Footprints on the Mountainside

Many people attend programmes with shoes that slip, are tight, are too fancy to wreck in the mud…….

I thought a quick post to point people to would help me by removing the necessity of repeating this information all the time.

1. NEVER wear shoes for trekking for the first time when you are walking for hours at a time and can’t change them if they get uncomfortable. Break your shoes in gently (for your feet - shoes don’t feel). Use them for shorter trips before heading out for that week long extreme trek.
2. ALWAYS walk on a variety of surfaces - rough, smooth, marble, stony, wet, etc. to check for slipping.
3. Buy shoes in the evening when your feet are slightly bigger than in the morning from standing all day.
4. The shoes should fit comfortably. By this, I mean a soft cushioning around your feet so that they are neither gripped by the shoe, nor rattling from the extra space.
5. For treks and situations where you expect to do a lot of walking, thick soles work well.
6. Some people prefer hard soles, others don’t. You will need to find out from experience.
7. COTTON SOCKS and plenty of them, please! You don’t want to get those nice shoes smelly, and your companions unconscious.
8. Floaters or slippers to wear on the campsite. I mention these and the socks in this list, because they are an important part of a comfortable experience with trekking shoes.
9. Expensive or cheap is not always the most comfortable. Experiment with different brands and types of shoes to experience what makes you happiest.
10. Care for your shoes as you would care for a car. Checking condition, waterproofing, cleaning and other small bits of attention ensure that your shoes don’t end up surprising you in a way you don’t like when in action.

If you think this list is silly, try being in my shoes where every programme has a percentage of participants not happy about their footwear (or me not happy with theirs - in the case of high heeled sandals - because the climbing site was near a beach), or try getting embarrassed participants to talk about fungal infections on feet when they want first aid.

Just returning from another programme for Patni Computers. It went well. Far better than we expected actually, considering the size and difficulty in managing the group we had experienced the last time.

It was a two day thing. We had gone in expecting a recreation programme, but when we spoke with their representative, we discovered that there were specific expectations from the programme and it would be need to give it a training slant to the proceedings.

It was a difficult call for me to make, as it being a fun programme, participant expectations would not be toward learning. Particularly considering that some of the senior members seemed determined to take the whole thing as a joke. Honestly, I have no clue how we managed it, but somewhere down the line, we figured that fun and learning are not mutually exclusive, and then we took off into true experiential mode. I had a blast, and from the feedback we received, so did the participants.

And it was productive. For a quick two day thing with limited time, we managed to go through quite a bit in terms of behavioural learnings.

And I learnt a new lesson. An unruly but enthusiastic group may be difficult to handle, but once channelized, the potential for learning, even amidst chaos is huge as compared with a obedient but cold group in terms of energy.

I think this is a rant, but I’m not sure yet what direction it will take as I write.

We were casually chatting with a friend/free lance instructor with us, and he was telling us of his experience with another group of tour operators he was hired to work with. He is a good outbound instructor, and experienced, but he still doesn’t handle groups on his own when he works with us. Reason being, we aren’t sure of his instincts in an emergency.

And the incident he told us about reinforced it. Let us call him “Raju” for now.

Raju had no bookings for a particular day, and was hired by a new “adventure sports company” in Mumbai. Well, when you’re a free lancer, you take what comes along. Heck, when you’re a business owner, you still mostly take what comes along.

Raju lands up on the location for the programme, and discovers that he is the only experienced instructor there. Well…. he has confidence in his abilities, so…. he’s ok with that. Then, he discovers that it is a group of 40 people and throws a fit. How is a person to handle rappelling for 40 people solo in a 4 hour morning session? The owner hurried to assure him that he had some experience and would help.

Well… when you’re thrown in the water, you swim. Raju begins to set up the rappelling and discovers insufficient equipment. He is encouraged to “adjust”. Great. He adjusts, and changes the site of the rappel as well, so that the length is shorter. Then comes the parade. One participant after another. Owner apparently is clueless about putting on the harnesses he himself owns. Raju teaches him. Very late into the day, they still have about 10 people left. Lunch time is long past.

Participants are bored from sitting while one person at a time does the rappelling. They are hot, hungry, and very irritated, because their promised 100ft rappel is now 40ft. At the end of the day, there are complaints about how Raju is slow. And the bottom line is that these guys are extremely lucky that no one died, but of course, no one there realizes that.

As far as I am concerned, Raju is NEVER going to be a chief instructor at Wide Aware. If my chief instructor can’t have the guts to cancel an activity when there is a shortage of resources - both human and equipment wise, I’m not interested. If I wanted yes men, I would hire yes men. I don’t. I want an instructor to speak up and make a stand when security is compromized.

Of course, such a situation wouldn’t come up with Wide Aware in the first place. We maintain a minimum of a 10 participants to one instructor ratio on our programmes, and it works well. I’m not planning on changing that. I’m hiring a vehicle for transport anyway, so where is the point in being stingy with equipment? If its not needed, it can sit around and come back untouched. Raka would throw a fit if he were expected to handle rappelling or climbing without a rope of adequate length sitting around anchored and unused for use in an emergency. And honestly, I wouldn’t expect him to adjust on that either.

What would I or Raka have done in the place of Raju? To begin with, we would have booked instructors and carried the equipment needed for that group size. If something went wrong, and we ended up being without equipment, we would have cancelled the activity and done something else that could be managed safely in the resources we had. Non-negotiable. I don’t care if I don’t get paid or have to issue a refund when the option is putting clients in danger.

When we do our mad cap adventures, we are experienced and know what we are getting into. Clients are paying us to know that for them, and we KNOW that if they had the experience, they wouldn’t be paying us. I think this is cheating and endangering the client.

Why does anyone want to make such a great profit, or offer services at such a competitive rate, that there is no basic infrastructure offered?

The ministry of tourism is making efforts to regualate adventure tourism, but unfortunately, there is nothing yet about rock climbing and rappelling below 6000m. Is there a rule that says climbing accidents don’t happen below 6000m?

But still, I recommend that that moronic operator read this link. One climbing accident is going to make all our clients leery, and honestly, there are less climbing accidents than road accidents, but that hasn’t factored in potential stupidity. It takes one.

Call me paranoid, but I’m actually seriously reconsidering hiring this Raju at all, if he finds it ok to operate under those circumstances. Will he speak up about any problem he sees, or simply shrug it away thinking it is better than “that” company anyway? I don’t even see that company as a comparison, and I have made it clear to him, but I’m going to be keeping a very close eye on the guy for the next forever, until I find him being more assertive.

I see this as his fault entirely, as the only guy around who knew the game, and allowed that huge risk to happen.

Go on, ask - why would someone who does this regularly find it an adventure? Its all in the logistics.

On the first September, which is last week (I’m always late with these things) Raka and I accompanied a group from Cleartrip.com that we were sending for a day’s outing on the river Kundalika, and the region around Nagothane.

Considering that the booking numbers fluctuated all the time, and we had multiple pick up points, I just had one of those feelings. Raka and I were due for a break anyway, so we went along for the ride.

The morning pickups were predictably a nightmare and we managed to get out of Mumbai at a record breaking 6:30 with me praying constantly that the water held. White water for the rafting is really a matter of being at the right place and right time, as the Rafting depends on the release of water from the Bhire Dam, further up the valley in the direction of the Tamhini Ghat.

The group was excited and quick on their nerves and it was a mission to keep people moving fast (like it always is with high energy groups). With a few pick ups and some miscommunication, we caught the tail end of the water and I heaved a sigh of relief to see the participants depart on their rafts at the starting point.

This is when I really stopped worrying and caught up with the moment. As always, this region is a pleasure to be in, and it was my trip to catch up with people. I was visiting the Kamath Residency resort after quite a few months, my rafting field staff after even more, and to top it all, I happened to run into Brig. Sushil Bhasin of Empower Camps right there near the rafting equipment, as he drove by with some guests.

For a moment, I wondered idly, if Raka and I should simply hijack one of the vehicles and go ahead to visit Garudmachi - the High Places campsite - who knew who else we could meet out there? Instead, we chose to arrive at the ending point of the river run early and wait for the group to arrive and spent a nice hour watching the tiny fish nibble at the banks and clouds doing their best to impress us with added impressions of peace.

A couple of groups who had left earlier arrived, and I met yet another old friend - a rafting instructor I used to know as Kumar when he was a straggly youth figuring out this job, when we did the pilot run for this route 3 years ago. Now, he looks totally classy with a low ponytail and all that. Honestly, i hadn’t recognized him at all until he came up and shook hands.

Soon, out group came, and it was time to go back to the resort for a well deserved lunch and some lazing around.

Then, we left for a waterfall nearby, and managed to get thoroughly confused by the route and our own mismanaged communications, and out hike to the waterfall turned into quite an adventurous and highly enjoyable hike in the area of the waterfall. It was good fun. Particularly considering that the rain at lunch time had made all the flowing water too muddy to appeal in any case.

On the way back, we hooked up with an online friend of mine - Abhijit Rao and we went over to his place to continue into a weekend celebration that didn’t end until Monday evening.

All in all, one of my not-smooth bits of management, but a fun day even then. And yes, I’m planning to upload pictures, and it isn’t my usual “one day” scenario either. The thing is, I’m waiting for some pictures from Ameya Salvi. Its a new excuse this time.

Update: Some photos from my mobile are up, and can be found here. Ameya is also planning to upload his photos here (one fine day)

Getting out into the outdoors is not as tough as it sounds. Honestly, even though I provide the service, I don’t do any rocket science. Most of the enquiries I get are for outings in the Sahyadri from Mumbai. So here, I provide a detailed method of going about it.

1. What do you want? Is it a challenge, relaxation, exploration……? What do you want to do when you have this itch to get out of the city.
2. Narrow it down - For example, if you’d thought of exploration in the previous step, go a step ahead. Is it exploring forts, caves, sea forts in particular, fishing villages……?
3. Figure out other stuff you want - how would you like to travel…. bike trip, local buses, private vehicle…? What would you like to eat - local food, self-cooked stuff, full-royal resort meals…? Stay where - in nature, resort, caves, local homes……?
4. Once you have this, you’re ready to begin preparing. Simply put together all requirements and make a list of everything you will be needing. Fuel arrangements, resort bookings, routes, stocks of food….. whatever. Make this list as detailed as possible. Feel free to ask other travellers for tips.
5. Most resorts can be booked online or through agents. If you’re planning to stay in a village or cave, there are no booking needs of course, but you may wish to find out details on the village or condition of fort etc. Most of this is readily available online.
6. Put one day aside for shopping and preparations. Get your act together and be sure to go through your entire list.
7. That’s it. Leave on time and have a blast.

As a general guide, if you have figured out transportation, food and accommodation; there’s little that can go wrong. However, be sure to cross check all information you get, as once out in the rural areas, it is not uncommon to find unmarked roads, or those that have been too damaged to use, etc. Similarly, a trekker who visited a fort a few years ago may confidently tell you that the village is 10 min from the fort, when in reality it may be 2-3 hours. Information that seems the same from a few different sources is generally reliable.

This is probably the only place where an organized trip is stronger, as we have strong contacts in most places we operate in, and checking any changes in status of information are a matter of routine. However, many trekkers and regular travellers know enough of the place to help verify information.

So why am sharing this? Because my objective is not to sell tours so much as to get more and more people venturing in the outdoors and developing a love for the land they live in. If this helps people get into a car and head out of town more easily on a weekend, I’ve got what I want.

The people who come to me easily become capable of this within a trip or two, so its no real secret anyway. I think they pay me just because they like the company, or would simply like me to handle the hassle reliably.