We were spending a lot of time in our tents thanks to the weather. We were 8-9 people in one tent, all from diverse backgrounds. The tents were pitched along three sides of the square shaped flat field, about 2-4 m apart. The ground sheet was of thin plastic over which we spread our carrymats in two rows, with the rucksacks stacked down the middle. Me and Spandan (initially my rope mate) ended up in the tent of rope 9 as we were one tent short overall. The tent mates were Aditya, Ritesh, Saurav, Spandan, Sanjiv, Pradip and Amit Ghosal. Aditya was an 18 yr old student in Pune, with interest in photography and astronomy. Ritesh was an ex IITKian working in NCR. Sanjiv was a fauji while Pradip worked for an adventure sports company in Rishikesh. Amit Ghosal or Dada as I came to call him affectionately, was from Kolkata. He was always helping others, sharing a word of encouragement and ready to share a laugh to lighten up even the worst of our misery. All of us spent a lot of time talking and sharing our experiences in life, most of the time tucked in cosily inside our sleeping bags or waiting for the snowfall to get over, shaking off the snow from the top of our tent every 15 minutes.
The biggest problem inside the tents was the smells that emanated from our socks and clothes (15 days of no bath, no washing! remember?) and of drying the wet clothes and shoes. We all had a pair of wet snow shoes and a pair of trekking shoes. The snow shoes were dirty with a lot of slush stuck to the soles as we came back. Soon we decided to pack all of these into kitbags and dump the bags beside the tent entry flap along with the wet ropes. Our socks, windproof clothes etc, were draped on the rucksacks etc., left to dry to the extent possible. Adi's deo spray worked full time to keep the tent smelling good.
A tungsten bulb hung from the tent pole and provided a dim light inside the tent in the evening till 9 pm and then in the morning from 4 am. Headlamps, torches etc., supplemented this light when more light was required.
So we talked a lot, practiced rope knots, shared the pics on our digital cameras, listened to music on cellphones and generally had some fun while bonding together.
The biggest problem inside the tents was the smells that emanated from our socks and clothes (15 days of no bath, no washing! remember?) and of drying the wet clothes and shoes. We all had a pair of wet snow shoes and a pair of trekking shoes. The snow shoes were dirty with a lot of slush stuck to the soles as we came back. Soon we decided to pack all of these into kitbags and dump the bags beside the tent entry flap along with the wet ropes. Our socks, windproof clothes etc, were draped on the rucksacks etc., left to dry to the extent possible. Adi's deo spray worked full time to keep the tent smelling good.
A tungsten bulb hung from the tent pole and provided a dim light inside the tent in the evening till 9 pm and then in the morning from 4 am. Headlamps, torches etc., supplemented this light when more light was required.
So we talked a lot, practiced rope knots, shared the pics on our digital cameras, listened to music on cellphones and generally had some fun while bonding together.
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