JOIN USB'luru woman in Bachendri Pal’s historic expedition
Vasumathi Srinivasan has done over 75 trekking expeditions in her life but nothing comes close to what she is currently in the middle of. The 68-year-old is part of a five-month and 4,500-km long trans-Himalayan mission comprising women aged 50 and above, led by legendary mountaineer Bachendri Pal. Vasumathi is the only participant from Bengaluru and among the two from Karnataka,
beside Mysuru’s Shamala Padmanabhan who will join later.
“One-and-a-half months is the longest I had trekked earlier. Never five months. It requires a different level of physical and mental endurance but we are taking it one day at a time,” Vasumathi, a seasoned mountaineer and resident of HBR Layout, told Metrolife.
It was the 11th day of her expedition when we rang up on Wednesday. Her group had walked 200-plus km from the Pangsau Pass along the India-Burma border in Arunachal Pradesh, crossing into Assam and then the Bhalukpong town in Arunachal. They aim to get to Ladakh by August.
“The Pangsau Pass is a restricted area. Nobody has trekked there before. We were lucky,” Vasumathi says of the expedition that has been backed by Tata Steel Adventure Foundation and the ministry of youth affairs & sports. “Since it’s a counterinsurgency area, the army escorts us everywhere. We are never on our own,” she informs.
They are walking 20 km every day, from 4 am till 10 am or 11 am when it gets “burning hot”. “We were earlier doing 25 to 30 km but it was getting strenuous,” she recalls. It still is as she adds, “Everybody has got blisters on feet. Even I have. One day, I could not walk despite wearing the knee cap and had to cover up the distance in a vehicle. I am taking a painkiller. Even Bachendri had a swollen foot a day before.”
Yet “the josh (the spirit) is high”, she says and adds quickly with a chuckle, “The roads are beautiful, and so much better than Bengaluru’s. There is greenery everywhere you look. We heard elephants in the distance!”
Hot showers, wholesome meals provided by the army, singing and talking, and review meetings keep them going. Also, the people they meet on the way. “Especially, the villagers. It is not often they see people other than their own, carrying rucksacks and walking enthusiastically. They come running out of the house to see us and offer water, tea and bananas,” she says. They also deliver talks at local functions, and field questions like ‘Why are we taking so much trouble at this age?’ To inspire people to stay fit and follow their dreams at any age they want, that is our goal, says Vasumathi, also the communications in-charge of the expedition.
Friendship with Bachendri Pal
It is no surprise to see Vasumathi on this trend-defying expedition, for which they trained at Darwa Pass in Uttarakhand last October. She is a committee member of the Karnataka Mountaineering Association and was also in the race to be the first Indian woman to climb Mt Everest in the 1980s, a feat that Bachendri bagged, she says.
“I qualified till the pre-Everest expedition to the Mana Pass (along India-Tibet border) in 1983. Bachendri was in the same group,” Vasumathi recalls the beginning of her 40-year-old friendship and trekking association with the Padma Bhushan awardee. She was upset about losing out but she admits, “Bachendri was the best on the expedition group. She is full of energy. She walks so fast that I can’t keep up. She runs off like a mountain goat.”
She tells us more about their rapport: “You can judge the character of a person on the mountains and know him/her inside out. Once you are friends on the mountains, you are friends for life.”
She says Bachendri is big-hearted and a great motivator. “She has given opportunities to people to go on tough expeditions. I have done Karakoram Pass (located between India and China), and Island Peak in Nepal with her,” informs Vasumathi.
She says her friend is a lovely person but when she gets angry “everybody is gone (sic)”. “She hasn’t been angry at me ever. I know ways to tackle her,” Vasumathi cracks up.