Basic Mountaineering Course @ HMI

Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) is located in Darjeeling and has fabulous view of Kangchenjunga constantly looming above the institute. 

Glimpse of Kangchenjunga from HMI

The institute has highly accomplished instructors (Kusang Sherpa, Lapang Sherpa, Sange Dorje and so on) who have climbed several peaks including Mount Everest. They also have a record of first ascents to Makalu peak (fifth highest peak in the world) from India in their names. Colonel Neeraj Rana, who is a principal of HMI, has world record of paragliding at highest altitude. These were just the few  recent examples the actual list of accomplishment of HMI is much bigger. However, if I have to rate the communication skills of instructors, there is lot of scope for improvement – some of them are not able to communicate properly in English and not even in Hindi.

Institute provides reasonable hostel facilities to the trainees. The facility was not luxurious, rooms are designed to accommodate eight beds and there are common toilets on the each floor. For many trainees (especially the ones who are not used to live in armed forces environment), the hostel stay was very difficult -- eight people puffed up in a room, no flushed toilets, no warm water supply etc etc. I would say, soon many of them discovered that it is designed for a purpose to make trainees pulled out of their comfort zone. They cannot get even this kind of facility, when they go out-door.

Institute provides world-class clothing and equipment to all trainees for the mountaineering.  It includes clothing to shield you from wind & snow, and all that equipments that are required to go for mountaineering. As a trainee, you only required to have your own track-suites and good sports shoes, and all the rest you can avail it from the institute (at no additional cost).

In honour of Tenzin Norgay Sherpa

Institute serves healthy breakfast, meal and dinner in the mess. They also serve non-vegetarian food except on Tuesday. My rating of the food is 6 on the scale of 10. Again, this rating is not at all a bad as serving the equal quality food at indoor and outdoor (in mountain) is not an easy job. I am very impressed with the way HMI has taken care of all the logistics involved in providing the best possible food at the attitude. The credit for all this goes to Quarter Marshal Mahavir Singh, who was in charge the administrative work.

      The basic mountaineering course has been designed to develop self-confidence, endurance, and determination by challenging and pushing both physical and mental limits of individuals. This is a life-time experience which makes individual to discover the true meaning of life. In no manner, this is a picnic, outing or social gathering, it is a very serious sport in which individual has to work hard to get maximum benefited. The basics training at HMI is classified into four phases:

                Phase I – physical training at HMI 

        Phase II – travel to Yuksum by bus and trek to Chowri Khang

        Phase III – climbing training at Rathong Glacier

               Phase IV – return journey to HMI

      Further read following article for course content...