Yeaaah! Thats my next big 'thing to do'- Train to become a climber!
A week back, I finally received the admission confirmation from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling for the Basic Mountaineering Course, Batch 285 !
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling
Once the confirmation letter reached my doorstep, a 'rapid fire' type volley of questions were shot at me, like, 'Mountaineering? Why? How come? Suddenly? You never mentioned? Whats wrong with you? Are you nuts? .....etc'. Now c'mon, I have a thousand plans in my mind, am I going to go around blabbering about them? -Naah! I am just gonna go about fulfilling those wishes....life's short.
Well, I know I am on the right side of the scale when it comes to the age limit for this course, but I still am eligible! I am still fit, just need to get fitter, lot, lot, lot fitter than what I am now, but that's possible, yeah? - I hope so, because the following is a list of what I have to do to be fit:-
1)Quit smoking
2)Run for atleast 1 hour every day to prepare for a 5 km race
3)Walk 15 kms with a backpack load of 20 kgs atleast twice a week
4)Build stamina for a 15-20 kms trek with 20 kgs load, ice training, bouldering etc.
So, highly motivated, started training about a month back. The first thing I tried to tackle was my smoking addiction. I used to smoke about 12-15 cigarettes a day, which I simply cut down to 5 cigarettes a day for the first 3 days, then to 3 cigarettes a day for the next 1 week. The plan was to quit smoking completely from following week. I had also started jogging in the mornings followed by 1 hour of weight training. Daily schedules, chores and food habits were also revised and disciplined.
Things were going really well, when one morning while jogging in the park, an irritating, pricking pain appeared around my knee cap. It wasn't too painful but definitely quite irritating and I could not run anymore that day.
I consulted an ortho (sports medicine specialist) and he diagnosed the problem to be something called a "Runner's Knee". I was advised not to fold my legs, not to climb the stairs, to sit without folding my legs, not to walk on uneven surfaces, wear well cushioned sports shoes and last and definitely not the least, to stop running. I was advised complete rest from all activities which put strain on my knees, until complete recovery!
Luckily, HMI didn't have any vacancy for the April 2011 batch, which I had applied for and they had put me in the September 2011 batch. Now I have some time to recover and restart the training program.
I also hope the political tensions in the hills come to a rest soon. It's really painful to see the beautiful and gorgeous valleys and hills of Darjeeling and the surrounding areas suffering from so much of political turmoil. If Darjeeling's and Dooar's tourism and local economy continues getting hit by these turmoils for long, its going to be disastrous for sure, for the entire state of Bengal and especially for the local-ites of the hills.
A week back, I finally received the admission confirmation from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling for the Basic Mountaineering Course, Batch 285 !
Once the confirmation letter reached my doorstep, a 'rapid fire' type volley of questions were shot at me, like, 'Mountaineering? Why? How come? Suddenly? You never mentioned? Whats wrong with you? Are you nuts? .....etc'. Now c'mon, I have a thousand plans in my mind, am I going to go around blabbering about them? -Naah! I am just gonna go about fulfilling those wishes....life's short.
Well, I know I am on the right side of the scale when it comes to the age limit for this course, but I still am eligible! I am still fit, just need to get fitter, lot, lot, lot fitter than what I am now, but that's possible, yeah? - I hope so, because the following is a list of what I have to do to be fit:-
1)Quit smoking
2)Run for atleast 1 hour every day to prepare for a 5 km race
3)Walk 15 kms with a backpack load of 20 kgs atleast twice a week
4)Build stamina for a 15-20 kms trek with 20 kgs load, ice training, bouldering etc.
So, highly motivated, started training about a month back. The first thing I tried to tackle was my smoking addiction. I used to smoke about 12-15 cigarettes a day, which I simply cut down to 5 cigarettes a day for the first 3 days, then to 3 cigarettes a day for the next 1 week. The plan was to quit smoking completely from following week. I had also started jogging in the mornings followed by 1 hour of weight training. Daily schedules, chores and food habits were also revised and disciplined.
Things were going really well, when one morning while jogging in the park, an irritating, pricking pain appeared around my knee cap. It wasn't too painful but definitely quite irritating and I could not run anymore that day.
I consulted an ortho (sports medicine specialist) and he diagnosed the problem to be something called a "Runner's Knee". I was advised not to fold my legs, not to climb the stairs, to sit without folding my legs, not to walk on uneven surfaces, wear well cushioned sports shoes and last and definitely not the least, to stop running. I was advised complete rest from all activities which put strain on my knees, until complete recovery!
Luckily, HMI didn't have any vacancy for the April 2011 batch, which I had applied for and they had put me in the September 2011 batch. Now I have some time to recover and restart the training program.
I also hope the political tensions in the hills come to a rest soon. It's really painful to see the beautiful and gorgeous valleys and hills of Darjeeling and the surrounding areas suffering from so much of political turmoil. If Darjeeling's and Dooar's tourism and local economy continues getting hit by these turmoils for long, its going to be disastrous for sure, for the entire state of Bengal and especially for the local-ites of the hills.
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