Roopkund Trek - Getting Ready

This post is part of Roopkund Trek - An unforgettable adventure!.

Why Roopkund?

I guess the first question that you'd probably have in your mind is "Why did I choose Roopkund trek?". I guess the answer here is pretty straight-forward. The Roopkund trek is considered one of the most beautiful treks in the Himalayas. I have a penchant for green valleys over white mountains, and the wide meadows in the post-monsoon season that are part of this trek whetted my appetite. I did some more exploration about the trek and made up my mind to choose the Roopkund trek.

Getting fit

The Roopkund trek is considered to be a trek of moderate difficulty. However, no trek in the Himalayas can be considered easy and requires a person to be fit. This doesn't mean you have to be like him to do a trek!

But you need to be exercising regularly and in general be fit prior to the trek. One requirement which is often mentioned for Himalayan treks is to be able to jog about 4-5 kms in 30 mins. If you are able to cover this distance without too much exertion, then you should be pretty good for the trek. Also, you need to be do stretching exercises daily so that your body is flexible. You can find more information on how to prepare for the trek at: http://roopkund.com/#preparation

Hiking with Indiahikes

Due to some constraints, my wife wasn't able to join me this time for the trek and therefore I had to travel alone. As a matter of fact, it was my first solo holiday. I had pretty mixed feelings about going solo on a holiday. On one hand, I felt that the personal time I'd get for myself might be refreshing. On the other hand, I felt that I'd miss the company of a close-knit group. So, which one of these would actually more? The only way I'd knew it was to try it.

Going on a solo holiday, however, didn't mean I was trekking all by myself. I had signed up with an organization known as Indiahikes for the trek. Indiahikes was an organization founded by Arjun Majumdar a few years back, primarily for documenting treks. As they mention on their website, they "explore, write and document treks". Having heard good things about this organization, I decided to go ahead with them.

Buying the right gear

It is important that when you are doing a high altitude trek, you have the right gear. Unlike a regular holiday, where you can just step out of your hotel or call up the hotel reception for any emergency, the options are considerably limited when you are doing a trek. Swati has a pretty decent video covering on what all you need for the trek at http://roopkund.com/#itinerary. The only piece of advice that I have which is different from that video is not to rely on a poncho. When it rains in the Himalayas, it rains incessantly, and having a regular raincoat with a backpack rain cover would be much more effective than a poncho.

Decathlon, which has opened a lot of outlets in India, is a good one-stop solution for all your trek needs. There are certain accessories also available at the base camp of Indiahikes, but I'd suggest you buy them before itself to avoid any last minute out of stock surprises.

Break in new shoes

One important piece of advice that I have about shoes is to buy them early. This is for two reasons:

1. You can try them in your home for a short while and if they are not the right size, you would have ample time to get them exchanged. It should be noted that shoes that are comfortable in your ascent could end up hurting during the descent. So, ensure that there is a gap between the front of your toes and the pointed end of the shoes.

2. The next thing to keep in mind is that it takes time to break in new shoes. Even if your shoes are the right size, it would take some usage for breaking in the shoes. It wouldn't be a nice experience to trek with blisters, and hence it is wise to use your shoes for at least a couple of weeks before the trek.

Go on to the next article in the series: Departing from Hyderabad.