Goech La pass trek: plan and update in a nutshell (3 Apr, 2017)
Finalizing the trek:
Last year, post Diwali, Vinit and I started discussion about next year trek to Nepal. He had already completed EBC ( Everest Base Camp). Viraj also showed interest to join us. So we looked for other opportunities and finalized ABC (Annapurna Base Camp) or Annapurna circuit trek. We also worked at customized trek which will have ABC and part of Annapurna circuit. As this is a customized trek, we need more people to join to make it affordable. When I floated this idea to our hiking community, half of them shied away whereas some said that they are not ready to spend 70-80k. Vinit and I then searched other possibilities (domestic only to reduce cost) and then thought to do Goech La pass trek, also known as Kanchanjunga Base Camp (KBC) of Indian land.
Finalizing the trekking group:
Though we zeroed down on low cost domestic trek, there was not much acceptance from our hiking group. So we 3 decided to go for it even if nobody is joining us. We searched within the trekking organizations in Pune, however found that none of them do Goech La pass trek. We searched external trekking organizations and found two, Indiahikes and Trek The Himalayas (TTH). We talked to our friends who had done treks earlier and heard good reviews about both the organizations. Both seems very much professional. We then had discussions with both these groups and finalized Trek TTH. Couple of factors which weighed TTH higher were:
- Cost is marginally lower than Indiahikes.
- Cost includes NJP to NJP whereas Indiahikes was ex-Yuksom
- TTH food is better and they also provide sweet during dinner. (This is what we heard, will confirm post trek ☺)
- Dates suitable as per our plan
Finalizing trek members
Initially, we were 3 (Vinit, Viraj and I) to start with. Vinit and I had a call with TTH to check if we can get group discount. TTH informed us that they provide 10% discount if the group size is 10 or more. We estimated the overall expenses and communicated to our hiking group. Slowly we started getting response, and we crossed the magical number of 10 in a week. We then confirmed our booking, selected the batch and assured the discount as well. We were not expecting, but very soon our batch was full. In fact, first batch of Goech la to be full. Interesting part is all 20 bookings were from our group only☺. (As we are approaching the trekking date, we witnessed couple of drop outs due to non availability as well as saw 2 new bookings. So somebody other than our group is also there!!). To get better price, we even booked our flight tickets by mid December. For that, we did search a lot and also used lots of discounts available (eg Yatra, MMT, HDFC, Paytm etc).
Practice sessions:
Goech La pass trek is at high altitude, last point being at 16000+ ft. We live at Pune which is at 1840 ft. Hence one need to do good practice to improve breathing capacity along with physical. TTH website also provided basic physical activities to remain fit. However we heard that those will not be sufficient. Practice sessions were different for everybody except the common treks. Viraj, Vinit and I (being in proximity) had same practice, which started by hiking Sinhgad from January 1st. Slowly we improved our timing to the Sinhgad as well as started carrying load. (You can find some specific details in my other blogs).
There was a small workshop from Giripremi institute on high altitude trekking. Some of us attended it and got some insightfull information.
We also did 2 endurance hikes. First we did in February to Rajmachi near Lonavala and second was Katraj to Sinhgad (popularly known as K2S) in March. After K2S, it was good to see everybody is fit and ready for the long trek in May. After K2S, everyone was eager to do it again. Hence we planned next K2S on 7th April.
Shopping:
Shopping is as equally important as the practice sessions. In fact, it is always advised to complete basic shopping before starting the pracice like the trek wears and shoes. Vinit and I had the shoes bought earlier (I had Quechua Forclaz Low 100, earlier known as 500, which I bought for my Amarnath yatra in 2016). Suggested similar shoes to others and they bought it either online or at decathlon. The other necessary items liking large backpack, hiking pole were ordered online, whereas few things like sleeping liner, trouser, ankle support, buff etc were bought from decathlon or Everest shop. (This shop is recently opened at Apte Road, deccan by Vishal K from Giripremi).
Now only 4 weeks are remaining for our trek, so making a list to check if anything is remaining to buy. I will share the final list once completed !
About medical kit, suggested everyone to bring their own or pair with somebody. We will buy one Pulse oxymeter for the group, whereas Jaydev is carrying his BP meter.
We are also making our own t-shirt, which will be done very soon.
