Indians For Guns

While watching my daily dose of survival videos put up by Dave Canterbury and the likes (plus some seriously zombie obsessed gora guys who have major issues), I happened to stumble on this Indian youtube channel on outdoor survival: https://m.youtube.com/user/chandanlahiri
The videos are decent albeit with a heavy dose of desi drama and flavor

The dude also runs some kind of survival camp/school for kids in New Delhi.
http://otasurvivalschool.com/cdsf.html
Guess a week of something like this will help kids more than the usual pokemon marathons

Looks like a lot of fun for the kids.

If you have kids who are serious about the outdoors and learning survival skills, really think about India's two Government subsidized Institutes of Mountaineering.
The Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) in Uttarkashi and
The Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) in Darjeeling

Apart from Basic and Advanced mountaineering classes, they also offer what were called "Adventure Courses".
I'm telling you these are an absolute blast and since they are subsidized, they are relatively cheap to attend.
I paid Rs. 100 in 1977 and they are about Rs. 3000 now. I suppose adjusted for inflation it's about the same.
It included room, board, instruction and all the equipment for three glorious weeks in the mountains.

The Adventure Course promises:

The course basically deals with school students, teachers and adults who are exposed to various outward-bound activities like trekking, rock climbing, bush craft, waterman ship.

Lectures, Camping, Cooking, Navigation, study of flora and fauna, their conservation and many other activities. Through these activities, trainees realize the potential of their characters, strength and weaknesses, both physical and mental, and ability to lead an active life under any natural condition.

It teaches what no class room can teach, the course which inculcates in young minds and bodies the very essence of individual skills and team work. This course is very popular, heavily booked and invariably over subscribed by the leading schools of India.

...and believe me, it delivers!
That was the funnest three weeks and some of the most intense activity that I have ever participated in.
As a Citizen of India, your taxes are paying for it anyway so you should consider attending or having your kids attend.

Hey xl_target,
Thanks for sharing the links. Dont have kids yet but I may go myself sometime.

Thanks, XL. This was in my bucket list ever since I visited HMI in 2007. Only obstruction is the better half and the matriarch! Indian mothers and grandmas can be so protective!!

Do it, guys!
It is an experience that you will never forget and a memory that you will cherish for the rest of your life.
Somewhere, I have the certificate and the little silver Ice Axe that they gave us on completing the course.
I came here as a 19 year old kid with one suitcase but I brought those two things along.

Pinned on the to do list

xl_target,

When were you a '19 year old kid'?? I went there as a 17 year old kid in 1979 and I was in 11th class. I do not remember the charges but they may have been probably around Rs 100 and it was more than the school fees at that time. I do not know if the rucksacks and the sleeping bags were provided by our school or them as we got them in our school only to pack up nd leave for the course.

@kshitij, This post of your has given me a new idea. Today I saw some property on the Damdama Lake for creating this kind of facility 45 Kms from Delhi. At present it is just a bug of an idea. Lets see if something comes out of it.

Regards

Atul

@kshitij ,xl_target thanks a ton for sharing .

aadhaulya wrote:xl_target,

When were you a '19 year old kid'?? I went there as a 17 year old kid in 1979 and I was in 11th class. I do not remember the charges but they may have been probably around Rs 100 and it was more than the school fees at that time. I do not know if the rucksacks and the sleeping bags were provided by our school or them as we got them in our school only to pack up nd leave for the course.

@kshitij, This post of your has given me a new idea. Today I saw some property on the Damdama Lake for creating this kind of facility 45 Kms from Delhi. At present it is just a bug of an idea. Lets see if something comes out of it.

Regards

Atul

Atul,
I did my ICSE at Frank Anthony in Calcutta (it was still Calcutta then) in 1977 so I was about sixteen years old. I went right after that and I was in Uttarkashi in December/January that winter. NIM provided all the equipment including the boots, sleeping bags, snow pants, rucksacks, parkas, snow goggles, Ice Axes, etc. Most of it was Army Equipment.
The only things that I had on, that were mine, were my underwear and socks

You probably had some of the same instructors that I had. There was a short little Sherpa (cant remember the name, now) who had lost his toes on an Everest expedition. He wore really small boots. The chief guide was an ex-army NCO. Big guy. He carried a shotgun and bagged any birds he saw, for the pot. There was another tall, skinny Sherpa who wore blue jeans all the time; jeans, jean jacket and jean shirt. Those guys had a host of stories and tried to pass on their knowledge to us.

One day we were camped in the foot hills and they bought a bunch of fish and told me; "you're the only Bengali here, you cook the fish". Never really having cooked in my life, I didn't have a clue on what to do. That night when we were camped out, we were told to build a big fire and three-four guys at a time took turns at stoking the fire. We were told to make sure that the fire was going well as there was an Elephant in Musth that was wandering around the area. I don't know if they were pulling our legs but we kept that fire blazing and were wide awake during our time at the fire. I remember we did a night march after that and we also stripped and crossed a stream (in January). It was fricken' cold. I caught a cold and the army doctor who was along, gave me some pills. I don't know what he gave me but I completed that night march really quick.

When we were above the snow line, we just dug trenches in the snow and laid our ground sheets in there. We then put out sleeping bags over that and slept out in the open. We had to bring our boots into the sleeping bag or they would have frozen and we wouldn't have been able to put them on the next morning. Breakfast next morning was bread, jam and a quarter pound of frozen butter. We ate the butter whole as there was no way it would have spread on the bread. We also found Bear tracks around the camp that morning.

Breaking snow was a real chore for the first guy in line. They rotated the first guy to the back periodically to give him a rest. Some of those marches were tough even though we spent a few days at camps at different altitudes, to acclimatize us to the low Oxygen levels.

To do your business in the mornings, you had to dig a hole in the snow and go in there. One guy didn't want to wipe with snow, so he picked a leaf of a plant and wiped himself with it. I remember there was a lot of screaming and all the instructors went running. He had used a plant called Bicchu-Buti that had a very virulent irritant in its leaves. Luckily the antidote is also present at the base of the plant.

Good Times!

if I remember correctly yours must have been the advanced course. We probably went in the summers as there was no snow and it was a rock climbing course.

Regards

Atul

Atul,
We did a short stint of Rock Climbing and Rappelling too, just prior to hitting the mountains.
Just a few days if I remember correctly. The free Rappelling was a blast.
We had to learn and use the various holds like the pinch hold, jam hold, etc. We were also taught the various knots to be used with the climbing rope.
We were also taught how to belay safely and use various rock climbing tools like pitons, nuts, jumars, etc.
We were encouraged, though, to free climb with a buddy belaying you and not depend on the technical tools of the trade.