Skandagiri Night Trek

“Wow, looks like a lovely place” – I said looking at the Skandagiri hills, which was visible in the moonlight. It was cloudy and windy as expected but it was 2 days for a full moon day. The moon was playing hide and seek under the clouds. Also it was good that it wasn’t raining. So this was it, my first night trek with my office friends (Who forced me into this) was about to begin.

**Flashback** 2 days ago, at my office –

“Hey guys, what is the plan for weekend. How about movie? – I said. Few responded with Yes and others a plain NO. Finally 5 of us decided to go to this movie Inception evening show on Saturday. Later the plan extended to a late night trek. 2 more people who would miss the movie told they would join for the trek. I had never been on such a trek before. So physically and mentally it was a challenge for me. But being a confident guy, I always thought I would come up triumphs on this trek and it would be a cake walk for me. Two days I did attempt a couple of warm ups like walking around half a km briskly and thought I had warmed up enough for the trek. Alas, if I only knew then that this was not enough.

**Flashback ends** In front of Skandagiri hills –

I had a backpack with a heavy windcheater which I had packed after one of my trek friend told it would be required for this chilly climate. So the cakewalk was about to begin. I was very confident of scaling down this peak within no time. So we started off on a trail towards the hill. Since this was my first night trek, I was pretty excited and with full energy I was at top of group. 15 mins into that trail, we realized that this trail was heading nowhere near the hills and we were totally on wrong trail. This happens when you are over-adventurous at times. So we had to trace back the same trail to the starting point again and had to start on the correct trail all over again. At this point, my energy level had suddenly dropped by 30%. For first 15 mins, I kept talking/chatting continuously with my fellow mates but then I suddenly realized I had to save my energy for the trek. My energy level was dropping down rapidly now as the time spent on trail increased. I realized that may be if I can stop talking and save whatever energy is left, I can probably make to the top of the hill. Suddenly half an hour later, I had to take a break. So it meant everyone had to take the break.

Took few snaps of non-existent scenery of the night. After a good refreshing break, we again set our foot on the trail. As the trail went on and on, my energy level went down and down. Looking at this, my friends started giving some words of encouragement like, “Its done, just few more mins and we will be at top”. Tough it sounded very good to the ears, the truth as it stood that the peak was not few minutes away but rather few hours. Consoling myself at every step, that I can still do it, I carried on. To help my condition, the weather was cool and windy so it was not that tiring. After sometime, I had to give my backpack to one of my friend and I carried on solo on the trail. Now my energy level was almost at zero and we were probably halfway to the peak and I had to break for a while again. This time, I did not have strength to take even few snaps of the non-scenic sight. Then we set on our trail yet again.

At some point of time, when you get very tired and you still have to carry on, the body reacts in a very mechanical way. This makes you look like a zombie. This was the time, I was walking like a zombie with no energy left. My body had become mechanical with only one goal “WALK to the TOP”. I was still confident of making to the top and when you know you are not the weakest in your group, it adds to your confidence even more. Yes, I was not the only one to feel like a zombie, one more of my friend was already considering not to continue on the trail and wait for us at this spot until all of us return back from peak. Anyway, the whole point now was to reach the peak and I was just counting on minutes when I will hear those magical words “Yes, here we are finally”. Alas the magic did not happen for next couple of hours. Few more breaks on the way when I could not feel my legs anymore or the pain in them. My energy level had already reached the negative level and was few more minutes away from hitting rock bottom. And then suddenly I could not believe my ears when I heard those magical words. Indeed we were at top of that hill, but then it was not the way I expected it to be. The time was 4AM and it was still dark out there and it was so windy that we could not open our eyes and see whats in front of us. The morning mist or thick fog was not making things easier too. This was the time, my backpack was most needed. I immediately took out the windcheater and put it on. Some relief finally and the dropped energy level suddenly went up after feeling the top of hill.

Then there was nothing much to do there, so we took a short nap until the sunrise (which we were expectant of watching). Finally the time came when we got up and expected to see the morning sun, but alas the cloudy sky had other ideas. We could not see the sun anywhere in the cloudy sky. Since we had taken some rest and refilled our energies to some extent, we broke into a talking session which went on for an hour or so. Then we decided to head back towards our cars and started our descent. Climbing down the hill was not so exhaustive and this time around we could take few good snaps of the existent scenery. The climbing up of hill took us around 4 hours while getting down took us just over an hour and a half. So that was it. I had scaled down the Skandagiri hill on my first ever night trek.

Altough this trek exposed lot of my physical weaknesses; it was a wonderful experience and a night worth remembering. I would love to go on more of such treks but only after doing a very good warm-up. Fitness sessions begin now and lot more of such sessions needed to scale down other peaks which are more adventurous than this one.