After completing his climbing courses in 2014 he began ice climbing and eventually moved to Manali so he could be closer to the ice. This helped him to get involved with the core climbing and adventure fraternity which has a strong presence there. He is an avid reader and had the opportunity to learn from inspiring individuals like Cosmin, Tim Banfield
- Rex Karmaveer Chakra (instituted by iCongo and United Nations) Awardee, Nov 2019
- Grand Prize for THE FALL at the IMF Mountain Film Festival, Delhi 2017
- Semi-finalist for THE FALL at Caribbean Film Festival & Market, 2017
- Best Documentary for THE FALL at Expressions Short Film Festival, Nagpur 2017
- First Prize for the film CB13 at Adventure fIlm Festival, GOA 2017
Over the years, having gained significant experience in climbing and seeing the positive outcomes of his own curriculum, he decided to share the same to help young climbers develop the right skills.
He now teaches a course called “Mountain Strong”, a comprehensive residential mountain climbing training program which combines conditioning and sports specific training for self-sufficient mountain climbing. He coaches 20+ students on average in a year and this number is set to increase double in 2021.
Prem is one of the youngest professional mountaineers in India and he boasts of over 7 years of mountaineering in the Himalayas. And as he analyzes where the hurdles of climbing Saser Kangri IV come from, he bases the failures of other mountaineers on his own findings. He however admits that the mountain is an “unfinished business” and expresses his wishes to go back.
#Karakoram #SaserKangri #Himalayas #Ladakh #HighAltitude #ExtremeAdventure #mountaineering #Expeditions
Safety Tips for Trekking in Brown Bear Habitat
Hiking and mountaineering is fun, but for those who choose to take on the Himalayas from Ladakh, it isn’t always a great experience. Ladakh has several fierce and dangerous animals, including the snow leopards and the Himalayan brown bears.
Thankfully, Kirti Chavan, in the presentation, gives valuable safety tips for safe trekking and mountaineering. He advises on safe practices in the wild, how to handle brown bear attacks, and the likeliest areas where they could be in Ladakh.
Kirti, works with the Snow Leopard Conservancy Trust, also sheds light on why the animals are nowadays becoming way too common to meet. You should check out his recommended measures, including reading tracks, carrying safety equipment and when not to visit particular areas.
#HimalayanBrownBear #EarthDay #Himalayas #Conservation #Ladakh #Zanskar
Sujoy Das, a seasoned trekker and the voice behind the video, paints perhaps the clearest picture of the entire experience throughout the trip, including the locals they met in the Himalayas. One impressive aspect about the video is how this professional photographer managed to capture important moments of the expedition.
And like a third party or perhaps an outsider in the whole trip, he manages to shoot award-winning images of the galaxy, the mountain ranges illuminated and the beautiful valley with sheep grazing. His excellent artistry also shows what would otherwise be a tiring outing in colorful images.
The images of monks, the sun’s rays illuminating the prayer area, dancer in motion, fast-flowing waters of a stream, the forested vegetation and lots of other pictures highlight other beauties climbers tend to ignore. He captures the tiny, little-known aspects of the mountains that, as much as nobody really observes, can form a wonderful photo album. And in his collection, he manages to show why his works constantly appear in the greatest mountain climbing journals and publications.
#NaturePhotography #Sikkim #Ladakh #Kanchenjunga #Himalayas #WildlifePhotography #HighAltitude
tactical equipmentThe Himalaya - A Living Landscape
An author and native of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, Stephen talks about a memoir about the mighty ranges. He explains the magic and charm of the mountains, the flora and fauna around it and why the range possibly has the greatest collection of them in a single area. As highlighted in the video, there are countless plants and animals, birds, and insects you possibly haven’t ever seen before.
His memoir, Becoming a Mountain: Himalayan Journeys in Search of the Sacred and the Sublime received the Kekoo Naoroji Award for Himalayan Literature in 2015. His most recent work of fiction, In The Jungles of the Night: A Novel About Jim Corbett, was shortlisted for the DSC South Asian Literature Award in 2017. He was writer-in-residence at MIT for ten years, before which he directed the writing programme at the American University in Cairo. He is the founding director of the Mussoorie Mountain Festival.
#Himalayas #LivingLandscape #Biodiversity #WildHimalaya #Nature #Mountains
As much as the title of this clip puzzles, its content, as explained by Dr. Arun Nayak, should challenge every hiking junkie who fears the freezing conditions of this monster. It really is a challenge that shows that, even if one can’t manage to go to Everest, he/she can do a similar number of steps and cover the distance using ordinary staircase right at home. It is worth watching, especially with all the tips he employed to successfully complete the challenge.
All through the competition we saw various creative routes but it went to another level when chief route setter Kory McAfee devised the final route for the “Mens bouldering finals”. It would have been a 7C difficulty grade - a true test of creativity & self-awareness. Crafty moves on punishing angles, intelligent leaps & falls kept everyone at the edge of their seats. A few athletes made the “Bonus” but none made the “Top”. “Rahul Patel” was the one athlete who came close to finishing this route but the “Top” remained out of reach.
Pranav is a full-time apple farmer and mountaineer. He is gradually foraying into alpinism and ice climbing, trying to push the boundaries of the sport in the context of our country.
Pranav is a full-time apple farmer and mountaineer. He is gradually foraying into alpinism and ice climbing, trying to push the boundaries of the sport in the context of our country.
Rawat comes from a family of farmers from Hatkoti Village in district Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. An engineering dropout, Pranav climbed mountains purely out of passion without any professional training. Subsequently, in 2012, he enrolled in and graduated from all the required mountaineering courses at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports (ABVIMAS) within one year. Today, in a little over 5 years, he has gained celebrity status within mountaineering circles and is highly looked upon by most professionals from the Indian circuit.
He is currently working towards creating new avenues for people looking to explore the mountains, imparting the right set of skills and knowledge to such enthusiasts. He believes that before starting any journey in the mountains, people should learn to respect them and when faced with complications or crises, should know how to tackle them. Thus, the Mountain Self Sufficiency Course has been conceptualized by Rawat to promote independent trekking on a personal level. Rawat recently received sponsorship from Mountain Dew for an ice climbing project called “The Fall”, a path breaking documentary in the Indian alpine circuit that has won multiple awards at various movie screenings and has also been covered by renowned publications.
Though an uplander at heart, he only started considering mountaineering as a profession in 2012, after giving up Aeronautical Engineering as a career option.
As his pre-graduation journey took off, jaundice took a toll on him both physically and psychologically, thus leaving him disturbed and unfocused in life. Finally, in 2009, following a depressing six years of being victim to jaundice, he gave up formal education altogether, realizing his calling for the mountains instead.
He weighed a total of 102 kg when he applied for the Basic Mountaineering Course at ABVIMAS in 2012. It was an uphill dare for him, bearing in mind the shape he was in back then, as compared to the rest of his batch mates. Having dealt with a lot of emotional and medical blows in life, he was low on confidence and had a cloud of negativity around him. Nevertheless, he went ahead with the course and completed it.
After graduating from the Basic Mountaineering Course, he enrolled into the Advance Mountaineering Course, and subsequently into Method of Instruction (MOI) within the same year, where he was also titled Best Trainee of the Course from a batch of 57. He went on to assume the role of a visiting instructor at the Institute.
In 2014, he was accepted into IMF’s Climbathon program, thus furthering his experience, skills and qualifications. This meant he could now lead semi-technical expeditions up to 6000 – 7000m peaks.
He has now developed The Mountain Self Sufficiency Course to promote independent trekking on a personal level.
Pranav is a very personal and intimate relationship with the mountains, believing the mountains heal him. In his own words, “If you remove the Himalayas from me, I’ll be lifeless.” According to him, every uphill hike brings him back a better human being than before. True to these words, the mountains are now Pranav’s second home. If found nowhere in the plains, he can be seen on the mountains discovering the inner-self and exploring new trails.
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