UKC

Has anybody been on any of the courses run by the indian schools of mountaineering? Somebody I know has been on one and highly recommends it, but I was just wondering if anybody else had experience of them? Cheers

In reply to franny: Ive not been on one myself but Ive been up in Gangotri when the Uttarkashi IMF teams have been up there. Seemed like good value as an introduction to himalayan mountaineering. They seem to work you pretty hard and the food can be a bit basic but its cheap and your with Indian climbers which will give you a different perspective.There was an article in Trail (I think) about these courses a couple of years ago written by someone whod done one which might be worth you checking out.

In reply to L.A.:
I remember reading that; seemed to put Glenmore Lodge and PYB into the "Hilton" bracket. Seem to remember it was an Indian Army course. PT at 5 am at over 4000m seemed a bit grim.

In reply to Removed User: `Worked fairly hard` was the way I described it but yes!

In reply to franny:The Himalayan Moutaineering school that was sent up by or in memory of Tenzing Norgay runs courses, the basic moutaineering course is $500 for foreigners and is run from Darjeeling I think. They have a website, try googling it. Looks like good courses and certainly an experience.

In reply to franny:
I heard it being described as bootcamp at 20 000 feet. The Indian Mountaineering Institute that is. Basic food and basic lodgings are probably spot on. Good value as well. I don´t think they´ll teach you the finer aspects of mountaineering but if you´re not used to the environment this might be a good start. There is one dirt cheap option in Manali too, not involving the military I think.

I went to a basic mountaineering course in Nepal two years ago. It was 3 weeks with Nepal Mountaineering Association, www.nma.com.np. It involved a lot of transport between different glaciers and peaks so the actual training was more like one week. It was a good experience though. Costed me something like 1000 USD including food (chef), lodging, porters and one trekking peak permit, besides personal equipment. It will be considerably cheaper if you are more people.

We were three people on the course with one sherpa instructor trained in France and his assistant. We did have some communications issues which caused some problems but otherwise it was good.

.d

In reply to franny:
As mentioned it was in Trail a while back.
When I was based in Brunei, 3 mates went to do it.
Boot camp indeed! Doing phys at 5 in the morning, not a lot of scoff and generally being beasted about. Having said that as they are squaddies, they were used to that.
They said it was good value for money and got heaps of experience out of it and also as mentioned, a different perspective to mountaineering from the Indians.
HTH!
If you do go, do a thread on here, would be interesting
Denni

In reply to franny:

The one described in Trail is this one:

http://www.nimindia.org/

The courses sound really good. The advanced one is supposed to prepare you for planning expeditions to peaks over 6000m.

Hi

Yes, I have done both the basic and advanced courses at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi.

The courses are really hard work so make sure you are pretty fit before you go. Since they are run by the armed forces they have military style discipline, which some people might have an issue with.

The training was good but wasn’t the latest techniques. But they are pretty solid on the fundamentals.

I was very impressed by their hard line on environmental protection and pollution. A single stray sweet wrapper would result in the banning of the next day’s sweet rations and that hurts when you are craving sugar.

Got to climb a 6000m peak during the advanced course.

Overall great experience………but just get fit before you get there.

I wrote an article on it a while ago:

Boot Camp at 20,000ft
http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/02-11/boot-camp-at-20-000ft-uttarkashi-in...

In reply to Himalaya: The instructors are monstrously fit Came barreling past us on Kedar Dome carrying full rucsacs and skis whilst I wheezed my way up carrying a roll of bog paper and not much more! However despite the military basis it is an interesting way to meet new styles of thinking and planning and its a cheap way to climb a 6000m peak without the hassle of L/Os and peak fees. No worries on porters either-youll carry most of it yourself
On a seperate note- Himalaya have you by any chance done Kalindi khal traverse?

In reply to L.A.: Hi - no but I am planning to do it next year. Here is the plan: http://amardev.singh.googlepages.com/

Am really looking forward to it.

Where have you trekked in India?

In reply to Himalaya: Impressive trip!-We may try Kalindi kal next Sept/oct from Gangotri side
Between us weve trekked in Ladakh Spiti Rupshu and Gangotri but done much more in Nepal than india
End of thread hijack.

In reply to franny: Thanks for the info that website is really useful. I was wondering though if any girls had been on one of these courses and how they found it?

The person who recommended them to me was a bloke and he thought that it would be a bit dodgy to go out there by myself as a girl.

In reply to franny:

>he thought that it would be a bit dodgy to go out there by myself as a girl.

I don't think so. The four main institutes in India run a number of women's only courses so you should be fine.

In reply to Himalaya: What time of year did you do the courses himalaya?

In reply to khumbu: Mid April

In reply to Himalaya: thanks, better start saving then.

In reply to franny:
there are couple of mountaineering course. for me one of the best one is Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, in Darjeeling. It offers various types of courses, Adventure Course, Basic Mountaineering Course and The Advance Course. I did the course way back in 1991 - 92. if you want more info you can e mail me.