The Darker Side of High Altitude Himalayan Trekking— A Phulara Ridge Story
Braveness is not the absence of fear, but the courage to keep going forward despite the fear ~Paulo Coehlo
I usually start my trekking stories with a nice preamble and perhaps a little description about the scenery and the mountain beauty that etches itself into my memory as a part of the trail.
But this blog is my first hand and personal account about the actual dangers of high altitude mountain trekking. Situations where a single misstep or incorrect medication could disrupt the entire course of your life.
Because, as magical as every Himalayan trail might be, life isn't always a rosy description of blue skies and chirping birds. Sometimes, its about the scary reality of trekking at high altitudes, a reality that I had to face head on and overcome with sheer will power, blind faith in my body and the goodwill of the kind folks around me.
Quick stats: The Phulara Ridge trek — 12,345 ft, 6 days, 26kms, Garwhal Himalayas, Uttarakahand, India.
In all honesty, The Phulara Ridge trek was supposed to be a vacation of sorts. I had been working hard for the past 8–9 months, but there came time where the cliched quote — “The mountains are calling, and I must go” turned into a burning desire. I would spend hours on the internet, staring at the magnificent Alps, Dolomites, Himalayas... like a lovelorn girl waiting for liberation from this longing. When my granny came home, I spent hours entertaining her with all my trekking stories, and one fine day, I could take it no more. Re-living the stories through my narration had sparked something in me, so I texted my friends and we booked Phulara. As a bonus, I also managed to convince my friend and colleague Manav to join me on his first ever Himalayan trek, because I truly do believe that every single person must trek, at least once in their lifetime.
The Indiahikes website declared Phulara to be a moderate trek. Having already done Hampta Pass (14000ft), I thought Phulara would be a cakewalk. Boy, was I wrong!
The trek team consisted of Diptarko, our trek lead, Prateek, another trek lead, and DK Bhai and Deepak bhaiyya as guides.
Among the eager trekkers, we had Abhishek and Chirag — the startup duo, Nirav — an engineer turned lawyer, Chaithanya, Kushi, Bhavya and Purva — a gang of four friends, Shweta, Suchitra, Krishna sir and Shubha aunty — a close knit family of four, doctors Mayuri and Uma, a bunch of solo travellers — Rishabh, Tarini, Vaishnavi, Nupur and Aadarsh, and my own squad — Thejas, Anagha and Manav! We also had 3 dogs, named Bon-Bon, Gunda and Advait, who accompanied us throughout the entire trek.
“Expect the unexpected” seemed to be the recurring theme at Phulara. We expected a smooth start, but the trek commenced with Suchitra fainting right next to me even before we had tied our shoelaces at the base camp! As this was supposed to be a stargazing batch, we expected to see the milky way, but saw cloudy skies and rains for the most part instead. As for me, I had expected a peaceful holiday, but spent most of my time trying not to throw up, rolling out absurd amounts of tissue paper and running for the bushes! (Please feel free to laugh at my misery, it truly is funny in hindsight!)
Day 1 was lovely, we spent the time getting to know our new friends. On-trail conversations see the most raw and unfiltered discussions with topics ranging from books and movies to wild travel anecdotes and origin stories! I was in the pink of health, and was my usual chatty self, so the day passed by quickly! We witnessed a stunning sunset at Juda ka Talab, with Mt. Swargarohini illuminated in glowing orange and a tint of pink against a backdrop of clear blue skies!
Day 2 was a trek from Juda Ka Talab to Bojhgadi campsite. This trail was steeper than day 1, but the views of the vast expanses of bugyals (meadows) made up for my budding knee pain problem.
As we climbed on, I could feel my knee weakening under the pressure of my backpack and the strain from the ascents. Heres the thing though.. I was ready for the knee pain. It was an injury I had suffered while hiking in Ireland a few months back, so I was mentally prepared. Even while training for the trek through the 5km runs, I used to get some amount of pain, but I had gotten used to it! So I told myself “Seh lenge thoda!”, a phrase that I had learnt to live by since my Hampta Pass trek. We reached the Bohjgadi campsite (~11000 ft) , and it was absolutely lovely. Huge snow capped ranges with pink clouds swirling around in a mystical dance formed the main part of our view. While everyone snoozed in their tents after a tiring day, my headphones and I spent some time together, admiring the surrounding solitude.
Little did I know, that this was the first hint of more serious problems to come.
The unrest and lack of sleep was supposed to serve as a premonition, but I used that time for meditation! Sigh.
Come evening at Bojhgadi, the kitchen staff had prepared hot, rich and creamy white sauce pasta. While everyone gorged on their evening snacks…. I could not. I considered 2 options: (1) My brain was tricking me into becoming a healthy person, or, (2) Something was seriously wrong. White sauce pasta is my favourite pasta, so I really did not understand why I had the urge to throw away such delicious smelling food!
I tried to stand up to make my way to the cleaning area, but putting one step ahead of another suddenly seemed to be a challenge! I casually mentioned this to Diptarko, our trek lead, and decided to not give it much thought, since in my head.. problems like this happen to other people, not me! And so I joined the crew, singing and dancing to Gharwali music, seeing a majestic rainbow covering the breadth of our Bojhgadi campsite.
It was nearly midnight when I woke up in a cold sweat, feeling like the world was spinning around me. The urge to puke was so bad, I couldn't find my headlamp, so I woke Anagha up in my panic. She too was in a daze, but she quickly gave me her lamp and I stumbled out of our warm tent into the bone chilling open air, fumbling for the trek pole, and rushing for the toilet tents in a frenzied perturbation. When I came out of the toilet tent, I was not in a state to make much sense of things around me, and Anagha, being an absolute angel in disguise, guided me back towards our camping site. She located our trek leaders’ tent and they gave me some tablet, which was supposed to reduce the nausea. For the first time, I was scared. I do not scare easy, but this time, I really was.
I woke up in the morning, and the tablet had had no effect on me. If anything, I felt worse. My oxygen was at 78%, and then went up to 82%. Prateek, the other trek lead, prophesied headaches and more gastro intestinal issues for me, as we were expected to gain further altitude that day. We were on Day 3.
Little did I know how much worse it would actually get.
The trek started, and I knew there was no going back.
On a trail of 10 hours and 10kms, powered by 6 different tablets and exactly 1 Snicker bar, I dealt with:
- Acute Mountain Sickness(AMS) with just 79–82% Oxygen in my blood
- Splitting headache
- Nausea
- Dysentery
- Dizziness
- Periods (and everything that comes with that, yep)
- Complete loss of appetite and tear-inducing levels of fatigue
- Extremely frequent peeing as a side effect of AMS medication (Diamox)
- Recurring pain caused by a recent soft tissue tear injury in my knee
Have you gasped yet? xD
Worry not, I live to tell my tale!
It was the Ridge walk day. The day which was supposed to be full of beautiful views and adventures, the highlight of the entire trek!
But.. it was awful.
While everyone were gasping at the magnificent sights that surrounded them, I was gasping for air. It felt like I was gasping for my life.
I had to stop every 20 steps and gulp in oxygen. My headache chimed in to say hello at the first rest point, where my SPO2 was at 81%, and it only got worse. My heart was beating out of my chest at 125bpm, AT REST. As we progressed, my eyes started to blur from the fatigue and desperation had started to kick in. We were only 1 hour into the climb, with 9 more hours to go, and I could already barely breathe.
I was genuinely petrified. Would I be able to make it?
It was no joke. The feeling of air getting caught in your throat even before it enters your body, is a strange and frightening feeling. Knowing that there is no way but forward, no one to rescue you, but yourself, is another kind of feeling. No ambulances, no hospitals, no motorable roads. Just me, my trek team, the mountains and the wilderness. No fallback options.
No way, but up.
I trudged on with, encouraged by Prateek, who was an absolute gem. I was minimum 20 minutes behind everyone else, and I had only Prateek with me. After a point, my nausea had intensified and I was bending over my trek poles every 10 minutes to get some air into my lungs, chest heaving, legs buckling, stomach gurgling, mouth fumbling, heart racing.
“Prateek?”
“Yes?”
“Can you go stand far away?”
“Why? You need to pee?”
“No, I actually need to fart!”
….. GREAT, looks like like the lack of oxygen had taken away my social etiquette and basic filters, *facepalm*.
This fart escalated into dysentery. And that further escalated into periods induced by extreme physical exertion. With that came more stomach issues and cramps. Prateek explained that during AMS, when the body has low oxygen, the brain tricks the body into giving it all the oxygen, because it is the most important part that is needed to keep the body alive. Digestion processes are considered as the least important, and hence gastro intestinal issues are a very common first symptom of AMS.
When I finally reached the lunch point, I was 1 hour behind everyone else and was already besides myself with exhaustion. Manav gave me lots of water to drink, Anagha tried to force feed me dry fruits and gave me both her trekking poles to help with my knee pain, Chirag prepared a quick ORS drink for me and then Rishabh gave me his Snicker bar. That snicker bar was my first and only taste of food and source of energy for the whole day. While everyone enjoyed a sumptuous packed lunch, my body was repulsed at the thought of food! While my fellow trekkers got an hour worth of rest, I got 3 minutes. They couldnt afford to give me more rest time, since the upcoming path had difficult snow sections and ascents to cross, the weather was showing signs of rain, and we had to make it to the next campsite, Pushtara, before sundown for obvious safety reasons.
But, I was not the one to give up. DK Bhai once said “Deepika ji, aapko zid chodna hai kabhi kabhi”. But being a stubborn mule has its advantages!
The only hope for me was to reach Pushtara (next campsite) as soon as possible, so that my AMS can reduce due to the slightly lower altitude.
The entire team successfully crossed the extremely tricky snow bridges, where even a single slip could have cost us our life. Few people almost gave up at this point, but we persevered. We climbed the rocky ascents, slippery descents, climbed the unending bugyals, weathered the heat and rain, and yet, the Pushtara campsite eluded us.
Sometimes I got a high, laughing and joking with fellow trekkers, dramatically throwing my hands up in the air and wailing “WHY ME GOD, WHY ME?” entertaining everyone with my antics, and yet, other times, the lack of air and sudden breathlessness had me doubling over my trek pole and choking. The fatigue was sometimes so overpowering, that the only thing I could do was stop, sit on a rock, and let the tears break through my brave faced facade. Thankfully, only Prateek and Anagha were around whenever the facade broke xD
The day was so long and so tiring, that even the trek leaders were starting to wonder where Pushtara is!
For context, ours was the first batch that would ever cross the Phulara Ridge this year. Because of the changing climate, there was unexpected and heavy snowfall on the ridge, so no one had been able to go to the Pushtara campsite before us. So our batch literally paved the way and opened the trail for the batch after us. Hence, it had been almost a year since the trek leads themselves had seen Pushtara — the campsite that appears at the end of the Ridge crossing day.
As we started the slight descent to Pushtara, a small spark of energy had returned. Truly speaking, the ridge walk was something out of a fairy tale. Bursts of yellow, blue and white flowers covered the trail in front of us. A small moment of magic I had was when I saw an huge alpine glow lit mountain through the reflection of a small pond. This was the best picture I could get, the clouds covered the mountain within 5 seconds!
And then, from atop the meadow, we spotted the IndiaHikes yellow tents. The excitement among us was unanimous. We all galloped down to Pushtara.. a campsite so visually stunning, that even aethists might start believing in god and His creation. Thousands of yellow flowers carpeted the boundless meadow, a gigantic snow capped mountain peak was the background. A warm sunset glow lit up the entire campsite, and a wave of happiness took over everyone’s hearts.
Unfortunately for me, my body was still suffering from AMS, so I slept on an empty stomach, cold and miserable, while everyone else spent the night star gazing, doing astrophotography, and listening to Carl Sagan. After more tablets at midnight, complaining about “gulugulu in my tummy”, followed by being force fed 1L of Eno by Anagha and Diptarko, I slept like Kumbhakaran.
Maybe it was the miracle of Pushtara, or the brilliance of the inventors of Eno, but 7 hours later, at 7am in the morning, I had recovered. Almost Completely!
Recovered to a point where I found the strength to eat my first proper meal in 2 days, put flowers in my hair, dress up in a cute Poncho and strut around the campsite, play with Gunda and Advait, full of smiles and giggles! This was the final descent day, and it was THE BEST DAY EVER for me. I ignored the knee pain as best as I could and ran ahead of everyone.
“The real Deepika is back today!”
YES she was! 7 hours ago my heart was racing, 7 hours later I was racing.. ahead of everyone! And I managed to carry my own rucksack too! With the state I was in just the previous night, moaning in pain and sick with uneasiness, people had begun to think that I’d need to be taken down in a stretcher! I thanked god a million times for giving me the strength to recover, and for letting me enjoy the first bright and sunny day we had experienced throughout the trek!
For me, treks had always been about the views. Till Phulara.
At Phulara, I realized that treks were about the people. People without whom, I probably would not have completed the trek.
Abhishek, aka “Proxy trek lead” was a sure footed, and extremely helpful lad, Chirag was an ever smiling and kind chap who would spring up out of nowhere the moment DK bhai said “Rest time over, chalo chalo!” Uma and Mayuri were always there to offer a friendly smile, khajoor and encouragement when I was low. The family was so peaceful and tight knit, it was lovely to be in their presence. Nirav was an enigmatic guy, who I will always remember for the “Stumble nod” (inside joke xD). I’ll also remember the little quirks that people had.. like Aadarsh always on the lookout for bugs and funny looking leaves, Kushi, Purva and Bhavya being the “through thick and thin” sort of friends, Chaithanya and his keen scientific interest in all things astonomy, Nupur aunty and her eccentricities, Rishabh and his super cool selfies, Tarini and her sweet energy! But most of all, I am grateful for my own gang — Anagha for rescuing me time and again, for braving the midnight chill to help me without ever complaining and for just being there for me through it all, Manav for making me laugh till I forgot all my problems, till I had to sit down and dry my tears from all that laughing, and for his iPhone pro max 14 pro pro max max (haha), and Thejas, for being a stoic symbol of patience and quiet encouragement, for being the calm to all our madness, and for being a tall, wild strawberry plucker xD
I also want to document that Anagha was the only female trekker to not offload a single item throughout the trek. Pretty inspiring.
DK bhai carried my heavy rucksack with him, along with his own backpack for entire second half of Day 3. Completing the trek would have been next to impossible without his help. Prateek bhai and I roasted eachother to a point where he was mocking me every time I was fighting for breath, but that lightened the mood so much! Dip bhai was also quite supportive during the journey.
For me, treks used to be a leisure hobby. Till Phulara.
At Phulara, my respect for the mountains grew multifold. The Himalayas are not terrains you can take lightly. You cannot take fitness lightly. You cannot take yourself lightly. Photos are cool, but dont trek for photos. The dangers of high altitude trekking are very real, so acknowledging them would be the first step. AMS, if not attended to properly, or if the body is unable to recover, can escalate into High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE). Fluid from your blood leaks into your lungs’ air sacs.
To put it simply, HAPE is like death by drowning. The trekker’s lungs are drowning in his own body fluids.
~IndiaHikes
I got lucky. Someone got HAPE on the same day that I got AMS on a parallel trek — Har Ki Dun. We overheard this on Dip bhai’s walkie talkie.
I have always been a mentally and physically fit person, so the situation did not get worse. But AMS can happen to even the most experienced trekkers. It happened to me at 12000 feet, and not at Hampta (14000 feet).
Everyone must trek, but trekking is not for everyone, unless one is physically fit and mentally ready to face the uncertainty and the unpredictability in the mountains.
Will I ever trek again? Absolutely YES. No doubt about it at all!!
Because as Rahman the poet said —
Rehna Tu, hai jaisa tu, thoda sa dard tu, thoda sukoon. Dheema dheema jhonka, ya phir junoon.
Stay as you are, a little pain, a little relief.
Slow like a gentle breeze, or a perhaps a passion
In the mountains, we sing to the rhythm of our beating heart, we dance to the joy of new found respect for our bodies, we laugh at the realisation of our ephemeral existence.
We make memories that don’t require batteries, we slow cook hot meals, on burning embers amidst the aspen groves.
Time has frozen, the bedlam is broken, my courage has been awoken… for the mountains have spoken.
Thank you, Phulara.
Until next time,
Deepika Karanji
If you have any questions/comments, feel free to drop them below! You can always email me at deeps.karanji2@gmail.com. If you liked this article, do consider showing your appreciation through some claps! :”)
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