The daily trips to the glacier

We were asked to be ready after the breakfast, dressed in the windproof suit (almost like a track suit) and snow boots with the rucksack holding the helmet, sling, seat harness, writing material, water bottle, ice axe, rain sheet, ropes, camera etc. The load was not much but walking to the ice/ snow slopes in the snow boots was tricky. These shoes lock your ankles and there is hardly any 'feel' on the soles. With zero flexibility in the sole too, it was like walking on stilts! The moraine held big boulders and rocks. Walking on the edges of these rocks/ boulders and skipping across the gaps was tough which was made more difficult by the moisture/ verglas/ snow on these. The lower reaches had snow covering these boulders which occasionally gave way and lot of us found ourselves with one leg buried upto the groin as the shoe punctured the snow and went through the gap! This was specially a problem while returning as the rocks gathered heat fro the sun and the snow around these rocks got wet and became more yielding due to melting. Soon we learnt to avoid stepping on snow close to the rocks and also to judge rocks just below the snow surface by looking out for the slight discoloration on the surface.

The upper reaches were trickier, with hard ice of the glacier, mixed with the dirt/ debris, lurking below the soft snow. At several locations, the ice was also covered by fresh debris and stepping onto this loose debris will occasionally send people careening down the slope for some distance or make them lose their footing and fall. While returning, wet clothes, water soaked ropes and the cold and numb hands made it more difficult to get down in the falling snow/ rain. While foot marks were easy to step in while going up the firm snow, repeated footfalls and slip marks aided by the sun made the path through the snow a slush filled highway on the return and we simply ran/ slipped and skidded down, praying to God to help us avoid a fall/ injury!

All this while the instructors were egging you on and that made it a bit more difficult for you to concentrate. Fortunately no one ever twisted an ankle or had any significant injury while going up and down daily on these hour long trips to the training area.