a (really nice with a frame) Osprey 35 liter pack. I can strap a sleeping bag to the bottom. Do you think it will be big enough for the course? What all do I need to put in it? It would really suck if I had to use a low-quality pack just to get to 55 liters. I can deal with buying gaiters, no problem, but right now I don't have trekking shoes, a jacket (parka), hat, gloves, etc. I am in Delhi now, heading for Chennai tonight, and I packed very light. Should I try to buy these things? use their provided gear? The most important thing will be the trekking shoes.

Food questions - I thought your post was kind of funny, you neglected to mention what the monotonous breakfast, lunch, and dinner actually was! (I am assuming dal and rice?) Yeah, I pretty much figured it would be boring and the same. Oh well.

Overall experience questions - Were you the only foreigner in the course? Were the other students keen on being there? Would you do it again or try to arrange something else on your own? How can I actually learn from the instructors if I don't speak Hindi???? I am wondering if I should actually do the course. On paper it seems awesome, and, judging from the tenacity of the touts in Delhi, I fear that if I just showed up in Manali or Dharamsala and tried to arrange a (shorter) guided trek on my own, I'd be paying a lot more for a shorter time and would probably be getting ripped off in some way. Any suggestions?

thanks!

beklemmung

Hey man,

Regarding the pack - you'll need to be able to carry a sleeping bag, sleeping bag liner, foam sleeping pad, ice axe, plastic boots, crampons, helmet, climbing harness, a 100 ft rope or your rope's carabiners/ice screws/etc, plus all the clothes and other misc stuff that you'll need (this will vary - I didn't take the feather jacket, as I knew fleece and shell would be sufficient). I wanted to strap my sleeping bag outside my pack, but the instructors gave me hell as they thought it would get wet if it rained. I searched the market in Uttarkashi to see if I could find a waterproof stuff sack but was unsuccessful in finding a stuff sack of any kind. Perhaps you could make the 35L pack work if you put the sleeping bag on the outside, though my guess is you'd have to strap a few other things on the outside as well.

You won't need a parka, as NIM will give you one. You'll need to bring your own hat and gloves. I brought my old (but well taken care of) Montrail boots and was glad I did, as I feel very conscious about spraining an ankle when hiking with a pack. Most of the Indian students hiked in simple low-top trainers/sneakers and changed to their plastic boots when we got to the snowline. It's up to you.

The breakfast monotony didn't bother me, I suppose because I usually had the same thing every day in the States. Breakfast was either "porridge" (very thin) or corn flakes, along with four pieces of white Wonder bread, some butter and jam, and what they called an omelette (I'd guess it was two eggs). All in all, no complaints. Lunch and dinner was rice, dal, potatoes and cauliflower, occassionally mutton, soup (usually tomato), and dessert was either jello, custard (flavorless goo), or when we were really lucky, kheer. Strangely, if you take mutton the cooks won't want to give you dessert, but persistence on your part will always prevail. I'll be damned if I'm going to be denied my kheer.

I wasn't the only foreigner - out of an initial 80 students, there was also a French guy and an Australian. There was also a guy of German descent, though he'd been living in and around Bangalore for half his life. 72 students graduated, meaning 8 dropped out. I would say most of the students were happy to be there, though virtually all of us were ready to get out of the mountains by the 10th or 11th day. If I find myself in India again in the future, I'll take the advanced course, though perhaps from HMI just for variety's sake.

You'll learn from the instructors by observing, and the Indian students who speak English well will definitely be keen to translate for you. However, I did feel that the language barrier did prevent me from having as edifying an experience as someone who understood Hindi could have had. On a few occasions (this happened with the other foreigners as well), I would ask a question or request clarification, and even with other students translating to Hindi, something was lost and in the end I wasn't wholly satisfied. I must also point out that the instructors really do make an effort to get their point across to the best of their abilities, and genuinely wanted me to get as much out of the experience as I could.

The touts in Delhi got to me too, in spite of my feeling that I was ready for them. I don't think that having taken the course will put me in any better position when dealing with touts in HP or wherever. If I was to join a team that was climbing a peak that required rock or ice skills, or if I had to negotiate crevasses (and possibly pull someone out), I'd feel infinitely more comfortable now than I would have before the course. I feel that I have a solid understanding of the basics of belaying someone, using the correct knots, climbing and placing protection myself, rappelling, climbing fixed ropes, etc. I don't plan to do these things during the rest of my trip, but I'm very glad I have the knowledge, as I will use it in the future. However, like I said, as far as arranging a trek in HP or Ladakh is concerned, if it's only trekking and not technical climbing, I don't think the course would have any impact on that.