BMC – 278 || NIM, Uttarkashi || May-June 2023
A dream of all mountaineers is to successfully complete the Basic Mountaineering Course with an Alpha grade. This course runs in India under various institutes like Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS). I personally did my BMC from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi.
This course is divided into three phases according to the skills that are taught to us. One week each is allotted to a specific type of skill i.e. rock climbing / craft which takes place in Tekla just 8 – 10 Km away from the institute, whereas for snow craft and ice craft first we have to trek till our base camp, which is situated at 13,500 Ft above sea level. It took us three days to reach till our base camp, we tracked via Tela then Gujjar hut and finally last track to base camp. The trek taking you briefly by a village at the start and then through deep forest, ups and downs with almost zero human interaction was I would say the mot challenging task of all. But if one is going in a group of over 80 other counter companions then of course it is’t boring and that lonely, although the climb was tough because the biggest factor was our 20 Kg weighted rucksack each and walking for over 8 hr for 2 days contentiously.
The course takes you through a bunch of wholesome experience from excitement to disappointment (at only some little parts), to joy, frustration, enjoyment, sense of fulfilment and most important the joy and happiness – lets say satisfaction after completing the 28 days long course. One day is also assigned to us as “height gain day”, wherein we are taken on a trail maybe to advance course (Camp-I) or for us it was Hura Top (because of weather condition), but here each individual is allowed to asses and challenge their own capabilities. The final summit point is not fixed for everyone, but it depends on every particular individual’s overall physic on how much he or she can do it. It is not mandatory for everyone to summit the top. In a given time phase we need to summit the top otherwise we are asked to turn around from wherever we have reached which itself is a very big achievement for each one of us.
The course initially before going was said by someone is somewhat also like a “weight reduce course for month” but honestly the food is something that you can not even get at home. Such basic yet hot yummy food, we never had a day where the nutrition requirements were met. Everyday we were served with roti, daal, rice, sabji, salad were served only in afternoon, and dinner time was also “dessert time”. As soon as we were on the mountains we also got dry ration given to us by our “quarter head”. Morning started with the 5 am morning tea, which was obviously optional. Evening just before dinner we even had our session of delicious hot soup. Each morning we woke up with cheerful and enthusiastic heart for learning something new ahead and the night would end up with us exhausted, missing our family and loved ones in the sleeping bags, sleeping closely to each other because it used to get really cold at night especially.
The longing to talk with our families after the span of two weeks finally comes to an end when we slip back on road “Days of Civilisation” at Bhuki where we sit back in the bus and drive back to our institute for a fun activity day and finishing this course by the prestigious graduation ceremony.
A lifetime experience and memory filled with all those happy and wholesome moments with our course mates and the departure day comes with tears on our eyes as that’s when we actually realised that these peoples we saw for over a month and felt like home are now maybe never cross paths, how we all came from such different parts of the country or even from around the globe. With the hardest goodbye we sit back in our transport and move ahead to different motives and aims for our life.
