November 6th 2021 was the day of the trek. Me and my friends went on the trek to Sandakphu Phalut. It is located on the Indo-Nepal border in West Bengal. We had to travel extensively just to reach the base camp located at Srikhola. We took a train to Mumbai, a flight to Bagdogra, a car to Darjeeling, then another car to Srikhola. The trek itself was a mystifying experience. We stared at 6, 900 ft and went all the way up to 11, 950 ft. We got to see all sorts of majestic sights, a high altitude football stadium located in the village Samanden, 3 types of forests on a single trail(bamboo, pine and maple) and A tear-jerking 180-degree view of the Himalayas with the Everest range, Sleeping Budhha and the three sisters. This view was perhaps the biggest highlight of the trek since we also got to wake up to a beautiful sunrise to this particular view. The sleeping Buddha and Kanchenjunga(India’s highest mountain) accompanied us throughout the trek.
This trek helped me Identify my strengths and weaknesses in a new way. I learnt that I can endure exhaustion and pain for longer periods of time if it is for something I enjoy and am passionate about. This happened during the 2nd and 4th days of the trek that were filled with steep ascents for a long duration. Getting to know about my strengths and weaknesses through this trek was truly an empowering experience. Other than that this trek helped me grow as a person. I got to interact and make friends with all sorts of people during the trek and I developed my communication skills. I also developed a greater sense of compassion since during the trek I got to have many opportunities to help others such as motivating someone who is too tired to climb, accompanying someone that got injured or even something as simple as helping people get their water bottle from their trek bag.
The difficulty of trekking is nothing to scoff at. A lot of people go on treks for lots of different reasons but all of them have one thing in common and it is that they need to be both mentally and physically fit. This trek was quite challenging for me since it was my first ever trek. From the very first day, I realized that the 8 kg bag I was carrying was going to be a constant bother. Throughout the trek, my shoulders hurt so much that at one point they almost went numb. Not only that but it was a big challenge to be out of breath constantly because of the ascents. Not to mention the bitter cold that we experienced during the nights. It was difficult just to get out of the tent to relieve myself. Frost would fall down when I would lift up the flap of the tent. Overcoming this physical challenge actually begins way before the trek even started. I regularly went to the gym to build up my stamina and on top of that went on running and cycling trips with my friends. This helped me get fit for the trek.
This experience required me to show commitment and a lot of perseverance. Walking painfully for a third of the day is not easy. The things that made enduring the trek much easier were the natural beauty of the Himalayas and the conversations with the trekkers. Other than that I had to use my willpower during the trek to overcome the challenge. We would sing songs to forget about our exhaustion and I would talk with my friends and others from the trek group to pass time during the long 6-8 hour walks.
To sum up, trekking was the perfect break from my day to day urban life. It was a getaway to explore the beauty of the Himalayas, it was a vacation to hang out with friends, it was a massive physical and mental challenge to overcome and prove myself and it was also a way for me to grow as a person and develop my social skills.
